Copper vs. Aluminum Brushing

[jdpmorris]

Hey guys, need some insight. Does your company require different brushes - one for copper and one for aluminum or can you use the same brush for either? Thanks

[reppy007]

I dont think it matters....the brush isnt the problem,getting guys to use one is the question....thats another part of the trade thats slowly fading away...good question,never heard of different types of brushes that you have mentioned.

[bren guzzi]

We always use different brushes. If you use a brush on aluminium that was previously used on copper the copper residue will corrode the ally wire.
Our brushes are stamped. " ALU ". And COP ...
It's the same reason that when we are joining two pieces of wire together.the ALLY WIRE MUST BE ON TOP. So when it rains water from the copper side doesn't run on to the ally wire.

We use a bi metal conector that keeps the two wires apart.

[Lineman North Florida]

I have always used the same wire brush on both types of conductor and to the best of my knowledge have never had any bad results because of it.

[thrasher]

We have always used the same brush for copper or aluminum wire; because we don't figure the brush holds enough flakes of foreign metal to matter. However long years ago we installed both #2 cu and 1/0 al UG primary cable and used emory cloth to get the last of the inner semi-conductor off the wire before squeezing on the compression for an elbow. We kept two seperate rolls of emory cloth to use on either copper or aluminum. Nowadays all our primary UG is aluminum and it doesn't matter.

[LAMartin.CVEC]

In the past,I personally brushed Al and scraped Cu conductors. However after reading a thread on this site about downed wire and death resulting in investigations and lawsuits, I now brush every conductor connection. I only have a "v" brush and it is used on all conductors. I would like to see different brushes but I'm not sure it would fly cost wise unless some one could post some really good numbers. I have been to many a trouble call with bad voltage because of a crappy connection at the pot.

Work Safely,

L.A.Martin
Journeyman Div III
CVEC

[reppy007]

I was trained to brush the secondary bushings on overhead transformers before you install a ct or a lug....hell we all did it....but thats not done too much anymore.........WHY?:(

[Trouble1]

Because most people who become trouble men never go back to construction and guys doing construction don't care or know how much trouble men change bad connections.

Company I work for doesn't even buy wire brushes for us. I just use the back of the knife 'cause I lost mine and got sick of buying my own tools while working for a billion dollar a year company.

[bobbo]

Our material situation is so bad we are using sixty year old wreckout connectors to bond ground and statics. Its hard to care about brushing anything if your connectors are stretched, petina and covered in :nightmare:bird****. Am I am going to brush everything, even the connector! Yeah I care about my work, but no one else does or gives a rats ass. If I was doing mechanicals In a place that cared I would brush everything. But here they dont brush anything. Everything is squeezed. And there is a lot of ****ty work. Some young ****head would go "he wasted time brushing the wire, can you believe that!" I would get fired and he would get a foremans truck. No one brushes at all here. I think every distribution pole here is out of line and off two pole tops, but they think they are the best lineman in the world. I travel to work professionally. If I worked at home I would work in a kindergarten, be miserable and hate life.

[reppy007]

Our material situation is so bad we are using sixty year old wreckout connectors to bond ground and statics. Its hard to care about brushing anything if your connectors are stretched, petina and covered in :nightmare:bird****. Am I am going to brush everything, even the connector! Yeah I care about my work, but no one else does or gives a rats ass. If I was doing mechanicals In a place that cared I would brush everything. But here they dont brush anything. Everything is squeezed. And there is a lot of ****ty work. Some young ****head would go "he wasted time brushing the wire, can you believe that!" I would get fired and he would get a foremans truck. No one brushes at all here. I think every distribution pole here is out of line and off two pole tops, but they think they are the best lineman in the world. I travel to work professionally. If I worked at home I would work in a kindergarten, be miserable and hate life.

That is too funny....hey man,if it helps.....kindergarden might be better than a retirement home......then you really could say that your miserable and hate life.

[rob8210]

I hear ya Bobbo. Its a royal pain babysitting the greatest lineman in the world, or so they think. Fortunately for me I now work with a great bunch of guys, that do give a d*** about the quality of work that they do.

[BillyMac]

We have separate scratch brushes for each, white for ally and black for Cu. I'd have to say I've been lazy at times and not scratched.