Thought you guys would enjoy this monstrosity
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The lack of attention to detail and the crooked nickel strip really irked me but the machine is cool for sure lmao
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While I find this video to be helpful, I would like to make a running list of ways this battery could be improved so others can watch for a grasp of the subject but decide for themselves if other steps are needed in their project. I will update as suggestions are made.
- Fish paper all the P-Packs.
- Get rid of the electric tape and painters tape. Use kapton tape and fish tape.
- Round the edges of the nickel strips.
I have discovered that home made welding pens are ASS…I swapped back to my long prongs and the welds are perfect now (except that one, forgot the counterweight)
Yeah, for the handheld probes to work well, you need
- Very Thick Wires. Talking like 6AWG.
- Preferably one probe in each hand so you can get the pressure right on both points simultaneously
Free
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Damn…is the resistance of the wire really enough to drop the current to that low a level?
And does anyone have 30" of heavy gauge they would like to send? Not making another pack for a while so no rush and it would make shipping dirt cheap, and obviously I’ll cover the cost of the wire and shipping (I just don’t need 10’)
this.
abso-fuking-lutely
that clip you showed with the jumping leads, was most excellent , and perfectly demonstrates the energy dissipation by slamming so much current into the little 10g wires over that 3ft round trip.
heat is generally the mode of energy dissipation in less extreme cases 
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I thought the magnetic field generated is the the electrical impulse not the actual current, so less jump would mean it’s got to much inductance
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Regardless, when hundreds or thousands of amps are flowing, milliohms matter. Double the length of the wire (or make it half as thick) and you double the resistance, which doubles the power loss. Going from 10AWG to 6AWG will drop your wire resistance by more than half.
Don’t discount the comment I made earlier about pressure either. If the resistance of the electrode-nickel-cell sandwich at each point is too high due to low contact pressure, you’ll get blowouts and/or weak joints.
If the contact area of your probes is too large (not pointy enough) the resistance will be too low, and you’ll get weak joints.
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I swapped to the 8" 1/8" copper rods and the results are better but it still likes to spark on about half the welds, I can’t get it to make good contact every time even though I’m pushing on both the electrodes pretty hard. I will try and get more of a point on them tomorrow before the last set of welds
It’s not blowing though the nickel except that first weld, so I can’t imagine it’s the contact force but maybe the edge of the electrode is arcing or something?
Weird enough that was on my fyp the other day
Not that I use tik tok
no…
no.
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I have a roll of marine grade 8GA. Multi strand but Not the most flexible like silicone wire. I can cut you some.
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i had trouble getting good contact with some home made pens when I had them together. it was really tough to line the battery up so it made perfect contact on both probes. I had better results when I separated the pens
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Make double extra sure that both electrodes are the exact same length if they’re not independently movable and independently sprung.
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Awesome, is 8awg enough to made a big difference or should I try for 6awg?
8AWG is ~40% better than 10AWG, whereas 6AWG is ~60% better.
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If I make new pens I’ll definitely keep them separate, I always had reliable (although still ass) welds when I held the pen at angle (copper was filed flat so it was on an edge)
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The 8" electrodes are sperate so I can get pressure from both (wrapped my finger in tape so I could press down while welding)
6awg is 60% better than 8awg or 10awg?