Recommendation on Large Wire/Cable Crimpers

[Boaring1961]

Anyone out there able to recommend a high quality set of crimpers for heavy gauge wire (i.e. 8 ga to 1/0 or bigger).

I'd like something versatile enough that I can do smaller projects (i.e. solar for our RV) but also crimp battery cables for our CTD. Please no hammer blow crimpers (not a good way to crimp wires!).

Thanks

 

[mwilson]

I prefer the solder slug method.......much better connection in my opinion....

http://digital.turn-page.com/i/103716/68

Also ...

http://www.delcity.net/documents/instructions/battery_solder_slug_install_instructions.jsp

Just my opinion, and yes I use them.

 

[Bob4x4]

crimping is the prefered method for hi amperage connections imho

 

[Boaring1961]

I agree on the crimping method being the best route and is why I'm pursuing a large crimper.

Thanks

 

[mwilson]

See sample tool below.

Mike.

 

[mwilson]

JMO, crimp away.

Mike.

 

[mwilson]

Back to your request....

A very good commercial set from Phillips, Part Number 4-152.

Sell price $325.00

http://www.phillipsind.com/product/143.html

 

[richardcoxid]

You can make your own homemade crimper yourself; all dimensions can be modified to suit your specific application, depending on your range of cable sizes and ternimal selection you may need to make two crimpers.

Take a piece of ¾” or 1” thick steel bar stock 1”-2” wide and about 4”-6” long, drill a hole close to one end that is big enough in diameter that the widest part of the crimp on terminal will easily pass thru. Drill and tap a hole 90 degrees to the other hole on the same centerline for a ¼” or 5/16” bolt (grind the end of the bolt round if you want to). Put crimper in a vice, insert cable with terminal in place, tighten bolt to crimp cable tight against the terminal. The bolt will leave a nice pretty round dimple in the terminal. When finished put homemade crimper in tool box, you never know when you will need it again.

The other thing, go to your local welding supply dealer and buy their welding cable/terminals. They will have welding cable in many sizes (gauges) and sometimes even in red/black and a great selection of terminals. Welding cable is a fine strand copper wire and is very flexible with industrial strength insulation. Another advantage is that it will also be much less expensive than your typical Rv/Audio/Car/Solar parts dealer. If I have the CORRECT length my local welding equipment dealer will cut the cable to length and also crimp the terminals on for me.

 

[Boaring1961]

Thanks mwilson and Richard.

 

[redbone]

check on the Thomas betts crimpers check at the electrical supply houses

 

[JimB1]

Manual crimping tool that size needs long handle & space to work.

Hydraulic crimpers are compact & great, need plenty budget to work.

Welding supply custom leads best pick. Durability & flexibility unmatched for easy money.

Jim.

 

[CKelley1]

I picked up a hydraulic crimper from harbor freight, works as good as my brundy at a fraction of the cost. not near my shop to get a part # but should be easy to find.

 

[Freebore]

I found a Molex brand hammer type crimper that seemed to make good crimps after first trying some offshore made hammer crimper that wasn't worth the time. I think the big handled crimper would be great, but wanted to keep the costs down. I crimp first then follow up with solder and then use heavy duty shrink tubes - found a lot of it here:

http://www.waytekwire.com

I always use welding cable in place of battery cable and it works great.

 

[BIGNASTY]

I prefer the solder slug method.......much better connection in my opinion....

http://digital.turn-page.com/i/103716/68

Also ...

http://www.delcity.net/documents/instructions/battery_solder_slug_install_instructions.jsp

Just my opinion, and yes I use them.

Agree and less chance of corrosion getting INTO the connection

 

[K5IP]

Good crimpers are very expensive. Solder slugs are cheap and I like solder connections. After being certified for manned space craft wiring (old days of Apollo) I can tell you that you will not find crimped wires where it counts!
Rog

 

[BIGNASTY]

Good crimpers are very expensive. Solder slugs are cheap and I like solder connections. After being certified for manned space craft wiring (old days of Apollo) I can tell you that you will not find crimped wires where it counts!
Rog

I don't know if the Apollo missions would be a great endorsement what mission was it that BBQed 3 astronauts?

I just like the solder method better it seems that corrosion gets into the crimp sleeve and once that happens its only a matter of time, solder and a shrink tube is the best way IMO solder goes to the end of the insulation and prevents the creeping of corrosion and then the shrink tube helps even more.

 

[K5IP]

Bignasty,
All of us on the Apollo project suffered when (in 1967) we lost three of our first astronauts. I think the were later called Apollo1.
A bad day.
Rog

 

[Prairie Dog]

Solder is probably a marginally better connection (maybe) but the crimp is probably less effected by vibration.

 

[K5IP]

Prairie Dog,
Guess I was showing my age when I said solder is it! I know both crimp and solder make good or bad connections. These days almost everything done commercially is with crimp connections, but under very carefully controlled conditions. I have just seen too many butt splices that have just been crunched together with a cheap plier type crimper that have become problems.
Not all commercial jobs are that great either. I just finished helping my neighbor re-wire his Jayco pop up camper. All because of poor factory crimp connections. We soldered everything.
Rog

 

[RBridenbaugh]

Welding supply custom leads best pick. Durability & flexibility unmatched for easy money.
Jim.

2x

I added a battery isolater, a 130A fuse and ran wire back to by truck camper so I could get significant charging during driving. I also changed out the power wiring inside the camper and added wiring for a second set of batteries.

I looked around for a crimper to handle the 1/0 and 2 AWG wiring terminations. It ended up costing significantly less than a good tool to go to a local battery store (American Battery in Hayward, CA). They had a ready supply of the tin plated lugs, shrink wrap tubing, welding cables (30 AWG stranding) or the typical, not very flexible SAE cables (20-25 AWG stranding). They cut the cables to length (16 pieces), crimped on the lugs, heated the heat shrink tubing and gave me some solder slugs to use in the Anderson connectors. All this just for the price of the cable. Flexible cable is a combination of the cover properties, the size/number of strands in the cable and how it is woven. Cables made with strands in the 30-34 AWG range, combined with a neoprene cover are what makes welding cables flexible.

If I hadn't found the battery shop, I was going to use an internet service that custom makes cables for marine applications called Genuine Dealz. I had used him before to make some power cables for my sailboat. You might check him out as he has "free shipping" and copper cables get heavy fast. Looks like he went into the cabling business to pay for the tools and the deal he got on spools of cable for his project.:-laf