Reply With QuoteButt Joiners.jpgPic of the product
Just chasing up any members who have use poly butt joiners, with the built in solder, and rosin heat shrink seal. Do they work well?
Any issues with melting the solder with a heat gun?
David
Butt Joiners.jpgPic of the product
They will work fine provided the cable is spotless so the solder can flow properly. Personally I am definitely NOT a fan though. Much prefer a good soldered connection that can be inspected properly then sealed with dual wall heat shrink.
Planning a rewire myself and after researching a bit came to the conclusion crimped was a better option, having soldered hundreds of dry joints i can see the point.
When I rewired my smaller boat I used the crimped glue lined heat shrinks from Superior Terminals. As with Crunchy my research indicated soldered connections were not recommended due to vibration in the marine environment.
If you aren't fully confident about your soldering ability then crimps are probably the go but I have had 20 plus years service out of properly soldered, sealed and secured cables. Either connection can fail due to vibration or water - would make for some interesting long term tests. I use a combination of crimp terminals and soldered joins when rewiring dependent on location, type and probability of getting wet but with straight out cable joining in up to about 6mm, soldering is my preferred method. A join should never be reliant on the solder alone though - much the same as a clinched solder join is more reliable than a standard one on a PCB, a wire to wire join that is securely twisted together prior to solder application is more reliable IMO due to mechanical support for the solder. The cable also needs to be clean so the solder will properly flow throughout the join. Typically the cable will fail beside the join in either a vibration or corrosion related failure in my experience rather than the join itself. Crimps will typically fail in the same place if vibration related but can get a bad connection internally if corrosion is the issue. The biggest issues I see in trailer boats are water - usually from dash board mounted items not being sealed in or joins not being water proofed sufficiently in exposed areas and bilges and cables that are left to hang off their connections rather than being supported and secured properly.
This has been discussed many times here, a "proper" crimp is perfectly acceptable, a crap crimp is useless, so, unless you have a decent crimper, and decent crimps, then you are asking for failure, similarly, someone inept with a soldering iron will create an equally bad connection, one of the main killers in a boat, is salt water and cable support, both can be over come with either crimps or solder, get your terminals from Peterbo on here, he has good quality gear, including crimpers.
Wooo up, I didn't want to start a range war about which was better, and why. I simply was asking for help on the type in the attached photo, as I have not used them before.
I was interested to see that they work well, and Scottar answered that to the best of his ability.
Have any others used that type of Butt joiner.?.My joins need to be water proof, as they will be submerged.
Thanks
David
Probably teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs here but...I was trained by our national telecommunications carrier (when we had one) that solder is like electric glue.
The conductors should be in firm contact and the solder holds them in place. Copper conducts better than tin/lead alloy.
That said, even though I cringe because it goes against my grain , I tend to use crimps. Just minimise movement of the wire.
OK, to answer the question, they do work, the low melting point solder works OK, as I said, PM Peterbo, he can sell you them at a reasonable price.
Continuously or from time to time?. Regardless, if it is going to be wet I would use multiple levels of waterproofing - how wet just determines to what extent. If it is going to be submerged I would be thinking along the lines of silicone filled heat shrink as the final level combined with good securing as any movement will eventually degrade the bond between the cable and the sealant.Originally Posted by dnej
Hey Scottar,and others.
Did a trial on the process of using the non crimp butt joiners. Solder did a good job.
Can anyone tell me what the purpose of the other two coloured beads within the butt join?
Thanks David
Hi Dave.
The yellow, blue, red & white indicate the wire size the joiners are good for. Yellow is 4.59mm˛ or 6mm Auto for example.
ROLL TIDE, ROLL.................
Regards,
Peter
Thanks Peter. Do those beads heat shrink as well. They appear when I did a trial.
I had a look at your videos.
The crimp first, then solder, would appear to be far superior, in some cases.
Do all these butt connectors with heat shrink, have the glue liner.?
David
I would use them on brand new wire only. Not sure the solder would work to well on older cables that might have some oxidisation. I think you would be better off using a roll of solder and a piece of double wall heatshrink if using on existing cables.
My preference is not to have joins personally, but sometimes its simply unavoidable.
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