Jim, Et Al,
Just a note about what I heard regarding the crimp/solder debate:
When you solder stranded wire, you loose strain relief. That is, under
any flexing, individual strands tend to break. Granted, our application
doesn't usually involve a lot of any type of strain, but it's a good
thing to keep in mind.
Regards,
kurtt
Kurt Pawlikowski, AKA WB9FMC
The Pinrod Corporation
ku...@pinrod.com
(773) 284-9500
http://pinrod.com
On 12/11/2013 14:11, Jim Brown wrote:
I think cost new less than $50?
Why would I want to spend $50 (plus shipping, of course) for a crimper
when the soldering iron I already own works really well? Some of my
techniques:
1) The biggest inserts are the most difficult to use, so I use them
only for the #10 wire for which they are designed. I first carefully
strip and tin the wire long enough so that the stripped conductor will
just fit inside the shell once the pin is inserted. That's because the
insulation of a larger cable often does not fit inside the shell. I
find that liquid flux applied to the wire before tinning keeps the
solder layer thin enough to fit in the insert. I then use the pliers
to fold the "wings" over the wire so that, when soldered, it will fit
in the shell. I also use a drop of flux when soldering.
2) The middle-size insert will handle #12 if carefully stripped and
tinned, as above. Again, I use flux for the tinning, and also for
soldering to the pin.
3) I use a lot of the smallest inserts for small diameter cables, like
those from small accessories. I strip the conductors long enough that
I can fold the stripped part over itself with the folded length just
enough to fit in the pin. Again, a drop of flux helps the soldering
process.
4) I use a nice bench vise to hold the cable to which I am soldering,
orienting the cable upward so that the pin sits on it, and oriented so
that the V+ cable is on the right with the lip facing away from me.
Once the pins are installed, I mate a red and black shell, put the two
shells in the vise, then carefully orient the pins and push them in
one at a time until the lip latches to the blade in the shell. For
smaller cable, I use a little green Xcelite screwdriver to push the
pin over the blade.
In general, these techniques work well for almost any connector I need
to install, all the way up to PL259s and multipins of various sorts
73, Jim K9YC
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