Crimping Large

Crimping is a very simple process that involves putting a contact onto a piece of wire. A contact is a piece of metal which conducts a current. The process is simple, first you strip the wire enough for the contact, then you crimp the contact onto the wire, and finally you slide the contact into the housing. Now this may not seem simple, but I assure you it is.

Stripping the wire

To strip the wire you need to know two things. The gauge of the wire and the length you need to strip. To find out the first you will have to look on the side of the wire, there a number followed by the letters “AWG” will be printed. This is the gauge of the wire which you will use in the stripper. Next to figure out how much you need to strip off of the wire. To do this simply hold up the contact (Anderson Powerpole 45 AMP) and strip off the length of the two pieces of vertical metal as shown in the picture (TO ADD). Once you have the length and the gauge simply place the wire in the stripper under the correct gauge slot, put the wire in the correct amount, and pull the handles of the stripper together.

Crimping the contact

To crimp the contact onto the wire you will need to place the contact into the crimper under the 45 slot then place the wire into the contact until the plastic of the wire touches the contact. Then once everything is in place take care not to have the wire slip out and push down on the crimper. It will release once it has been pushed all the way.

Attaching the housings

To attach the housing simply orientate it and the contact so that the lip of the contact is pointing to the indented side of the housing. Then push the contact into the housing. If the contact gives you trouble try bending it slightly upward.

Now you should be done with crimping a large connector. Congratulations! In the next lesson I will talk about crimping a small connector.