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Best crimper for uninsulated terminals

Cole2534

Diamond
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
What's the best crimper for this type of connection? Ideally something moderately priced and not the mickey mouse red/blue/yellow thingy.
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Not the best by any means, but you can spend $200, $400, and more. I have used these Vaco crimpers for many years, for both professional and personal work and have never had a bad crimp. And the handles are nicely padded which is great if you are going to spend hours crimping.

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What I look for in an inexpensive crimper for the un-insulated wire terminals is the type of jaw that these have.

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In this closeup you can see the bottom jaw in the photo is where the split side of the connector goes. It fits closely and prevents that seam from opening. The top jaw pushes the metal of the connector into the wire exactly enough to create a gas tight joint so it will not pull out or corrode. There are more expensive tools and dies that make a different style of crimp, but these have worked for many thousands of connectors for me.

Another thing that I look for in any crimping tool is a positive stop. A positive stop tells you that enough pressure has been applied but it also prevents you from applying too much. If the pressure is too little, the wire can just pull out. If the pressure is too much, then the wire will be crushed too far and it can and often does then break at the point where the crimp starts. The correct pressure is a must and this tool tells you that when the rear-most point of the jaws, near the soft plastic handles, comes together with a click.

It has been a while since I purchased them, but I believe they were about $20 or $25 back then. Several, perhaps many companies make similar ones. I like to stick to the known, name brands, not the unknown imports.

Vaco is a good brand. After 30 or more years of use, mine have a slightly loose rivet holding the halves together. This is probably more due to my using them to cut small screws to length than for their use in crimping. They still work well for both these purposes. The wire stripper section never was any good and has become almost totally useless with this wear. The tool of this type of construction with the best wire stripper I have is by AMP. Mine is about 40+ years old and will still strip solid wire - not so much with stranded. But then, I have multiple wire strippers which I usually use.

Other good brands include: 3M, AMP, Amphenol, Belden, Cinch, Greenlee, ITT, Klein, Molex, Switchcraft, Weidmuller, and more. Stay away from obvious Chicom or unknown or house brand tools in local hardware stores or unknown, internet sellers. And I do not know if all of the above companies make this style of tool. Good places to purchase them would be McMaster, Grainger, DigiKey, Mouser, Newark, and other electronic suppliers.
 
I've been using my Knipex ferrule crimpers to good effect but it's not ideal. They have a similar jaw profile to what you suggest.

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Lineman's pliers with built-in crimpers work great for non-insulated stuff. Or insulated terminals too wherever the insulation factor doesn't make a lick of difference, which I find is much more often the case than not.

Klein is the way to go. There is a reason people in the trades still call lineman's pliers 'Kleins'. Oil them once in a while and they'll stand up to years and years and years of cutting MC cable and small machine screws. Southwire stuff seems okay too. Avoid Ideal tools like the plague; everything they make is utter garbage.

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I have never liked the crimpers that have the crimping section between the handles. They require you to pass the handle over the job which can be very frustrating in tight quarters.
 
I have one of these, bought many years ago, and made by Buchanan, the inventor as I recall. Works very well. But not really for installation of in-line barrel splices. Buchanan still makes these, but far more complicated models intended for production.

Buchanan's patents have long since expired, and there are many makers of the original design:

4-Way Crimping Tool AWG 22-10
 
My 40 year old ones are from Walsal Conduits, who no longer exist in the form that they were. Befroe that I used AMP ones. The important part of both is that they have compound leverage and a ratchet, so you can get surricient leverage and you can't release them until the crimp is fully formed. In both cases the crimping pliers were used with crimps made by the plier's manufacturer.

Pliers types are a liability when crimping connections for things like power station current transformers that can have an open circuit voltage of 5000V and 5A current, which will need demagnetisation and recalibration if they are accidentally open circuited.
 
What's the best crimper for this type of connection? Ideally something moderately priced and not the mickey mouse red/blue/yellow thingy.
d7d222778191c98ddd161ea62c2a446a.jpg


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The red/blue/yellow color code jaw tool is not strong enough to bend the metal. That lug has .050 thick rolled pieces. The insulated connector lugs
are about 1/3 that thickness. Those thick connectors like this one I usually solder to or use small screws and nuts. If you crimp then ...

https://www.globaltestsupply.com/pd...ply.com/2006-b/datasheet/2006-b-datasheet.pdf
 
I'd like to put out there as well, the leverage is outstanding. There's no need to have to squeeze as had as possible, especially on cheap butt splices...it will literally tear right through the cheap plastic. This is nice because it's easy on the hands.
 








 
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