These stupid crimps are doing my head in

[Spanky]

I went to the trouble of buying a crimp tool.
I'm crimping at 1. Before I can even get it in the tool, I have to squeeze it with long nosed pliers, because the things are too far apart.
Do I put 2 in the crimping tool as well? The tool has two apertures, I'm damned if I can see a difference between them.
Also, do I just poke the crimped wire into the housing manually? I've tried that, it doesn't seem to work.

 

[big10p]

1 grips the bare wire; 2 grips the insulation. Cheap crimpers are crap. I ended up getting a Japanese one (I forget the name) which cost about 50 quid but is great.

 

[bones]

Show us your crimpers !!!
I use a set of old RS molex crimpers, it has 3 sizes for the wire crimp and the insulation crimper is at the end of it.

 

[favouredson]

A decent crimping tool with interchangeable jaws would do the job with ease. The correct jaws will crimp both parts tightly and simultaneously.
Mine also has a ratchet action which comes in very handy when doing any heavy duty crimping.

 

[Spanky]

 

[Ace`]

I put the crimp in the crimpers close them just enough to bend the outter pins into a circle and hold the crimp in place then feed the wire through the correct amount. So the outter crimp grips the plastic coating on the wire and the inner one crimps the bare wire.

There's so many crimper tools and no matter how many you own it never seems to be enough, I went down the rabbit hole recently on a massive eevblog post and ended up buying this set. It's the best crimper tool I've bought to date and seems to do pretty much everything I've thrown at it.

 

[bones]

Nice set Ace decent price too, I use ratchet crimpers for the red,blue and yellow spade/ring etc crimps and have a set for cctv style connections. Tried ratchet for this style of crimp but returned to the pictured set. Prefer the control the non ratchet gives in that you can nibble it in the larger section should the crimp be too splayed to fit in the correct one. Personal preference I suppose and I use them so little that I made do so to speak. If I had hundreds to do I'd probably nip all the crimps 1st and get the ratchet you've shown.

 

[favouredson]

Almost, this is my set which I have had for nearly 10 years now.
It has been used for roughly 10% arcade related crimping and 90% non-arcade related crimping.

 

[John Bennett]

I'm naughty and end up putting a bit of solder on crimps sometimes to be double sure.

It's not going in an aircraft, so I let myself off.

 

[Del Griffith]

I'm naughty and end up putting a bit of solder on crimps sometimes to be double sure.

It's not going in an aircraft, so I let myself off.

Haha i'll confess i'm guilty of doing the same. I know it's not the way but they never pull back out

 

[big10p]

Haha i'll confess i'm guilty of doing the same. I know it's not the way but they never pull back out

When ever I tried that, the solder just seemed to open up the crimp. Haha.

 

[Del Griffith]

When ever I tried that, the solder just seemed to open up the crimp. Haha.

Yeah it's not the most advisable way. I just brush a little liquid flux on and let a tiny bit of solder flow in. I've never had any issues but probably a 100 reasons why you shouldn't 😂

 

[eliotcole]

These are those naaaaaaaaaaaaasty j-thingies, aren't they?

I went to the trouble of buying a crimp tool.
I'm crimping at 1. Before I can even get it in the tool, I have to squeeze it with long nosed pliers, because the things are too far apart.
Do I put 2 in the crimping tool as well? The tool has two apertures, I'm damned if I can see a difference between them.
Also, do I just poke the crimped wire into the housing manually? I've tried that, it doesn't seem to work.

View attachment 42754

Don't the official crimps do everything needed?
Also ... aren't they ... like ... just super accessible, anyway?

https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/filter/crimpers-applicators-presses/crimpers-applicators-presses/228?s=N4IgjCBcoCwOxVAYygMwIYBsDOBTANCAPZQDaIAzAJwxUAMVIAuoQA4AuUIAyuwE4BLAHYBzEAF9CFCgFZEIFJAw4CxMpRkAmOHRjM2nSD37CxkkFQoRoCtFjyESkcmDoA2WZpCEqM3XJ9NNyoADm8QEPcYPRYQDi5eQVEJQgBaa2Q7FUd1GBk5JnEioA

😏

 

[eliotcole]

I would tend to be closer to the 'solder' side of things, and remove any crimping stuff, and just solder my wires/contacts to the pin/sockets before getting to a header / plug thing ...

---

This does all sound like teenagers talking about dance crazes ...

I don't like crimping ... I prefer to flux and solder

ELIOT DABS AND RUNS OUT

 

[Del Griffith]

I would tend to be closer to the 'solder' side of things, and remove any crimping stuff, and just solder my wires/contacts to the pin/sockets before getting to a header / plug thing ...

---

This does all sound like teenagers talking about dance crazes ...

I don't like crimping ... I prefer to flux and solder

ELIOT DABS AND RUNS OUT

Know i've admitted to doing it but if you're just getting in to it, I'd get a decent crimper and practice until you're a jedi master. If done properly they don't need any solder.

If you do resort to solder only do it with non insulated crimps. The insulated ones can't really be soldered because you can't get to the right bit so you'd end up with solder in the connector end. Plugging in and out a few times could end up with cracked solder. If it's something with power going through it cracked solder could likely end up with it arcing which definitely wouldn't be good. The advice from further up this thread is best.

 

[Spanky]

Thanks y'all, plenty to think about.

 

[Sp33dFr34k]

1 grips the bare wire; 2 grips the insulation. Cheap crimpers are crap. I ended up getting a Japanese one (I forget the name) which cost about 50 quid but is great.

Hozan P-706?

 

[big10p]

Hozan P-706?

Yes, that's the one.

 

[John Bennett]

Yeah it's not the most advisable way. I just brush a little liquid flux on and let a tiny bit of solder flow in. I've never had any issues but probably a 100 reasons why you shouldn't 😂

I'd assume some sectors favour crimps as you can flex the cable more, whereas solder might make a rigid point that could snap when flexed a lot . But inside your own arcade machine anything goes .

 

[Spanky]

Does it matter which way up they go in? I presume I'm supposed to just poke the thing in to the rear of the housing. Well, that's not working. Am I supposed to prod something with a pointy thing?