What is the best/proper way to connect two bare wires together?

[joshg]

Just curious about this... I've just been stripping each end bare about .5", twisting them together, and slapping black "electrical" tape on them (is that what it's called? It's what I've always called it ... ).

Is there some other better method to doing this? One thing I have noticed with where I did this inside my case (for all of my fans) is that, with dirt getting inside there, the job seems to come apart a lot and I have to redo the whole thing sometimes. Which is a real pain.

Anyway, the big thing is that I'm planning on doing possibly two things in the near future where I think I will have to do this again, and I want to make it last a LONG time and be at least somewhat "professional." 1) I'm going to try and replace my Sparkle 350W fan with a Panaflow L1A, and 2) my dog chewed through one of the wires on a $30 custom cable for my Midiland 8200 speakers to be able to be 5.1 in analog! I don't want to replace the whole cable since only one wire is cut!

Any "professional" advice would be great! Thanks!

 

[vetteguy]

There's always soldering...there are numerous types of twist/clip/clamp-on connectors that can be found at Radio Shack. Just make sure if you use a connector that it can handle the amps/voltage that will be running through the wires.

 

[dullard]

There have got to be 10s of thousands of different connectors to get that job done. They range a lot in simplicity, looks, cost, permanentcy, etc.

The easiest are those colored 'wire connectors'. Basically it is a threaded cone shaped screw. Put the wires in, give it a twist and you are done. A lot of electricians use that for installing light fixtures in your house. But those are ugly - and can easilly come apart (which may or may not be a good thing to you).

If you have a crimper, you can get something like a 'butt splice'. Basically it is a plastic tube with metal inner liner. Put in the wires at each end. Crimp it on tight at each end, and you are done. A crimper will run you $20, and these things have a tendancy to fall off in my experience (maybe I'm a terrible crimper).

There are things called 'disconnects'. You crimp a male end on one wire, a female end on the other wire and then they snap together. Sadly the term 'disconnect' makes it sound like you can disconnect them easilly. But I think you need a special tool. And again this requires a crimper.

What I do for my work is not the prettiest, but it is permanent. I twist them together, solder the wires, put a heat shrink tubing around, and then use the soldering iron to shrink the heat shrink tubing - permanently putting a plastic lining snug around the soldered wires. This won't ever come apart (unless you clip the wires yourself) and provides insulation around the otherwise exposed wires. Of course this requires a soldering iron.

I could go on and on. Just go down to your local hardware store and see what looks the most useful to you. Anything will be better than electrical tape which never sticks.

 

[Whitedog]

Cripping devices are your best bet. Butt-splices are the most practical.

Twisting and taping is ugly and dangerous and messy. Tape can heat up, get all gewy and unravel (exposing the wire)

Soldering is not really meant for electical wire splicing. Too much hassel.

A basic splicing kit is not much and is worth every penny if you do such things.

 

[mechBgon]

I favor the security of soldering:

• Slide heatshrink tubing down one of the wires
• Strip insulation
• Flux & tin the wires
• Solder the tinned wires to eachother
• Shrink the heatshrink tubing over the connection

With stuff like power-supply fans, I would rather not go halfway and regret it later. Soldering is a useful skill to acquire, if you haven't done it before, so here's a good excuse

 

[Pilsnerpete]

Rosin-core solder and heatsshhhhreeeenk.

 

[joshg]

Wow, some great information here! Sometimes I love AT

Anyway, soldering seems like the way that I would like to go with this. I've personally never done it, however when I was a kid I did at least *see* my dad do it on a few occasions

I know that at my mother's house she used to have a soldering iron laying around somewhere that she never used / doesn't know how to use. I'll have to see if it's still there when I visit later this week!

Now .. I'll also need some of this shrinkwrap tube stuff, and also some solder, right? What kind of solder should I get? Also, does anyone have any recommendations on what I could practice on?

