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Crimper for Spade Lugs

Started by HarrySmith, January 07, 2011, 09:28:34 AM

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wds

Great discussion about these crimpers.  I jumped on Ebay and purchased one of those Radio Shack crimpers for $3.50 plus shipping.  I've purchased some of the piercing lugs from Phoneco for 20 cents each, but a quantity 100 for $15 seems a little pricey.  The radio shack lugs are a little small for the cloth cords - I like the larger ones that PhoneCo sells - Item # lug8 I think.  If anyone knows of a cheaper source for these lugs please let me know.
Dave

wds

Maybe we should start a contest to see who can get those crimpers for the lowest price?
Dave

Phonesrfun

By the way, I don't do a whole lot of fabric cords, and I do a lot of the smaller ones for projects and for cord repair.  The larger ones do not look as good as the smaller ones when they are finished because of the way the spades are made and I believe because of the shape of the recess in the crimper itself.

From the pictures I posted, you can see that the red plastic-insulated small wire came out picture perfect.  The crimper nicely surrounds the wire with the tips side edges which are designed to wrap around the wire and interlace like you would from interlacing your fingers together from both hands.

Not that good for the larger ones, but they are functional, and still look far better than using a hardware store crimper and the spades with the plastic colored bases.

Remember the secret is to put the spade in the die with the open end of the tip base pointing into the die's recess.  This allows the U shaped die to fold the metal base around the wire.  This needs to be done for both sizes of wire.  The recess in the die for the larger wire looks more like a very small w rather than a U.

Practice and see if you cannot get the smaller wires to look like the one below.

-Bill G

TelePlay

#18
I've had that Radio Shack crimper for more years than the internet's been around (so I did get it cheap) but it wasn't until I saw the pictures yesterday of how to put the spade lug into the crimper opening downward toward the crimper, and then putting the wire in before doing the crimp did I finally get a great crimp.

For years I've been putting the lug with the opening up and getting lousy crimps. Thanks for the pictures showing how to use the crimper, instructions that didn't come with the crimper.

Crimped four lugs last night onto solid wire and each crimp was perfect and all connections were fine.

Thanks for the lesson.

xzzx-crimper-xzzx

Phonesrfun

Wow, I am very happy to have been of service!

-Bill G

Tribune

#20
$3.50 for the crimpers at Radioshack!? Sounds like we're getting a bum deal here in Canada (again  ::))

Radioshack closed their doors a couple of years ago here and became The Source by Circuit City. Their crimpers, which make excellent crimps on spade lugs by the way, retail for CDN$15.99!

Nexxtech Phone Installation Tool Item # 6400410

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/product.aspx?language=en-CA&product=6400410  ( dead link 8-15-17 )

I have found though that when crimping British GPO cords, the conductors are very fine and it can be pretty hit and miss to get contact even when the insulating jacket appears to be pierced. Normally strip about 1/8 of an inch and fold back on it self before crimping to ensure a successful contact.
Mark Furze - TCI, ATCA

To miss-quote "Bones" McCoy . . .
                     "darn it Jim - I'm a doctor, not a telephone engineer!"

Wallphone

Harry & WDS2185, How is your new crimper tool working? I got mine for $3.50 so I'm tied with WDS for low offer. I think that ESalter was right about these. They don't seem to be made for what we want to do. They are made for this app > http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102600&clickid=prod_cs < just like ESalter said. My crimps came out terrible. It's kinda like putting a round peg in a square hole. So I modified mine with a rotary burr. I did one "socket" with a .070" and the other with a .100" burr. The ideal size burr to use would be around .075" but I get nice crimps now so that is all that matters. I put the radius on both halves of the tool so now it rolls the terminal shut the way it should. I attached a pic of my modifications.

Phonesrfun

Doug:

A few weeks ago when this topic was active, I thought of doing that modification, at least to the larger size terminals, but I don't have the tool to do it, and I soon forgot about it.  Your modification looks like you succeeded.

Do you have a crimp example of the larger spade?  I was looking at some cords I got from OPW with the same spade that they sell individually, and there is definitely a difference between how they come out of my crimper and how OPW's cords look.  I know OPW crimps their cords in a pneumatic tool, and they don't use the hand crimper.

I have said in an earlier post that I am most happy with the smaller crimps my hand crimper produces.  I am somewhat satisfied, and I get great electrical results with the larger ones most all the time, but the finished product does not look as good as I would like.

Can you post a photo of examples of crimps with your modifications?

-Bill
-Bill G

Wallphone

Bill, I don't have any of the larger spades yet. I might have to modify it again when I get some. When you posted your tutorial/pictorial you didn't say which part of your tool that you used. It looks like your 22/26 is already rounded. Was that the one you used? I will post some before & after modification pics later. I have to go shovel some of that white stuff we got last night. Not as bad as they predicted, maybe about 6".

ESalter

When I'm at work tomorrow(snow day today), I'll take a picture of that type of crimp these tools are "trying" to make just for comparison's sake.   Hope everyone out there is enjoying the snow!  ---Eric

TelePlay

I guess all crimpers that look similar are not alike.

This is the crimper I've had for years that I got from Radio Shack so probably paid a pretty penny for it 15 to 20 years ago. It was made for RS in Tiawan. It has a wire cutter between the handles and the joint and can crimp 5 different sized items.

I found the 22-26 space works well on spade lugs I get from Radio Shack, as long as I put the open side of the lug down as I learned from tutorial pics uploaded earlier in this topic thread.

It might be as real phones went away, they discontinued this style of crimper and now we are just lucky they still sell the spade lugs. And I don't even know what a D-pin is so it must be computer related.

I searched the internet and found a very similar crimper from what seems to be a Tiawan supplier at this link. It's the 602B.

http://tw101158419.trustpass.alibaba.com/productshowimg/104932788-100779784/CRIMPING_TOOL.html


There are several crimpers on that link but can't read the sizes.

jsowers

Doug, I checked Radio Shack's website and they no longer sell the spade lug crimpers, so John is correct. The crimper you have is for D-sub pins, which are in 25 or 9-pin connectors in a parallel or serial computer cable.

The crimper that John (TelePlay) posted in the picture is exactly what I got from Radio Shack once upon a time, probably six years ago. It should work great on spade lugs. Hope you can find one.
Jonathan

Wallphone

Thanks for the info John and Jonathan. John's crimper is the same model that Bill has. Here is a pic of what I'm getting after the modification. The one in the middle is before the change. The other two aren't as good as the one Bill did but it could be the wire size and the Radio Shack terminals, but they make contact with the wire and they look better than what I was getting using pliers.

HarrySmith

I used the crimper for the first time yesterday, it worked well. The spade was kinda stuck in it afterward but it came out with a pair of plers and looked well.
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Phonesrfun

On the small ones, mine always stick in there too, but I can always pop them out with my fingers.

-Bill G