Why is music in quotes?

Can't say that i agree. Some of the crimps he showed looked amateurish with way too much wire sticking out to the point of interfering with the threaded screw he would be attaching the wire too. I have never been satisfied with the type of crimp those cheap crimpers accomplish. When i see "pros" in the heading i expected to see ratcheting crimpers and an explanation why they are better. In the case of an insulated terminal, they will do 2 crimps at the same time, one to the bare wire, and the other to the insulation of the wire. I have ratcheting crimpers made by Panduit, Thomas & Betts, AMP, insulated, non-insulated, as well as for different types of terminals. Not only quality ratcheting crimpers but another thing to consider are better quality terminals as well. I also have Weidmuller crimpers for ferrule connectors.

@@MichaelApproved Because it’s copied crap, not entertaining at all.

..i agree, not very professional demonstration at all. but in a pinch it will work...atlest for awhile....

@@KStewart-th4sk ..the ends of the wire shall ALWAYS! without exceptions be visible EDIT: 4:02 its an actuall image how it should be, with the wire sticking out.

very much agree with you. I was thinking that about that too lol, and then there he answers it. Several questions were answered on the fly... ---Dude, this is one of the best most well explained video instructionals I've ever heard/seen. You answered the questions as I was thinking them. This is how teaching and training should be; you are the epitome of what works. Great job, and if your other videos are this good and thorough, you've got another subscriber in me for sure. *to everyone else, take heed to this guy's tutorial, its superb and I am a very tough judge about giving out kudos like this.

I agree & I appreciate you sharing the knowledge, but please slow down on the hand waving, a bit hard to take - Thanks

Both rail and military systems have low tolerance for poor reliability I've seen the results of inadequate bonding. Your comments are worth being taken to heart by those who wish to do this work

@@davidblyth5495 In addition Mil spec crimp do also crimp around the insulation of the wire (for smaller AWG). This is done to remain the strength of the wire. So a mil spec terminal need a different tool than the one you can buy at the local shop.

@@ruslethe cost of failure on weapons systems is very high, so it's critical to ensure reliability and dependability

Yup, all of that plus there are standards for testing crimp integrity which include pulling on test crimps with a specified force to ensure it doesn't part.

David - My Dad was a WW2 Wire Chief and on a field connection exposed to weather or under water he would use a modified Western Union with a square knot that would be soldered and then be wrapped with Bulldog Natural Rubber Tape coated with rubber cement which would then be vulcanized in place. No crimp to corrode, heat up or fail and no chance for water infiltration. In the more modern era for field connections he would still use the modified Western Unions soldered and wrapped tightly with only one or two layers of the Natural Rubber Tape and then Marine Shrink Wrap them. For connections inside equipment or vehicles he'd use non-insulated terminals, pin crimp, solder and then seal the crimp to the insulation on the wire with Marine Shrink Wrap. Yes neatness and technique counts so you don't wick excess solder up under the insulation or have a cold solder. He would hate the new low temperature Solder Stick Non-Crimp Connectors that rely on solder that melts at the same temperature as the shrink wrap as the only thing maintaining the electrical bond. On the pressure weld crimps indeed you should use the matching crimps and crimpers to get the best air tight pressure weld when you set them. Best!

How do you tell the difference between a serious and a cheap crimper?

@@jamese9283 Well obviously the price difference. The off brand or store brand offerings are suspect. Stick with Klein or Ideal and you are safe. Snap-on or Mac if you like paying for bragging rights. Allen Bradley if you need serious Nasa level precision. Be warry of tools from across the pond, AWG and IEC60228 are not exactly the same so the crimpers might not be just right.

believe me buddy u know if u knw

and bart...pull my finger👉💨

@@jamese9283 Get one from a reputable tool company. Klein is a good bet. Fluke or Knipex. Check forums for electricians. If you care to afford it, get something made in Germany. I had a simple Milwakee stripper-crimper for years and it was great.

Agreed! I’ve been doing it wrong as well. I’ve been crimping wires longer than this young man has been alive and I’ve been doing a couple of things wrong! Thank You!

​@@QuietlyContemplating Correct.

Same here, I always thought the non indented crimp looked too wimpy and loose.

Solder on crimps is- controversial. The official line is that, if you apply a crimp to a wire with solder on it, it will "creep" and the wire can eventually come loose. I've seen crimped earth wire rejected, for this reason. Personally, I crimp the wire, THEN add solder. This ensures there is no solder between the crimp surface, and the wire.

@@Soupie62 makes sense! Solder usually always has a bit of a lubricant component to it, doesn't it? Flux or the tinning itself. Definitely can see it would creep ever so slightly in vibration or other movement situations.

