Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I have a set of sprung crimping pliers for the unisulated female and male type spade connectors. 6.3 mm type, I believe. The crimpers are a bit primative having to do the copper conductors and insulation separately. They do the job though.
I would like to upgrade to a better set that do both conductor and insulation in one hit.
Can anyone please recommend a decent set. There seems to be a lot out there with price and quality all over the place. I also work on the Japanese motorcycle crimps aswell, so believe they will also crimp those.


Thanks Mike

Personally I prefer to crimp the conductors and insulation separately. A given conductor size can have different insulation OD depending on whether thin wall or standard cable is used.

As an example 1mm sq thin wall (32/0.2) has insulation OD 1.95mm, whereas 1 mm sq standard (14/0.3) has insulation OD 2.7mm. For this reason the combined crimper will work for one and not the other.

My weapon of choice is the Iwiss IWS 2412M crimping tool.

Good point. Thanks. Perhaps then I am looking for a tool with more crimp sizes.

miked wrote:Good point. Thanks. Perhaps then I am looking for a tool with more crimp sizes.

You most certainly should, especially if using thinwall cable. Look to the future and ask what you might be crimping. So one with interchangeable anvils is a good idea and, my opinion, a ratchet type is a must - but they are more expensive.

It seems that to have the right crimping tool you need a dozen or so pliers, which is why I decided to 'invest' in a multi-crimper.
The Pressmaster kit I have has 4 interchangeable adapters, each with either 2 or 3 tools.
It may be more tool than you need but it is very good and I highly recommend.
https://uk.farnell.com/pressmaster/4300 ... price=true
I think I paid about £110 and chose the kit with the adapter tools that I would most likely use. I can't recall if it was through Farnell , or RS, or similar

I agree with Graeme, I have bought several crimping pliers around the £50 price range and have been disappointed.
Pressmaster are good but expensive, even the dies are expensive at about £50 each, my only complaint is that I have difficulty working out which die to buy.

Hope this helps,

Richard Hawkins

While I am generally a believer in "you buy cheap and you buy twice", I am not sure crimping a few spade terminals onto a wiring loom warrants expenditure in the £100s. If you were operating in a production environment, needed to meet certain traceability and quality standards, then OK - but we aren't.

I have a few ratchet crimping tools I purchased off eBay that seem to work just fine. I try and buy decent connectors from reputable suppliers - and that makes a big difference. Better to spend a few extra £ on the terminals themselves than the crimper. I found a crimper on eBay for £11.99 that looks just fine ( full disclosure - I haven't used this one). Given the price, if it is no good then you haven't lost much.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353421409271?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D2487beabf6d94c248494392462a56608%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D353421409271%26itm%3D353421409271%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DBlueSpot&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A26dafa2e-8f0b-11ec-a8fe-0a917f20a27e%7Cparentrq%3A01dee83617f0ab97d1dbf2b6fff11b46%7Ciid%3A1

There is a slightly bigger question about where the terminals are going. For a connection to last a long time, particularly in a harsh environment, you need to form a gas tight seal at the connection points. This is tricky with uninsulated spade terminals. I am inclined to use belt and braces and put a dab of solder on the crimp point just to make sure. There are arguments against, but it has worked for me.

Thanks guys for input. I will have a good look and consider for the duty of uninsulated.
I have quite an array of pliers for bullet, insulated red, blue and yellow, boot lace and larger uninsulated lugs. It is a bit of a pain to try to cover all bases. I have soldered too for engine bay stuff.
There are some real poor crimps out there that would not stand a production environment.
Cheers Mike

Andy,

Those expensive Pressmaster crimping pliers are for field work. Items for production are even more expensive! Why we need such a variety of terminals is rather beyond me, probably commercial rather than technical.

Richard Hawkins

I tried to buy a crimp for the 9.5mm alternator wiring, but struggled to find one that worked, anybody else ?