Electrical doubling over

by on under electronics
1 minute read

Doubling over cable conductors

To double over or not to double over conductors? That’s the question.

Research references

No one seems to mention multistrand doubling over. I only found resources for single core. There was some discussion about multistrand twisting strands together however.

Personal notes

  • I have seen single-core doubled conductors snap if opened back out straight. Copper becomes brittle.
  • Doubling helps with smaller conductor diameter when inserted into a large connection block.
  • Multistrand “electronics” cable I always twist strands together then double over if required. Increases biting surface area. Multistrand is also less likely to becomes brittle in my experience.
  • single-core don’t twist two conductors together because it’s a pain when adding an additional conductor into the connector block terminal. It also causes fatigue on the conductor. Double over can suffer when adding extra conductors to a connector block.
  • single-core can be doubled over if it’s unlikely another connector will be added to the connector block. For example a light switch that controls one lamp. This is in agreement with the above PDF resource: “Where fitting one conductor only, double over the conductors”.

Summary

  • Double over if the cable diameter is too small according to your personal digression.
  • Multistrand should always have strands twisted together.
  • Bootlace ferrule or soldering multistrand conductors for termination into connector blocks I will save for another blog post some time.
comments powered by Disqus