First question is are you a student or staff? If a student, you should be being trained and not expected to repair without training. If staff, you can probably get training from your lighting supplier - though the extent of their training could be less than you have as possible.
Above molded plugs Lex, TMB and possibly others are nice until they fail due to stripping out,
ground failures,
voltage spikes or other problems. Use them a lot these days.
In solder connections, assuming you have supervisors to certify your soldering you need at least a 50w solder station so as to keep the
iron warm enough to solder 12ga cable - assuming the
plug has not in keyway warn out, or you didn't have a
voltage or ligthning
strike in making solder connections become liquid in melting stuff and shorting between phases. Remember in soldering larger
gauge cable, it's not painting with solder, but surface area important for proper soldering. The tip of the
iron has a lot less surface area than it's side once solder is added to convey the flow of heat. Soldering
Soco is different than soldering electronics. You are not painting solder from the tip but instead from the side of the
iron's tip for conveying the most heat once solder bridges the gap. Someone to verify you don't have a cold solder is important here, or what you did adds resistance and potentially causes a failure which could short to anoter
phase of
power. This is not something to un-trained or supervised
play with - it is dangerous.
Old timers say, a solder connection to a pin
terminal to say
Soco plug, 100% reliable. I for the most part agree assuming the above doesn't happen in like a
voltage or lightning
spike, and your solder weld is a good one. Otherwise, you do get an overheated connection with extra solder shorting between pins. Such a termination needs inspection and approval in certification so as not to be a cold solder.
On
crimping... A four pin indent tool to various types of multi-pins if set properly to the
gauge of
wire I have never seen fail persay. We are talking over $1K for a set of
hand crimper, extractors and insertion tools and possibly dependant on the brand, either you can replace solder pins in the insert, or not. Today I spent (Dealer cost) over 1.3K for a full set for a new brand of plugs in tooling up. Was told that was in part a one time tooling up cost for the vendor for their unique plugs (why am I paying that?, but your next set of tools will be cheaper.)
Crimp pins are superior and easier to idiot proof than solder
Soco. They are very costly, and at times dependant on the brand, a tool that works for one won't work on another. Beyond that, no company for 12ga/14
conductor cable has a good option for doing the grounding ring. Wrap a 1/4 in wide by 2" long section of copper foil (easily found with a CamLoc
plug) around a 3/8" dowel, insert it into the grounding ring center and do a solder connection to center grounds with as little extra solder as needed. (
Voltage spikes or lightnig spikes makes this in the solcer
ground or solder to pin termination the source of liquid electricity flowing to a different
phase conductor.)
Mostly these days we buy pre-molded cable assemblies. Only because I don't have time to make the cables needed and in theory molded cables will last longer. I mostly use stainless steel
Soco plugs (very expensive) - they don't fail from wear, but do in spun rubber
insulator heads inside the stainless steel other parts.
Good question I am debating, given failures with molded plugs, verses stainless steel
plug heads we do, what is the best long term solution. But not a problem for most end users. My cables are toured a little harder than normal use.