Brass Infinity and Copper head

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KenBar

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A few weeks ago, I gave a friend an infinity and had him "copy" the base in brass. He completed it successfully, and then injured his eye so he had to back off for a few weeks.

I have been using the Infinity/Arc mod since then with a Lithium battery and totally love the flashlight. (Brass bottom, ArcLE guts, and Arc/Infinity mod)


Problem....

His vision has been restored ( ALWAYS wear eye protectionn ) and he is ready to finish the top.

He showed me a beautiful piece of stock copper about the size of a 50 cent piece and a foot long. He was going to make the "mod" top out of a piece of this solid copper bar.

Has anyone had experience with copper? Will coppen and brass have ok electrical properties?

The brass with a copper head really "look" nice together so I was going to go with it unless anyone had another idea???

Thanks
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wolfman:
A few weeks ago, I gave a friend an infinity and had him "copy" the base in brass. He completed it successfully, and then injured his eye so he had to back off for a few weeks.

I have been using the Infinity/Arc mod since then with a Lithium battery and totally love the flashlight. (Brass bottom, ArcLE guts, and Arc/Infinity mod)


Problem....

His vision has been restored ( ALWAYS wear eye protectionn ) and he is ready to finish the top.

He showed me a beautiful piece of stock copper about the size of a 50 cent piece and a foot long. He was going to make the "mod" top out of a piece of this solid copper bar.

Has anyone had experience with copper? Will coppen and brass have ok electrical properties?

The brass with a copper head really "look" nice together so I was going to go with it unless anyone had another idea???

Thanks<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Copper conducts electricity much better than aluminum, and also disipates heat better too. Gold is better yet, but, er, rather expensive.

I think brass is also excellent for electical conductance, and heat sink, probably better than aluminum.


I always use eye protection. One teeny tiny piece of metal can be devastating, and glass can be even worse. Sorry to hear of his injury. Let it be a warning to all of us.

Wayne www.elektrolumens.com
 
Copper is the BEST conductor of heat.
Silver is the second best conductor of heat.
Gold is the third best conductor of heat.
Aluminum is the fourth best conductor of heat.
(Best meaning most rapid conduction)
Brass is about half as thermally conductive as Alumimum. (109W/m K vs. 205W/m K for copper)
.............................................

Silver is by far the best conductor of electricity. (106)
Copper is second best. (100 annealed) (89.5 work hardened)
Gold is a distant third. (65)
"Pure" aluminum is the fourth best.(59)
Chromium is fifth best electrical conductor.(55)
Alloyed aluminum is sixth best.(30 to 50 depending upon alloy)
Bronze is seventh best.(36)
Molybdenum is eighth best.(33.2)
Tungsten is ninth best.(28.9)
Zinc is tenth best.(28.8)
BRASS is eleventh best.(28)

The numbers in parentheses indicate *relative* electrical conductivity, annealed copper being assigned 100 since it is the most commonly used conductor.

I think the reason that most people think gold is such a great conductor of electricity is because of the predominance of gold plating on contacts of electronic and electrical devices and contacts. The reason that the gold is there is because it doesn't corrode & oxidize like copper and silver (and most of the others) do.

That said, copper and brass will be fine together in your mod. The only problem you are likely to run into is that copper is much softer than brass, and more likely to ding and dent.
 
Hey Silviron,

That was very informative! Great job!
grin.gif


Wayne
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Silviron:
That said, copper and brass will be fine together in your mod. The only problem you are likely to run into is that copper is much softer than brass, and more likely to ding and dent.
.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Great information...where do you learn that kind of stuff? I feel so inadequate at times..
I hope the top will not be scuffed too much as it will be a small area. What may also help is I carry it around my neck on a leather cord so it does not see too much rough action.
Thanks again for info.
 
Copper is certainly what distributes power to and throughout all of our homes. No problem there. And brass, of course, can do no wrong.

Nope, the only thing you've gotta worry about for is flying metal chips!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wolfman:
...where do you learn that kind of stuff?....<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've been messing around with metals, minerals, materials science and related stuff off and on for about the last 40 years.

Been a jeweler, blacksmith and general metalsmith for 15+ years and worked with mundane and exotic metals in aerospace related area for a couple of years.

Far from an expert, but have a lot of wide (but shallow) experience, and have read a lot in the fields.
 
I might be right in thinking that there are some people on this forum already constructing torches from copper house-plumbing pipe, the sort used to feed water taps and central heating and the like! The pipe forms one of the conductors to the LED and offers very good heatsinking!
Copper is not a new material however, as some historical torches were made of this metal because of its good conductivity. Some commeercial pocket torches are also made from chrome-plated copper, these make ideal direct drive LED conversions. Torches thus constructed are usually only plated on the outside and the coppery colour can be seen clearly when the batteries are removed!

Matt
 
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