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crimping wires |
Before working on any electrical circuit isolate the supply by switching off the main switch and remove the fuse to the circuit that you are working on, If it is a circuit breaker switch off the main fuse and circuit breaker and remove the wires from the top of the circuit breaker. Place a sign saying that you are working on the circuits on the consumer unit, then nobody will restore the power whilst you are working on it.
If you are not 100% certain what you are doing call a qualified electrician. Building regulations are changing all the time and modifying your home electrics could be against new rules and could invalidate your home insurance, if in doubt check first!
Here we are going to be connecting a broken wire using a crimp
butt connector 
Please note that only stranded wire can be joined by using crimp butt connectors, solid wire cannot be joined this way!
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In this picture you can see the broken piece of wire. |
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Here we have the broken wire, a crimp butt connector and some heat shrink sleeving. |
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Start by stripping about 10mm of the insulation from the ends of both wires using a suitable pair of wire strippers. |
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Slide the heat shrink sleeving over one end of the wire, far
enough up so that it is not in the way.
Now push both ends of the stripped cable into the butt connector |
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We are using a pair of crimping pliers that would commonly
be used in DIY.
You will see that there are three different crimping jawsRed=1.5mmBlue=2.5mm Yellow=6.0mm |
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Professional ratchet crimping pliers crimp connectors in two
places, where as the cheap DIY versions only crimp in one place.
When using the DIY type crimping pliers you must ensure that the side of the pliers with all of the markings on is facing the wire that you are crimping. |
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Now crimp the wire on the other side of the butt connector remembering to turn the pliers so that the side of the pliers with the markings on is facing the wire. |
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The resulting connector should look like this.
Grab both wires between you fingers and thumbs and give the wires a firm pull to ensure that the wires have been sufficiently crimped. If the wires can be pulled out then you will have to try again with a new connector! |
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Now wrap the connector and the wires with insulating tape. |
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Slide the heat shrink sleeving over the insulation tape and
apply heat to the sleeving using either a soldering iron or a heat gun.
A naked flame is not recommended for this purpose!
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The heat shrink sleeving does exactly as the name implies an shrinks around the wire and the connector. |
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