Anyone using automotive cable for their starter motors?

[Old Koreelah]

2 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

Oh my god, such an epic struggle to get a few cables made…

I have several cheap welders in my shed. They may be dead, but their cables are ideal for carrying starter current.

2 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

I didn't tell any off these guys it's for an ultralight as I get mixed results.

I learned to never tell them it was for any sort of flying machine. 

2 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

I might as well have been asking for a window winder for a space shuttle. In Swahili.

That goes straight to the pool room!

[danny_galaga]

10 hours ago, facthunter said:

In the past I've got all mine from REPCO.   Nev

Meh. Stopped at the local Repco and they had run out of ALL their cable 🙄

 

Just ordered some online from  some company with a ropey payment system. Hopefully I didn't just lose my money 😄

[RFguy]

You could probably get something from CJs or EDMO.

TRY BAMBACH cables in Brookvale. (AUstralian made cables). well its where I buy all my non aviation cables from ...

[Geoff_H]

Just did some back of the napkin calcs ( if we can do it for the nbn we can do it for electrical cables).

 

Ok this is just an interesting calc and many other issues come into play.  I am not suggesting that this should be used for design, or poo pooing me😳.  Units are not correct.

 

For a given weight of 1kg the following resistances per square metre are:

Aluminium     0.0011

Copper          0.0033

Iron                0.53

Silver             0.000163

 

Looks like silver leads for the starter motor (I am an engineer who said cost was an issue).  But aluminium came in ahead of copper, now I know why transmission lines use aluminium, well there are other issues as well.

 

[onetrack]

Weight would be a big issue for transmission lines strung long distances between pylons, so aluminium instead of copper would be a no-brainer there.

However, aluminium is used extensively in house wiring in the U.S., and they have continual problems with aluminium wiring corrosion and oxidation in houses there.

 

https://www.angi.com/articles/aluminum-wiring-safe.htm

 

In my experience with a lot of automotive, mobile plant, and equipment wiring, fine strand copper wiring, properly protected via sealing from oxidation/corrosion, is the most satisfactory type of starter cable. It has excellent current-carrying capacity, and the necessary flexibility to resist fracture caused by regular engine movement.

[danny_galaga]

Weight is the main issue for transmission lines. If you ever look at it up close, there might be 15-20 'strands'. Each one maybe 3-4mm thick 😲. Flexibility against vibration is not such an issue.

 

Ya gotta remember though, I'm not Howard Hughes-ing this thing. I'm trying to build a standard kit, and I'm tired of paying for hangar space for a non flying plane.

[danny_galaga]

Voila!

[Geoff_H]

Transmission lines have a steel core with aluminium strands around the outside.  The aluminium strands are anodised to help them blend into the background to placate environmentalists.

[danny_galaga]

Anyway, thanks for the input guys! Cables sorted, now onto the next thing 🙂