Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Sylvia Else wrote:
Bob Larter wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Sylvia Else wrote:
Crimping the plastic is a waste of time anyway. On the failed lugs
that I crimped, the plastic that covers the insulation has returned
almost to its original shape, even though the tool squashes it pretty
much flat.
Something wrong there. The plastic acts as the cord clamp.
Exactly. It's there for strain relief.


In the example I posted earlier, which has strain relief, it's metal
that's crimped onto the insulator, not plastic.

The standard crimp tool for insulated terminals has parallel jaws, and
those terminals have no provision for the metal part to crimp onto the
insulation. Nor will the insulation fit inside the metal part if you're
using the correct size, or at least with most cables. A very thin wall
type might. But the design calls for all the metal part of the crimp to be
in contact with the conductor.


In the example I posted earlier

http://members.optusnet.com.au/sylviae/crimp.jpg

note how the lug on the left has a different diameter where it's crimped
around the insulation to where it's crimped around the conductor. That
difference existed prior to crimping - the diameter of the hole for the
wire changes part of the way down the shaft so that insulation cannot go
any further.

It's true that this difference is not obviously reflected in the tool I
used, but given that plastic deforms much more easily than metal, I can
believe that having jaws the same size works out OK (it certainly seems
to), and has the advantage that there's no right-way around to insert
the lug into the tool.

Sylvia.