List your favorite RJ45 ratchet style crimpers

[Hoyt]

Howdy all,

 

We do all our own cabling here and I have loved the Stewart Connector RJ45 crimpers we got somewhere umpteen years ago.  They have a ratchet mechanism that makes it easy for women with small hands to make good crimps.  We have a part time lady that is VERY good but has small hands and has trouble with most of the budget crimpers that wouldn't give other folks any trouble.

 

Nobody left above ground can remember where we got those Stewart Connector crimpers with the RJ45 dies in them and I haven't had any luck finding any here in the US.  Do any of y'all know of any ratchet handle crimpers that work well that we might could get for her?

 

Thanks for your time.

[andy_b]

Quite like:

 

Klein VDV226-110 for "Pass-thru"

Kiein VDV226-107 for normal

[Chris_Cook]

I like the pass through style as well. Even the cheap amazon ones are quite good. The side cutters and stripping tool that come with some of them are good too. 

 

There is a tip going round for those: Strip back more than you need, then twist the ends together when passed through the connector. That way you have one bunch of wires to pick up rather than lots of bits going flying.

 

Have you tried Digikey, RS or Canford Audio for the parts for the Stewart ones?

 

Keystone modules might be another option depending what you are doing. 

[Hoyt]

Thanks for the tips.  I know she has a Klein but I don't know if it's the one Andy listed or not.  She doesn't seem to be able to bear down on it hard enough to get a proper crimp with it, that's why I was thinking of a ratchet type.  When I loaned her my Stewart crimper she did fine with it.

 

She can do Keystone jacks just fine with a 110 punch down tool, but a lot of runs (such as to access points) require an RJ45 plug be installed.  I never thought about this type of problem before she described it to me, but I bet it is common, we just aren't a big enough organization to have encountered it before.

 

We've never used any of the pass through RJ45 connectors before.  I guess I've just never felt the need to.  Are there any advantages other than making it easier for a novice technician?

[andy_b]

The Klein ones above are ratchet style.

 

 

[PotNoodleTech]

She hasn't worked in IT long enough then - give her a stress ball and she'll have arms like popeye before long!

 

No but seriously, can you get hydraulic or electric ones of somewhere?  Might be worth a look sounds like making it more automated would help her (and you!)

[Chris_Cook]

The passthrough ones are a bit easier to get the wires in the right order, and you don't have to worry about getting the exact length of outer insulation stripped back.

 

You can also press one side of the crimper against a table or wall to get some more force on it. I'm not sure if the force is much different from the other style, but it feels less to me.

 

I think the newer style of RJ45s work better on solid core cable as well. The older ones can give a bit of a dodgy connection sometimes.

[TLARWise]

I have been using this crimper (https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d03024/crimp-tool-rj45/dp/TL07304?st=tl07304) for over 10 years and I have pretty small hands and find it easy to use.  It won't automatically cut pass through plugs but the crimp port is open so they could be cut with flush cutters after it has been crimped.

[Hoyt]

Thanks for the clarification Andy I think I was looking at the wrong picture (it looked like the one she has now).  They had a video that shows it very clearly.  I passed that link along to her since Grainger over here carries it.

 

This lady is actually a forty year IT veteran that just helps us out part time after retiring from a manufacturing plant down the road.