Can we talk about that guy who insisted crimps are better than soldering?

Met a retired Navy avionics tech at a training seminar last summer in Phoenix. He spent 10 minutes arguing that a good crimp joint will outlast any solder connection in high vibration environments. I still think he's wrong based on the three connector failures I repaired last month, but he gave me some food for thought. Anyone else run into old schoolers with strong opinions on this?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy6921mo ago

Used to be on team soldering all the way until I actually tried a quality crimp tool with proper dies. Watched a guy demo how a military spec crimp actually fuses the wire strands together, no air gaps at all. Three months later and my crimped connections in a janky old RV are holding up way better than the soldered ones I fixed last year. Still not convinced it beats soldering everywhere but definitely changed my mind about it being "always worse.

skylerc861mo ago

Crimp the right tool and it's basically witchcraft.

brookepark1mo ago

Disagree. Soldering done right still beats crimping for vibration resistance.