Will this do the job? Battery cables...

Otter

Otter

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I had two cables made up last year at an auto-electricians. They cost a little less than £20 and that included the wire and the crimps.

The crimper looks like a nice toy to have but how often are you likely to use it?
 
I have a smaller one, some 30 pounds from ebay, does a great job on terminals. I have even used it for non safety critical wire splices with success.
 
I have a similar eBay special, possibly the same one as Maxi77. Worked well for the various battery cables I needed - and it's much more convenient being able to do them in-situ to the right length. I crimped a new BNC plug for the GPS aerial with it the other day, and expect I will continue to find other uses.

Pete
 
Looks ok BUT!

It looks ok however it is only a spot crimp. The ones I used compressed the entire length of the crimp at one time and produced a nice hexagonal job. With this one you might be advised to crimp several times along the length of the crimp.
 
The Lazy Kipper said:
We need to re-position the batteries and the selector switch. I could pay the electrics guy but i'd like to do the battery cables myself. This hydraulic gizmo costs an hour of his time and I can use it again and again - it's cheapish though - what do you think?

Why bother with either when you can buy both the cable (at various lengths) already with the ends on at Halfords, probably cheaper elsewhere at a good motorist shop.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...earch&storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&langId=-1

Mike
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Caer Urfa said:
Why bother with either when you can buy both the cable (at various lengths) already with the ends on at Halfords, probably cheaper elsewhere at a good motorist shop.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...earch&storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&langId=-1

Mike
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I guess because I enjoy solving a problem and doing the job myself. Plus with battery cables I don't want to rely on them selling the exact size I need. If the tool from eBay will do the job, it gives me the freedom to work on the cables whenever I want to.
 
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The Lazy Kipper said:
Caer Urfa said:
I guess because I enjoy solving a problem and doing the job myself. Plus with battery cables I don't want to rely on them selling the exact size I need. If the tool from eBay will do the job, it gives me the freedom to work on the cables whenever I want to.
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Our marina sells the cable and the ends. The proper tool is a free borrow...;)
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Appreciate why you might want to buy a crimping tool yourself but I've found these guys great value - even if you only want to buy the cable rather than use their battery lead service.

http://www.thewiringproject.co.uk/

Edit - they also do a ratchet crimping tool for less than £40 that will do 25mm copper terminals. No idea if it's any good.
 
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Jcorstorphine said:
It looks ok however it is only a spot crimp. The ones I used compressed the entire length of the crimp at one time and produced a nice hexagonal job. With this one you might be advised to crimp several times along the length of the crimp.
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Are you sure about that? I can see a full set of hex dies in the box in the OP's link.

Pete
 
I just hammered the crimps closed, then heated the crimp with a blow torch , fed in solder until they were solid & finished off with some heat shrink. Worked very well.
 
aslabend said:
I just hammered the crimps closed, then heated the crimp with a blow torch , fed in solder until they were solid & finished off with some heat shrink. Worked very well.
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I was going to solder as well but decided that it was worth getting a crimping tool as it avoids any worry about work hardening when solder wicks up the cable. It also means that the cable can't slip out and short if the solder ever melts (I guess hammering the crimp helps there).

I also decided against Halfords cable as it wasn't heavy enough (or tinned) and I also needed some longer lengths as well. I suspect that the eBay tool will be fine and it is very useful to be able to make up required lengths in situ.

I also bought a huge crimping tool from eBay. They come up fairly regularly second hand. I considered the hydraulic version but as luck would have it a much cheaper manual one came up for around £25. Identical to this one at £130 so it was a good buy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Indent-Cr...Crimping-Tool-Qty-1-Cable-Tools-/310354580582

I'd be happy to lend it but it is currently in Ardrossan and I think you are at the opposite end of the country. It's really heavy.

UPDATE: Just checked eBay and there don't seem to have been any 2nd hand Crimpers for quite some time. Must have been dumb luck as there were dozens advertised when I wanted one. Looks as if it's not an option just now.

I found the following company to be very good on price/quality for tinned flexible cable etc.:
http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/885/category/159
 
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I dived into the funds to buy a hydraulic crimp, also via ebay but only about £30.
I did a complete rewire with all battery cables replaced. I don't regret it.
Just one word of caution... get a stock of the right size lugs for the cable and match both to the correct die in the set. Do that and you won't go wrong.
The dies do crimp the length of the lug... they are not spot crimpers.
 
Thanks everyone - bought it this morning. The chandlery sell the cables and connectors, i'll see how it goes!
 
Caer Urfa said:
The Lazy Kipper said:
Why bother with either when you can buy both the cable (at various lengths) already with the ends on at Halfords, probably cheaper elsewhere at a good motorist shop.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...earch&storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&langId=-1

Mike
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Have you seen the utterly pathetic treminals that Halfords use and sell? I wouldn't use them in my car let alone at sea!
They're not tinned copper and they're incredibly thin. Buy good terminals and a good crimp tool and save yourself loads of hassle.
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G12 said:
Caer Urfa said:
Have you seen the utterly pathetic treminals that Halfords use and sell? I wouldn't use them in my car let alone at sea!
They're not tinned copper and they're incredibly thin. Buy good terminals and a good crimp tool and save yourself loads of hassle.
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Woh hold on a minute I never said what you quoted me as saying! What's goin on?:eek:
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I used a borrowed hydraulic when I did mine and was very pleased with the result. I did find it was imperative to match the terminal with the wire gauge and the crimp dies. I used very large super flexible tinned cable with hundeds of strands and finished off the ends with heat shrink. It all added up to a neat proper job and as you say the tool costs more or less an hours labour.
 
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