I found the volt 914 project that did a cool job on making them here<\/a>. Thanks Ross for posting that information! Ross used 7 layers of 0.020\u201d copper to make his interconnects. I also talked to Travis (who also made an EV bug) and he also went with the layered approach and used 5 layers of 24 gauge sheet (~.026 thickness). People use layers with a slight kink in the middle to allow them to stretch out when the batteries (possibly) swell up.<\/p>\n So, how thick do I need?<\/p>\n The cross sectional<\/a> diameter of 2\/0 wire is 0.03648\u201d. Times pi that is ~0.115 in^2 (I\u2019m not sure how Ross<\/a> got 0.105 in^2 \u2014 maybe it was a typo). I like the idea of using 24 gauge copper to make the bars \u2014 but I might use 6 layers since: 0.026\u201d (thickness) * 6 (layers) * 0.j75\u201d (width) = 0.117 in^2 \u2014 definitely bigger than 2\/0 wire. Or, I could use 1\u201d wide and 5 layers, which might be easier (I think it would have been).<\/p>\n Or, I could just use solid copper bar stock and avoid cutting out a bunch of small pieces. I liked that idea the best, even though it might be \u201cextra rigid\u201d. The fear of using solid bar stock is that the cells will swell a bit and might tear apart if the bus bars don\u2019t have some give in them. However, people use solid aluminum bus bars and don\u2019t seem to have a problem with tearing the cells apart (as far as I can tell), and swelling is only a problem if you don\u2019t compress your cells good enough, or abuse them by running them past their constraints. I hope to not do that, so I’m using solid stock. I also think my cells are quite well contained. If they do end up moving then I’ll have to readdress this.<\/p>\n I bought some 1\/8″ by 1″ metal copper bar stock from onlinemetals.com<\/a>. Two 96″ pieces and one 48″ piece for $114 (including shipping).<\/p>\n I also had to buy hardware — I stupidly thought these came with the cells, but instead they come with the bus bars. I bought the following from Bolt Depot<\/a>:<\/p>\n Product #4815 Product #4778 Product #5024 Product #5027 Product #8749 Another $76. So, it would have been cheaper to just buy the bus bars in the first place. Live and learn! I think my solid copper bars will conduct better than what the Thundersky ones do.<\/p>\n corbin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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