When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Ford sells some clamps so that could be done, but as a few years back when I thought they did, they don't.
I sometimes just have to tease you! I read that backwards and forwards, and backwards I think makes the most sense...
Jack, please take this in the humor context I hope you do... You and many others here, know so much more than I, sometimes I try to contribute - but it is mostly based on what you all have had your hands on and write about...
Well better than The Exorcist And the green pea soup that Linda Blair had to spit up. I did pick up some 2/0 cable along with some 2 Ga. The down side is I had to get it out
of the end and under cut scrap cart and the guy said just pull out what you need and you don't have to be neat about it. I pulled on the one I wanted and that was a BAD idea.
Lets see how long it takes my back to settle down from that. I have a feeling I will pay for that one for a while.
In my wanderings today I did pick up the hydraulic crimp tool from HF. I will report back on it. From there demo of the thing I might be leaning to it junk. But the guy doing the
demo in the viddeo was doing a 12 Ga crimp and just over did it to where the plastic was crushed and sticking out.
The good hydraulic crimpers are in the $2-5k range. Some solar guys in the hood might have some to use.
The HF and eBay ones from all the reviews I've read take a good number of crunched lugs to identify the right size. I guess I deleted in a post what I found. Every figgin lug and terminal is different, and each company makes their own crimper for their parts. So as I was sorting out what lugs and terminals I liked, to get a crimp that met the weight holding values of a good connection ..... you have to own their crimper. The dies are all different. Those are FTZ, QuickCable, and Amp.
The yellow AMP crimper is the best one, fully adjustable for crunch. But still, with that, you have to match the lugs to dies. Especially when the company offers a regular duty and heavy duty lug.
It depends how nuts you want to get about the crimp, and you're selling the vehicle.
It's easier just to solder. Some reference that a soldered connection easily meets the load test, but that's apples to oranges. The load test is about how good a crimp is. But as you already know Sean, and have mentioned, solder wicking needs to be controlled, and with a solder connection, you have another level of dissimilar metal conductance issue. Not that big of a deal if you're using tinned marine wire. Soldering has a much higher contact area then crimping, even with these.
You'll do fine with the HF for what you need to do. I'm just going off the deep end again.
Sean is probably the better person about this with his aircraft background. The term is also used in electronics for removing solder from a connection typically useing a braided wire.
in this context it’s too much solder and too much heat allowing the solder to wick it’s way up the cable. The controversity is it takes up some of the flexibility of the wire/cable which will provide a breaking point. But it depends on how much motion is in the cable and it can be offset if heavy wall shrink tubing is used that goes passed the end point of solder, if you can figure that out. In aircraft the potential is not allowed at all, crimp only.
In my audio world, the subject goes off the rail not only about the above but the sound quality as well going through dissimilar materials.
Soldering in the OE automotive engineering is typically not used within the starter cables due to the concern that a terminal with a poor connection will overheat and the soldered connection will lose integrity. But in the aftermarket/retrofit world, it has been done a lot.
QuickCables has a line of lugs and terminals labeled Fusion, which comes with a slug of solder in the part so the correct amount of solder is already there and should not wick up the wire or cable. To answer the question originally asked before I went all Vanna, technically there should be none.
From the flexibility point if solder has wicked up into the cable you get stiff cables that have a higher risk of work hardening failures.
And the net problem is weight. You would not think a little bit here and a little bit there would be that big of a deal. But it adds up.
Ideally when a joint is crimped you cold fuse the connection in the crimping process an still allow the cable to flex.
Both Jack and myself and I think a few others have posted a lot of the solder vs crimp info over the years. I know that
if you really dig into it that you have more than enough words to make it qualify as a full novel and likely a multi volume at that.
Anyway I don't feel like beating that horse tonight. The lesson for tonight is Don't try and pull the cable out of the cutoff ends and
odd lengths cart or your going to have a VERY unhappy back. Next time I will just pick stuff off the top and work my way down.
No more grabbing an end and pulling for me.
To this day on the audio forums, the subject is still a very, very hot topic. Oils have nothing on this.
Along with the solder wicking, the opposite side is if there is enough solder flowing between all the individual wires of the cable to produce ideal contact. You might have only solder the peripheral wires. Looks and feels good, doesn't conduct as well.
For crimping, is it a fully condensed crimp to be solid, or did you not achieve full density. And that's where the proper die vs connector comes into play. Doesn't matter if its a four-sided or six-sided crimp.
At the end with both situations they only way to know is trial and error, cutting apart the connection to see how your technique is. Crimping guys have a leg up if they can get the final dimensions of the crimp from the manufacturer so they can measure the width.
Good Crimp Semi bad crimp Solder has to wick through all this making it a solid and not flow just to the outer layer where the heat is, which is a characteristic of solder.
Thanks for the education. Thats as much info as I think I want on the subject.
For the sake of even distribution of the solder, the torch in the video is way overkill. I would use something smaller or at least low flame and apply it evenly to to the bottom of the lug, ensuring slower more even heat distribution.
I used to work for a guy who had a past life as a custom bike frame builder. All tubes were silver soldered into lugs. He was amazing with a torch. I learned a lot from him.
For my crimping tools I have a set of Go/No-Go gauges that are for the different set of dies.
Each die is made for a given connector and the gauge checks that the tool is applying the
right final closure. It will verify over and under closure. But to stay in calibration you have to
have both the tool and dies checked along with the Go/No-Go at what ever interval is setup
by the standards you operate by.
Jack I can't recall if you posted this link before or not. I happened to find in my pre bed sleep
blurry eyes haze. Tired eyes sore don'g help and I saved it to post. Might help someone.
Crimp Supply https://crimpsupply.com/battery-terminals-copper-lugs
EDIT: Just had a thought as I posted. I should go check DMC to see what they list for large lug tools.
I mentioned load tests, just didn't want to go too deep. BTW, I can't find my DMC crimper kit........
If you dig deep enough, AMP (TE) has tables too for their crimper.
There is a guy at Compas Marine in Maine who did comparisons of let's say DIY crimpers following the standards. He hasn't been all that active lately but his vids on different subjects are good. I've got this crimper. Other vids, tools, batteries, etc.
He also did a good job years ago doing a page about what we are discussing. As long as we are making this a reference thread I'll include it. Based on this, I now use the Fiskars, they are good as wire cutters.
Jack you know sometimes when that little light goes on. I think I am going to just get the $100 special from Fleabay
and take all the parts and tools back and just be done with it. After the connectors and cable (I'll keep that) along with
that questionable HF crimper I am over the break even point. It comes down to I know both people that have interest
in it and don't want any bad blood. Plus the body shop guy does good work and I don't want to loose access to him.
