Brass terminations for wire?

Hi there, all,

I have exhausted my stock of a certain type of wire termination and can't locate any replacements because I don't know what they're called! I've done searches both on the web in general and on eBay but without a name all my search strings have been fishing in the dark!

They're made of brass and have two parts. The main part is a sort of circular trough with lots of fingers. You strip the wire end and form the stripped conductor into a loop that fits into the trough. Then you put the other part, a brass washer, on top of the loop and bend in all the fingers to hold the whole termination together.

In some situations, e.g. a motor terminal chamber, the common crimped terminations take up too much room but the sort I'm looking for permit a connection free of loose whiskers without the space-consuming crimped shank.

I seem to remember John Stevenson mentioning these in a past thread but I haven't been able to find it.

Please can anyone tell me what they're called or, better still, advise a source?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 22/06/2017 17:48:31

Swarf,

Your description sounds like a description of an eyelet style circular wire termination item. I don't know the proper term for it but in my opinion, if you google "eyelet" you may hit something. Btw. I believe brass eyelets of the right diameter would serve your purpose as well when used in conjunction with the appropriate eyelid crimper.

Peter J.

Edited By ICEpeter on 22/06/2017 18:36:05

At the risk of Peter's ire, I always called them eyelets, but I suppose I have that one wrong too!

Andrew.

Ross-Courtney Eye terminations.

But Ross Courtney is / was a company who make / made many types. ( So it's a bit like 'Tufnol' covers a lot of different items )

Not seen or used them for ages, used to be common on hot things like the wires from iron elements, thermocouples etc.

D.

It appears they have gone tits up ...

https://www.findtheneedle.co.uk/companies/meci-limited/products/ross-courtney-solder-tags-andterminals

Edited By Dave Daniels on 22/06/2017 18:35:26

Edited By Dave Daniels on 22/06/2017 18:36:08

Edited By Dave Daniels on 22/06/2017 18:40:04

These are the closest I've been able to find, and while they're not intended as electrical connectors they would probably do the job.

Andy

Try vehicle wiring products web site, regards Alan.

Some here:

http://www.fiennes.co.uk/Parts/Catalogue/L/LA/LA130

No idea if it's what you want though.

D.

Instead, would you tin the terminals with solder and use a washer over the top?

Might take a little longer, and if the things connected to the wire are too close, it may not be suitable.

Regards,

Richard.

Edited By richardandtracy on 23/06/2017 08:48:41

My first port of call on things like this is "RS Components" worth a look ?

Not as you describe, but if you Google for ring terminals you get lots of hits. Most are meant to be crimped on to the wire, but they can be soldered for extra security.

I remember using those items years ago,are they still around? For many jobs they were more suitable than crimp terminals. No idea where to even start looking for them,but RS might be a good start.

Some on ebay, but I think the vendor had a rush of blood to the head when he priced them.

UsAAOSwwo1Xfpeo">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Collectable-4-wire-Ross-Courtney-co-ltd-London-N19-rolls-Royce-Lucas-mga-/152589665698?hash=item23870d85a2:gUsAAOSwwo1Xfpeo

Eh, I've never seen a link displayed like that before.

Edited By peak4 on 24/06/2017 00:21:06

Edited By peak4 on 24/06/2017 00:21:44

Hi, no idea where to find any of these, however I came across this **LINK** which may be interesting to those who have never seen them.

I think they have largely been discontinued for the same reason that many fixings of all kinds have, and that is they are too time consuming to fit economically.

May be a good project to make some tooling for stamping them out, either with a flypress or the likes, or just a hammer.

Regards Nick.

Hi there, Mike,

Thank you for your post but two points:

In my original post, I explained that the 'pan-handle' of a crimped termination takes up too much room in some small termination chambers. Furthermore, it requires sub-optimum bends in the cable.

I beg to differ with you regarding soldering. A well-made crimped joint gives a 'gas-tight' connection between cable and termination and the crimp 'pan-handle' relieves the joint of any strain. Soldered joints can/often suffer embrittlement and fatigue failure at the junction between the soldered and un-soldered zones of the strands.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my original post. The Ross Courtney component is the one I had in mind. Thanks to your replies, I see that they are still available but the prices quoted have annihilated my interest!

As this is 'my thread', I'll venture off-topic a bit.

Back in the day, I replaced the starter cables in my tinny mini-van with proper cable (Unipren 100) with soldered-on lugs, also by Ross Courtney. I still have a few of those in a tobacco tin somewhere!!!

The vehicle before that, on which I learned to drive, was an Alvis TA14 soft-top - the hydraulic jack that came with that was another Ross Courtney product. The car is long gone (though I hope it might still be on the road somewhere in the care of some enthusiast) but I still have the jack. It employs leather seals and leaks a bit so I don't use it any more.

Thanks again to all respondents.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

OK Been having a quick play with the sort of brass eyelets that are used in shoes for the laces.

Often available in cheapo kits from Lidl, Aldi, or your local camping shop; normally complete with basic crimping pliers. I think they were £2.99 a set when I bought these for a box of a hundred and the pliers

Wire Prepared ready to go;

Crimped, and trimmed;

Sleeved with a Hellerman rubber boot;

Just a quick try to see the feasibility, but seems OK to me. I guess you could smarten it up further by adding a small brass washer on top of the wire before crimping, but I didn't have one to hand.

Edited By peak4 on 24/06/2017 11:59:47

Start your bidding. What is that they say a terminal in the hand is worth.....................

I like peak4's idea; far better than my usual bodge. But does anyone know why the Ross Courtney type have gone out of favour? Is there a fatal flaw in the design or is it something subtle like other one part terminations simply being a tad quicker to assemble?

Dave

I think the flaw in the design will be the time it takes to make this type of termination, this is a particularly fiddly termination to make when the standard for wiring these days is to not fit loose wire numbers and use spring clamp type terminations on a simply stripped wire. I like these eyelet terminations in motor connection boxes as they are so compact compared to the typical crimp lug.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 25/06/2017 19:36:04

I was talking to a friend (a retired electrician) who remembers using the brass electrical terminals, mainly on the earth wire but have not seen them for years. Said they called them a "Ross Courney" after the manufacturer.

Enquired at an electrical supply company about them but did not have any. Salesman remembers them from years ago. Probably not available now.

Paul.