Stack Wires on a Shared Stud
Ordering ring terminals largest-to-smallest from the base, so no small terminal carries the current passing through it to a larger one.
Mark a Cable Lug Before You Crimp It So It Doesn't End Up Facing the Wrong Way
Dry-fit the lug on its terminal first, turn it to the angle it needs to sit at, then draw a line across the lug and the cable jacket. A crimp is permanent — the mark is what lets you put the lug back on that angle after it swivels in the crimper.
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The Problem
A crimped lug is permanent. The die closes, the barrel deforms around the conductor, and the angle the lug is sitting at is the angle it will be at forever. Get it wrong and you have a lug pointing off in a direction that puts the cable under a bend it shouldn't take, or fouls the next terminal along, or won't reach.
The reason it goes wrong is that the lug turns. You slide it onto the cable at the right angle, pick the assembly up, carry it to the crimper, seat it in the die — and somewhere in that sequence it swivels a few degrees, and you don't notice until everything is bolted down. On heavy cable at $10 a foot, the fix is cutting the run short or buying more cable.
The Technique
- Push the cable fully into the lug barrel.
- Dry-fit the assembly on its terminal — actually offer it up to the post or busbar it will land on, and turn the lug until the cable leaves it at the angle you want.
- Draw a single line across the lug and onto the cable jacket with a marker, in one stroke, so the two halves of the line only meet when the lug is back at that angle.
- Crimp, then check the two halves of the line still line up before you take the cable out of the die. If the lug turned, back it off and reset it.
The mark takes two seconds and it survives everything that happens between the dry fit and the crimp.
Pro tip: The same mark works on any fitting that can rotate before it's committed — the creator uses it on crimped plumbing fittings too. Anywhere a part has an orientation and the tool that fixes it in place doesn't hold that orientation for you, mark across the joint before the tool touches it.
Safety note: A lug crimp is a current-carrying connection, and the orientation trick doesn't change the rest of it: use the die matched to the lug and cable size, strip only as much jacket as the barrel covers, and check the finished crimp can't be pulled off by hand. On battery and solar cable, make every connection with the system isolated — heavy DC does not arc politely.
Electrical, plumbing, and structural work may be regulated where you live — check local code before you start, and note that a permit may be required. More in our disclaimer.
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