Electric Cable Building

How to Make Battery Cables for Any Vehicle

This video shows the process of making automobile battery cables, using a kit offered by bbselectric.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvl1aWrkbI0

The proper way to solder battery terminals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXDkNMDDrBs

(55) EV2 battery cable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPbcy1nhllQ

Soldering is a way of joining wires together by melting metals so they stick together. It's related to welding but occurs at a much lower heat and does not join the metals together.

Soldering is defined as "the joining of metals by a fusion of alloys which have relatively low melting points". In other words, you use a metal that has a low melting point to adhere the surfaces to be soldered together. Soldering is more like gluing with molten metal than anything else. Soldering is also a must have skill for all sorts of electrical and electronics work. It is also a skill that must be taught correctly and developed with practice.

Soldering requires a metal with a low melting point - the solder.

There are many kinds of connectors that crimp onto a wire. These connectors serve a wide variety of purposes, which all relate to joining wires together to make circuits.

A crimp-on connector has an end of a wire inserted into it, and then you crush the connector in a specific way so that it grabs the end of the wire. Often one uses a crimping tool, but in some cases pliers can do the job. In some cases there are special purpose crimping tools for specific connectors.

It is arguably a good idea to also solder a wire to a crimp on connector. Many claim that a crimp on connection doesn't give a good enough electrical connection, and that soldering does a much better job. Some do not crimp at all but only solder. While others only crimp and do not solder. Clearly to each their own.

Stripping wire is a first step to building an electrical cable or any other electrical connection. Wire almost always has insulation around it to keep the wires from getting crossed. To make a connection between two wires one must join them together, or attach connectors to them and attach the connectors together. The first step is to prepare the ends of the wires by stripping off the insulation.

It's best to use a wire stripper .. these come in many forms but they are shaped similarly to scissors. However they are not meant to cut all the way through a wire and instead there will be half-circles cut into the the edge of the blade. The half circles match the gauge of the wire (thickness).

To strip insulation from 10 gauge wire, use the half-circle which is labeled "10". Same for 12 gauge wire or whatever wire size you have. The size of this half circle is just right so to cut the insulation without cutting the wire inside.

Wire strippers usually also are wire cutters.

For thick wire there are special wire strippers which are shaped differently and used in a different way.