The tool that got away

Sometimes you see a really cool tool that you think about buying, but you don’t need it at the time – and when you do need it, it’s no longer available. Such is the case with the Terminal Tool.

The Terminal Tool

I had originally bought a hydraulic crimping tool from Harbor Freight, but the dies that came with it weren’t compatible with quality Amp terminals.

HF crimper result

Fortunately, a friend and fellow RV builder at KASH had a Terminal Tool. It’s easy to use, and makes first-rate crimps on large cables.

Terminal Tool

Terminal Tool crimp

2 thoughts on “The tool that got away

  1. I am an FAA certificated A&P mechanic. After crimping, definitely use a blowtorch and some solder and solder those terminals. Just apply heat to the terminal for a few seconds and then touch the solder (use silver-bearing solder) to the junction between the terminal and the wire conductors. It makes a longer lasting and lower electrical resistance crimp.

    • Hi David,

      Thanks for the suggestion! There’s some controversy in the E-AB world about whether to solder large-AWG connections due to stress concentrations where the solder ends, and even some of the IAs and DARs I’ve spoken with didn’t agree on this. So, I took the conservative approach and just crimped the AWG 2 and 4 lugs; the crimper I borrowed produces extremely tight crimps, they’re so tight the lugs are essentially swaged onto the wire.

      Dave

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