Source for UNinsulated crimp terminals?

[dasein668]

Anyone have a good source for uninsulated terminals? Specifically, ring terminals and butt connectors. It seems that everybody sells only pre-insulated or heat shrink terminals....

[Dave, 397]

Most industrial electric houses should have them for you, they are used often in hi-temp applications. Klein make a specially nice crimper to use with them, the crimpers for insulated terminals sorta work if you cheat, but not as well.

Although there is an age-old debate about whether or not a soldered connection is more failure-prone in a high vibration application, I like to crimp and then Quickly, Lightly solder before applying the heatshrink, just to seal the wire where it is bared.

Dave

[Tim]

The crimp-solder debate is mostly centered around connections that are only soldered. The idea is that the solder, being relatively brittle, is susceptible to cracking and failure from the vibration and movement of the boat during normal use.

Soldering on top of the properly crimped connection does not make the connection any more susceptible to failure; even if the solder were to fail, there is still the crimp holding things together. The crimp does the work; the solder is just icing on the cake. Whether or not the solder adds anything of value in this instance is also debatable, but it certainly doesn't hurt, either.

[David]

Try this:
http://www.cabletiesplus.com/connectors.cfm

[dasein668]

Yeah, I had already found CableTiesPlus... I was wondering if anyone had any actual experience with a particular distributor--either good or bad.

I have found a local distributor who deals with retail-level sales, so I'll be checking them out soon.