Anderson Plugs - Crimping?

Surely soldering would be better than crimping, a lot easier as well.

Yeah it could open a can of worms ! a good solder job will keep the dirt and water out (great for the marine enviroment )

But I would rather have a crimp than a bad solder job.

But for a quick crimp you can use a cold chisel or punch! and a hammer of course.

Maybe you could do both.

I use the BBQ for andersen's.

Have the lead trimmed and ready to go, and some solder wound out ready to go.

Fire up (in my case) the wok burner, and hold the plug end in the flame for a while - using (in my case) fencing pliers.
Melt enough solder into the plug to nearly fill it, then jamb the lead in and hold steady for a little bit while the whole show goes off.

The residual heat in the plug and pliers is heaps to anneal the whole show nicely.

This method works well for most large diameter all metal lugs.

My advice - don't use solder if you can possibly avoid it. Keep asking around your mates and neighbours, someone will have crimp pliers.

KK

I soldered mine, but Kiwi Kia has a good point about the wire being hardened through heat.

To solder, take the pin out out of the plug. I put a block of wood in the vice with a hole to hold the pin. Heated the pin with the soldering iron, then melted solder into the pin until it was half full. Tinned and heated the wire then pushed the wire into the molten solder while holding the soldering iron against the pin. Then let it cool.

Reckon I could do it again in the bush using a tent peg heated on the stove or in a fire. Melt the old solder out and start again if I had too. I always carry spare solder.

Not so sure about recrimping a plug in the bush though if a wire came loose. :o)

I soldered mine, but I keep the cable supported once it is installed so that the cable cannot flex, work-harden, and break the strands.

One advantage of soldering is that the size of the cable is not so important - you should be using large cable for the fridge wiring (eg 8 gauge B&S) - but the solder will 'fill' whatever gap is left in the lug hole.

If you crimp the lug, it is best to get a tight fit of cable in the hole before crimping, otherwise you may need to distort the lug too much to get adequate grip.

One method I have used successfully for crimping large lugs is to use the hardened steel ball from a ball bearing - I have a range if bearing balls and something around 8 to 10 mm is fine for the job. I support the lug in a semi-circular groove (half of a pipe clamp) and hold the ball over the spot with pliers or a bit of steel with a hole drilled in it and belt it with a hammer. Works fine.

Good luck.

glids

Soldered mine.....not concerned about wire break, in that the cable does not need to flex anywhere near the terminal. My trick was to heat the contacts up on a gas flame, half fill with resin solder, then poke in the prepared wire and blow the lot cool - a very strong and effective bond it would seem.

I solder mine.

fit plug into some wood with a hole drilled in it to hold the plug.
Using a butane burner from supercraeap, those blue pen sized ones that fill of the cig refill cans, heat, and fill with solder.
Plunge in wire, and whilst holding straight, wrap with wet flannel cloth to cool, so the solder does not wic too far up the wire, and cause a brittle point.
Filling, or almost filling the plug will give enough solder to give a good joint, without being starved.

Works well for me.

Trains

I soldered mine,

The problem with solder if not done properly is when the flux travels ahead of the solder to clean the wire it can pass under the insulation.

If this happens the flux will corrode the wire and may alter the resistance.

Fridge problems etc, etc.

I strip off the end of the cable and bend back on itself so it is about the same thickness as the hole in the metal 'pin' then heat the cable tip area with a clean soldering iron so only the exposed cable is hot, melt the solder/flux so it melts into the cable.

Then put the metal 'pin' in a vice, cut off enough wire solder/flux to half fill when melted into the base of the 'pin' and heat till melted and push the cable into the 'pin' while solder in there is in liquid state, remember to keep cable in the centre of 'pin' and when cold insert into Anderson plug and bend both cables towards each other and 'attach' to avoid unnecessary movement.
Image Could Not Be FoundMaîneÿ . . .

When we fit Anderson plugs we always solder.

The lugs in Anderson plugs are not really design for crimping and most people run smaller wire then what the Anderson plug is meant to have.

When ever crimping ALWAYS use a proper radial crimper with correct sized dies, a radial crimper will make the cable to lug contact area more uniform, place the current load evenly and ensure the correct psi load to suit, any other method is hit and miss and aid int the crimp failing in the future.

When we solder them we use a resin core solder but first we coat the inside if the terminal and the copper wire with bakers fluid, we then fill the terminal up about 3/5 up with melted solder and then plunge the cable into the molten solder and wait util it sets.

We do not apply heat to the copper wire, only the terminal.

We them spray the terminal with electrical silicon grease to water proof the solder joint.

The heat from the solder will not have any impact on the strength or brittleness of the cable.

But bear in mind in some high vibration applications it is better to crimp terminals then solder.

Has anyone every seen an anderson plug with a broken cable due to flexing at the solder end point?

There's a lot of talk about this being the major issue between soldering (which i currently do btw) and the crimping concept yet i don't see many stories appearing of this being a reality. just how common is it?

Andrew

Easy way is do what I did Take it to a Sparky Ask nicely get ends crimped with proper crimper and give him $10 for the boys beer can
Worked for me in Geraldton

Guy said he was busy can I do it myself Sure and away we go.

Cheaper than buying a torch to do it as well

I bought some good quality crimping pliers on e-bay for $70 makes life very easy.

Regards
Geoff

Unless you have the right materials, tools and skills, avoid soldering.

Unless you have the right materials, tools and skills, avoid crimping.
.

Crimping of commercial and industrial cables is very reliable because -

- the connectors are carefully chosen and controlled to match the wire
- the tools are specifically matched to the connector and the wire.
- the staff are carefully trained in the correct procedures
- there's regular quality control to ensure everything is working correctly.

Assuming that this reliability will be reproduced by squeezing some sort of connector with unknown pressure onto unknown wire is a flight of fancy.

So i must add to this also, if i was to knock the cig plug end of the Waeco 12v cord and fit a 50A anderson plug, the 12v cable would surely be too thin to crimp and would need to solder it right?

So all in all, i am probably better off just getting a butane torch and doing as has been described my Mainey and others. Little bit of practice first maybe to get it right, and then should be easy enough hopefully?

I bought a good pair of electricians pliers that have the crimp section just under the hinge. Well worth the money and i have crimped the bigger anderson plugs with no hassle.

simple solution and one I have used for years.

Use a piece of electrical tape to hold a suitable size ball bearing in place and then slowly squeeze into shape in a set of steel jawed vice

any garage should be able to supply you with an old ball race you can extract a ball from...dont go too big or you will flatten the fitting and have trouble getting it into the plug

alternatively same method with tape but use one sharp blow with a hammer...less controlled for crimping but effective once you have done the first blow and you know how hard to hit it

suggest you dont solder for all the reasons given above on whty not.

I'm very happy with the way silastic holds the cables firm inside the anderson plugs, there is now zero/nil/no flex on the cable strands anywhere near the soldered connection which is a definite bonus.

Another terrific bonus with a soldered joint over crimped is the lug and cable can both be reused when you have to add more insulation & heatshrink, stated from personal experience :)

Image Could Not Be Found

Image Could Not Be FoundMaîneÿ . . .