In article ,
Ignoramus31310 wrote:

On 2010-07-03, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article ,
Ignoramus31310 wrote:

On 2010-07-03, Karl Townsend wrote:

"Ignoramus31310" wrote in message
...
I need to crimp a lot of Molex open barrel terminals for those servo
power supplies. I was kind of shocked to find a tool from Molex for
$269. But then I found item HWS16166 from

http://www.phoenixent.com/

It does a great job.

i

I've got one that's like a pair of pliers. I've been disapointed. Most
crimps are great, then I get one where the wire slides back out of the
crimp
after a while. I started pulling on the just crimped connecter to test
them
and it mostly solved the issue.

I will use 20 gauge only for all control connections inside the
cabinet. It seems to work well on 20ga. I also tried it with 24 ga and
it seemed good also.

I always pull on every crimp I make.

Most of the trouble is with 22 guage and smaller. Have you tried this
tool
with this fine a wire and checked if they will pull out?

It seems OK, but I will definitely check every crimp.

One uses different terminals and crimp dies for the various wire sizes.

The non-ratcheting pliers type crimpers are almost useless.

This one is a ratcheting, safety type. It would not release until I
completed the crimp.

That's good. But it sounds like you don't have adequate match between wire
size, terminal type (wire size acceptance range), and crimper dies. All must
match.

And, crimping is for stranded wire, not solid wire. That said, in a pinch I
solder the terminal to the solid wire.

I have also soldered stranded wire into terminals. The largest example was when
I was attaching big copper terminals to some AWG #4 wire, to power a lighting
panel for a stage. I was a teenager, and did not have the humongous and
expensive crimper. I needed to use a small terminal, as there was not physical
space for the usual mechanical wire-clamp terminal.

The terminal was made from copper tubing, one end being flattened and punched to
accept the large terminal stud, the other end being an open cup. So, I held the
terminal in a vise and soldered the big wire into the cup with a propane torch
and plumbers' solder and Nocorrode grease flux, just like soldering copper pipe.
The school maintenance folk were surprised at this approach, but soldered
connections were (and are still) acceptable under the National Electrical Code.

Joe Gwinn