Crimping - Help Appreciated

[GE90]

Hi All

I need to make up some wiring adapters requiring crimping non-insulated 6mm wide female spade connectors on one end, and connector pins the other. Are my red wire strippers likely to work, or do I need different jaws on my blue crimpers (if so, which ones please)?

Cheers!

[PaulV]

You can do it with those, it just won't be great as you will not get the shape correct..

Look for a set of SN-48B - I have a pair and they work okay for me.

[cliffords]

You can get a very professional outcome with the blue ones BUT you have to get them the correct way round in the tool.

Hunt some utube videos, there are lots that show you how

[Tye Green]

Iwiss IWS-1442L tool

I’ve yet to find a non-insulated crimp connector that it doesn’t crimp perfectly (as perfectly as any tool of this type is capable of!)

[E-bmw]

cliffords said:

You can get a very professional outcome with the blue ones BUT you have to get them the correct way round in the tool.

Ignore this advice, they are for the insulated crimps.

[GE90]

Thanks everyone. So the red ones should work well?

Cheers.

[steveo3002]

ideally these or similar if you want a nice crimp

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403662911219?

[cliffords]

E-bmw said:

cliffords said:

You can get a very professional outcome with the blue ones BUT you have to get them the correct way round in the tool.

Ignore this advice, they are for the insulated crimps.

The blue tool works for both types. Depending on the way you put them in the tool. I use the tool each week for either type in my profession as an auto electrician.

[steveo3002]

you can squash them on with pliers or a hammer , depends if you want them right or dont care

plenty on youtube to back up the correct crimpers if you search non insulated crimps

[E-bmw]

cliffords said:

E-bmw said:

cliffords said:

You can get a very professional outcome with the blue ones BUT you have to get them the correct way round in the tool.

Ignore this advice, they are for the insulated crimps.

The blue tool works for both types. Depending on the way you put them in the tool. I use the tool each week for either type in my profession as an auto electrician.

No problem, just remind me where you are & I will make sure I go elsewhere.

[Tye Green]

There are problems with nearly all crimp tools.

Crimp terminals are designed to crimp the conductor (obviously!) and also the section which hasn t been stripped of the insulation - which, of course, is a larger diameter. Observing the crimp connector there is typically a step at the point where the insulation should still be present and the pair of legs for this section are longer to wrap around a greater diameter. These connectors are of a generic nature and are usually vaguely described as suitable for e.g 0.75 - 1mm CSA cable but what if the cable you are crimping is outside this range?, and there is never any detail about the overall diameter. Sometimes it s also required that a silicone grommet must be fitted to the cable for insulation purposes so that the longer legs have an even bigger diameter to wrap around.

Also, different connectors have different section lengths of the wire-crimp part compared to the insulation-crimp section.

Thus, any tool which claims to successfully crimp both the wire and the insulation in the same stroke must have been optimised for that particular connector, and that consideration alone would render it ineffective on other connectors or even those described as the same but supplied from a different source . You may get lucky with any of those tools which boast 3 or 4 jaws and claim to fit everything but it s unlikely and even after you have messed with the twirly sprocket thing to adjust the pressure or clamp setting you will have wasted several connectors.

The Iwiss tool I mentioned above solves all these problems by having lots different sized but short jaws so it crimps the wire and the insulation in two separate operations and each can be tailored precisely to the size of the wire, its insulation, and the connector .

I own about 15 different crimping pliers and there s usually one of them that will flit any connector and make a decent job but it s usually a trial and error which is worth doing if there s lots to do but for small quantities or if there s no spare connectors so you can t afford to ruin one, the Iwiss 1442L is the choice.

Edited by Tye Green on Sunday 8th June 19:27

Edited by Tye Green on Sunday 8th June 19:42

[GreenV8S]

Tye Green said:

The Iwiss tool I mentioned above solves all these problems by having lots different sized but short jaws so it crimps the wire and the insulation in two separate operations and each can be tailored precisely to the size of the wire, its insulation, and the connector .

