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-   -   Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154883)

efoote868 07-02-2017 10:32

Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
Last night I worked with 3 students to troubleshoot a problem with our practice robot. Part of the problem was either rushed or novice electrical work on the practice robot, which is understandable if they never learned properly.
Since I wanted them to learn, I made them redo it. Another problem became apparent almost immediately, our electrical tools are in a bad state and our students need training.

When I asked them to cut and strip a wire, they grabbed this type of tool (for some reason we have 4-5 pairs of these ::ouch:: ):
https://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-1161...dp/B0007W6JYC/
I was able to find our 1 multi-tool to show them how that tool will nick or cut the strands of copper, and why that's undesirable.

Searching through old threads, I've found quite a few generic "what tools should we have for a new team", but I'd like to focus on nicer to have electrical tools.
Specifically, if you had the Cadillac of an electrical tool kit, what would be in it?

Points of consideration:
Where did you buy your tool, or is there a specific brand you trust?
Would you recommend a preferred multi-tool (cut, strip, crimp all in one)?
What about just wire stripping for wiring an entire robot drive train?
Would you use a dedicated wire cutting tool?
Self-Adjusting Wire Stripper or Wire Stripping Pliers?
Is there a favorite crimping tool?
Recommended soldering iron?
Which of these do you bring to competition, what do you leave at home?

2nd part of the discussion, do you have any type of system in place for protecting your electrical tools from novice abuse? How often do you have to replace a tool?

Related threads:
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...d.php?t=124116
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...hreadid=123332
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...d.php?t=130701
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...d.php?t=152992
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...d.php?t=142654

JamesCH95 07-02-2017 10:53

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
We buy from McMaster because of their customer service, fast shipping, and good products.

Multi-tools compromise somewhere. I don't want compromises in my electrical system. Skip them.

We've been setting up our electrical supplies for the last two years with nice tools and consumables.

Get a few different sized wire cutters. Side-cuts work well for 16AWG and smaller, Lineman's pliers for 14-10awg, and curved cutters for 6awg.

Never had good luck with self-adjusting wire strippers, do not recommend.


Non-insulated terminal crimpers.
I prefer to use non-insulated terminals. As brands change the insulation thickness changes, which will impact the crimp performance significantly. Non-insulated terminals don't suffer like insulated terminals do in this regard. We always insulate with electrical tape or (ideally) heat shrink, which keeps the termination together robustly and has a smaller form factor than insulated terminals. Plus they are cheap! We use a hammer crimper for 6awg terminals and have had great success with it. We've sectioned terminations made with our hammer crimper to find solid cold-welding of the copper strands to each other and the terminal and load-tested them to ~300lbf pullout strength.

I have an older version of this soldering station.
Wire Strippers My team uses Weller stations. Get something like these, learn/teach how to maintain an oxide-free soldering iron, and life will be great.

We bring everything to competition.

pfreivald 07-02-2017 10:55

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
I highly recommend getting a couple of these for stripping wire. You'll never go back to any other way.

https://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-1...dp/B00BC39YFQ/

We have an old analogue Hakko soldering iron rather than the new fancy digital one, but it works great after many years. (Being able to go up to 900 F is fantastic for soldering 6 AWG wire.)

https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-...dp/B00ANZRT4M/

MrForbes 07-02-2017 11:08

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
That Klein stripper looks like the way to to. At home, I use the awful one shown in the original post...but I've been using that style for about 45 years, so I've finally got the hang of it. And I use a crimper that is not a multi tool, but it is also not specifically made for insulated terminals...yet it crimps very well.

At school...the electrical folks usually use a multi tool to strip, or a smaller "sized" stripper. And I finally got them to use the same type crimper that I use at home :)

As usual, the tools are not quite as important as the training. Skilled workers can do a decent job with lousy tools, but an unskilled worker can mess up the job with the best of tools. The best bet is decent tools, and good training. No need to go crazy on the tools, though.

jimbo493 07-02-2017 11:29

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
In my 4 years in FRC I grew to use a certain set of tools, I'm not saying that these are the best in general, but what I prefer as far as tools.

Wire Strippers:
here

Flush Cutting Wire Cutters:
here

Good pair of dikes:
here

Wago insertion tool for the PDP(These things are amazing, its 1000 times better than a screwdriver):
here

Ferrules and this crimper:
here

Good set of small screwdrivers for electrical only:
here

Crimpers(Ratcheting kind, with die sets for whatever crimps you use):
here

Soldering Iron(Chisel Tip):
here

Hakko Iron Tip Cleaner:
here

D_Price 07-02-2017 12:02

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
When I asked them to cut and strip a wire, they grabbed this type of tool (for some reason we have 4-5 pairs of these ::ouch:: ):
https://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-1161...dp/B0007W6JYC/ <---Oh nooo we used to have them. Once we bought new tools I immediately threw them away.


