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Jan
04

How to Make Battery Cables the Right Way and the Easy Way

In this video I show two methods for how I crimp ring terminals onto heavy gauge cable. There are countless types and styles of terminals – I use copper ring…
Video Rating: 3 / 5

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27 comments

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  1. Darin Weeks says:

    I thought your wire selection guides were pretty good, but your cable
    termination advice is a bit sketchy. You are doing a disservice to people
    by calling this “the right way” in the title. This is a better than
    average “hack” way to make cables (since most people really suck making
    cables the “average” isn’t very good). Your connections should work OK, and
    I’ve seen worse… and maybe using solder is better than someone having a
    cable that is only crimped poorly. But no way can you crimp something in a
    vise (among other issues) and call it the “right” way. I would suggest that
    people do a lot more research on proper crimping (and inexpensive tools
    that can help) vs solder or crimp + solder connections before deciding to
    follow your advice. Especially for mobile and high current use!

    And you say heat shrink is only for cosmetics? Yikes! Well, I can
    understand why you want to keep an eye on the terminations you’ve made
    using these methods as they are going to be failure prone. (But without
    the heat shrink they WILL fail even faster!) On the other hand, you
    shouldn’t need to keep such a close eye on well made, properly crimped lugs
    protected with high quality glue filled heat shrink.
    

  2. Steve T says:

    Good video. Nice crimps when the tool isn’t available.

  3. Jess Vie says:

    OK, so you showed how, but, you did not show how to do a impact lead
    terminal connection. I will detail.
    Using your solder, 60/40, flux the end of the wire, then apply solder till
    the wire is fully impregnated. While still hot, wipe baking soda paste on
    it with a rag/brush then dip it in water and brush clean with a old tooth
    brush. Now you have tinned wire. Then, slide on the copper terminal and
    crimp. This creates a corrosion resistant connection and high conductive
    fitting.
    Instead of using a punch, use a broad point chisel to do your crimp. 

  4. henrik2k says:

    if you crimp them first, you might risk blocking access to that inner flux.
    a good crimp will uniformly cold weld the copper into a solid rod. if that
    happens, the flux will stay in there and not burn off. are the terminations
    vented with a small hole?

  5. thelittleleprechaun says:

    why do you guys keep calling solder “SODDER” In many videos the word
    solder seems to be pronounced “SODDER” which to me is very annoying Am i
    missing something somewhere in the pronouncement or am i seeing the word
    “SOLDER” wrong Should it be spelt “SODDER”

  6. Peter Carlson says:

    When I have to solder big things like that I just fold up the solder a
    couple of times and give it a twist. Makes a bigger fat stick of solder you
    can just tap to the joint to start flowing without having to heat the
    terminal for so long while you feed micro solder into it.

  7. Sailor Chaz says:

    Most tool rental shops have proper crimping tools available for reasonable
    rates. Proper tools are important because they eliminate the risk of under-
    or over-crimping your terminals and reduce terminal damage and waste. My
    general rule of thumb: If I’m only using it once or twice in a given
    decade, rent; else buy the tool.

    If your batteries are being kept in an area where they will be subject to
    moisture, or if you are hooking up to non-sealed lead-acide batteries with
    a risk of outgassing, you should seal your terminal ends against moisture
    and/or your batteries’ corrosive gasses.

    If you are doing this on your boat, remember the ABYC electrical
    specifications require ALL wire terminals be sealed (shrink-wrapped)
    against water ingress.

  8. Dick Cheney says:

    Interesting crimping tool.

  9. sierraromeo says:

    Take a nut with the same ID as the terminal OD. Cut the
    nut in half to make two crimping die halves. Place the
    wire/terminal/die assembly in the vice and squeeze, solder,
    optional, could use dielectric grease inside terminal with a
    shrink wrap slid up and heated as the final step.

