Depends upon what brand/era of
plug you are using.
Stage pin plug to be assumed but on old "Union" plugs, Flag terminals are a must. Install even an un-insulated
ring terminal into a old style Union
plug and it won't fit nor be safe.
So.. Ring terminals verses flag terminals. All
stage pin plugs use a #8 stud
crimp terminal or #8-32 screw so you want a #8 stud hole.
On flag terminals, there is lots of distributers - Grainger and better yet McMaster Carr the easiest to get from probably. Most Ace Hardwares and theater distributers stopped selling flag terminals years ago. All
crimp terminals have a specific
sizing to them - there will never be a #14-12
wire gauge crimp terminal. In general with insulated or non-insulated you either have #16-14 (blue) or #12-10 (yellow). Red is 22
thru 18ga. Flag terminals are available in all sizings.
If you can only get one
crimp terminal, buy a 12-10ga one and strip the 14ga
wire twice as long, fold it back on itself tight and you now have a 11ga
wire which will fit sufficiently. Better to get both flag terminals but not absolutely necessary as long as you keep in mind proper
sizing of
wire to
terminal. A single stranded
conductor that's folded in half equals three
wire sizes larger in
wire gauge. Three 16ga wires thus equal 10ga
wire in what
ferrule or
crimp terminal you would tend to want to use.
Don't use a fork/spade terminals with
stage pin plugs.
Stage pin plugs of the
crimp terminal types normally have only semi-sufficient strain reliefs and a lot of the strain of that
stage hand tugging on the wires is falling on to the
ring terminal. A fork
terminal is going to fail - this especially if you are not using external tooth silicone/bronze lock washers in the
plug. Besides that, there is no that I'm aware of
stage pin plugs that were designed for use with a fork
terminal. Use of one would be against the design of that
plug.
On old style (non
Bates) style
stage pin plugs,
Friction tape is your best friend. Nothing works better to make a cable
strain relief work sufficiently. Two to three wraps on a 12/3 SO so it holds a
bit better, more to make it become the size of 12/3 SO on all other smaller
AWG cables.
Friction tape while ancient technology.. nothing better still for this purpose.
On the old "Union" I would believe as described by way of the flag terminals - make sure you do a proper wiring of them. From memory, strip 7/8" of
wire, cut the
neutral down by 1/8" and the
ground down to 1/4" long. Make the Hot and
Neutral make a 90 degree angle directly away from the outer
jacket - needle nose pliers will be useful for this. Best possibly to strip 1" of
wire,
bend out the hot/
neutral to 90 degrees, than cut to adjust in
fitting where the
wire wants to terminate.
Strip the
insulation off the hot/
neutral slightly shorter than what's required and push the flag
terminal into the
insulation so that it bunches up around the
edge of the
crimp. This will ensure that as the cable pulls and stretches out, no copper is exposed. IF there is any copper hanging out the side of the flag
terminal - and there could be, cut it off or smash it down
flat.
Your
ground normal
ring terminal if normal needs to be all the way up to the outer
jacket of the stripped area. Note the 1/4" of
conductor as very important. Can be slightly longer by 1/16" if a factory
ring terminal. Normal store bought (Un-insulated) ring terminals are slightly longer than that of the shortened ones that come with Union plugs. If absolutely necessary to use a store bought
ring terminal, you can pull off the vinyl
insulation from a store bought #12 x #8 stud
ring terminal for the
ground by way of two pairs of pliers. Needs to be un-insulated or it won't fit.
Crimp your flag
terminal with a "A modified"
insulation displacement "Steakon" tool. This is a brand name for a specific general design of
crimp tool. This is a Klien #1006 otherwise double jaw
crimp tool. In general - insulated or non-insulated, you want something with a real tooth that will
crimp not smash the
terminal. Vise Grips, and other multi-tools are not the proper tool for doing any
crimp! I say this again, something that's just going to crush the round area
flat will not provide a proper
crimp to hold the
wire. This no matter what type of
crimp or
plug you are doing it on. Smashed
crimp terminals after the
wire expands/contracts and in general settles become loose more often than not - never smash something like that as also given the skin
effect to
wire, some conductors will have less pressure on them than others and thus there will be resistance at that
point the
wire makes a transition to what conducts easily in the center area verses what's at the edges of the smashed area which is of higher resistance. Thus the concept of displacing material so that all parts of the
conductor has equal pressure on it.
The Klien tool in doing it properly, #1005 does #16-14 ga
wire crimps, and the #1006 is designed for #22-18ga and #12-10ga. On a flag
terminal it won't matter all that much as long as using a tooth jaw
crimp tool, but on a normal
ring terminal, it will matter. Insulated or non-insulated, follow the
wire gauge not what fits best.
Crimp with the jaw to the sufficient tension and insulated or not insulated, it will hold and be sufficiently protected even if the jaw part rips
thru a vinyl coating. On normal
crimp terminals - put the saddle (
concave side) into the seam of the
crimp. On a flag
terminal, the saddle goes towards the seam also.
Normal Steakon tools have a cutting jaw at it's tip. This needs to be removed or it's going to screw up your flag
terminal. Grind the sucker away and after that you now have a flag
terminal crimp tool. The only other
crimp tool that's acceptable for flag terminals is a Vatco/Klien #1900 that has it's
insulation displacement jaws at the tip of the tool and doesn't need modification.
Once crimped - test your
crimp before you loosen the
grip on your
crimp tool. Give the
crimp a good tug so as to ensure that you have put enough pressure on the
crimp. Not enough pressure on a
crimp is a constant source of failure as with too tight and now cutting strands of
wire or the
wire itself.
On old union plugs or any other type of
ring terminal based
plug, you should be able to remove the screws and drywall screw the crimped cable to the wall, than climb on it and even give it a
bounce. That's a proper
crimp, anything that fails by way of
wire pulling free tells you that you didn't
crimp sufficiently.
Finally, in doing old plugs, the most important thing is to ensure the gapping of the pins. The slit in that
plug's pins should have a parallel slit to it - if it's not parallel, make it so by way of
stage pin pinsplitter or as necessary knife. This is what retains tension on the
plug staying into it's
socket and will prevent another way of high resistance failure. Pay attention to this and the bright work - paint don't conduct well.
Hope it helps... years upon years with old school
stage pin. If any are "locking" an old style,
send me one and I'll trade it for five non-locking. I dealt with the locking style for years but never acquired for my wall of shame a locking version.