I don't use them too often, but I would like to have a decent wire striper and crimper for basic electrical work. I know you can spend a lot, but I'm looking for value here, and I assume I can't really get a decent tool that does both. I saw a pair of strippers that made the cut and pulled the sheath off, but I assume they are expensive.

I need to make a few splices in a shielded depth transducer cable on my sailboat and mechanical crimping not soldering is the preferred method. I could muddle through with the $10 crimper/stripper I have, but it's an excuse to plug this hole in my tool kit with something I don't hate using.

Suggestions, please.

I use one similar to this. Works just fine.

These work pretty well, too:

^ ^ It was inevitable...

This one from Klein is outstanding. It's pricy, but I can't remember ever spending too much money on a tool: I CAN remember spending too little on some of them.

quote:

Originally posted by jigray3:
I don't use them too often, but I would like to have a decent wire striper and crimper for basic electrical work. I know you can spend a lot, but I'm looking for value here, and I assume I can't really get a decent tool that does both. I saw a pair of strippers that made the cut and pulled the sheath off, but I assume they are expensive.

I need to make a few splices in a shielded depth transducer cable on my sailboat and mechanical crimping not soldering is the preferred method. I could muddle through with the $10 crimper/stripper I have, but it's an excuse to plug this hole in my tool kit with something I don't hate using.

Suggestions, please.

Is it shielded pair or coax? Very different animals.

If it's just going to be a cheap butt splice or barrel disconnects, damn near anything can crimp them & you can strip with a pocket knife. It will work just as well as using $200 worth of tools if you do it right (and it's just as easy to do it wrong with the expensive tools).

I like the greenlee (& other brand) stripping pliers that come in a 2-pack - 10AWG-22AWG & 20-30AWG. They have good, sharp, precise notches for stripping.
I have one of the ratcheting crimpers I got from amazon (got it for doing other types of crimps, but it has dies for the insulated splices) It crimps the conductor & insulation at the same time & won't overcrimp, otherwise the cheap-o Amp Superchamp gets used cause I don't have to swap dies & it's small enough to go everywhere.

quote:

Originally posted by jigray3:
I need to make a few splices in a shielded depth transducer cable on my sailboat and mechanical crimping not soldering is the preferred method.

A few?!?!

Are we talking a standard Airmar depth transducer, such as used by Raymarine depth gauges, Garmin chart-plotters and the like? I think those are shielded two- or three-conductor cable. There's no reasonable way to splice those with connectorization of which I'm aware.

Klein is good.


But this Milwaukee pair is my favorite.

Klein tools are my favorite.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
These work pretty well, too:

Now there's a karma! I'm in!

You said for basic electrical work. If that's what you need, for making basic butt connections, I recommend the following:

I like these crimpers for $20ish by Channelock:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...2bQLLf9BL&ref=plSrch

And for strippers I like these by Klein:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...words=wire+strippers

But you also mentioned shielded cable, which requires a special tool to mechanically crimp terminals onto it. That's not what I'd call basic electrical work.

When I was younger and did car alarms and car audio for a living I had to strip thousands of wires. My go to tools were a set of automatic strippers, and a pair of Klein crimpers. Both are worth the coin.

Automatic strippers have always been my favorite


Auto crimpers on amazon

Klein crimpers are another heavy duty go to. They're definitely worth the price. la-92083461458&wl5=9052386&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113940040&wl11=online&wl12=49712806&wl13=&veh=sem" target="_blank">Klein crimpers

If you take care of your tools, buy the good ones. The Klein crimpers will last a lifetime.
Our Relay and Electrical Maintenance crews only use Klein.

Greenlee (can be found in Lowes, in the electrical department) makes crimpers and strippers that may or may not work on the kind of cable you're talking about. I have a set of their screwdrivers and beat them like a rented mule. For ordinary wiring work I purchased the Irwin/Vise-Grip brand from Amazon. There are tools that combine the stripping/crimping functions into a single tool, but I prefer separate tools.

I like the Ideal T-stripper and Klein J1005 crimper for electrical work.

But I have 3-4 wire strippers and at least six other crimp tools depending on what is being stripped and/or crimped.

