Aluminum 4/0 electrical wires
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3D4/0 electrical wires.
This was from heavy-gauge electrical wire left over from when we added the round house at the farm. It's been melted down and allowed to cool in the standard graphite crucible used for many metal samples. It came out very ugly, so I used a grinder, table top belt sander, and wire brush in the drill press to machine it into a cleaner cylinder with a pleasing texture on the surface. I got the wire from a building center in the mid 1990s.
Aluminum wiring is used today only for large-diameter service entrance cable, because it's difficult and often dangerous when used for individual branch circuits, as it was for a time during the 1970's. This link provides more information about aluminum wiring.
Source: Hardware Store
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 15 April, 2002
Text Updated: 11 August, 2007
Price: $1/foot
Size: 1.25"
Purity: >95%
Aluminum