Knowing the basic wire types is essential to almost any electrical project around the house. When you’re install new wiring, choosing the right wire or cable is half the battle. And when you’re examining existing wiring in your home, the wiring type can tell you a lot about the circuit the wiring belongs to. Any new electrical installation requires new wiring that conforms to local building codes.
Solderless terminals are used to finish the connection to thousands of different electrical installations. They are very versatile and come in many styles to suit many applications. They are made of copper (economy versions use brass) and they are tin-plated to prevent corrosion.
There are three common hand tools that you will need for any electrical service work- cutters, crimpers, and strippers. You can buy one tool that does them all, but it won’t do any of them as well as separate tools will.
If you know what wire size you have, you will also need to work out what you need to connect to. There are many, many variations of crimp, but there are a handful of very common ones, most shown in the image. Crimps designed to fit to threaded fasteners can be simply specified by the bolt size (e.g M4/ ¼”). Others may have different names dependent on the industry and manufacturer (eg lucar, faston, ¼” blade).
