Had a spirited debate

[Kendogalopigus]

was talking with a buddy about when i cleaned the inside of my stingray x the first time after months of never cleaning the inside of the tube and it was a noticeable difference like night and day, i did this cause of things I've read from electricians who vape. my "buddy" that supposedly has certificates proceeds to bite my head off that the inside of the tube has no electricity flowing. well i disproved that with a simple fact about the nemesis shocking peoples hands which is proof of electrical current flowing within the tube. also told me that the material used on the tube itself doesn't matter so i brought up the conductivity of SS vs Brass vs Copper and that mods mad out of SS will not his as hard as Brass which will not hit as hard as Copper.

last night we somehow get on the topic again and this time his story has changed that the current flows through the metal itself and not on the surface of the inside of the tube and that corrosion will not affect it so i brought up old cars needing the battery contacts cleaned which is the best example i could think of off the top of my head of corrosion blocking electrical current. but he proceeds to bite my head off and say that's completely different, not sure how corrosion can block the flow on 1 thing and not affect it at all on another.

i am not starting this thread to continue a debate i am hoping for a very experienced electrician with a degree to settle this once and for all, but please keep in mind i may not understand all the technical lingo lol.

Thanks for your time

 

[Dampmaskin]

Current will flow freely under a corroded surface. It will not flow freely through a corroded surface.

So keep your threads, switch parts, and other contact surfaces clean. That's all that matters.

Regarding SS vs copper: For a thick battery tube it makes no practical difference. When the cross section area of the material that the current is flowing through is smaller, it does make a difference. In other words, you will get a better improvement from switching your 510 pin from SS to copper, than switching your battery tube from SS to copper.

Btw, I am not an electrician, and I have no degree, only two years of electronics technical schooling. My experience beyond that is mostly from hobbyist level tinkering, so feel free to disregard everything I say.

 

[Kendogalopigus]

so it was probably switching to the silver plated pins and cleaning the switch and what not that was the improvement, but im a little confused on the SS vs Copper part, so what it seems like your saying is the tube does offer an increase/decrease in performance just not very much, probably not enough to notice?

 

[Dampmaskin]

Percentage-wise the increase is the same for the tube, but the resistance in the tube is so low to begin with, that a few hundred percent don't matter much. If you measure the diameter of the tube, and the thickness of the walls, you can figure out the cross section area. As long as you know the cross section area and length of the tube, and the resistivity of the material, calculating and comparing the resulting resistance is relatively simple.

 

[Kendogalopigus]

right on well he was right and i was wrong, would have been great if he could have explained it like this instead of being an ... hat and yelling at me over TS while we played Dayz lol.

 

[LucentShadow]

Dampmaskin is spot on. I was trained in electronics theory and troubleshooting down to component level, if that helps this endorsement.

 

[K_Tech]

Percentage-wise the increase is the same for the tube, but the resistance in the tube is so low to begin with, that a few hundred percent don't matter much. If you measure the diameter of the tube, and the thickness of the walls, you can figure out the cross section area. As long as you know the cross section area and length of the tube, and the resistivity of the material, calculating and comparing the resulting resistance is relatively simple.

Absolutely. Going from spotty memory, copper conducts electricity around 40 times better than stainless steel, but we're talking micro-ohms (1 ohm is equal to 1,000,000 microohms) of resistance. More important is the integrity of the connections at the threads and other contact points. Current will only flow where there is contact (at least at the voltages we deal with). Bad/dirty threads, oxidized contacts, crappy buttons, that all adds up to poor performance.

 

[Alien Traveler]

My calculations: resistance of SS mod 100 mm long, 22 mm diameter with walls 2 mm thick is equal to 0.005 ohm.

Plus whatever threads, contacts, etc. provide.