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Just realized those cheap coax crimpers are actually decent for bench work
I was super skeptical about buying a $15 coax crimper from Amazon for my home bench setup. Been using the $80+ ones at work for years, figured the cheap ones would just crush the connector or slip. Last month I had to do some RG400 pigtails for a repair job on a King radio and my good crimper was locked up in the shop. Grabbed the cheap one out of desperation and honestly, it worked fine for about 50 crimps before I noticed any play in the die. Not saying I'd trust it for flight line stuff where every connection has to pass a pull test, but for bench prototyping and repairs it's been surprisingly solid. Has anyone else found a cheap tool that totally changed your mind?
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coleman.henry8d ago
Hold up man, are we really calling a $15 crimper "decent" just because it didn't totally explode on the first try? I mean, 50 crimps before the die started showing play is pretty sketchy, not a win. For bench work sure you can get away with stuff like that, but I feel like people on here love to act like cheap tools are secretly genius, when really you just got lucky or your standards are real low. A pull test on a connector that's only gonna sit on a shelf, fine, but if that connection matters at all I'd be nervous. I've seen too many intermittent issues trace back to a slightly crushed ferrule or a loose center pin that looked fine at first. That $80 crimper you use at work probably paid for itself in saved headaches alone.
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