Using conductive greases on mech squonker contacts

[papergoblin]

That deoxit kit looks amazing and simple to use. Thank you for that link!

I have applied a very thin layer to each of the contact points on the switch of the Armageddon (btw the contacts are silver plated "wet brass") but I'm still observing some intermittent arcing in the dark.

I'm really wanting to use preventative measures on this device so that the internals don't end up looking like the ones on my Athena, or my Aleader X-Drip, ie pitted and scarred with permanent black marks.

This Armageddon was my unicorn and now i actually have it! I *must* maintain this mod and buying any deoxit is out of the question right now with my funds. Very frustrating...

There's really not going to be a way to stop arcing, nature of the electrical beast. Nolox, deoxit, and the like are just for corrosion resistance. There are used mainly when the wire (example: Aluminum) is mounted to a breaker, bus-bar or the like (example: copper or steel). The two dissimilar metals will react with each other under heat, humidity, etc., thus causing galvanic reactions and such (corrosion).

This corrosion then causes components to fail faster by the creation of heat and/or arcing. Contact switches have this issue a lot, they can have arcing problems as well due to current/load. A contact switch is just like a light switch but is operated usually with magnets which will open or close the circuit when power is applied. This is a very, very basic explanation, there's way more to it and why they are used.

Now to DC voltage, you won't stop the arcing issues without dropping the load. So, if your build is causing arcing, you need to build at a higher resistance to stop it. The only other option(s) is either press the button faster (closes gap faster to minimize arc) or a better designed switch/mod.

Make sure the switch is making full and flat contact with the battery, if it is connecting at an angle there can be an arc at this point. There's really not a whole lot that can be done with a mechanical mod. The best design is to have the switch not contact the battery (especially in dual battery mods) but not many do it differently.

EXAMPLE: normal mod: Atty-Battery-Switch

EXAMPLE:not switching at battery: Atty-Battery-Wire or Plate-Switch
This way the arcing is on the plate and switch, which should be replaceable (easily and cheaply). Arcing will/can eventually harm the battery, so always keep an eye on the terminal's condition.

 

[DexterKBK]

Merman you are awesome! PM is coming your way.

Paper goblin, the mod in question has an L bar contact that is pressed against the 510. I'm not too keen on switches that contact the battery due to the issues you described. Also I'm aware that arcing will always happen, but I've been able to bring down the intensity of the arcing to where it isn't visible to the naked eye in a dark room. That's all I'm going for here, but it may take actual modification of the contact to make the surface area larger.

Just so you know, I'm only running a .27 build on this squonker (with brand new VTC5A's) which is a little low for me. When I get home to my wire and drill I will be running a ss316l core/n80 wrap fused Clapton at a solid .20 ohms... This will make the arcing worse, right?

 

[papergoblin]

Merman you are awesome! PM is coming your way.

Paper goblin, the mod in question has an L bar contact that is pressed against the 510. I'm not too keen on switches that contact the battery due to the issues you described. Also I'm aware that arcing will always happen, but I've been able to bring down the intensity of the arcing to where it isn't visible to the naked eye in a dark room. That's all I'm going for here, but it may take actual modification of the contact to make the surface area larger.

Just so you know, I'm only running a .27 build on this squonker (with brand new VTC5A's) which is a little low for me. When I get home to my wire and drill I will be running a ss316l core/n80 wrap fused Clapton at a solid .20 ohms... This will make the arcing worse, right?

Larger surface area can help, you could try polishing, it may subside somethings. Polishing helped a few of my tube mods that would get a warm button.
If you go lower ohms, you'll increase the load on the battery, so it might bring the visible arcing back.

I just looked at the way they switch the mod, surface area is probably why it arcs. I think your best bet is polish it (if need be) and keep it clean. Putting a thin coat of grease, like you stated would help keeping it clean. If you did say a glob of it, in the gap from plate to atty, it might (big might) slow down the arcing but may create a little more resistance doing so. Then again after a few hits, it'll probably just push the grease out of the way.

Since it's a thick bar, I wouldn't worry too much, by the time that arcing causes any problems you'll have destroyed the rest of it from dropping and such, lol. Looking at the pics, it's pretty beefy, they should have just rolled the edge into an L where it connects to the atty (increase area).

 

[DexterKBK]

It does seem to mate perfectly but the surface of contact isn't that large. But yeah mine is perfectly flat and mates really well with the 510.

 

[DexterKBK]

Would polishing really be advisable with silver plated metal? The only thing I have for polishing would be 1200 grit sandpaper. Would this be acceptable to use to polish silver plated "wet brass"? I definitely don't want to remove the plating.

Also are you saying that if i were to use a larger amount of the ox-gard that there's a (small) possibility of reducing the arcing some? And it would increase the resistance in the switch? Any drawbacks to this I should be aware of?

This was your quote:

"If you did say a glob of it, in the gap from plate to atty, it might (big might) slow down the arcing but may create a little more resistance doing so. Then again after a few hits, it'll probably just push the grease out of the way."

 

[Ben85]

I think you are overthinking this. Just keep your contacts clean.