Hmm… Actually, we should attempt to figure out where discrepancies in larger wire is coming from between our two charts. I also presumed I was pinged because yours didn’t have what was asked or something… but you obviously have things listed.
Anyways… yeah. The 8/6AWG stuff is concerning to me on my chart. Especially now that I think back to car audio. We used 2/0 runs on 300/350amp alternators.
I think part of this discrepancy is because esk8 are small physically and so typically don’t have the lengths of wire that cars have. In addition to this, we mostly use wires that are silicone-insulated and thus high-temperature. Most wires I’ve personally seen in cars were plastic-insulated. (I’m not an auto mechanic, though) Yet another difference which is not specified is the maximum allowable temperature.
But these are good points, for sure.
None of these ratings are set in stone.
Yeah, I’m also noticing the spec I have is noting 16AWG as 16.1mm^2 where yours is 13.3mm^2
Not a huge difference by any means, but I think your chart may have been for slightly larger diameter strands.
You’re probably correct about insulation being a major factor between use cases.
My friend does electrical work and he swears that older 14AWG wire (decades old) is physically bigger than new 14AWG wire. Same for 12AWG, et cetera. He doesn’t deal with stranded wire, though.
Not sure where the truth lies.
Domestic, commercial and industrial electrical cables were definitely physically bigger in the past. More recently manufactured cable is rolled as part of the manufacturing process. Same amount of copper but more compressed. Not 100% sure but I would imagine having a more compressed conductor would reduce the skin effect of current on the conductor found in AC electricity.
I have to mesureiro be sure, but I have two 12 AWG wires from different sources, one is Turnigy and another has no brand printed, by looking the Turnigy seems smaller
Are they solid or stranded? It’s so hard to tell with stranded… some can have more stands but each strand is smaller and vice versa…
Stranded, will take a closer look to see if I can spot it. If I had a bench power supply it would be easy to test
may I ask where you got your nickle amperage limits from? I’m looking at welding up a Molicel P42A pack and they run 45 amps for each cell!
So you are pulling 45amp from the molicel p42a right now ??
no… I don’t have them yet… that is their supposed rating
Okay… If you look at the charts. 30amp constant, is the max recommended rating
But I wish to design it properly for some safety headroom…
Yeah… I´m building a 20s6p out of these cells, based on the NESE system. These bus bars are good for 200amp constant. I´m planning to draw 180amp…
How conservative are these ratings for nickel series connections of a battery build?
So what I take from this is that you should take 2/3 of the continuous amps that the phase wires will be carrying, and use that as the basis for a concept of their amp strain? So if I’m running 90a motor continuous, I can use a gauge rated for 60a?
Yes, except the ratio I think is 1/√2 or ≈ 0.707
Good to know! U da chief Brian 
Do you know of the equivalent for determining max phase amps for motors?
Nice chart btw. Makes one want to burn some gum and windings 