In article ,
Nick Hull wrote:
I need a good way to clean the oxides off copper electric wire. I run
and splice wire outdoors and occasionally need to make new splices when
lightning, animals or weather do bad things. It would be EZ if I could
being it to my bench but it all has to be done in the middle of a field,
maybe I can get an estension cord there. Is there some simple spray or
dip that will strip the old oxides off so I can make a decent twist or
solder splice? I don't have the luxury of cutting much off since most
of the wire is underground.
My choice would be to use crimp splices with *good* crimp
tooling. That will do a good job of displacing the oxide film and
making a good connection.
Good crimp tools are made by AMP -- among others. That is the
brand which I have collected over time, and there are even (relatively
rare) tools which crimp both sides of a butt splice at the same time.
Since you don't want water running into the splice after it is
done, I would suggest that you fill the splice (which is hollow all the
way through) with silicone grease before pushing the wire into the
splices.
I don't know what gauge wires you are working with, but a crimp
splice with #22 Ga stranded wire takes something like 3/16" of strip
length per end, and the splice usually adds 1/16" or more between the
ends of the wire, so the total length loss will be very small, unless
the wire has been badly mangled.
A dip in acid would remove the oxide -- but it would also wick
up into the insulation -- and especially with stranded wire, and
continue to eat at the wire until it produced an early failure.
I also, once -- *many* years ago -- had a box of field wire
splices, which consisted of a hollow cylinder of solder, filled with
rosin flux, and coated with some gray grainy compound which could be
easily ignited with a match. This provided the heat needed to make the
joint. But -- I got them from a surplus place back around 1954-1955 or
so, and I have no idea whether such a product is still made. Even if
you could find them, they would still require enough wire slack to twist
them together.
eBay auction #4569868835 has a couple of crimpers which may be
of use.
The one with the red handles is for red-insulated terminals from
22 to 16 ga wire.
The one with one blue handle and one green handle is for blue
insulated terminals from 16 to 14 ga wire. (I have never seen the green
terminals, though I presume that they existed at one time.
The one with yellow handles is not of much use unless you are
dealing with quite small wires -- 28 to 26 ga IIRC.
I'm not sure what the other two crimpers in that "set" are.
They look like those made by AMP -- but the designations given are not
much help, and there are no close-ups.
You *do* need ones with yellow handles -- but larger ones, for
the 12 to 12 ga wire. This one is in a different auction, but in
Australia, and selling for way too much money at the moment. See
auction # 7537833304 to see what they look like. The "16-14" ga I think
requires terminals with thicker insulation.
Note that *all* of these tools are of the "P.I.D.G." style
(Pre-Insulated Diamond Grip). The deform the terminal's insulation to
grip the wire's insulation, so there is less flexing at the exit from
the crimp terminal, and thus less chance of flex failures.
The pins on all of these are to change only the size of the
crimp of the insulation -- not the wire crimp -- so you can get a proper
grip on varying thicknesses of insulation.
Avoid the style of crimper shown in auction # 7538730835 It does
not crimp the insulation at the same time, and does not have a ratchet
to assure that the crimp cycle is completed before the tool is released.
These are best considered "emergency use only" tools. There appear to
be bins of the three most needed terminals in there -- red, blue, and
yellow, including the butt splice ones.
Auction # 4569319248 appears to have a good one for the 16-14 ga
range (blue/green handles). Often the colors have worn off of the
outside of the handles, and sometimes they never were painted, for
whatever reason. This one has a strange looking fixture for orienting
the ring or spade extension of most terminals -- but this will have to
be removed to use the butt splices anyway (a single allen screw to
remove it. Be careful that the captive spring does not get lost, in
case you need to use it for normal terminals later.)
Auction # 4569914565 has a later design, made to handle both the
red and the blue terminals (total size range from 22 to 14 ga), and at
the moment, the price looks nice. I've never had one of this style,
however.
Any wire sizes beyond that go to hydraulic powered crimpers, and
they are available from # 8 ga through 4/0 (or 4-0) gauge. The #8
through #2 use one size of hydraulic head with interchangeable dies, and
the 1/0 through 4/0 use a second, larger, crimp head. (I have
everything except the 4/0 dies by now.)
Note that I have had no dealings with any of the vendors
represented in the auctions -- I'm just using the auctions to show you
what to look for.
I've gotten some of my crimpers or crimp heads from eBay
auctions, and others from hamfests or other surplus sales.
Good Luck,
DoN.
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