 

[drednox]

hi

i work as a CNC tech and often have to put togeher broken wires.

if you want serious longetivity and max protection which is required in an industrial envirenment, best thing to do is to solder the wires, then apply plastic insulation which shrinks and fits itself onto the wires once you use a little heat gun or industrial blowdryer on it. it lasts for freagin ever and beats the hell out of electric tape. its is sealed, resistant to moisture, corrosives, petrolium, etc.

however, for home use you do not need that degree of protection, best thing to do is to strip them, then use a male and female spade terminals. that way, in the future, if you decide you no longer need the connections or decide to replace whatever part it is you are connecting, you wont have to completely splice anymore, simply disconnect the terminals.

 

[paperfist]

Soldering is your best bet if you want a permanent connection between 2 wires. Then you can either use black electrical tape over the splice or get some shrink wrap cover to go over the connection. Radioshack sells a soldering kit or you can get a liquid like substance that they sell that you can just put on the splice and heat up to solder with. The other way is just to use the correct wire gauge wiring nuts sold at any hardware store.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Whitedog
Cripping devices are your best bet. Butt-splices are the most practical.

[butt-head]

hehe you said Butt-splice. hehe

[/butt-head]

 

[Auric]

Soldering may be technically best but is often unpractical and certainly overkill for this application. Crimp connectors are often unreliable. The type that clamp down on each wire side by side are better. I recommend twisting the wires together and using heatshrink tubing or "liquid rubber" to seal and give good enough protection from separating. Panaflo fans have a plug connector anyway so installing a plug in the line is not necessary.

 

[joshg]

Whenever you install a fan into a PSU, don't you have to cut wires and then re-attach the new fan wire to wire? Any type of factory-supplied connector on the fan would be negligible in this situation.

Also, yes I am looking for something permanent that will both have good longevity as well as not lose any potency from a "cheap" job of it. Soldering seems like the way to go for me! (And the fact that I'm a blaring perfectionist, this is perfect! ).

I saw a kit on Radioshack.com - "Soldering Starter Kit" or some such mess... This includes a soldering iron, solder a heatsink of sorts, plus a few other goodies, all at $7.99. That's a pretty good buy! Of course, things at the B&M for Ratshack always seem to be a few dollars more than on their website...

This thing also includes a "guide" for beginners. I figure that, for this job, all that I need is one of these starter kits and some of that heatshrinking tube (can you get that at ratshack? ) and I'll be all set for around $10-15, which isn't bad at all! Also, I suppose that I'll try to follow their guide a bit, and do some preliminary practicing on some old electrical wires that don't work or I don't need, etc. We'll see how it goes!!

Thanks again to everyone for your overwhelming advice and support.

 

[Technonut]

Radio Shack has packs of inexpensive solder tape in short pieces. You just wrap it around the wires, and heat it with a match or lighter....

 

[sharkeeper]

RayChem Solder Sleeve!

Cheers!

 

[dnoyeb]

1. strip off 1/4" inch or so of insulation off both wires.
2. sand wires to get any coating off if they have such a coating.
3. put shring tubing over one of the wires and push out of the way
4. twist wires together with hands or pliers depending on wire.
5. Solder wires using appropriate solder and accessories for material.
6. move shring tubing into place, and heat.

Make sure this joint will not be moving. If its connected to anything that moves, you will need to relieve the stress by taping it together with other wires or some other means.

 

[Auric]

Well, if you are a perfectionist then you will forgoe any splicing and instead unsolder the old leads from the circuit board and solder the new ones from the Panaflo in their place.

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: Technonut
Radio Shack has packs of inexpensive solder tape in short pieces. You just wrap it around the wires, and heat it with a match or lighter....

I've never heard of such a thing! Does this work good? I'll have to check into this sometime when I'm around there. Sounds interesting.

 

[Dulanic]

Cut, solder, heatshink. Thats all I use. Its permanent, it wont come off, and if you do a good job it will be barely noticable, especially if you use heatshrink the same color as the wire.

 

[Technonut]

I've never heard of such a thing! Does this work good? I'll have to check into this sometime when I'm around there. Sounds interesting.

It works fine... My office is a mess at the moment, but I will try to find the pack and post RS part # later..