I have been only soldering them for some years. I saw in a recent QST
article that you really must crimp them, but no reason given for why.
I find doing it with solder (a) makes it a lot easier to keep the
"hollow end" of the PowerPole round so that it fits easily in the
plastic cover and (b) also makes them fairly easy to take apart without
damage so that I can reuse the PowerPole.
(I do have a fancy, fairly professional, set of crimping tools, but I
also found the terminals frequently got "squished" out of shape."
Bob Wilson

On 1/18/2016 12:00 PM, gareth wrote:
"gareth" wrote in message
...
"gareth" wrote in message
...
Decided to Power Pole all the 12V gear here
First sttempt at crimping seems to have failed because the connector would
not
slide easily into the shroud, and it was a devil of a job to get the hook
over the end of the flat spring.
Re-reading the gen, it would appear that the crimping has ended up too
flat such that even
when clipped in, there is no free movement of the wire end. portending a
bad contact if I continue.
(I expected to have to sacrifice the first attempt, but any suggestions,
please?)


Problem solved by resorting to soldering. In any case, the guy who lent me
the
crimpers had been using them for the 100A, or thereabouts, versions for his
5" gauge battery-powered Claas 45 diesel outline, so no wonder that even the
smallest setting on his crimpers wouldn't close properly on a 30A jobbie.



I

"Bob Wilson" wrote in message
...
I have been only soldering them for some years. I saw in a recent QST
article that you really must crimp them, but no reason given for why.
I find doing it with solder (a) makes it a lot easier to keep the "hollow
end" of the PowerPole round so that it fits easily in the plastic cover
and (b) also makes them fairly easy to take apart without damage so that I
can reuse the PowerPole.
(I do have a fancy, fairly professional, set of crimping tools, but I also
found the terminals frequently got "squished" out of shape."
Bob Wilson


Crimping works well if the correct type of tool is used. I have an
inexpensive crimper that is made for the power poles and have no problem
with them. Is that set you have made especially for the power poles ?

Stranded wire is recommended to be crimped because if it is soldered it
becomes the equal of a solid wire where the solder wicks up the wire and if
flexed or bent many times it may break. If you don't worry about the wire
breaking then soldering is fine.
Solid wire does not crimp well.

In article "Ralph Mowery" writes:

"Bob Wilson" wrote in message
...
I have been only soldering them for some years. I saw in a recent QST
article that you really must crimp them, but no reason given for why.
I find doing it with solder (a) makes it a lot easier to keep the "hollow
end" of the PowerPole round so that it fits easily in the plastic cover
and (b) also makes them fairly easy to take apart without damage so that I
can reuse the PowerPole.
(I do have a fancy, fairly professional, set of crimping tools, but I also
found the terminals frequently got "squished" out of shape."
Bob Wilson


Crimping works well if the correct type of tool is used. I have an
inexpensive crimper that is made for the power poles and have no problem
with them. Is that set you have made especially for the power poles ?

Stranded wire is recommended to be crimped because if it is soldered it
becomes the equal of a solid wire where the solder wicks up the wire and if
flexed or bent many times it may break. If you don't worry about the wire
breaking then soldering is fine.
Solid wire does not crimp well.

Not only does solder wick up the stranded wire and make it non-flexible and
prone to breakage, it also causes it to torque the actual connector inside
the housing to make poorer connections if the cable has side force or twist
on it.

Also, there is the very high risk of wicking solder up on the active sliding
contact, covering the silver contact with a tin/lead one, reducing the contact
quality.

The crimp tool is faster, allows getting the ends on straight (so they are
not torqued in the housing), and does a better job.

Alan

"Brian Reay" wrote in message
...

I normally solder but place a cable tie near the connector, where the
wires
part, and under the boot. This helps prevent the last section of wire
before the connector being flexed (you can see it if you try the idea),
which is the area where, as you say, the wire may break due to the wicked
solder.

Do you mean putting the cable tie in longitudinally to stiffen the wires, or
to rgip the wires to the shroud?