I'm having some difficulty getting a decent join connecting 2 bits of 80 strand speaker cable using my cheap but reasonable (CPC IIRC, and the crimps) crimp connectors. The wire, or rather one side, is quite easy to pull from the connector. I've tried adjusting the tool and various permutations, but it's looking like solder, as this bloke found too:
I've used them before on solid cable and they seemed fine. Not sure why they're not working now . . .
These universal crimps (red bluse and yellow) are the spawn of the devil.
Make one using the very best tool and then cut off the insulation. And compare the crimp to a proper one, done with a heart shaped tool on the metal of the terminal.
Looking through my sortacases, I've got various examples of crimp connectors
the insulated red/blue/yellow (whether spade, ring, bullet or butt-splice) and their uninsulated cousins tend to be folded to form the section that will crimp onto the wires.
But bootlace ferrules (and just a couple of better quality looking butt-splice connectors) seem to use a drawn tube, rather than folded.
For fine-stranded cables, I'd expect a lot more "give" in the bundle of conductors, so the split/folded crimps to more easily spring back and give a less good connection?
I have never had any trouble, providing one uses the correct crimp. Obviously a crimp for 70/0076 would not fit 14/0076 wire...be like a prick in a bonnet.
A decent crimp attempts to make a gas tight seal between terminal and conductor. Simply crushing something flat can't get near acheiving this. I've come across lots of those pre-insulated crimps used on old cars and being the source of the problem - apart from looking like a bodge. They may work better on single strand wire, though. But I've never needed to use them on domestic wiring.
I have put crimps on my speaker wires and various mains terminal blocks in the past and it has been quite successful. I have a range of cable crimps, including double ended in line connector, round, male spade, pin and female spade. These are all with coloured insulated collars. These crimp pliers do not crush flat, but they apply a semi folding action to shorten the compression ring circumference. I have used these on cars in the past when fitting accessories and never had trouble. One of my crimpers can also use extended ferrule crimps to clamp over the cable insulation.
Because the thicko had the crimps the wrong way around?
For a join like this I'd normally go for solder plus heat shrink, 100% reliable and neater if done carefully.
Can you point me at a crimper for those red blue and yellow pre-insulated crimps that doesn't just simply flatten the terminal? As I said, to see what they do to the actual terminal, you need to remove the insulation after crimping. And compare it to a crimp made with a decent heart shaped tool.
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