On Sat, 17 May 2014 08:23:50 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 16 May 2014 19:45:51 -0500, Robert Nichols
wrote:

On 05/16/2014 06:36 AM, Gunner Asch wrote:
All the
prints/plans Ive been involved with use Gauge for wiring size as
does
the California building codes.

You've been working with the small stuff. ;-)

True enough. Biggest distro panel Ive installed was 1800 amps and
the
power company brought that in to the master disconnect.

That beats mine. The biggest I've built for was 1000A for a locomotive
controller tester and 800A for a Telco 48V battery tester. The company
bought welding cable which made our wiring work easier, but when the
DC one was powered up everyone in the factory jumped as the flexible
cables very loudly bitch-slapped the sheet-metal walls from the
magnetic force.

The Telco spec included a 1V drop to simulate something in their
system. I had the bright idea of asking a meter shunt company to quote
the custom resistor, and got a reasonable price. I allocated space
about the size of a hotplate for it. When it arrived I found that P =
E * I was too complicated for them, it was physically sized for 0.1V
at 80A.

This is what they look like:
http://www.amazon.com/AMMETER-SHUNT-.../dp/B005BHPG6K

jsw

Biggest I've messed with, thrown the breaker, did NOT build, was an
experimental electrolytic cell for producing magnesium. 15kv feeds,
fuji rectiformer, either dc or 10Hz (low because of inductive losses).
The cell ran at 200vdc, 18000 amps. Main circuit was "wired" with two
slabs of 2"x24" aluminum, about 20 or so 500mcm jumpers to the
electrodes either end.

Pete Keillor