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Unread 07-02-2017, 10:53
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FRC #0095 (The Grasshoppers)
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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.
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