There are plenty of electronic components out there, but the one we tend to forget is the most basic: wire. Sure, PC boards have largely replaced wire with copper traces, but most projects still need some kind of wire somewhere. Once you need any wire, there’s a good bet you will need longer wire, and that means splicing one wire to another. Simple, right? Not really. There are a variety of ways to splice wires, and which one you use depends on what you want to do and the type of wire you are using.

If the wires touch, good enough, right? Not necessarily. You need enough contact area for the current you are drawing through the wire to flow. It is also nice if the splice can survive some amount of mechanical strain, vibration, and survive getting hot and cold repeatedly.

Usually, after splicing, you’d like to solder the connection, although depending on the application, you don’t always see that. At the very least, you’d want to wrap it in electrical tape, use heat-shrink tubing, or otherwise insulate the bare wires and maybe provide a little mechanical support or strain relief.

Keep in mind that there are connector options, either mechanical, crimped, or soldered, that allow you to avoid splices. Soldering to a terminal strip, for example, or scewing wires into a barrier strip will get the job done. So will a butt connector, a wire nut, or a WAGO connector. But sometimes, for whatever reason, you just need to attach two wires to each other. It’s been done before.

Continue reading “The Splice Must Flow” →