Howdy. i want to be able to join small pieces of wire to small pieces
of braided steel cable (less than 1/16"). (any climbers here? i want
to be able to do nice cam trigger rewires).

what is the right tool/swage for this type of joint?

a while back i had a friend who had a tool i thought would do the
trick in good style. it was hand tool with pliers-type handles that
you squeeze together against sprin tension. squeezing the handles
together would advance four tiny metal spikes together from four
sides, resulting in a four-dent crimp on whatever you put this tool
around. i would guess it is some sort of electrician's tool.

i thoguht that even circumfrential crimp pattern would look even
better than the squooshed look of the commercial tiny swagers.

pardon the industry non-standard lingo, as you can tell, i have no
idea what im talking about

thanks in advance,

anthony

In article ,
(ant) wrote:

what is the right tool/swage for this type of joint?

I use part of a cheap cable TV coax crimping tool to "squish flat"
appropriate sized copper or aluminum crimps on 1/16th vinyl coated steel
cables, but nobody's life depends on them. No being a climber, I'm not
sure to what extent that is the case for these objects. Other coax crimp
tools might give a "nicer" appearance (most crimp a hex form on the
thing they are sized to crimp, but only squeeze from two sides to do
so). I'm using an el-cheapo where both of the hexes are much too large
for what I'm doing, but the flat in between does what I need. I'm not at
all sure that a less-squished-looking crimp is a better crimp, but you
can work up a crimp method and test a bunch of cables to destruction to
see if your method works well enough.

The basics of a hand crimper are a hole which is somewhat smaller than
the crimp, and a lot of pressure. Clamp two chunks of steel together,
drill a hole on the join line, unclamp, chuck in a vise with the crimp
made up, clamp the vise, see what you get. If the thing has "ears", the
hole is too small. If the cable pulls out, the hole is too big.

Hand crimpers go faster by giving you a boatload of leverage so you can
squeeze the crimp with your hand, and they keep the crimp dies lined up
so you don't have to fiddle with them - a vise should do the job, if
somewhat slower. A press would do it.

--
Cats, Coffee, Chocolate...vices to live by

ant wrote:

Howdy. i want to be able to join small pieces of wire to small pieces
of braided steel cable (less than 1/16")....
what is the right tool/swage for this type of joint?

Do a Google search for "Nicopress sleeve." Also see the Flanders motorcycle
cable page at http://www.flandersco.com/FlanCableSearch.html.


it was hand tool with pliers-type handles that
you squeeze together against sprin tension. squeezing the handles
together would advance four tiny metal spikes together from four
sides, resulting in a four-dent crimp on whatever you put this tool
around. i would guess it is some sort of electrician's tool.

Sounds like a Buchanan crimper used for splicing ground wires together, or a
Daniels crimper used for crimping mil-spec contacts.




--

i WAS THINKING bURNDY, BUT bUCHANAN MAY BE RIGHT.
pardon the caps lok

Steve Dunbar wrote:

ant wrote:

Howdy. i want to be able to join small pieces of wire to small pieces
of braided steel cable (less than 1/16")....
what is the right tool/swage for this type of joint?

Do a Google search for "Nicopress sleeve." Also see the Flanders motorcycle
cable page at http://www.flandersco.com/FlanCableSearch.html.


it was hand tool with pliers-type handles that
you squeeze together against sprin tension. squeezing the handles
together would advance four tiny metal spikes together from four
sides, resulting in a four-dent crimp on whatever you put this tool
around. i would guess it is some sort of electrician's tool.

Sounds like a Buchanan crimper used for splicing ground wires together, or a
Daniels crimper used for crimping mil-spec contacts.

--

I had a simlar problem. I just posted my solution to the dropbox. See

http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/baby_crimp.txt
"
Crimp-on Fittings for Small Cable
by Ted Edwards

See also baby_crimp1.jpg
baby_crimp2.jpg
baby_crimp3.jpg

I originally came up with this scheme for rigging radio controlled
sailboats. ...
"

Ted

In article ,
Ted Edwards wrote:
I had a simlar problem. I just posted my solution to the dropbox. See

http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/baby_crimp.txt
"
Crimp-on Fittings for Small Cable
by Ted Edwards

See also baby_crimp1.jpg

That one appears to be one of the larger series of Daniels
crimpers (the blue anodize is the clue). Yes, they are intended for the
center terminals of coax connectors, or for insertable pin connectors
(including machined pins for RS-232 connectors). Obviously, a different
crimper is used for the rolled sheet metal contacts which are more
commonly found.

The recess shown normally accepts an interchangeable bushing nest
which holds the terminal at the right position for the four indenters to
crimp onto the wire, instead of crimping down in a solid part of the
terminal.

There should be a rotating ring (eight positions, IIRC) which
determines how tight a crimp is produced, for differing sizes of
terminals.

All in all -- very nice tools.

baby_crimp2.jpg

I've not seen this one before. It appears to be designed for
the stainless wire ferrules.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 14 Jun 2004 23:51:09 -0400, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

In article ,
Ted Edwards wrote:
I had a simlar problem. I just posted my solution to the dropbox. See

http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/baby_crimp.txt
"
Crimp-on Fittings for Small Cable
by Ted Edwards

See also baby_crimp1.jpg

That one appears to be one of the larger series of Daniels
crimpers (the blue anodize is the clue). Yes, they are intended for the
center terminals of coax connectors, or for insertable pin connectors
(including machined pins for RS-232 connectors). Obviously, a different
crimper is used for the rolled sheet metal contacts which are more
commonly found.

The recess shown normally accepts an interchangeable bushing nest
which holds the terminal at the right position for the four indenters to
crimp onto the wire, instead of crimping down in a solid part of the
terminal.

There should be a rotating ring (eight positions, IIRC) which
determines how tight a crimp is produced, for differing sizes of
terminals.

All in all -- very nice tools.

baby_crimp2.jpg

I've not seen this one before. It appears to be designed for
the stainless wire ferrules.

Enjoy,
DoN.

I had one of those once, for the insertable pin type connectors,
something like 34 pin. Yes, they're well made, but if you mung the
little fingers that grip the pin during a rewire, they're shot. I was
using them for I/O connections in a very early example of the moveable
skid layout I use for some pilot plants. Makes 'em reconfigurable. I
switched to sub D style ribbon cable connectors with keepers (much
less installation, easy to replace), and recently to on-board smart
I/O and networks (one co-ax or fiber pair).

Pete Keillor

DoN. Nichols wrote:

I've not seen this one before. It appears to be designed for
the stainless wire ferrules.

I don't think it contains enough squeezium for stainless. AFAIK, it's
for copper or aluminum ferrules. It's the baby brother of the larger
Nicopress tools.

Ted

In article ,
Ted Edwards wrote:
DoN. Nichols wrote:

I've not seen this one before. It appears to be designed for
the stainless wire ferrules.

I don't think it contains enough squeezium for stainless. AFAIK, it's
for copper or aluminum ferrules. It's the baby brother of the larger
Nicopress tools.

Stainless modified "wire", not ferrules. The reference was to
the wire being sleeved in your photos.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

DoN. Nichols wrote:

Stainless modified "wire", not ferrules. The reference was to
the wire being sleeved in your photos.

Ah, yes. Basically for joining or terminating mini wire rope. I don't
think I would trust it on solid wire.

Ted