Make Your Own Battery Cables Part 2 - Adding the Lugs | Polar Wire

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Add a lug to a stripped wire, and learn an electrician's trick for getting uncooperative stranding into a lug

In a previous video I showed you how to strip large gauge fine strand wire with a rotary cable stripper. We gave the wire a clean, flat cut and stripped the end, and the stranding is in great shape--undamaged and compact. The insulation is stripped back just enough that the conductor will fill the lug completely and make a good solid mass without any voids. And this cable is ready for the lug.

Strand turnback reduces the electrical flow, so for the best conductivity, check to make sure all the strands make it into the lug. Terminals that have a slight flare or funnel entry at the bottom of the barrel make it easier to insert the wire. The funnel entry steers all the stranding right into the barrel.

So what if your wire has gotten a bit frayed or feathered out and you can't get it into the lug? Here is a great little trick electricians use.

Smooth the wire roughly back into shape. Take electrical tape, and starting a half inch or so down the wire, wrap a light layer up and around the copper, pulling it tight to compress the stranding. Then work your way back down the jacket.

Insert the taped end into the lug, and holding the lug in place with the wire fully inserted, peel the tape out from under the barrel, pulling it gently sideways to ensure the strands stay inside the barrel.

Notice we don't have any strand turnback. We got all the strands into the terminal, and now I can give this a good solid crimp.

Our cable makers use this trick when they are working with really large gauge, like this 500 MCM wire. It really helps to keep the stranding under control.

One more thing before you crimp: be sure to turn the lug on the wire to the placement you want. When we make our custom cables we like to center the wire's legend on the side of the lug that will be most visible so that the wire information can be easily read. Be sure to determine how the ends should align with each other when the cable is in use.

Here is what a good crimp will look like on the inside. The copper stranding has been compressed into a solid mass and there aren't any air pockets that can cause corrosion, hot spots, or other problems later.

Did you know Polar Wire makes custom cables? We use our Arctic Ultraflex Blue ultraflexible arctic grade wire and high quality parts and processes to build flexible, durable cables that outlast and outperform the others.

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