Crimping battery cable tool

[greg13]

Ruin the wires by soldering them? They were soldering wires before crimpers were ever thought of.

 

[rlitman]

Ruin the wires by soldering them? They were soldering wires before crimpers were ever thought of.

Yep, back when lead paint and asbestos shirts were things.

 

[isb cornbinder]

Have you checked out the hammer type crimpers? I need to make a few cables a year, and have one of these. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E1UUVT0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

a buddy has one of the cheap hydraulic crimper, bought off of amazon or ebay. It does ok.

I bought that crimper. I have been using it in an arbor press. I like it.

 

[Slednut]

I just used this one to wire the battery in the trunk project car. It's on the expensive side and is tough to use in tight places.

It does a lot of different size cable though.

I also like using lugs that can be crimped twice.

 

[bczygan]

What is the stuff to use for 1/0 welding cables?

Bill

 

[csp]

Second, yes, the real problem is entirely a metric vs AWG size issue. Too many people here don't seem to understand what a crimp is and how it works.

Regardless of this, your earlier suggestion to look up a conversion chart isn't really of any use. Knowing that 2AWG converts to 33.6 mm squared doesn't help anyone select the correct die to use instead of the one marked 2AWG.

 

[rlitman]

Regardless of this, your earlier suggestion to look up a conversion chart isn't really of any use. Knowing that 2AWG converts to 33.6 mm squared doesn't help anyone select the correct die to use instead of the one marked 2AWG.

Not sure what you mean. None of the dies on my two Chinese hydraulic crimpers say AWG anywhere, because they're not marked in AWG. And if they are marked in AWG, I wouldn't blindly trust the markings anyway, because they are positively made to mm-sq sizes.

To put it a different way, would you feel comfortable taking a ruler scribed in centimeters, where 2cm was marked as 1", because that's the sort of thing going on here?

 

[csp]

Not sure what you mean. None of the dies on my two Chinese hydraulic crimpers say AWG anywhere, because they're not marked in AWG. And if they are marked in AWG, I wouldn't blindly trust the markings anyway, because they are positively made to mm-sq sizes.

To put it a different way, would you feel comfortable taking a ruler scribed in centimeters, where 2cm was marked as 1", because that's the sort of thing going on here?

Mine are marked AWG. The point was that they are not marked in MM squared, so looking up a conversion chart is useless when there's certainly no reference to MM squared on the dies, whether the markings include the letters AWG or not.

It's a game of trial and error to get the correct sized die.

 

[rlitman]

Mine are marked AWG. The point was that they are not marked in MM squared, so looking up a conversion chart is useless when there's certainly no reference to MM squared on the dies, whether the markings include the letters AWG or not.

It's a game of trial and error to get the correct sized die.

I guess that's the HF version. Yeah, it's going to be trial and error. When I figured out which ones were right, I marked my dies.

 

[oldwino]

Yes, drilled and tapped for a 10-24 machine screw. The hard part was getting it held in the 4-way vise so it was straight in the drill press.
Mark

Like your idea better than mine

 

[astroracer]

Like your idea better than mine

Hmm, I like your idea! I may make another adapter like yours. A piece of angle would work great and make the tool easier to clamp in a vise.
Take your mount and transfer the holes to the working end like I did. Having the dies fully accessible during crimping is very nice. It is easy to see what is going on to better control the crimp.
Mark

 

[oldwino]

Hmm, I like your idea! I may make another adapter like yours. A piece of angle would work great and make the tool easier to clamp in a vise.
Take your mount and transfer the holes to the working end like I did. Having the dies fully accessible during crimping is very nice. It is easy to see what is going on to better control the crimp.
Mark

Gee, Mark, between the two of us we must be genus’s

 

[csp]

One idea I had on the crimping dies is to modify the little ones that don't get used. Who would use one of these for anything smaller than AWG 6 or 8 anyhow?

I'm going to mark a couple with the dimensions of a known size hex nut that looks like the approximate size of a crimped connector, lets say 0 for example. Once marked, machine out the material needed to get to that known size and give it a try. The steel is fairly hard, based on unscientific testing with a file.

It can't be any worse than the guessing with the current markings, and the fact that the largest connector mine will crimp correctly with the current one marked "0" is AWG 4. That is the largest die in my set. Luckily I only gave $20 in an online tool auction and it was still an unopened box. No big loss if it doesn't work.