mia748•2mo agoMost Upvoted

Why I finally stopped using cheap crimpers after 3 years on the job

I was out on a job last Tuesday in a new development over in Franklin. Had a customer's cable modem drop signal three times in one day. I kept checking the connectors and they looked fine to me. Then my lead guy came over, took one look at my crimp, and showed me how the cheap tool I was using wasn't seating the connector deep enough. He handed me his Klein crimper and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else had that moment where a simple tool change saved them hours of troubleshooting?

3 comments

3 Comments

finley7292mo ago

Huh, I don't know man. I've been using the same cheap crimpers from Harbor Freight for like two years and I've never had any major issues. Maybe your lead guy was just showing off his expensive tool.

the_robin2mo ago

@finley729 I had a similar thing happen with a cheap pair of cable strippers that kept nicking the wire until I switched to a better brand. Sometimes you don't realize what you're missing until someone hands you the right tool.

faith68428d ago

My buddy Jake had the same thing happen with his coax crimper last spring. He was working on a three story townhouse and kept getting intermittent signal loss on the top floor. After wasting about two hours he borrowed his coworker's Klein and the first crimp he did fixed the problem. Turns out his cheap one was leaving a tiny gap that only showed up when the cable got warm from the sun.