Three comments here by pcofranc, Soupie62, and horacesawyer2487, advocate for soldering crimped connections. Do NOT attempt to solder a cold weld joint as is the goal of the crimp process, unless explicitly instructed to do so in the manufacturer's instructions. A company policy does not overturn the authority of the manufacturer; however, a contract might, but that's another story. The purpose for which we use crimped connections is for a faster and "safer" method of securing an electrical connector for establishing good connectivity. A crimp is the process of forming a cold weld between two metals or a connector metal and stranded wire. Applying heat for the process of soldering to a crimp returns plasticity to the joint, releasing the cold weld formed prior and introduces new factors that do not preclude failure. "Safer" in quotes because the performance of the connector is not being referenced but instead "how safe is it for the technician to install," wherein a molten alloy of metal and flux is generally going to take more time, allowing more opportunity for the technician to make mistakes and harm themselves or other components near the work pieces. Regardless if the work performed is subjected to inspection scrutiny following IPC-WHMA, J-STD, MIL-STD, NASA-STD, Advisory Circulars, or whatever, do not mix bonding processes. If you want to solder the connection, then do so without introducing additional extraneous variation to your procedure. This clearly hit a nerve. Sorry if this sounded condescending.

@@nicomilanes3710 I have noticed something about soldered connections as well. If the connection is used in a way that the wire is moved a lot, it tends to break right where the soldered and non-soldered part meets. In stranded wire, it is designed to bend and can handle a lot of bending. Comes in handy where something is moving the wire or even vibration. The solder makes a part of that wire stiff, no longer able to bend. When it bends often enough, it breaks. Worse yet, it may only be a partial break and results in arcing, intermittent connections etc etc. I used to put a small amount of solder on the end of the wire that is sticking out near the connection point to whatever equipment I am hooking to, the o-ring or blade end if you will. After having to replace some of these due to the wire breaking, I decided not to solder them anymore. It is rare that one breaks now. The wire just flexes as it was designed to do even tho it is crimped. While a little solder *may* make for a better electrical connection, it makes it weaker mechanically. I might add, if one crimps the wire correctly, the electrical connection is as good as it will get without solder. A good crimp tool will practically squeeze the air out from between the individual strands of wire and it is almost solid. A really good crimp tool will make it solid. There are videos here on you tube that shows cutaways of a properly crimped wire. For large wires, I have a crimp tool that is put in a vice. Just wanted to add that tidbit of info.

Correct crimps are critical for long-term reliability. I had to do some non-critical crimps recently in a fully-equipped workshop. I had high quality crimp lugs and ratchet tool, however, I didn't know what all the tool positions were for. Checking the stamping on the lugs was an eye-opener too. Next time I'm at the workshop I will review all of James tips.

Most of those really cheap crimpers are just Crimper Shaped Devices and little else. Often those devices that mimic real tools are not designed by engineers but graphic artists so would better be viewed as tool art and nothing more. Yes there are some tools where its less critical like pliers and wrenches where close enough will do for light work however for electrical work you want a real tool capable of making a strong and safe connection Best!

This is also good info...I do this when ...I remember 😂

Exactly. My father taught me as a kid make your cut in the jacket, back off turning 90°, make a 2nd cut, loosen your pressure and pull back the unwanted portion of the jacket, then pull it off by hand while twisting keeping the wire strands nice and tight.

Oh, this only scratches the surface! Crimping is a precision metalworking technique, with tolerances far tighter than most people think. For smaller connectors (like the 0.1” headers commonly used in electronics) the actual crimp tolerances are often in the range of a few hundredths of a mm!!

I do likewise in removing the plastic ferrule, soldering and then using heatshrink tubing. If you have the soldering skill then this is the best way to go. Even 'proper' crimps where the wire is deformed and there is a gas-tight seal in the crimp go bad over time. Moisture capillaries its way towards into the joint and the physical action of corrosion starts to make it less gas-tight and start to fail. Only soldering prevents this from happening. Some car manufacturers do this kind of thing as standard to ensure a solid and reliable connection for the life of the vehicle.

@@DelticEngine Only soldering wicks up the conductor creating a stress fracture failure point. Quality crimp lugs actually crimp down on the insulation aside the electrical connection point. If the 'ratchet' crimper has identical die profiles for connection and insulated ends it's junk, probably sold to motor mechanics who don't know better.

you're confusing the cheap color coding with proper heat shrink / glue strain relief. with those cheap connectors, i usually throw away the plastic and crimp then solder the joint. it's about keeping air and corrosion off of connections, plus ampacity, the ability to carry an electrical load. strain relief is nearly an entirely different video.

