Old installer at a Wichita hotel bar told me my crimp tool was junk, and now I can't stop thinking about it

Ruby Smith · 2026-10-11T12:15:03.42995+00:00

I was grabbing a burger at the hotel bar in Wichita after a long day running drop lines and the guy next to me saw my compression tool sitting on the counter and just said "that thing's why you're gonna be back on the same call in a month." Turns out he did 22 years doing MDU work and swore by hand-tightened fittings with a torque wrench, said he's seen way too many callbacks from over-crimped connectors on cold days. I ran the numbers on my callback rate this quarter and it's 4 out of 60 jobs, all on exterior runs where it got below freezing. Anyone here actually switched to a torque wrench for F connectors or is that just old school overkill?

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Old installer at a Wichita hotel bar told me my crimp tool was junk, and now I can't stop thinking about it | Cable Installers - The Community Guide