Hi Jason:

You're probably working with tinsel wire, commonly used in phone handset cords. 
  This stuff is impossible to solder.  Need a special crimp terminal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel_wire

I found this one, but there are others:
http://catalog.tycoelectronics.com/TE/bin/TE.Connect?C=1&M=BYPN&TCPN=61684-3&RQPN=61684-3

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Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.precisionclock.com
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Can someone tell me the proper name for these terminals:

http://nixietube.info/terminals1.jpg
http://nixietube.info/terminals2.jpg

They're an insulation-piercing crimp terminal for stranded wire, that
can be directly soldered to a PCB.  I haven't been able to find
anything like them in various catalogs.

Bigger picture: I need to attach the other end of this cable to an
inline 2.5mm phone jack, and I'm going to need to do this at least
200 times.  Trying to strip & solder the wire isn't working very well
- the wire strands are very unruly once stripped, and the joint
breaks too easily (the insulation has much greater tensile strength
than the wire itself!).  I was thinking that crimping on terminals
like these, and then soldering them to the phone jack's lugs, would
avoid these problems.
       Jason Harper
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