​@@mkuehn5450 No confusion here. What's proper for strain relief is circumstantial (and yes, it can be a complicated subject). Depending on what you mean, I might not even talking about strain relief. Rather, I am specifically talking about a feature of the color coded crimp-on terminals that are intended for use with insulated wires. The color-coded crimps have a wide end and a narrow end. The narrow end has the metal smashy bit in it and the ring/spade/plug/pin/etc comes out of the narrow end. The wide end is... empty. The wire is inserted into the wide end, with the exposed conductor travelling all the way through and barely out of the other side (narrow end). When stripped to the correct length, pushing the wire in will cause it to stop when the insulation meets the metal smashy bit (and it does not go into it, only the exposed conductor goes through that). So the insulation occupies the wide side of the connector, and the bare conductor occupies the narrow side. The matching/corresponding ratcheting crimp tool will have a die in it (usually with 3 sizes of crimp cut into the die) that is asymmetrical: a narrow side and a wide side. The narrow end of the connector is supposed to go into the smaller/narrower side of the die, and the wide end of the connector is supposed to go into the bigger/wider side of the die. When the crimper closes on the connector, it crushes BOTH ends, thus fusing the exposed conductor to the metal in the narrow end of the connector, while also pinching the insulation with the connector's plastic sleeve. If we do not have a ratcheting crimp tool, then we can accomplish the same thing by crimping the narrow side and the wide side individually. Either way, the wide end of color-coded crimp connectors is definitely supposed to grab the wire's insulation and prevent it from travelling away from the connection. This function of "prevent the insulation from moving away from the connection" might be strain relief (depending on who you're asking), but it isn't as broad as everything that strain relief might be. Examples: strain relief also refers to the little rubber mold near the plug-end of various cords, whose purpose is to avoid the wire from being bent too tightly while it is plugged in and thus reduce the amount of damage caused to the metallic conductors by repeated metal deformation while the wire is moved. In residential electrical work, at least in the US, strain relief could (for example) refer to the screw-down clamp connectors that we are required to install on metallic junction boxes wherever NM (Romex) cable enters such a box. These transfer any tension (pulling) on the wire away from the connections in the box, and into the connector and box itself, and possibly into the structure that the box is fastened onto. (Also, if the wire comes loose, it is less likely to end up having its jacket+insulation shredded from being scrapped against the sharp sides of the knock-out, possibly while energized.) Insulation retention, bend restriction, tension transfer: these are all distinctly different functions that I've variously seen described as "strain relief". (Sorry if that's a bit too much explanation. But I at least wanted to explain why I am intentionally avoiding the term "strain relief": it's because that term can mean so many different things to different people.) I do wonder what would cause corrosion problems such that you would feel the need to put solder over a crimped connection. Battery terminals? Marine air? Industrial chemicals?

@@baka-baka-baka-baka Very good. I didn't think about crimping the hard plastic onto the wire insulation. But I always substitute heat shrink for that plastic anyway. It seems that you are coming from a building electrician's perspective in climate friendly environments but these connectors are often used in automotive and exterior (pump box for example) conditions and corrosion resistance is important. We live on a tropical coast and I coat any screw terminals in boxes in no-ox or grease as well. The typical AC wire used is stranded here and it is not unusual to open a ten year old box and find some of the copper strands corroded away. I should probably start using spade lugs and heat shrink on them.

@@ceeweedsl My experience is a pretty mixed grab-bag of things, including some building electrical. But yeah, mostly (if not entirely) in friendly climate. I am aware of the problems posed by coastal air and I am glad that I haven't had to deal with that. Smothering everything in grease (e.g. silicone/dialectric) sounds like something I would do in that situation. Indeed, sometimes I do that anyways, just to be properly overkill for things that need to be very permanent and last a long time. I like stranded wire a lot, but it is probably a lot more vulnerable to corrosion. That sounds tough. Perhaps there is a silver lining in that corrosion can at least be mitigated, though at some cost of effort+components+supplies.

TYCO/AMP actually makes both styles. The connectors with the metal sleeve that grips the insulation are PIDG. Those without the extended metal sleeve to grip the insulation (as seen in this video) are Plasti-Grip. The trade off is that while PIDG may hold on to the wire better, they are only rated for 300V since the internal metal sleeve is closer to the exposed edge of the insulating barrel on the wire end. Plasti-Grip are rated for 600V since the internal metal sleeve is further recessed.

A reputable pair of strippers (e.g. Hozan) will clearly mark which part of the jaws should be for solid or stranded wire of a particular gauge.

So do I. It makes more sense to use a flat surface up against the flat edge of the cut insulation. Why try to pull the insulation off with an angled surface that is going to have a natural tendency to try to ride up over the flat edge of the insulation, which will result in the insulation not being all the way off?

