I just did my battery cable upgrade, with a 2 awg wire.


When I posted a thread here earlier about soldering or crimping the lugs on the wires, there was varied answers, some of them included where to get crimpers for the job. Some said to buy from amazon, or to rent from auto parts store, etc etc.

I didn't really want to buy a new one nor rent one because if it got damaged, they might wont take it back.

I also didn't solder it because im afraid of the resistance building heat up enough to melt the solder off the lugs and cause the wires to fall off.

Some people fabricated a device to crimp wires... I didn't want to use up my materials for something that I would use so few times.


Looking around my shop, for stuff I can use to crimp the wires, I came up with this solution.

I grabbed a round chisel, taking the point to the belt sander to flatten the point and of course, deburring it with a 1/16 chamfer, then chucked it to my walker turner drill press. I had a v-block laying around, so I clamped on the vise on the drill press, positioning it so the chisel would come down exactly on the bottom of the V. That's all it took me to make up a temporary crimper. I place the lug on the v block, put the wire in, then press the chisel on the top of lug until its crimped.

It's snug as a snail in the shell. I also heat shrinked tubes on the ends to make it look more cleaner.

The reason why I posted this up is for those who want to upgrade their battery cables but didnt want to invest in a crimper. Enjoy!

Nice idea.
I spent $20 on a crimper though. :P

Also I soldered them after crimping. If your wire is the correct gauge, it shouldn't ever get hot enough to melt solder.

I agree, I just didn't have rosin core solder handy at the moment, too ha.

A bump to give an idea for anyone who don't want to buy a crimper

Seems to me like you'd need a lot more force than the leverage of a drill press to make a proper crimp. I'm with mr white, a decent hammer crimper is about $20

I clamped it on the vise and pulled really hard. Can't even take it out off the crimp. And it held up good after two years.

When I upgraded to 2 g I used a vise and hex head screw and clamped them and heat shrinked it.its held up for about a year now. I have to add it's one of the best mods I've done

Very nice idea glad you bumped it up for a review, I had never saw it before and will have one put together next week.

Thanks for the idea!

Fred

I would certainly +1 the notion of soldering after crimping or at least using electrician's grease (NOT dielectric). Indeed that should never get warm enough to melt anything. Heat shrink isn't a 100% seal and those ends like corrosion. Bigger concern up here or by the ocean though.

Really? I used one of those Map gas torches to heat + solder mine after I crimped everything together. That **** gets really hot though, and I soldered it pretty quickly while I was still heating it.

Used one of these "swedge-on" crimpers my welding buddy had.