Uninsulated Butt Crimps in a Pinch

Just a little tech tip I learned from Mike Finnegan on Roadkill.

Basically, lots of us have these ugly, insulated butt crimps lying around:

Thing is, these things are kind of bulky, inflexible, and just plain ugly.

A better solution, is to use uninsulated butt crimps like this:

However most of us don't have these and they're hard to source locally. Plus, you've got loads of the insulated laying around probably. 

So here's the secret, inside every insulated butt crimp, is just the uninsulated metal piece!

All you need is a suitable pokey tool, a suitable socket (or a vise works in a (light) pinch), and you can knock the crimp right out of the insulation. Then, slide some heat shrink over your wire, make your crimp, shrink the heat shrink, and bam! A much cleaner looking crimp that won't break like solder joints.

Here's a video I made demonstrating:

https://youtu.be/nBTwA7-L-uc

17-second version of the video/TL;DR:

https://youtu.be/2PHRBQd9iAQ

Thats all I have done for years. You can buy the crimps from Pico, the same people who make the blue and yellow plastic covered ones and they also make the shrink tube in various sizes in 3ish foot lengths. You can get it all at Napa and it does a much nicer job than the plastic ones.

I only use the uninsulated and buy in bulk from Del City. Tons of shrink wrap on hand also

You can usually find the uninsulated terminals and crimps at a local electronics store - most bigger towns have one. Ours is Electronics Supply on Main st in KC Mo.

They will sell you one or a thousand.....or any number in between.