A short video on crimping Anderson Powerpoles w/ crimper

[voicecoils]

[youtube]yfeLuDF322g[/youtube]

Since not everything I have uses powerpoles (thus far) I decided to make a simple adapter to let me connect to other things from time to time. The westmountain 15-30-45a crimper makes things SO much easier! Is it worth $40? Absolutely. I got mine from Powerwerx.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/voicecoils#play/uploads/0/yfeLuDF322g

Anyone else crimping differently?

 

[voicecoils]

Another little tip...

Once you've made a nice crimp, you can flow a little solder in between the contact and the wire strands, just to lock things in a bit more preventing the wire from being able to be pulled out.

I don't actually know if this increases or decreases conductivity (having not tested it) but I suspect it doesn't hurt.

 

[rkosiorek]

one thing that the solder does do is make the wire much stiffer and more prone to stress and breaking from vibration fatigue.

this becomes worse when too much heat is used and some of the solder is wicked up into the wire strands past the confines of the crimp barrel and up into the wire under the insulation. so if you feel that you must solder use a very small amount and make sure that only the very tip of the wire is soldered. the rear of the connection should be free of solder.

personally i no longer solder any crimped connection. a good solid properly formed crimp is more reliable.

rick

 

[voicecoils]

one thing that the solder does do is make the wire much stiffer and more prone to stress and breaking from vibration fatigue.

Good point. I don't solder every connector I make but the ones I think I'll be yanking regularly I add a bit of solder at the wire end.

The westmountainradio crimper makes it very easy to get good crimping force, I probably shouldn't worry about solder!