Discuss Ferrule crimp tools part deux in the Electrical Tools and Products area at ElectriciansForums.net

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pc1966

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We often see folk asking about which crimp tool to buy/use so I decided to round up my collection and put them to the test. Ladies and gentlemen, here are the usual suspects:Ferrule crimp tools part deux ferrule-crimp-tools - EletriciansForums.net
Seems I cant post after the image? From the left we have:
 
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First test was with 10mm tri-rated wire, fine stranded and all but the SWA tool could do this:

Ferrule crimp tools part deux 10mm-ferrules - EletriciansForums.net

Results were:
  1. For the simple Maun/RS tool it was easy but really needed two crimps for the 10mm ferrule.
  2. N/A [SWA tool limited to 6mm]
  3. The Engex crimp was tight, but lop-sided and stuck in the die
  4. The RS tool did a great job for this size (also for 16 & 25 elsewhere)
  5. The cheap Chinese tool work fine here
  6. The Expensive hex-die did a good crimp, but needed quite a firm hand force to complete.
 
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Next we have 4mm 7-stranded conduit wire:
Ferrule crimp tools part deux 4mm-ferruls - EletriciansForums.net
  1. Again the old RS/Maun tool was simple and easy
  2. The SWA tool over-crimped a bit, tight in jaw but otherwise tolerable
  3. N/A (below Engex range)
  4. N/A (below RS range)
  5. Again the cheap tool was fine
  6. Hex tool also fine, though firm force still needed
 
Then 0.5mm fine stranded wire:
Ferrule crimp tools part deux 0.5mm-ferrules - EletriciansForums.net
This was the smallest for tools 1 & 2 and well within tools 5 & 6 rating
  1. Old RS/Maun tool fine
  2. SWA tool over-crimped, also getting easy to end up in gaps between correct crimp locations
  3. N/A (below range)
  4. N/A (below range)
  5. OK, moved a bit when pulled but not easily coming out
  6. Perfectly good
 
Finally 0.25mm fine-stranded wire (violet ferrules, not obvious in photo):
Ferrule crimp tools part deux 0.25mm-ferrules - EletriciansForums.net

This is within tools 5 & 6 range, but below tools 1 & 2
  1. Old RS/Maun was OK, moved a bit if pulled but stayed in
  2. SWA over-crimped significantly
  3. N/A
  4. N/A
  5. Cheap eBay failed, crimp looks OK but wire pulled out easily
  6. Expensive hex die was perfect
 
Conclusions?
  1. Well for all is basic appearance, the Maun tool is really good, but you need to get the right gap. However, adjacent gaps don't really lead to a stuck wire.
  2. The SWA tool is pretty rubbish. Having tried it a few times I really would bin it.
  3. Same for the Engex tool. While it does above the 16mm max of the Maun, it is not great.
  4. The RS tool is very good for all 3 sizes (10-25mm), but expensive
  5. The cheap eBay self-adjusting tool is great for 0.75-10mm and excellent value for money. Doubt it will last the 50,000 cycles RS/Pressmaster offer but at that price hardly worth complaining about. Not great at 0.5mm or below.
  6. The Pressmaster is good, but harder to use for the upper range and also expensive. If you are doing a lot of small ferrules (e.g. instruments, some control panel signal wiring) it makes sense, but hard to justify the total cost.
Over to you ladies and gentlemen to share your own experience....
 
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I've got 2 cheap chinese ebay jobbies. Never had a problem with them. If you loose it you've not lost a lot of money.
 
I've got a pressmaster one, but I work in the water industry where failure is not an option ( unless it is caused by poor design and lack of maintainance because they are/were too busy creaming off profit until they got hit by massive fines).
 
Thanks for that pc1966...very interesting to see that trial.

I have a couple of decent ratchet crimpers for ferrules and terminals, but for fine wires, lighting etc I use a pair of CK plier-type crimpers for bootlace ferrules. They are ideal for the very small sizes, and being compact can be used in tight corners.
 
I also use the knipex pliers type, and like most things you get used to them and making sure it's in the right slot becomes automatic
My last Firm lots of people frowned on them preferring various ratchet types,

There were some connection problems in panels and wiring connected to them.
One of the Company Engineers decided to test them without anyone knowing
He had some previous extensive experience testing and calibrating crimp tools and connections for the Railway industry.
He picked panels which had been wired by different people with different tools

Most people were surprised at his report which basically said the same as Pc1966 tests
The pliers type were very reliable as long as they were a good make, manufactured to a DIN standard, not excessively worn, they were used properly.

The ratchet types did vary between makes, however some of the cheaper company supplied ones equalled the more expensive, which led to them being banned as there was too much variation in crimp quality
 
Be still my beating heart. I looked at this topic as it popped up when I started to create one titled "Cheap tools aren't good, good tools aren't cheap", because I have a one-off need to do some cord-end crimping of 4mm² - 16mm² tri-rated for a personal project.

eBay is awash with cheap Chinese POS Knipex look-alikes and I was going to ask if anybody knew if they were a POS in that they just aren't going to work, or a POS in that they aren't going to work for very long.

Looks like you've been a great help to me!
 
One thing to add is if you are using screw style terminals the crimp only needs to stop the ferrule easily coming off, as it gets further crushed by the termination. But if you use spring-loaded terminals like Wagos or some DIN rails, then you need a good crimp to get a good stable contact between the wire and the ferrule.
 

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