Does anyone know of crimpers like these?

[Michael Hill]

http://www.tecratools.com/pages/tele...ics/39202l.gif

I know they are Thomas & Betts TBM25S, but they are on the rather pricey side. I'm looking to crimp 4 Ga. Wire by the way.

[Alex698]

If they are pricey, they MUST be fancy, actually they look to be used for some heavy duty wire/crimps. if all else fails you can always put it in your shop-vise and crank down!

-Alex

[anna~marie]

*drool* We have a pair like that and they work great

[Michael Hill]

I know they work great; that's why I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Alex698

If they are pricey, they MUST be fancy, actually they look to be used for some heavy duty wire/crimps. if all else fails you can always put it in your shop-vise and crank down!

-Alex

That's a much less than optimal solution. The whole point is to crimp the connector tightly in one spot so the wire is effectively too wide to fit through on either side of the crimp. That way, to pull the wire out you have to provide enough force to overcome friction and compress the wire enough to get through the smaller area. Squishing with a vise pretty much means the connector and wire are about the same cross section still, so all you have to do is overcome friction to pull the wire out. So basically, there's a reason everyone buys these expensive crimpers and doesn't just use a vise.

[Tytus Gerrish]

Cool! i want a pair.

[Jeremytice]

I use many crimpers on my electrical sub team but have not seen anything like that. It looks like they crimp very well.

[Gdeaver]

I can't find a link right now but there are dies that you can use in a vise for larger size crimps. Look at sites that sell welding wire and terminals. I have ones for 00. I think I paid about 6$.

[anna~marie]

A pair like this is also very handy

They're about $30 at Sears and one of our mentors swears by them

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by anna~marie

A pair like this is also very handy

They're about $30 at Sears and one of our mentors swears by them

Those are particularly good at crimping PWM cable pins.

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by anna~marie

A pair like this is also very handy

They're about $30 at Sears and one of our mentors swears by them

You can get a similar set from Jameco for about $10, or spend ~$40-$50 on the molex-branded version that does additional sizes.

[Cory]

We use a ratcheting pair similar to these ones for most of our crimping. They're a million times better than the standard crimpers you get at Osh, Home Depot, etc.

[lukevanoort]

This is what we use:

Much less than optimal. Whatever you get make sure it is very brightly colored (like neon green) or use some other method to make sure they are easy to find. I say this because the primary reason that we ended up using a swaging tool for ours was that it was so much easier to find than our crimpers, which kept getting lost.

[Mr.G]

I like these from McMasterCarr. The harder you hammer the tighter the connection


[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\oscar_filer\My Documents\My Pictures\crimper.JPG[/IMG]

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mike,
If there is only a few connections you need to make, try this...
Strip the insulation back until you can fully insert the wire. Then place the connector with the wire inserted into the corner of the jaws of a vice at a 45 degree angle. Position the connector such that the jaw corners will press together a little over half the diameter of the connector. Then tighten the jaws of the vise. You should now have a triangular shaped dimple in one side of the connecter. Now rotate the connector 180 degrees and reposition the connector in the corner of the vise jaw and tighten again. Test the wire by pulling and pushing, the wire should not move inside the connector body and there should be an "X" shaped crimp on the connector where the jaws overlapped. I suggest soldering for maximum reliability but be careful not to let the solder wick under the insulation, it will stiffen the wire and lead to early failure. Follow up with heatshrink to insulate the outside of the connector and make it long enough to cover about 1/2" of the wire insulation.
The pricey crimpers you mention in your post are the recommended style. They are pricey because they work and last long time.