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Anyone know of a good type of electrical terminal crimpers from a reputable manufacturer?

The ones you find at Home Depot or Lowes are cheap, but they're simple lever systems for squishing the terminal collar, and don't do a particularly good job. (I just had a 12ga wire slide out of a ring terminal.)

I've seen more sophisticated ones with ratcheting linkage mechanisms where the force is nonlinear and increases towards the end of the crimp, but I'm not sure where to get one from a reputable manufacturer. The only one I could find from searching on line is this one from Neiko and I've never heard of them.

Jason S
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  • 59824-1 made by AMP is good for insulated terminals. It had never failed me. At the same time, it's hard to answer your question definitively without knowing the part number for the terminals that you're using. You can look up the terminals on the web. If the terminals come from a reputable mfg, they usually list the specific tool to crimp them with. – Nick Alexeev Nov 05 '13 at 20:41
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    Come on mods -- this isn't off topic -- electrical terminals are widely used, and crimpers are a common need. It's not like I'm asking for crimpers for Molex C-Grid series III contacts. (And that would be a valid question as well, if it were difficult to find the information on which crimpers to use.) – Jason S Nov 05 '13 at 22:41
  • I didn't vote to close this q. But, I can tell you my version of rationale behind this closure. Chat is, probably the best place to do this. I took a liberty to create a [room](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/11370/converstion-between-jason-and-nick). – Nick Alexeev Nov 05 '13 at 23:00
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    Presumably the question would be okay if it were changed to "What features should I look for in a crimper?"? – The Photon Nov 06 '13 at 01:15
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    so we're discouraged from discussing part recommendations for opamps, ADCs, etc?! How are novice engineers supposed to learn without finding out the experiences of others? I don't think this is the same category as the shopping recommendation "problem" in Jeff Atwood's blog. There are plenty of sources for consumer recommendations for electronics / cars / insurance companies etc. For electronics there ain't no such place... – Jason S Nov 06 '13 at 19:49

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Technically, this is a shopping question, but...

I just did a Google search for "ratchet crimper" and one of the first results was http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/GREENLEE-Ratchet-Crimper-4CN29, a top manufacturer of Electrician's tools, from a well-known retailer.

DoxyLover
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    re: "shopping" -- I'm not quite familiar with the standard used on this site. I tend to draw the line at "where to buy" vs. "what to buy" -- I won't ask "where to buy" questions but will ask "what to buy" as there is experience required to understand which components and tools have important features. – Jason S Nov 05 '13 at 20:23