[Daniel S.]

General discussion topic here... What is your preferred method to extend component pig-tails to tie it into your electrical system? Hypothetically speaking, you are installing wing tip landing lights, those $400.00+ fancy-pants LED landing lights . Unfortunately, those lights only have 2 inches of wire coming out of the back for a pig-tail. The connector you need to tie into is a little over a foot away. What do you do? What is your favorite extension method? A but-splice, knife-splice, solider joint, molex, d-sub, new fresh ideas?

 

[jarvis]

Butt Splice...

sealed in heat shrink gets my vote every time.

 

[Rupester]

If the wires are easy to access and not subject to mechanical stress, my preference is to solder and shrink wrap 'em. Other than that, it would be a crimped butt joint.

 

[rleffler]

Solder sleeves are your friend

 

[larrynew]

Solder sleeves are your friend

My experimental friendly electronics mentor is a former Navy avionics tech and current GM of an avionics repair shop. He really likes solder sleeves. I had him get me a "starter kit" with instructions that I wanted to wire to certified standards or better and he got me many more solder sleeves than butt splices. About the same number of knife splices as butt splices.

 

[pazmanyflyer]

Solder sleeves are your friend

Article from Aeroelectric about the poor man's solder sleeve:
http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/PM_Solder_Sleeve/PM_Solder_Sleeve.html

If you want to buy and install the actual solder sleeve then here is a vid on how to do it by Stein himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRCUAYoSXg

 

[Walt]

Solder sleeves are normally used for shielded wires while butt splices are the "standard" for single wire splices.