Uninsulated crimp tool

Looks like you *do* mean for car cable. ;-) (This post also appeared in uk.d-i-y)

Vehicle Wiring Products do a tool suitable for car cable and the standard Lucar connectors, and it works very well producing that 'pro' look. It folds the legs back in on themselves. Not cheap, though.

Try Vehicle Wiring Products, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. They were very good on this kind of thing when I was putting the Firenza back together. I didn't buy a crimp tool but I know they sell them.

Mike

If you are still looking let me know and we will supply you with one. We sell tools and equipment to the professionals. Liz Hall Autopro Tools Milton Keynes

Might help if you gave a price?

The alternative is called a "soldering iron". Not as quick but very effective.

huddo

The cheap crimping tools (about £3 each) that are used for coloured crimps usually have a plain crimp section as well.

Not good advice, soldered joints are prone to fatigue failure and can disconnect if there's a high current draw.

Heck why shoudl she do that? Hook one them reel them in, don't say anything to put them off like "we charge more than the £40 you had already rejected."

You still need to crimp the cord grip, though. And a proper crimp tool makes a very neat job.

I use long nose pliers, then solder them, use the slider over insulating sleves too, no special tools are needed,

Steve.

Yeah, what would I know? I've only been in the electrical trade for 40 years.

Stick your dwarf where the sun don't shine.

huddo.

But they don't fold over the 'legs' in the same way as a pukka one. IMHO, crimping really needs the correct tool - too little pressure is obviously a problem, but too much or in the wrong place ends up with a poor joint too.

The standard 1/4" connector has a strain relief clamp as well. You should crimp ;-) the wire part first so the wire is held in place, then solder quickly with a hot iron so as not to melt the insulation or cook the wire. Then when it's cooled, crimp the strain relief. I've done perhaps hundreds like this without any failures. But a properly crimped joint looks better

- just like a factory one.

: In article , : John Hudson wrote: : > The alternative is called a "soldering iron". Not as quick but very : > effective. : : You still need to crimp the cord grip, though. And a proper crimp tool : makes a very neat job.

Well exactly. And since these are going to be rather specialist connectors, costing two euros a pop for bullets (thank you, Citroen) I'd like to make as neat a job as possible without farting about with a pair of pliers.

I was going to comment on patronising gits who put "soldering iron" in "quotation marks", but I won't.

Ian

Yes. This is a classic car group. Let the bodgers stay in uk.rec.cars. maintenance. ;-)

Heh heh. Of course, you don't iron anything with it and they've no longer got any iron in them...

Suppose the name dates back from when you heated them in a fire, same as a domestic iron.

And they were made from Iron.

The process has become known after the tool used, just like you 'Hoover' your carpet...

I just remember my father using what he called a "soldering bolt", which he heated on the gas cooker. It had a wooden handle, a steel shaft, but a copper bit. Solder doesn't stick too well to iron.

I see bodging is alive and well as ever.

I'm not an electrician. But I used to work for BT (various parts, including Factories division) when crimps and IDCs were introduced to replace soldering (with considerable advantages). I also (for another major connector maker) built test machinery for the assembly of crimps, and the lifetime testing of their joints.

-- Crimps over soldering every time, if you have vibration.

OTOH, I avoid the pre-insulated crimps. You can't achieve a gas-tight crimp with them.

Yes, but copper gives up heat to well, the tip might well be copper but I bet the rest of the 'metalwork' would have been something else, years ago surely that would have been iron ?

No - the bit was copper. IIRC, about 2 inches long and about 1/2 inch in diameter. The shaft to which it was riveted was steel.