/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I’m working on an electromagnetic accelerator, a mix of a coil gun and rail gun. The first two stages are a coil gun, third is a rail gun. Haven’t seen anyone try this approach so I thought I would. I finished the coil gun part and it fires at a respectable (for me) 110fps already and I expect to get another 30fps out of it with some fine tuning and adding another 450v 1000uF cap. However, I need a strong conductive metal for the rails. I could use steel but I want to maximize current/conductivity, so I wanted to use Copper Beryllium. It’s hard finding 2mm flat bar in the USA and wanted to know what you’ll think I should do? I think normal copper might not last long as rails, I figure it might be too soft. The cap bank is a 13,200uF 250V bank so it’s a fair amount of energy that, I think, will run a high risk of welding if the metal is too soft and deformed from previous firing. If anyone has any wisdom to provide on acquiring copper beryllium or about the design in general I would be very grateful.