Anyone else have one of these? I just got one for the kids, and Jeeze it makes an ugly crimp!
I like the inspectability of stamping a code into the crimp, and that it’s actually AWG size, not metric…
FWIW, I’ve been very happy with this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJXG3KM.
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I’ve had good luck with the Harbor Freight hy7draulic crimper - just ignore the wire “sizes” on the dies as somewhat bat poop crazy (7AWG?) and just fit the die to the lug regardless of the size marked on it.
I was going to get one of these or these for a personal project. The Iwis tool was the same as the one I borrowed from 118 or 324 to help a team re-crimp their battery cable at a local event.
I picked one of these up from Princess Auto this year and we were quite pleased with it. Appears to be the same re-branded generic model.
Definitely better than hammering battery lugs with one of these
It looks like the hydraulic version is the same as Harbor Freight sells. Back when I redid all the battery cables on 4241 (we actually had a 6ga cable that was damaged not at the ends but failed in the middle - probably from being caught in a mechanism at some point, and then just put back on the shelf), I cut open some of our existing crimps as well as the hydraulic crimps and was really impressed by the resulting hydraulic crimps. 100% - no individually distinguishable conductors at all - pretty much gas tight IMO - our old crimps had visible voids and gaps in the crimped area.
We’d been using one of the sort of Iwiss “style” crimpers (using it poorly and probably not for the sizes it was intended) and the resulting crimps done by us weren’t very good - I attribute it to the selection or usage of the tool and not the tool itself.
But in general, I’m pretty impressed by the hydraulic one you posted up. When I use it, I typically clamp the lower edge of the “C” at the top of the tool in a vise so I can really wail on it - I suppose you could use it “in situ” but it’s be more of a pain.
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We picked up a Thomas & Betts TBM45S tool this year (amazon link) and have quite enjoyed it. It’s a pleasure to use. Same idea with the rotating dies, but in a handheld tool that is not too hard to squeeze.
The inked stripes on each lug correspond to the locations where it should be crimped. I believe the 4AWG lugs we use need to be crimpled twice.
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OK, I have spent more on a crimper that did less (some Molex crimper unique to the connector series the customer wanted to use - something like $475 for that specific crimper).
That thing has enough leverage to get the job fully done then? That’s impressive. Very impressive.
If you drop the Harbor Freight-ish hydraulic crimper on your foot, it’s gonna ruin your week - you might shake it off with this crimper and that alone is a good thing…
Temco crimper users: which die do you use for #4? The specified one looks kinda small for the lug…
This is something I like very much with the one I linked before – it comes with many dies. For #4, I’d start with the 4+ die (which is only very slightly larger than the official #4). Yes, it looks small, but my experience has been these are spot on. If you see that the 4+ die had a small enough area that it made the corners pretty sharp (by forcing material all the way into the corners) and likely, even made small “ears” where the two halves of the die join, you are good. If not, drop down to the official #4. Of course, pull test. Do this with the wire and terminal you plan to use at least once for practice. Different terminals, and different wire, have slightly different cross-sectional area. Watch out for cheap terminals/wire, which tend to be undersized by this measure.
With the crimper I linked, the officially-sized dies have small recesses with the number embossed. When properly done, crimps will have raised imprints of the size number that have metal forced into them.
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We did the same thing as you described when making cables at work using the high strand-count cable (like welding cable) where the conductor OD was larger than for “normal” cable types.
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I recommend being very cautious about metric dies with AWG size wire. I wrote up the story of how this bit us this year in 6328’s build thread.
The TL;DR is we lost a main SB50 crimp thanks to a metric crimper, discovered there are surprisingly few true AWG crimp tools on the market, and ultimately bought the Temco TH0006 (similar to the one recommended above).
YMMV, of course - some metric tools might have better die options than ours did, for example.
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Possibly useful to know is that TEMCo sells direct with free shipping for cheaper than the price through Amazon. We bought a TEMCo TH0006 (slightly smaller version but still very capable of handling 4 or 6AWG) for $130 - it’s gone up slightly since then - and I see the TH0005 bought direct is $157.45.
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Absolutely - a lot of the import stuff out there is just marked crazy. I did some test crimps and actually cut them open to see what they looked like before deciding which die to use. It might have been overkill but I was coming off of a bunch of maybe not yet totally failed, but gonna soon from the looks of them, crimps done poorly with a cheap tool and probably the wrong size.
I was aiming for a final crimp along the lines described by @nuttle above and was able to select a die that did it to my satisfaction - regardless of what it was marked - ugh.
For those who already have a crimper, I went poking around TEMCo’s site, and discovered they sell individual dies as well: Search Result
Each product’s page gives its dimensions - if they fit my Titan crimper I’m hopeful they’ll upgrade my satisfaction level from “not unhappy” to “happy” with the resulting crimps. The x/x+ AWG options and the embossing of the die size on the completed crimp are both attractive features.
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I think the “+” sizes are to accommodate the conductors with a larger than nominal conductor OD like welding cable and DLO cable with the high strand-count.
I was also looking at the Temco website and noticed their shipping policy is to charge for shipping for all items and the rates are dependent on the weight. I was interested in the one @nuttle got from Amazon. It may actually work out about the same as buying directly from Temco and paying for shipping.
I noticed that as well - the overall crimper and die design is similar, very similar, to the hydraulic ones from Harbor Freight (and other places - seems to be somewhat of a generic design).
The dies are the interesting part here and I think I’ll pick up a set (about $67 or something like that). If they don’t fit the crimper I’ve got, I might just make some blocks and use them in my press instead.
Because they look much more legit than the crazy imported dies.
Please let us know if the Temco dies work with other hydraulic crimpers.
If there’s measurements you need, I’ve got a Temco sitting in my living room…
I was getting sloppy crimps using welding lugs and welding cable; these lugs are weirdly sloppy, despite coming from McMaster. I’ve ordered some other sizes to see if there are any that are actually a close fit on the #4 cable.
Hey, that sounds like my house!
I’ve got a set on way - if it’s not too much hassle, diam / length of the lugs and basic dimensions on the crimp block would interesting.
If these fit, I’ll throw away the HF dies - well, that’s a lie, I wouldn’t throw them out but relegate them to “bottom of the box” status.
I’ll grab some dimensions from the HF dies as well.