Why Crimping?

Crimping is a quick and reliable method of jointing that is easy to deploy in the field since unlike soldering it does not require time to be spent waiting for a soldering iron to heat up, and poses no burn risk to the operator when working in confined spaces.

Required Tools and Materials

For making reliable crimped joints the correct crimping tool must be used. Adequate crimping tools are of a substantial construction and include a ratchet tightening mechanism that ensure adequate pressure is applied to the crimp before it is released as available in all ASHWIN TOOLS

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Like Fig. 1:

A suitable tool is available from most good tool shops and electrical retailers.

Crimp terminals are available in a number of sizes and two basic types: [Insulated] and [Non-Insulated] Both types can be used, but the procedure is different, and Non-Insulated crimps require the use of a different crimp tool to insulated ones. For the purposes of this article we will use insulated crimps since these are the more commonly available, and require a little less work to use.

In addition to a crimp tool you will need a few basic tools like wire cutters, and strippers as shown in Fig. 2. 
 

The wrong tool for the job:

Note that the cheap non ratchet crimp tools like Fig.3 are not suitable:

If you have one of these, save it for stripping wire and cropping small bolts.

THE CRIMPING PROCEDURE

Let’s assume we need to join a section of cable.
 

Prepare the wire

The first job is to cut out any damaged sections of wire to leave sound wire to work with:

Strip the cable back a couple of inches (about 50mm) on each side so that there is room to work

To Reduce the size of the overall crimp, and to make for a neater joint, the lengths of wires can be staggered so that the crimp terminals will not form a bunch:

(It is better to stagger the joints even more than as shown in the photograph - such that there is no overlap in the crimp terminal positions at all being ideal).

Fit Insulation

Before going any further fit the Insulation!

Cut some heat shrink to a length enough to not only cover the joint but also extend an inch OR two down the cable. This will make the final joint more moisture resistant. (If waterproofing is important then an adhesive lined heat shrink can be used).

The three most popular sizes / colors being: