[Milsurplus] Aluminum wire story

[Richard Brunner]

I bought some 4 AWG wire to feed my dynamotors, thinking I was buying 
copper.  It came, was light, flexible, each strand was copper clad, and 
looking at the end it was obviously aluminum. There are two problems 
with aluminum wire, aluminum oxide and cold flow.  Normally, aluminum 
wire is terminated in special crimp connectors with an active gel inside 
which gets into the interstices between strands to remove the oxide, and 
multiple crimps which capture the wire, limiting cold flow.  If you use 
a copper connector you may only contact the outer ring of strands, with 
interesting effects, and you can come back to tighten it every week 
forever and will never have a tight joint.  Buildings have burned down 
due to improper aluminum terminations.  Due to copper cladding good 
contact is achievable, but I expect I will have to tighten them every 
time I use them.  There isn't space for proper aluminum terminations 
anyway...

Richard, AA1P