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Tricks of the Trade - knowledge for every day life

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eti:

--- Quote from: SmallCog on December 20, 2022, 02:00:13 am ---
--- Quote from: Slartibartfast on December 19, 2022, 09:13:55 pm ---
--- Quote from: eti on December 11, 2022, 07:43:28 am ---Always *twist* a stranded wire and then solder saturate it into a solid end (and then clean off any flux) and then cut it flush and clean at the tip, before screwing into a terminal block. If possible use captive terminal types, the ones with the ridged moving flat clamp which rides up and down with the screw and applies even pressure across the wire end, otherwise excess tightening causes screw-shaped pits in the wire end, and if it’s not been soldered as above, you get little copper strand ends falling out everywhere, which not only means short circuit risk but means the cross-sectional amperage rating of the end has decreased.

--- End quote ---

This is a very bad idea if that wire is supposed to sit in that terminal block for a long time. Tin slowly flows under stress, which means that the initally tight connection slowly loosens over time until it falls out. This is the same reason why soldered connections are not acceptable in house wiring. There, as well as with the terminal block, wire ferrules are the way to go.

--- End quote ---

This has caused us no end of issues at work.

A former employee was fond of doing this and years later we're still discovering faults traced back to soldered wires that are now loose in terminal blocks.

Use a bootlace or similar ferrule.

--- End quote ---

Thank you to you and the other people who mentioned this. Yeah the ferrules always seem the best way, except I never had any to use back in the day. Lack of knowledge is a hindrance so I appreciate this a lot.

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