Re: Would you solder battery cables?
I solder every connection I can. For a big cable like that, I'd slip 2 pieces of shrink tubing onto the wire, then strip it and clamp it vertically in a portable vise. The wire has to be spotlessly clean. Then I slip the terminal onto the wire, heat it with a suitably sized torch, either one of the micro-flame ones, or a regular propane soldering torch for the 4 gauge and larger stuff and solder it with a good grade of electronic solder. (Kester eutectic resin core)
After it cools I butter the end with a drop of liquid electrical tape, push the shorter piece of heat shrink in place and shrink it, then the longer one.
A variation I use on smaller connectors is that I use one of the shrink insulation connectors. If you trim the end of the insulation so you can solder it, then do the procedure above, the insulation will flow over the connection. Shrink the rest and you have a professional, marine ready connection.
I have never replaced one because of corrosion failure.
On the idiot thing, education doesn't necessarily make any difference. I was working on a power supply design, back when the filter caps were the size of your leg, and had it bread boarded all over the bench. The highly educated engineer over me was checking it out, and decided he'd change something, grabbed my grounded soldering iron and stuck it into the circuitry. A bright flash later he had half of the soldering iron, and had taken the power out all the way back to the 220 v mains. Approximately 1 square foot of breadboarded circuitry had vaporized.
hope it helps
John
