Tinning copper at home

merjan

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I'm wondering if tinned copper busbars are literally what it says on the tin(!) or are there special processes / materials invovled. I'm thinking of making tinnned copped busbars at home with electrolysis, mostly because it would be fun and less to save money. If I achieve a nice tin coat on a copper plate, would it be expected to conduct as well as an industrially manufactured busbar?
 
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ylop

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I'm wondering if tinned copper busbars literally what it says on the tin(!) or are there special processes / materials invovled. I'm thinking of making tinnned copped busbars at home with electrolysis, mostly because it would be fun and less to save money. If I achieve a nice tin coat on a copper plate, would it be expected to conduct as well as an industrially manufactured busbar?
Yes but it’s important to get it really clean or you will not get an even coating
 

LittleSister

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I'm wondering if tinned copper busbars are literally what it says on the tin(!) or are there special processes / materials invovled. I'm thinking of making tinnned copped busbars at home with electrolysis, mostly because it would be fun and less to save money. If I achieve a nice tin coat on a copper plate, would it be expected to conduct as well as an industrially manufactured busbar?

I'm no expert, but as I understand it is the copper that does the conducting, and would conduct just as well without tinning, but the tinning stops the copper oxidising, which is unsightly and has to be cleaned off the relevant area if one wants to make any new connections later. The copper won't oxidise between the busbar and whatever is clamped or soldered to it, due to lack of oxygen.

I guess the copper that's oxidised will in principle reduce the cross section of the bus bar available for conducting, but that'd be negligible.

(Happy to be corrected if I'm mistaken.)
 
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B27

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Mostly when people talk about 'tinning' copper', they mean coating it with a layer of solder which may be tin/lead or some other alloy.

If you want plated bus bars,, other metals like nickel or silver might be favoured.

The conductivity of the plating matters at high frequency due to the skin effect, but not for DC.
 

ylop

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Mostly when people talk about 'tinning' copper', they mean coating it with a layer of solder which may be tin/lead or some other alloy.

If you want plated bus bars,, other metals like nickel or silver might be favoured.

The conductivity of the plating matters at high frequency due to the skin effect, but not for DC.
Tinned connectors (crimps) are usually electrochemically tin plated copper. Silver will oxidise so probably not a great choice. Nickel coatings are harder (but not impossible) to solder onto - if that might ever be required.
 

merjan

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Tinned connectors (crimps) are usually electrochemically tin plated copper. Silver will oxidise so probably not a great choice. Nickel coatings are harder (but not impossible) to solder onto - if that might ever be required.
The need to solder is not likely. I think Nickel has better. conductivity than copper, so might go with nickel.
 

Neeves

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Its not quite like an experiment at school, where perfection (at school) is not required nor absence of - noticed.

Don't lose sight of post 2 where it is pointed out the coating will be less than satisfactory if you do not get the surfaces scrupulously clean. (Similar to anodising aluminium) before you coat with tin (and then don't touch it except with gloves or handle with clean tongs (or whatever). Finger grease is a killer. You don't make clear your overall intention but I would drill the bus bar for the connectors before I tinned the bar. If you are making a bus bar it seems unlikely you will only need one. If you need one you probably need 2 - then make at the same time.

I was not as impressed as you with school electroplating (and it was a very long time ago) but I did some anodising recently. I don't recall electroplating voltage but for anodising its 12v and I simply used a battery charger. You end up, with anodising, with a lot of acid - plan how you will dispose of same - in advance. I bottled and labelled mine for next time (so far there has not been a next time :( ).

Jonathan
 

Graham_Wright

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Yes, but true knowlege is the product of direct experience.

They are obviously fit for purpose, otherwise they would give trouble.

None experienced in 17 years and two boats.

They are 3/8ths of an inch thick, not just light strip.
I used a 316 bolt to connect an anchor winch cable through a bulkhead, The resistance at the joint was sufficient to ignite surrounding woodwork.
Now replaced with brass.
It is interesting (and concerning) to check voltage drop across connection when under load.
 

merjan

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Mostly when people talk about 'tinning' copper', they mean coating it with a layer of solder which may be tin/lead or some other alloy.

If you want plated bus bars,, other metals like nickel or silver might be favoured.

The conductivity of the plating matters at high frequency due to the skin effect, but not for DC.
That's interesting. So the coating is so thin that is has negligible resistance? Because in theory the conductivity of nickel is about 20% that of copper.
 

merjan

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Its not quite like an experiment at school, where perfection (at school) is not required nor absence of - noticed.

Don't lose sight of post 2 where it is pointed out the coating will be less than satisfactory if you do not get the surfaces scrupulously clean. (Similar to anodising aluminium) before you coat with tin (and then don't touch it except with gloves or handle with clean tongs (or whatever). Finger grease is a killer. You don't make clear your overall intention but I would drill the bus bar for the connectors before I tinned the bar. If you are making a bus bar it seems unlikely you will only need one. If you need one you probably need 2 - then make at the same time.

I was not as impressed as you with school electroplating (and it was a very long time ago) but I did some anodising recently. I don't recall electroplating voltage but for anodising its 12v and I simply used a battery charger. You end up, with anodising, with a lot of acid - plan how you will dispose of same - in advance. I bottled and labelled mine for next time (so far there has not been a next time :( ).

Jonathan
I see the importance of surface preparation. Someone uses vinegar to keep the suface clean and it seems to work. I also found a resource called the "Metal Finishing Guidebook". It has detailed information on different techniques. As for the holes, I was indeed planning to drill (and perhaps tap) the holes in advance.

School was a long time ago, so I only recall the good parts!
 
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