Please let me know if this subject has already been discussed and I missed it while searching for it. I am building a 24V 2P4S battery bank for my boat using EVE 280K cells. I thought that I would improve on the busbars that came with the cells by making my own bus bars out of 3/4"x1/4" tinned copper stock. The intent is to make each busbar span 4 cells to eliminate extra resistance compared to the shorter busbars that connect only two cells together. I've assembled the cells into the battery packs using two plywood plates and threaded rods to compress them and cut bus bars and was about to drill the holes when I realized that the tops of the battery terminals are not level. The elements are brand new EVE 280K, not bulged, sit on a flat surface (piece of plywood that will be part of the battery bank box sitting on flat floor). When I place a busbar on four terminals it ends up resting on the two tallest ones and I can see small gaps between the other two terminals and the busbar. In addition to not being level, the terminals are also not in the same plane, the busbar wobbles a little bit. I've confirmed that this is not due to the busbar not being flat by using a strait edge. So, the big question is should I ditch the idea of using solid copper bus bars and use flexible ones or there is a trick on how to deal with this? Is it Ok to just torque the bolts (not exceeding the recommended value) and probably cause some bending of the aluminum terminals? The main reasons for going with a solid copper DIY busbars was to eliminate extra contact resistance in a 2P8S configuration and to reduce potential risk of corrosion in the marine environment.