Searching through old threads, I've found quite a few generic "what tools should we have for a new team", but I'd like to focus on nicer to have electrical tools.
Points of consideration:
Where did you buy your tool, or is there a specific brand you trust? We buy a ton of equipment from Automation Direct and Klein Tools. https://www.automationdirect.com/adc...Crimping_Tools
Would you recommend a preferred multi-tool (cut, strip, crimp all in one)? Yes the VDV226-011-SEN - Ratcheting Modular Crimper Klein makes. We have 2 and love them. http://www.kleintools.com/catalog/ca...rimperstripper
What about just wire stripping for wiring an entire robot drive train? Works for our typical wiring on our robot and does it well. https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/k...er-cuts-nmd-90
Would you use a dedicated wire cutting tool? We would but why when we have a multi-tool
Self-Adjusting Wire Stripper or Wire Stripping Pliers? Wire stripping pliers, it is my preference; but to each their own
Is there a favorite crimping tool? Yep these guys. I absolutely love the ratcheting crimpers. https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/r...heting-crimper
Recommended soldering iron? Went with a Hakko this year and works out great. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...dtag 29833-20
Which of these do you bring to competition, what do you leave at home? I take everything to competition you never know when you are going to need something and forgot you left it at home.
Also as an extra tool, for a tester I would not go any other brand than Fluke. I use them for work testing wire day in and out and would not go any other. http://en-us.fluke.com/products/elec...al-tester.html

2nd part of the discussion, do you have any type of system in place for protecting your electrical tools from novice abuse? How often do you have to replace a tool? We have a specific electrical tools cabinet separate from the main tool cabinet. I try to stay away from replacing a tool for about 4-5 years if I can get away with it unless we receive a voucher.

Hope this helps.

efoote868 07-02-2017 17:26

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
One of the tools my team has that is very useful (in the right hands) is this sort of adjustable wire stripper:
https://www.amazon.com/ProsKit-902-2...dp/B00OSM9B24/

If you set it correctly, it makes stripping lots a particular wire size very quick and easy. Unfortunately, similar to the basic wire strippers I linked above (which also have an adjustment), students on my team don't seem to use the stopper. Which is very frustrating.

Thanks for all the links so far. Interesting to see people's preferences.

frcguy 07-02-2017 18:05

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
Highly recommend this soldering station from Weller: https://www.amazon.com/Weller-WESD51...eywords=wesd51. I have one, the team has a few, and it's high performance and affordable.

In terms of measuring equipment, you can't go wrong with Fluke. They've been on top of the electrical instrumentation world since 1953. We love our Fluke 115 we got in FIRST Choice, and they also give away the 117 to FIRST teams in FIRST Choice.

Donut 07-02-2017 19:31

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
I am going to third (or fourth) the Katapult style wire strippers, love the auto adjusting capability of them.

I'm a big fan of the the Eclipse Pro'sKit Ergo crimpers, you can get them with Anderson Power Pole crimps but can get many other die sets which allow you to do insulated terminals and PWM crimps with the same crimper. They are similar to the West Mountain Radio crimpers that are referred on older CD threads.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01DB...TWL&ref=plSrch

Brady makes my favorite wire labeler, but the cartridge refills are expensive:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IE...ID=91GjQdZmKkL

arjunanand23 08-02-2017 08:22

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
I love these strippers because they are very efficient and very easy to use with many different wire gauges.

https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-45-292-Stripmaster-Wire
Stripper/dp/B000NBA8GM/ref=sr_1_30?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1486560073&sr =1-30&keywords=wire+strippers

Also, if you absolutely have to, you can take a screwdriver and bend it in the form of a normal wago instead of purchasing one. I also find it helpful to have a good pair of wire cutters around as well.

npetrie3 08-02-2017 09:19

We just purchased a Hakko-FX888D and it is one of the best purchases made on our team. There are better versions of it but it's great for FRC teams. Extremely fast warmup times and lots of settings. Xcelite makes good wire strippers that you can set depth. I use those at work. Definitely get a good kit of ferrules and a heat gun with some heatshrink. Label your wires to make troubleshooting easier. And make clean wiring using sleepving, zip ties, and cable tie anchors from McMaster (or anywhere else).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

efoote868 08-02-2017 09:38

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Donut (Post 1641808)
Brady makes my favorite wire labeler, but the cartridge refills are expensive:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IE...ID=91GjQdZmKkL

What size labels are you using?
One thing I really want my team to do is label their wiring to a schematic. I've used Brady at work in the past (lots of lamacoids, some wire labeling). I'm actually really surprised the handheld unit costs less than $100...

electroken 08-02-2017 10:07

Re: Recommended Electrical (Hand) Tools, Best Practices
 
This battery cable connector crimper works very well for us:

https://www.amazon.com/Crimper-Crimp...+cable+crimper

...and it's impossible to beat for $24.


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