Old timer in Tucson told me my crimps were garbage. He was right.

I had this crusty old avionics guy watch me do a set of D-sub pins on a King 1550 install back in March. He said 'you're not pulling back the jacket far enough, you're stressing the strain relief.' Took me like 50 crimps to really feel what he meant, but now my terminations last way longer without intermittent opens. Has anyone else had a senior tech totally change how you approach a basic task?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_singh5d ago

Old timers have a way of making you feel like a toddler with a tool... but that's how you learn. You got me thinking though - was he talking about the jacket length or the actual crimp setting on the tool? On D-subs, I've seen guys crank the crimper all the way down instead of using the right notch, and that'll mess up the wire worse than a short jacket.

charlesb895d ago

Man, that's the gospel truth. Had a guy teach me to tin stranded wire before soldering and it changed my whole game.

rosek445d ago

@charlesb89 same energy here, tinning wire was a game changer after a grizzled mechanic showed me proper technique.