Banana plugs

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#21
keantoken said:
Banana jacks may end up having lower contact resistance than alligator clips but that doesn't matter much unless you are using really thick gauge cables.
Click to expand...

It sounds like your test are over short periods, you have no animals, kids and you really don't turn it up.
Alligator clips and kids and dogs. I can see resetting a breaker every now and then. 😎
I'm not big on fuses in amps though. LOL I've blown a breaker in the main but never lost an amp. Resistor every
now and then if I have a valve fire. I like that.. The rabbit not so much.

The main reason I use Y spades for one and Z-banana for the plug of the cabinet, is so I can run combinations of types of cable. I usually don't. I usually hardwire from the fuse on the amp rail to the voice coil on the transducer for bass duty. I use plug and play or use lugs and plugs for monitors.

I prefer a cold weld, or fasteners on terminals vs solder unless you mechanically join the cable end and HOLD your joint in place with a spot solder. Solder techniques makes a difference. I use THICK silver over copper barrels, then I dunk the stripped cleaned wire in graphite2000. Insert the wire end and Crimp the TWO with 30 tons of pressure. It's ONE now for a few dollars worth of copper or silver terminals and graphite dust. It cost 20.00 for enough dust to do 5,000 cables. The tool is 30-500.00. Hand crimp vs pneumatic. I used an air die for 30 year on the job repairing cables. Hands can only crimp a certain number of connectors. USE a machine. Trust me. A few bones are missing in my hands now. Be good to your hands.

Then there are SCREWS. The problem with screws is usually they are made out of some hard stuff and usually
plated with something worse. If you drive the screw and intern pushing the wire into the barrel, is a different story.
You can get good contact IF you can keep it tight. I figured out how, it just kills my hands to do it. 🙂
Hex vs Slot fasteners are better IF you don't ruin them.

Regards
 
#22
Hi.I am happy with Nakamichi banana plugs and i recommend them but i see that there is some oxidation with my 12 awg silver plated copper teflon cable.There is not much oxidation inside of plug but there is some in the beginning of the plug. For a more reliable and quality connection should i coat copper with solder or use endseal terminal for better connection inside of the plug? Maybe like these ones
https://www.mgelectrica.com/wp-cont...ALING-FERRULES-INSULATED-AS-PER-DIN-46228.pdf
20221031_224007.jpg
 
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#28
umut1001 said:
should i coat copper with solder or use endseal terminal for better connection inside of the plug?
Click to expand...
NO! The reason for tinning the ends is two fold. One it readies the end for solder. You are not soldering.
Two to keep the end from fraying and corrosion prevention. It's not a good idea to put a lesser conductive
material BETWEEN two pieces of copper, copper silver or silver silver. Why would you put LEAD there or lead
with 4% silver at best?

You are trying to make a better cable?

How to prepare a wire end with NO SOLDER.

You always split the number of strands in half, then split them again.
Now twist all 4 stands CW, now take two of the 4 and twist them CW, do that same to the other two
You now have two, twist those two CW into one. That is the proper way to prepare a wire to stuff in a barrel.
You can half the work for smaller wire.

Now dip the bare wire in any contact enhancer/corrosion prevention goop you want to use and stuff the
wire into the bore twisting CW until you hit bottom. Tighten the first screw (at the base) while holding
it tight in the barrel. Now tighten the screw closest to the banana. Go back and forth several times
retightening the screws. Add a drop of LocTite on top of the counter sunk screws. Let it dry.
Add your shrink tube.

Normally if the base metal is brass it is slightly magnetic. Iron is very porous and brittle, BUT very magnetic.
Copper, silver. Stick with either no matter how pure or not. Gold is pretty, sand that off. LOL
 
#30
diepiolet said:
I prefer a cold weld, or fasteners on terminals vs solder unless you mechanically join the cable end and HOLD your joint in place with a spot solder. Solder techniques makes a difference. I use THICK silver over copper barrels, then I dunk the stripped cleaned wire in graphite2000. Insert the wire end and Crimp the TWO with 30 tons of pressure. It's ONE now for a few dollars worth of copper or silver terminals and graphite dust. It cost 20.00 for enough dust to do 5,000 cables. The tool is 30-500.00. Hand crimp vs pneumatic. I used an air die for 30 year on the job repairing cables. Hands can only crimp a certain number of connectors. USE a machine. Trust me. A few bones are missing in my hands now. Be good to your hands.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna need some pics of this setup please 🙂 Sounds amazing.
 
#31
I did this quickly after I took some ibuprofen.🙂 This Is 8/4 SOOW (600vac). You can see it is not fine strands
nor is it easy to work with. Thin strands make this job a snap for a while. LOL

The end is ready to be treated with your favorite goop, dust, stuff or whatever else you can think up. I use
graphite dust. Stuff the 4th pic (green/black) in a barrel tighten the screws or use a compound crimper on
heavy barrels.

The last is a 10/4 SOOW. As a collective group 15-18 years ago we got together and listened to cables
we came up with using the same materials. This was one of my bass cable. The terminal end was dipped
into a melted down Morgan silver dollar the copper strands were cleaned, prepared and preheated.
That is not your typical tinning method, BUT really cheap and affective at the time. The cables ran a pair
of 16.75cf band pass/bass/sub cabinets. That was the test piece it took a few tries to get it right.

I must have dropped the phone 5 times taking these pics.
 

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#34
Copper alligator clips wouldn't last long - I suspect you mean phosphor bronze or beryllium copper, which are high strength copper alloys used for electrical parts with any structural requirement, and for sprung contacts that need to be lower resistance than steel. Copper itself is too soft to take a robust thread and I've not seen it used for screw terminals or contacts - phosphor bronze, brass or beryllium copper are typically employed as non-magnetic low resistance contact materials.
 
#35
Mueller has been making copper alligator clips since ages ago. I have had no problem with them getting damaged because I don't stomp on them and the teeth hold up fine. They of course have a steel spring and pin, but they do not cause any measurable magnetic distortion because there is no closed flux loop unlike for a steel nut or washer.
 
#36
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