Tiffany, Candy, Amanda??

 
I have several strippers, but prefer the one mentioned by Skins2881 (the Ideal branded one). I prefer to work with uninsulated terminals and use marine grade heat shrink tubing over the connection. I use Klein crimpers for this, similar to the ones pictured above but mine do not have the opening for crimping insulated terminals, just for two sizes of uninsulated. I use the insulated terminals reluctantly, and have crimpers for them, too, but the only practical use I find for them (over the heat shrink protected ones), is the type of male/female spade connection where it needs to be insulated while connected but can be taken apart. Granted, I am not in the trade, and my work is limited to household repair stuff. I got into the practice of using uninsulated w/ heat shrink when I rewired the FJ40 I restored, so I have those terminals and tubing on hand. I might feel differently if I had to make hundreds/thousands of connections on a trade basis.
 

Ok, here we go: All Most People Would Ever Need To Know About Strippers And Crimpers (I think).



L-to-R: Klien strippers, Ideal Industries Stripmaster® "automatic" wire strippers, Thomas & Betts Sta-Kon® (ratcheting) barrel terminal crimper (calibrated), Vaco barrel terminal crimper, Waldom open-barrel (aka: "U") terminal crimper.

Experiences and opinions: The Klien strippers work well, but, if you have the room and wire length, the Stripmaster® stippers are unbeatable. They precisely cut the insulation, automatically grab it behind the cut, and neatly pull it straight off, all in one smooth motion.

Here's a close-up of the Stripmaster® jaws, partly closed:



For crimping barrel terminals a calibrated ratcheting crimper, such as the T&B, above, is best. They will precisely crimp both the connection and strain relief in one go. As much as necessary, but no more. Alas: They're expensive (±$200) and are sensitive to wire gauge, insulation diameter and barrel size.



Note the colour-coding.

Of particular note: People often confuse barrel crimpers with open-barrel ("U") crimpers. Close-up of barrel crimper jaws:



Close-up of open-barrel crimper jaws:



DO NOT use these on barrel terminals. They're meant to be used with open-barrel terminations, such as the pins in Molex connectors.

Coax. What most consumers will encounter is RG-6 and similar coaxial cables, using Type F connectors. The absolute best way to deal with these is a Paladin DataShark compression termination kit:



This particular one is designed to terminate everything from RG-6 through RG-6 Quad-Shield coaxial cable. Clockwise, from upper-left: Connectors, compression crimping tool, cable cutters and strippers.

I've been terminating coaxial cable of all types for 45 years. Trust me when I tell you: For F connectors and RG-6 this is the only way to go.

Something few consumers will ever have to deal with, but, since I'm doing this...



L-R, top-to-bottom: Paladin ratcheting crimper, stripper for RG-58 and RG-59 coaxial cable, stripper for sub-RG-58/59 coaxial cables, second set of crimping dies for the crimper.

Close-up of one of the die sets:



This set of tools is a highly-specialized set used to terminate coaxial cable using crimp BNC and TNC coaxial connectors. (Both the pins and the shield/strain-relief barrels.) It's tricky to get the hang of, but, once you do, much easier than the solder-on pins and compression collars traditionally used.

Like the T&B ratcheting barrel crimper, above: Expensive and each die is designed for specific wire gauges, insulation diameters and barrel sizes.

ETA...

As I was putting the preceding stuff away, I remembered the networking and phone stuff:



L-R: 110 and 66-block punch-down (or "punch block") tool, duplex surface-mount UTP network jack with 110 punch-down terminations, an RJ-11/-12/-45 termination tool and some RJ-45 modular plugs. (All Monoprice.)

Close-up of punch-down tool heads (66-block on upper-right, 110 lower-left):



Close-up of RJ-series modular plug termination tool head:



(RJ-11 [4-pin] on opposite side.)

Like some of (?) my other tools, these are a somewhat spendy way to go, but they all do a superior job.

Last, but not least, this kind of stripper:



Yeah, I've had experience with that kind, too. All I can say is listen to and take Trini Lopez' song, Lemon Tree, to heart.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ensigmatic,