And if one was building aeroplanes, or anything critical, you *definitely* would not be using these connectors! They are weak and prone to coming apart.

A properly made crimp is a cold weld, far superior to soldering or screw terminals.

Nichrome wire won't solder, and if it did, the solder would melt.

@@solarsynapse Correct, nichrome and kanthol aren't well suited for soldering as far as I know.

@@thisisyourcaptainspeaking2259 Ahh, heating elephants.. Crimp (cold weld), or spot weld. Esoteric solders can be used, along with esoteric fluxes and cleaning.

@@dougaltolan3017 Yes, I think we're talking about brazing. Spot welding seems to be applicable as well, probably more common.

I do that as well and for the same reasoning.

I can think of 2 ways it might help, but I don't see either helping very much. It could make the insulation act like a light strain relief sleeve if the wire gets yanked sideways to the connector. It might make the insulation support the wire in tension, but I guess the insulation is always too elastic to help.

You were doing it correctly

👌🏼

Been there, done that. Excellent advice.

I agree completely, and when you're crimping large cables like the 2/0 on heavy trucks and equipment, maneuvering all of the moving pieces into the correct spots can be a trial if you don't place the terminal in the tool FIRST and then insert the wire. With heavy wire often you have to orient the ends for correct alignment on the equipment because if the wire is shorter you a lot of times don't have enough "twist" to compensate for misalignment, so making sure the terminal stays angled how you want it is important.

If the divot was on the seam side, it would cause it to open up and not hold securely, it needs to be done on the solid side so the seam remains closed -

Never, ever combine soldering and crimping. Soldering does not improve a properly-done crimp, but weakens the assembly by wicking up the wire. Indeed, the insulation on most insulated terminals is polyolefin, the same material as ordinary heat-shrink tubing.

Your right, it would have been useful to show examples of incorrect crimps, it was indirectly explained, first one is to small, second is crimped on the wrong side, and the third it to large, its just a thumbnail though, thanks for the comment, future videos will elaborate more

And for better result please use ratcheting crimper to avoid "half crimped"

I was looking for this comment. Never twist the strands!

Unless...... there is always an exception.

@@jamescole3152 if there's an exception to this rule, I've never heard it.

Thanks for this. I've always twisted the strands to make connections. Never again.

Me too, whenever possible. I at least try pulling the terminal off the wire using a good tug and make sure the crimp is mechaniclly tight, not lose.

I used to think that too but I've read that solder in a non-static environment can stress fracture with movement and fail and that a quality crimp is superior in those applications. Also a crimp can be done in the rain if necessary. Just some thoughts.

@@fatillacing4131 I've soldered automotive connections. The solder joint itself has never failed on me, although care is necessary as it's easy to make a bad joint. On occasion when I've found a failure it was not the actual soldered joint that failed. I also have well over thirty years of soldering experience ranging from surface mount electronic components of around a millimetre to jumper(booster) cables and battery terminals. Sometimes I both crimp and then solder. Also, some car manufacturers solder the crimp connections from the factory to ensure a solid and reliable connection over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Yep i always solder never crimp.

@@fatillacing4131 Soldering seals the connection so it cant oxidize internally and doesn't release tension. Solder can release and fail if the current or temperature are high enough to soften the solder. This means it's likely to fail if the ring terminal is attached to a resistive element or hot surface. Notice these connections are often spot-welded.

Ah yes. UKposts is a Lawsuit Waiting To Happen 😂 I think that was what you're trying to say. ... from an aerospace guy

@@My-Pal-Hal You probably would be using PIDG amp terminals with the correct tool rather than those cheap and nasty things. lol

@@BigKelvPark Well, I'm an old aerospace guy. So I learned long ago, about getting stuff right the first time 😂 And some the stuff you see on UKposts is just Scary !!! ... we're doomed A decent pair of Kliens is about all you need around the house though 😏 🖖

This was intentional. But for other reasons. It was bound to happen that we will notice and some of us (hopefully many) will comment on it. The side effect would be to drive up the engagement factor for the almighty algorithm.

@@cristianstoica4544 I'm a professional electrician and had to correct the one mistake that he made and add information that he missed but is important. Occasionally I run into situations where I have to crimp a connector to solid wire and I've found it to be a pain in the ass because no matter how hard you try to get a good crimp there's a high failure rate on solid wire. The drilling of the connector for a bigger bolt is another common mistake by the inexperienced.

FYI solid wire should never be crimped

No, you don't twist the wire. Strip, insert, crimp.

Corroding is one issue. Salt water getting down in the joint is another. When the water drys out, you have salt crystals making forces on stuff