The right tool for the job - Crimping Battery Cables (1 Viewer)

[e9999]

I think there is a fundamental difference between the hydraulic and the dent-type devices. The hydraulic ones with the hex dies compress the shell and strand together inward from all directions to enhance the contact between strands themselves and between strands and shell. Making it monolithic. The punch type -especially if the anvil is not well built or sized correctly - is probably more putting a dent on one side that will result in the connector also flattening/spreading out rather than just coming together. At least in my experience. Which is why I think the hydraulic one is a better approach. The basic dent type should, however, probably help more with mechanical retention than a sloppy hydraulic job would, though, I would think.
At the end of the day, though, best to ask what do the companies specializing in cable connections use, I guess. I suspect the answer is: hydraulic dies. And if they have become so cheap now, why not use that?

 

[Romer]

Has no one heard of this? This is what I've been referring to.

Amazon product ASIN B00E1UUVT0

I mentioned in the first post that I have one and it didnt do a satisfactory job for me. Much of what Eric said in the post before this one. I'm a EE and I want a tight 360 deg crimp that won't loosen up. After I crimped with the hammer approach I could twist the lug with my hand and make it move. That isnt reliable for the long term, but again you could be better at that tool than I am and it could work perfectly for you

 

[alia176]

I mentioned in the first post that I have one and it didnt do a satisfactory job for me. Much of what Eric said in the post before this one. I'm a EE and I want a tight 360 deg crimp that won't loosen up. After I crimped with the hammer approach I could twist the lug with my hand and make it move. That isnt reliable for the long term, but again you could be better at that tool than I am and it could work perfectly for you

Agree, this has been mentioned by Romer and by me

 

[alia176]

I'm still looking for a decent crimp example using these hyd crimpers and also are we s'pose to use a specific type of crimp connectors? If so, please enlighten us

 

[Romer]

I'm still looking for a decent crimp example using these hyd crimpers and also are we s'pose to use a specific type of crimp connectors? If so, please enlighten us

Mine are inside an Anderson connector on 4AWG wire. I don't want to take it apart, but I will make up one that I dont need as a demonstration if that is what you are looking for. May be a few days, depends on my work schedule next few days

 

[alia176]

Mine are inside an Anderson connector on 4AWG wire. I don't want to take it apart, but I will make up one that I dont need as a demonstration if that is what you are looking for. May be a few days, depends on my work schedule next few days

Yeah, I can see the Anderson crimps are quite beefy and probably took nicely to the force this crimper puts out. The typical crimps that you find in most places are thinner and wimpier, which is what I seem to have in my electrical box.

 

[Greg_B]

Interesting thread. When I started reading about making battery cables and crimping your own connections a number of years back I stumbled upon a "How To" site focused on the marine industry. I ordered the recommended FTZ crimpers and have been happy with them. Making Your Own Battery Cables.

I have cut a few apart over the years and they were fused well.

The article above pans the HF tool and shows crimps and sizing issues, but the Goplus hydraulic tool in the Amazon link looks interesting and dies are in MM?. Found this conversion info of MM to AWG which might be helpful when selecting the dies for the wire being worked.

As in all things internet, reviews and thoughts are only accurate for as long as the tool has not been modified, updated or changed.

hth's
gb

 

[e9999]

It is not very complicated. Use a properly-sized cylindrical tube shank connector. Choose the correct size die per wire and connector size. Crimp until the dies meet or just about meet. You'll feel the resistance increase significantly. The crimp should be tight and cleanly hexagonal and not loose and without wings. And since my dies are fairly narrow, if there is room I do another crimp next to the first. Done.

If you want to practice, get a piece of suitable size copper tubing and some wire, and go to town at very low cost. Test away, looking at the ends. Copper is very forgiving, it'll do what you want.

Then, when done with practicing, use copper tubing to make easily your very own DIY end connectors and save a bundle over buying them.

 

[ntsqd]

I know that I've posted this before, but a former co-worker was paid by his then employer, Boeing, to research which was better, crimp or solder. His conclusion was that either done correctly had no advantage over the other for use in aircraft. Soldering can be a problem with really high current. At work we test with up to 5 Megawatts (!!!) of DC power at times. None of our cables are soldered, crimps only. What a correct crimp is my former co-worker had to define and after extensive experimenting he found that it had to cold forge the copper lug and strands enough that you could no longer see any boundaries. That is that when cut thru the middle of the crimp you could no longer see any of the mating surfaces of the strands or the lug as it had become one homogeneous hunk of copper. However, a crimp can go too far, and that is when the width of the crimp becomes wider than the crimp dies themselves. When that happens the joint has been worked too much and has made the strands brittle at the edge of the homogeneous zone and if they are exercised at all in service they will start to fail, one strand at a time.
He warned that double crimping would put too much stress in the joint and was rarely necessary from both a conductivity point of view and a mechanical point of view. I may or may not still do so depending on the particular situation, but if I do I am careful to place the second crimp right next to the first one.

I was gifted a Greenlee hex die manual crimper some time ago. It has dies that are color coded to the lugs used in commercial/industrial wiring. I find that battery cable lugs aren't always the same OD for the given cable gauge and sometimes I have to step down one size to get a good crimp. BTW, it's dies deboss the crimp gauge size into the crimp itself. I assume this is so that a building electrical inspector can confirm that the lug was crimped with the right size die.

 

[Hack]

I bought this one back in 2018 to do the cables for my Warn 8274 project:

Best thing to do is build a base for it, as God didn't create man with three hands:

 

[Drake2]

They work extremely well. This isn't my pic but I have one too. The amazon have larger dies, harbor freight won't do really large wire if needed (1/0 or larger).

View attachment 2438465

What's the purpose of holding it with your nutsack?