On Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:54:07 -0400, "Oppie" wrote:

The crimp connectors are a PITA!

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I very firmly disagree.

When I started out in this business as a cable tech, building cables
using MIL-C-5015 connectors (Cannon Plugs) with solder cup pins and
sockets, I had to know how to strip and tin wires, how to load the
cups by excluding air and using just enough solder to keep them from
boiling or running over during soldering, and how to solder the wire
into the cup while holding on to the wire, without moving it, so that
when the joint cooled it was nice and shiny regardless of whether my
fingers got burned or not.

Nowadays, all that's required is that the wire be stripped using a
calibrated stripper, then inserted into a contact, and the contact
squeezed properly until a gas-tight seal is made.

Not a PITA at all, as far as I can tell, but just an easy procedure
guaranteed to make any cretin able to make world-class joints.

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I've had to do some specials in the past and blanched at the cost of
purchased tooling. Sometimes you get lucky and can solder the wires to
connectors. Tin the wire, put a dash of solder paste in the connector and
reflow.

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Surely a recipe for disaster since, if a terminal is designed to be
crimped around a wire, soldering is, if not anathema, a poor second
choice.

Tell me what airlines you've worked for and I'll avoid them.
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Anybody know if generic tooling is available?

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Sure, they're called "pliers"

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JF