Tube material-very important, or a small variable?

[conanthewarrior]

Hello everyone.

I have lately been enjoying mechanical mods, and through this, have been researching as I go along, and read of conductivity of various metals.

The thing is, I have read that the material the tube itself is made of actually makes very little difference, and the main thing is contacts.

I read that the same mod, made of say Stainless steel VS copper, will actually in use only cause a difference in the area of say 1/100TH of a Watt, and it is solid contacts that are more important.
EDIT: I checked again, and I found "If you work out the difference due to bulk conductivity, it is less than 1%"-so not much. It will help me decide for future purchases, as I quite like the look of SS, and if it performs as well, or so near you can not tell, I will probably own a few more SS mechs.

Now, I do find that my best non-hyrbrid mech is a Copper Bamboo JA clone, and my favourite hybrid an AV able styled brass device. I have a SS SMPL that I enjoy too, but it does seem that the able hits harder, but is it placebo or real I am experiencing?

So, am I experiencing placebo here, or does tube material make a huge difference?

I will try to find the information, but would like to ask some more knowledgeable mech users if it is indeed the case that a copper mech will work better than a SS one with Copper contacts.

Thank you all for your help and advice, Conan.

 

[nightshard]

As I see it the most important parts are the contacts: 510 pin & button assembly.

The body of the tube/box has so much surface area that it doesn't matter much.

 

[conanthewarrior]

As I see it the most important parts are the contacts: 510 pin & button assembly.

The body of the tube/box has so much surface area that it doesn't matter much.

Ok, thank you, straight to the point and answers my question.

So, essentially, ensure I have good contacts at the button end, 510 end if not hybrid style, and go for whichever material I prefer looks wise for use?

I must say out of my 26650 devices, my favourite IS a SS device. A tree of life, works very well indeed, and I like the extended battery life, which is the only downside I am finding with my 18650 mechs.

 

[nightshard]

Good and clean contacts.
I think the best option for contacts is gold plating since it has excellent conductivity and it doesn't corrode.
Silver and brass are excellent too but do corrode.
Copper is too soft for contacts.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Good and clean contacts.
I think the best option for contacts is gold plating since it has excellent conductivity and it doesn't corrode.
Silver and brass are excellent too but do corrode.
Copper is too soft for contacts.

OK, thank you for your help.

I guess the contacts must be brass in most of my mechs, although I am sure one is actually copper, this scratches very easily during cleaning, and needs to be cleaned a lot to function well.

When we are talking speed of corrosion, would silver corrode slower than brass for example? As i notice now that my SMPL must be cleaned fairly often to ensure the fire button stays clean (I believe it is a V1.5 button-it is a clone, it does not have the clip like the V1 but instead a single screw the same size).

My tree of life has silver coloured contacts, and it works very well and does not need cleaning as often as the brass does to work at its best. I am not sure if these contacts are Silver or SS though, but whatever they are they do work well.

 

[nightshard]

Out of the 4 copper corrodes the most.
There are cases of copper pins but they are not commonly used since it's not practical.
Corrosion causes resistance and while corrosion on the body is negligible since it conducts through the inside layers, with contacts it's a whole different story since the area of contact is also the area of corrosion.
The button assembly should always conduct through a solid pin (and not through a spring) and it's just as important to clean this pin as the 510 pin.

 

[anen]

Hello everyone. I have lately been enjoying mechanical mods, and through this, have been researching as I go along, and read of conductivity of various metals. The thing is, I have read that the material the tube itself is made of actually makes very little difference, and the main thing is contacts. I read that the same mod, made of say Stainless steel VS copper, will actually in use only cause a difference in the area of say 1/100TH of a Watt, and it is solid contacts that are more important. EDIT: I checked again, and I found "If you work out the difference due to bulk conductivity, it is less than 1%"-so not much. It will help me decide for future purchases, as I quite like the look of SS, and if it performs as well, or so near you can not tell, I will probably own a few more SS mechs. Now, I do find that my best non-hyrbrid mech is a Copper Bamboo JA clone, and my favourite hybrid an AV able styled brass device. I have a SS SMPL that I enjoy too, but it does seem that the able hits harder, but is it placebo or real I am experiencing? So, am I experiencing placebo here, or does tube material make a huge difference? I will try to find the information, but would like to ask some more knowledgeable mech users if it is indeed the case that a copper mech will work better than a SS one with Copper contacts. Thank you all for your help and advice, Conan.

When it comes to "Epic" SMPL I can't tell the difference in between copper and ss, "Enfinite" clone hits as hard as "Epic". There is definitely difference in between those and all other clones, "Rem" actually being on the lower side due to the switch that has a tendency to get hot.. That's where some of the power is getting wasted. Imo it is all about construction and contact areas, not so much about material.

 

[nightshard]

When a specific part of a mech gets hot, It's a sign that this is the part of most resistance in the mech.