Was RE: [Shotimes] RockAuto Shipping is Ridiculous! / Now Aluminum wires?

[James F. Ryan III]

> It has a corrosion issue, needs to be cleaned very well and a special
grease
> coating applied. Aluminum wire has to be of a heaver grade as it's current
> capacity is less than copper. There were many house fires from aluminum
> wire.
>
>         Ken

No, Al wire does not cause fires.  If the entire house was wired with Al
romex, using circuit breakers, duplex outlets, and switches designed for Al
wire, there was absolutely no problem.

The fires occurred when an un-educated electrician used duplex outlets and
switches designed for Cu wire, which have Brass screw terminals.  Al is very
reactive with other metals, and Brass being an alloy....there's your
problem.  The Al reacts with the Brass, which leads to corrosion, which
increases resistance, which increases heat, which leads to fire.

Fires also occurred when the un-educated electrician was working on a house
with exisitng Cu romex.  Somewhere he's going to need to tap into an
existing Cu circuit.  If he uses Al romex for the addition, you end up with
Al and Cu under the same wire nut.  Dissimilar metals > corrosion >
resistance > heat > fire.

There is nothing wrong with Al wire - 97% of our nation's power grid is Al,
primarily for its low price and lightweight.  Al wire is used from the
genearting station to the sub-station, down your street to the transformer,
then "triplex" (hot-hot-neutral) from the transformer to your meter pan,
from the meter pan to your c.b/fuse panel.




> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bruce Malachuk" <bmalach1@nycap.rr.com>
> To: "'Paul Nimz'" <pnimz@v8sho.com>; "'`V6 SHOtimes'"
> <SHOtimes@autox.team.net>; "'Alan Fanning'" <Awfanning@earthlink.net>
> Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 11:16 AM
> Subject: Was RE: [Shotimes] RockAuto Shipping is Ridiculous! / Now
Aluminum
> wires?
>
>
> > So is there a reason Aluminum wire is good or better for making battery
> > cables. I seriously need to make some battery cables as I have pretty
good
> > voltage drop on my original wires. Just been putting it off cause I
didn't
> > want to buy a 50ft spool of wire.
> >
> > There is a building materials recycling yard about 10 min away and my
> > electrician neighbor tells me he has to pay them to take his used wire
> > from
> > jobs he does. Might that be a good place to find said aluminum wiring?
> >
> > Bruce J Malachuk
> >
> > * 94 Opal Frost MTX
> > * 93 Emerald Green MTX - SOLD
> > * 93 Black ATX - New Parts CAR
> > * 95 Silver Frost ATX SE - SLO -Buyer waiting
> > * 96 TR - Cam Failed parts car :-(
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
> > On Behalf Of Paul Nimz
> > Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 1:10 AM
> > To: `V6 SHOtimes; Alan Fanning
> > Subject: Re: [Shotimes] RockAuto Shipping is Ridiculous!
> >
> > If you are referring to the battery clamp terminal the best are also the
> > cheapest and lightest.  Go to Wal_Mart or elsewhere and get the Penske
> > brand
> > spring type band terminals.  Get ones with a lug end on them.  Then just
> > get
> > some common diameter lugs and make the whole system replaceable.
> >
> > I'm currently got my eye a scrap roll of household type attic #4
aluminum
> > triplex in the shed.  Was thinking of cutting it up to make new
alternator
> > to fuse box to starter cables.  Need 25' of #1 aluminum to go to the
trunk
> > but haven't been able to get that from anywhere for nothing yet.  :)
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> > On 9/7/2005 8:04:58 PM, awfanning@earthlink.net wrote:
> >> Now this is a GREAT idea!  The demo of the soldered connections is
> >> very cool too. Thx!
> >>
> >> What type of clamp fitting do you recommend?
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> >>
> >> Paul wrote:
> >>
> >> > Personally if I were to need cables I would just buy bulk cable and
> >> > make
> >> my
> >> > own.  www.delcity.net <http://www.delcity.net>  is a good place to
> >> > find things.
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