Recommend me some nice thick copper battery/power lugs

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gregcope

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Hi

I need some copper lugs in the following sizes (Wire MM2 - M bolt size, Amps rating);

6mm2-M6, 48Amps
6mm2-M10, 48Amps
25mm2-M6, 130Amps+
25mm2-M8, 130Amps+
25mm2-M10, 130Amps+

Some of the ones I have found are all a little, shall we say "small". Ie thin walls with short cable holes and little "meat" in the way of material around the bolt. The 6mm-M6 and 6mm-M10s look particularly weak.

I did buy some nicely big ones e.g. a 25mm2-M10 which was 44mm long from a chandler that has closed... and there are no markings to display brand. The other 25mm2-M10s I got recently where only 40mm odd long.

Any know of any easy to get brands that sell bigger gauge lugs? In the US they seem to do "Power Lugs" which are heavier gauge. However importing and metric sizes are a challenge.

I could cheat and have seen others do this which is shove three 6mm2 (in theory 18mm2) into a 25mm2 lug which feels wrong but gives a bigger lug.
 
RS do decent ones.
F2414631-02
 
Apart from quality of an individual lug, the lug needs to match the stripped cable perfectly as well.

Not all 25mm2 wires are the same..

I've always bought wire and lugs from the same supplier to be sure they match.
 
Home made battery terminals are easy and cheap, but a bit slower to make with care than buying online in bulk.

Homemade Battery Cable Lugs (Dirt Cheap!) - YouTube

If one wishes to solder the pressed terminal (and that is a different thread altogether :)), one can drill or cut a tiny hole at the lug end to allow solder to flow in.)

DIY has the advantage that you can buy decent thick walled tube, or use stuff that is just lying around in the shed if you wish.
 
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While I like diy solutions surely OP would then be in a position of having to buy various sizes of copper pipe? Given that almost all of the cost of these items is the raw copper there’s not a huge advantage anyway. Old copper pipe fetches quite a bit at the scrappy too so even if I had some spare I might sell it to pay for the lugs ?
 
Most of us have odd bits of copper tube (not "pipe" - there is a significant difference) lying around, or if one has been prudent, saved from various activities.

The cost of a shop-bought cable terminal will exceed by a substantial margin the "cost" of a couple of inches of gash copper tube.
 
sarabande said:
Home made battery terminals are easy and cheap, but a bit slower to make with care than buying online in bulk.

Homemade Battery Cable Lugs (Dirt Cheap!) - YouTube

If one wishes to solder the pressed terminal (and that is a different thread altogether :)), one can drill or cut a tiny hole at the lug end to allow solder to flow in.)

DIY has the advantage that you can buy decent thick walled tube, or use stuff that is just lying around in the shed if you wish.
Click to expand...

The one i linked to are priced between 29p and 49p in the sizes the OP requires, i'm all for making things, but it seems a bit of a false economy to buy copper tube and spend the time making terminals to save a few pence and end up with inferior terminals.
 
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sarabande said:
Most of us have odd bits of copper tube (not "pipe" - there is a significant difference) lying around, or if one has been prudent, saved from various activities.

The cost of a shop-bought cable terminal will exceed by a substantial margin the "cost" of a couple of inches of gash copper tube.
Click to expand...

Then you end up with thin walled, untinned, terminals that don't properly crimp because the dies in the crimper are designed for thicker terminals. This is why the cheap rubbish terminals don't crimp properly. You can see in the video his crimp is not even, due to the thin walled tube.
 
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