  10. Julian H. says:

    I recommend using a hydraulic crimping tool instead. eBay $51

  11. Seroster says:

    Soldering a crimp induces a stress point, that is, a place where the solder
    joint ends, which focuses all the bending force to one point, causing
    premature faliure.

    Then again, this is what I learnt doing 240mm2 500A industrial threephase
    wiring, may not apply to a small immobile battery bank.

  12. Daniel Peters says:

    I agree with Jim. If you’re in a hurry than skip the crimp and go full tilt
    with the solder.

  13. jim davidson says:

    Don’t watch this. Best connector is a true 100% bond, not a crimp.

  14. jjmar56 says:

    You don’t really want to solder a high current connection. At least I
    don’t and if you’re anything like me…and I know I am…. Copperweld
    would work..even for lightning protection.

  15. TechMan1219 says:

    Interesting but am going to have to go against your point on heatshrink.
    In avionics it’s required and mandated. You can’t sign off work without
    it. Because the inspector when just make you redo it. I know you are
    aware of why its used so I’ll skip that part of the debate. But in allot
    of EE work, you have to do it. I know you can offer a number of reasons
    but in the application you mentioned it helps keep the corrosion out of the
    cable ends by creating a barrier.

  16. Stephen T says:

    Looks good.

  17. Pete Hendrix says:

    I’d respectfully disagree with the heat shrink opinion. A meter will easily
    tell you the condition of the connection and unless you can see inside your
    lug, you could still miss seeing corrosion. There are very good reasons
    heat shrink is a spec in military, marine, and aviation environments. 

  18. speedxdreems says:

    this is SOOO NOT!!!!! the Right way lol…..Sloppy exposed wire do it
    right the first time! bad crimps ! no short protection ie adhesive heat
    shrink Fail !! 

  19. John Morissette says:

    Good tips. Making my own for solar and wind turbine.

  20. Darin Weeks says:

    Yesterday, a friend of mine stopped by on his golf cart. Then he tried to
    leave and didn’t move. Looking at the batteries, we found that one of the
    terminals had completely melted off, most likely due to the cable which was
    poorly made and in it was also in poor condition. Made me think of this
    video, not in a good way. I’ve never seen a battery terminal melt before,
    even though I’ve seen a LOT of hacked together cables and they generally
    survive OK. This type of failure, even though rare, is the whole reason
    it’s a good idea to go the extra mile to properly crimp and finish
    (adhesive heat shrink). People rarely inspect their cables after they’ve
    been made until there is some kind of problem. As such, the cables should
    me made well and protected very well from corrosion as these types of heavy
    cables are going to be used in situations (backed by at least one large
    battery if not a bank of batteries and high current draw across the cable)
    that can cause serious property damage, injury and even death. It’s not
    wise to hack them together.

  21. ITTSBEurope says:

    This video offers a good laugh to every professional electrician. Thanks.

  22. xanataph says:

    I find a good crimp can be made with a small anvil and a cold chisel. And
    on small terminals a nail puller (plier type) works really well. 

  23. leo camby cabreja says:

    GOOD JOB

  24. Mister GNZ says:

    Bravo…100% ok

  25. dumle29 says:

    Ehh, that’s pretty bad :S I’d use a high thermal capacity soldering iron
    any day, and I’d use no-clean flux, which isn’t acidic until it reaches a
    certain temperature

  26. generationalist says:

    In the electronics field we avoid sandpaper/emery cloth in order to avoid
    the falling off of glass that he was talking about as in aluminum oxide or
    other insulating oxides/glass. We use an abrasive pad of steel or copper to
    clean the surface. Not steel wool but a brillo-type pad. Emery is probably
    OK for something this big but a copper brillo-type pad is really cheap at
    the grocery store. A lot cheaper than emery and no oxides fall off. For
    components I definitely would not use emery.

  27. Bogdan Lochinski says:

    Thanks. Most informative soldering video I’ve ever seen. Soldering Arduinos
    and fancy leds isn’t the same as serious high amperage connections.

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