I agree with all that has been said, more or less. The two key points for me are: 1) Tinning the wire wicks solder up the stranded wire into the insulation region and defeats the strain relief that wire insulation naturally gives. 2) Tinning the wire can also wick up nasty flux components that will eventually eat the wire for lunch. 3) Crimping is dependent on the having the right cross-sectional area of metals with the right modulus inside the crimp die. The crimp dies were designed for copper wire, phosphor bronze terminals, etc. This does not mean they won't work with tin/lead in addition to the other metals inside, it just means that someone has to do a lot of homework to figure this out. Any takers? 4) I cannot find my IPC Handbook on counting. Someone please assist. This is beyond coffee, time to "do the Dew". Next time a design engineer asks why you don't tin wire before crimping, the best approach is to smile and simply say "Because". Engineers understand and readily accept this answer. I particularly appreciate it when manufacturing gives me this answer to a legitimate question. It shows that they've carefully thought through problem and they know I can't do anything about it. Did I tell you about the 200 pound Muskie I caught ice fishing this year? Regards, Seth Goodman Goodman Associates, LLC tel 608.833.9933 fax 608.833.9966 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------