I'm confused as to why you would think about soldering a crimped connection
Because most crimped connections (at least in the hobbyist/DIY world) are crap. So after crimping, the only way they hold together is with solder.
There are no applications where this is better. Every connector manufacturer I know recommends against doing it. You can get away with doing it if you support the soldered end against vibration, but you should do that anyway.
It's really a training issue. People haven't been taught better and there is a lot of bad advice floating around hobbyist forums. I have only been using good crimping tools for the last few years since I started making a product with a 50-conductor harness. Until I spent $200 on a crimping tool and took the time to research how to make good crimps (Molex has an excellent document), I never realized how they were supposed to look. Now most of my tools are used, purchased at auctions of dead companies, but I have $400 crimping tools I paid pennies on the dollar for. Even so, I normally farm out crimping to a company that does it with automated machinery, better and faster than I can do by hand.
Most of the crimpers I use are $1000+. I was totally shocked at the expense when I first switched from home hobby to professional work, but the quality of the crimps is simply incomparable. Very much worth it for reliability.
I don't think I've seen a manual tool that was so expensive. Are you using some kind of pneumatic crimper? I thought of getting even better tools, but I found an outfit that will cut and strip wire to my spec. and crimp on any contacts I need, and they do it cheaper and faster than I can.
Yeah, this is the difference between the hobbyist world and the aerospace world. As I've said before, that's where I spend my time...But I can understand why people don't have crimp tools and dies at home because just the die for a certain type of crimp connection can be several hundred dollars. That's just not doable for the vast majority of hobbyists.
Thanks for pointing this other side of the equation out.
Because most crimped connections (at least in the hobbyist/DIY world) are crap. So after crimping, the only way they hold together is with solder.
There are no applications where this is better. Every connector manufacturer I know recommends against doing it. You can get away with doing it if you support the soldered end against vibration, but you should do that anyway.
It's really a training issue. People haven't been taught better and there is a lot of bad advice floating around hobbyist forums. I have only been using good crimping tools for the last few years since I started making a product with a 50-conductor harness. Until I spent $200 on a crimping tool and took the time to research how to make good crimps (Molex has an excellent document), I never realized how they were supposed to look. Now most of my tools are used, purchased at auctions of dead companies, but I have $400 crimping tools I paid pennies on the dollar for. Even so, I normally farm out crimping to a company that does it with automated machinery, better and faster than I can do by hand.