My preferred tool for uninsulated terminals is a different brand and ratcheted and so on, but has similar jaw shapes. I think this is the way to go. Even with these tools, I find it's critical to get the terminal exactly centered for the ears to fold over properly, and really fiddly to do that with some terminals. Where possible I'll use terminals which are already formed into a ring, instead of those open ears. It's surprisingly difficult to find this style of generic quarter inch spade terminals, and I've never found a decent quality supply for the smaller sizes and more specialised terminals.

I dislike those generic insulated spade connectors because it's so hard to tell how good the crimp quality is, and I don't trust them to get the right pressure when crimping through a layer of plastic. I think there is a ton of generic looking plastic insulated spade terminals on the market which are designed to look like good quality terminals rather than be good quality terminals.

[SystemOfAFrown]

GE90 said:

Thanks everyone. So the red ones should work well?

Cheers.

They should work acceptably on the part that crimps onto the copper provided one of the dies on that tool is the correct size. You will have to perform two separate crimp operations, and since the insulation crimp has longer "legs" to fold over it might not form correctly, but you'll have to suck it and see. The correct crimp tool for this termination will have dies with two different profiles, one for the insulation crimp and one for the actual wire and both are formed simultaneously.

[dhutch]

steveo3002 said:

ideally these or similar if you want a nice crimp

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403662911219?

Agree!

And then, if you can help it, never use pre-insulated crimps aver again! lol.

[geeman237]

I’ve got these and they work well. Just got to take your time aligning the connectors in the jaws.

[GreenV8S]

dhutch said:

never use pre-insulated crimps aver again! lol.

Amen!

[Belle427]

Must admit I have never had an issue with pre insulated and they have been used in electrical control panels and on large motors etc for over 30 years.
Yes the quality of them vary and you have to use a good ratchet crimper but personally speaking I dont have a problem with them apart from looking a bit crap.
Maybe not the best thing to use on a car though.

[Griffith4ever]

E-bmw said:

cliffords said:

E-bmw said:

cliffords said:

You can get a very professional outcome with the blue ones BUT you have to get them the correct way round in the tool.

Ignore this advice, they are for the insulated crimps.

The blue tool works for both types. Depending on the way you put them in the tool. I use the tool each week for either type in my profession as an auto electrician.

No problem, just remind me where you are & I will make sure I go elsewhere.

Nice, you get solid advice from someone in the trade with experience, you tell others to ignore him, he corrects you, then you insult him. And you wonder why a lot of helpful people here give up.

FYI (well, not "Your" info, you are not listening) I use about five different ratchet tools in small industry and several of them can be used for several unintended uses, as they often are shaped very similarly, and using a smaller jaw for an insulated terminal on a non insulated terminal can work very well. 12 years manufacturing. Not a single reported connector falling off.

I've actually found that old fashioned wire stripper crimping can sometimes outperform using a specific spade criming tool, as they all seem to vary a bit.

Edited by Griffith4ever on Tuesday 17th June 07:58

[dhutch]

Belle427 said:

Must admit I have never had an issue with pre insulated and they have been used in electrical control panels and on large motors etc for over 30 years.
Yes the quality of them vary and you have to use a good ratchet crimper but personally speaking I dont have a problem with them apart from looking a bit crap.
Maybe not the best thing to use on a car though.

Its certainly true that with a good crimp, and a well setup crimper, you can get reasonable results. Its also true they are very handy and commonly used.

That said, you would never see a professional loom manufactured using them.

[Griffith4ever]

dhutch said:

Belle427 said:

Must admit I have never had an issue with pre insulated and they have been used in electrical control panels and on large motors etc for over 30 years.
Yes the quality of them vary and you have to use a good ratchet crimper but personally speaking I dont have a problem with them apart from looking a bit crap.
Maybe not the best thing to use on a car though.

Its certainly true that with a good crimp, and a well setup crimper, you can get reasonable results. Its also true they are very handy and commonly used.

That said, you would never see a professional loom manufactured using them.

largely because they are bulky, and mainly because non insulated terminals , in bulk, come on stamp-pressed rolls and can be fed into a machine.

We use insulated terminals simply because they have proven reliable, and easy for workers to use. We cover them and a small part of the cable with adhesive heat shrink to hide them. We tug test every one and they hold well, and reliably.

We also use various non insulated terms, but they require more care and time to crimp properly. Often we have a dedicated tool for them - Amphenol AT series is one example.