Soldering 0-4 guage wire

[Beef Boss]

How do you solder wires this thick? I don't have the tools to crimp copper connections this big, so I just use a ton of solder to fill in any crevices between the wire and connector with a torch. Is this wrong? 

 

These wires are used with my amplifier in my car. It's a 1500+ watt Amp powering two twelve inch subwoofers at 500+ watts a piece. 

[W-L]

8 minutes ago, aki adaki said:

How do you solder wires this thick? I don't have the tools to crimp copper connections this big, so I just use a ton of solder to fill in any crevices between the wire and connector with a torch. Is this wrong? 

 

These wires are used with my amplifier in my car. It's a 1500+ watt Amp powering two twelve inch subwoofers at 500+ watts a piece. 

You can use a large soldering iron they make something >400W irons just these types of applications but in general you can use a torch and add a lot of solder just be sure it doesn't creep excessively down the insulation you ideally don't want more than 1 times the diameter of the wire.

[sazrocks]

Get the tools. When dealing with loads that big you don't want it done improperly.

[DimasRMDO]

I usually use soldering gun for a wire that thick.

[Beef Boss]

37 minutes ago, DimasRMDO said:

I usually use soldering gun for a wire that thick.

I used a torch to heat the fitting and wire inside enough to melt solder and fill any little crevice inside it. I don't think this will ever fail, the soldering thingy we have aren't powerful enough they're not the gun types. 

 

What soldering gun would you recommend though? I do hate melting nearby stuff lol. 

[DimasRMDO]

14 hours ago, aki adaki said:

What soldering gun would you recommend though? I do hate melting nearby stuff lol. 

I've got this one and it works pretty nicely. I don't have a lot of information about other products though.

[docomeister]

I have a few cheapo soldering irons that I usually keep for dirty jobs, including this, simply said, large beast of an iron that I've only used a couple times for any real purpose. I'm sure you can just find one in a shop for cheap, as there's nothing special about them. Just make sure to get one with a beefy flat tip, with lots of surface. Plug it in, wait a few minutes for it to heat up, and then use a generous blob of solder on the tip to more efficiently heat the wire up. It takes a full minute or two to heat the wire up, but if you keep poking at the point of contact with a flux core solder wire, as soon as the wire starts flowing in, you can do a nice weld with full control over flow by just approaching the iron as needed, then you won't be burning any insulation or let the solder creep under it. They do a great job at soldering thick stuff, and NO you likely don't need 400W irons, this one I'm talking about is more in the area of 65, it just can get a little slow to heat up, but it's dirt cheap - mine was under $10. I'd send you a photo of the thing, but it's in my garage, and besides, there's really nothing special about it. It's just large.

[JokerProduction]

Soldering wires that thick is a pain even with proper tools.  Preferred method is to use wire ferrules.  With the bigger wire you don't even need the crimp tool, you just use the set screw in the terminal.

 

This video explains is pretty good

 

 

[Hackentosher]

If you must solder them, I would use a torch to solder instead of my 50w iron. Once to temperature, set the flame to low and apply solder to the other side of the joint. Also use heavy gloves because that wire will be hot for a long time after you're done.

[MrJoosh]

When i was building ICE systems using 0 gauge, I found a hydraulic crimp tool on eBay for ~£25 and that was good enough with copper crimp on ring terminals.

 

Whilst waiting for the crimp tool to arrive, I needed to do some temporary connections and so used a hammer and bolster to crimp the terminals on - held plenty well enough  the only issue was that it deformed the shape of the "cup" on the crimp terminals slightly, so didn't look the nicest...

[APileofRocks]

I had to solder some 4 gauge wire for a connection between the terminals in my subwoofer's box and the sub itself. I bought a cheap soldering iron and some helping hands from Harbor Freight, and while they aren't the best quality they certainly did the job. I applied solder to the copper, which was twisted together and held in place by the helping hands. I soldered both top and bottom as best I could, and gave them a good pull - the connection was solid. I have had no problems with this connection over the past seven months. That being said, ideally I should have used heat-shrink tubing instead of electrical tape like I did.

 

Here's the resulting connection:

 

 

[voyager_]

I used to install car audio for a living. What I would do is use a copper coupler or copper terminal ends. What I would do is insert the wire and crimp into the terminal. Then I would heat the end of it with a small torch and feed in solder to the joint. If you want to make it look more professional slide a piece of heat shrink over the end. Doing it this way I have never had a connection fail.

[TheFlyingTraut]

Flux is your friend!

 

You could just use a small blow torch to heat up the lug enough to melt the solder. Flux helps tremendously though. 

 

That picture above definitely doesn't look like 4 ga, 8 ga is more like it.

 

You can get a hydraulic crimp tool for like $30-35 on amazon and handles that gauge like a champ! Do yourself a favor and maybe spend like $50? on Amazon and get some decent solder and lugs, maybe a blowtorch. It will help you tremendously. You probably want 3:1 heatshrink as well, the 2:1 stuff is mostly crap unless you get good quality.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have more direct questions.

[gencho]

Get a connector and use a hammer to crimp it! (you don't need the tool from the picture)

One other option is tinn on the end of the cable and connect it directly!

 

If the connection is solid and not lose you won't have any problems. Just tighten everything!