"Nuts & Boats" from THS

[GordMay]

Trish Lambert from “Take Her Sailing” http://www.takehersailing.com/ publishes a free monthly newsletter - “Nuts & Boats” http://www.takehersailing.com/nutsbo...rent_issue.htm
This month’s Feature Article (January 2005) is “Rewiring a Monkey's Breakfast, Part 1" ~ by Mike Turney, wherin he begins to describe a complete re-wire project.
Very interesting & informative reading.

[sv_makai]

Gord!

Excellent site. Just visited. Lots of info as well as interesting writings.

Thanks for the waypoint!

[delmarrey]

Thanks Gord! Great sight!

[Alan Wheeler]

Thanks Gord. It is a great read. But I do have to take issue with one comment made." Not to solder due to taking the tinning off the wire".
It needs to be mentioned that there is nothing wrong with soldering a connection. Infact, I truely believe it is better than a crimp. Especially in a salt laden environment. Tinning on marine wire is similar to the properties of solder anyway. Tin is a property of solder. By soldering a wire, you protect the connection from corrosion just as the tinned wire is protected. The heat from soldering does not destroy the tinning. To get the same electrical connection as a Solder joint will present, you need a crimping pressure of 6 tones per square inch. That will also result in the wire strands themselves being damaged. Maybe not catastrpphycally, but they are crushed and will have just as greater tendancy to breakage as a soldered joint. Actually, a correctly soldered joint should be even better. Because a strain relief of heatshrink should always be placed over the joint. Thus increased protection from mechanical damage and corrosion.
I alway's see this argument presented. It always seems to have as many argue for it as against it. But I sometimes wonder if the argument against solder was started by the guy that invented the crimping tool.

[GordMay]

Wheels:
You may be right.

Here's what ABYC has to say:

E9.17.12.8 "Solder shall not be the sole means of the mechanical connection in any circuit. If soldered, the connection shall be so located or supported as to minimize flexing of the conductor where the solder changes the flexible conductor ionto a solid conductor.

Exception: Battery lugs with a solder contact length of not less than 1.5 times the diameter of the conductor."

FWIW,
Gord

[Alan Wheeler]

Yes to add to that a little more. A mistake often used by people, is to use solder as a glue. The wire should be threaded through the recieving lug and folded back, or however the terminal is designed. Mostly, terminals are designed to hold the wire in some way till soldered. The solder is there to make an airtight electrical connection between wire and parent material. At temperature, the solders properties are such, that they chemically bond to the surface of the other metal. Many metal types can be bonded to. Which is another important aspect in a marine environment. Sometimes brass is the parent material used. It is asked to be crimped to copper wire. Thus two dissimilar metals. A high current flowing through them and time and guess what. Solder stops that from happening. Plus in a crimped connector, you have little areas where water can sit. I just replaced some crimped connectors on a Solar panel the other day. They had compleatly corroded away. Most likely because water had come in contact. I firml;y believe, that crimped connections should be treated with a water repelant electrical grease before crimping.
Then it is essential for strain relief. As I stated above, heat shrink is a good and easy method of doing such. But it has one other point to add to the picture. It also insulates the connection, so in the event of another wire ever breaking away,umm then it should not be able to make contact with any other conductor. Accidents can happen. I fried an inverter the other day, connecting it into a "monkey breakfast" of a panel. The main breaker was tripped to kill the power in the panel. But in my final connection, the output of the inverter, brushed past the input connection to the breaker. Correctly installed and protected in the first place, the accident would never have happend. Oh well.

[GordMay]

You can also use CLEAR Heat Shrink to protect labels - just make your insulating / strain-relief shrink a little longer.