Took me 6 months to figure out why my coax terminations kept failing

I've been doing residential installs for about 2 years now. Every few jobs I'd get a call back for a bad termination. Checked my compression tool, checked the connectors, checked my stripping technique. Finally my buddy Mark who's been doing this for 15 years watched me one day. He goes 'you're twisting the center conductor when you push the connector on'. I was bending that copper wire every single time without noticing. Fixed it by just changing my grip and now zero call backs in 3 months. Anyone else have a dumb little habit that was messing up their work without realizing?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_kim551d ago

Tbh I did the same thing with RG6 for like a year before someone finally pointed it out. Such a tiny move but it was wrecking every termination.

foster.oscar21h ago

3 out of 10 times it's actually not the strip length itself but the center conductor getting slightly bent when you push the connector on. I started checking with a magnifier and caught it immediately. You ever try that?