crimper for u-dies

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

topiramax

Member
Location
NYS
Occupation
Spinner
Is anyone aware of an (generic) affordable compression crimper that uses u-dies? On the same token, how about generic u-dies?
 
What exactly is affordable? You probably looking at least $300 + for new hand types. Throw in hydraulics or battery powered and you probably looking at least $1000.
 
kwired said:
What exactly is affordable? You probably looking at least $300 + for new hand types. Throw in hydraulics or battery powered and you probably looking at least $1000.
Click to expand...
$300 is fine. I see nothing from Burndy, Huskie, PeenUnion, Milwaukee that's not in the thousands.
Or any other way to do irreversible grounding/bonding splicing without a huge upfront investment.
 
topiramax said:
$300 is fine. I see nothing from Burndy, Huskie, PeenUnion, Milwaukee that's not in the thousands.
Or any other way to do irreversible grounding/bonding splicing without a huge upfront investment.
Click to expand...
Listed for grounding connections might need higher crimping pressure than you will find with a hand tool? IDK.
 
You can also use Cadweld. It’s expensive if you use molds (up front) but you can use the one time use stuff from Erico which has low up front cost. As a side benefit thermite is just more fun than crimpers.

 
electrofelon said:
Check out this thread for more on the common die lugs:

Milwaukee crimper with fixed bg

Got my first crimper and was wondering if the bg crimp bay was capable of crimping a #2 alum wire in a insulated blackburn or do i need a die in the d3
forums.mikeholt.com
Click to expand...
That's a helpful discussion. I didn't know what common die lugs were. I have to ask though, are you aware of any common die connections listed for grounding?
 
Also I e found U dies to be very expensive. KC35s are half the price.

Also if you know what you are looking for lineman companies or repair shops often dump good crimpers on EBay. Picked up a Gator for $1000. It was missing 3 of the most common dies (500, 350, and I think 4/0) but that was cheap compared to dies plus crimper at full retail around $4500.
 
paulengr said:
You can also use Cadweld. It’s expensive if you use molds (up front) but you can use the one time use stuff from Erico which has low up front cost. As a side benefit thermite is just more fun than crimpers.

Click to expand...
That's way too much fun!
 
Plus the Chinese made “yellow” hand hydraulic ones for $100 on Amazon are surprisingly not bad but what you want is the blue one because the dies are gauge size instead of metric. Can get from Tempco. It’s not high quality but it gets the job done for years. I basically used one up after 3 years in a motor shop and it was a “hand me down”. Most of these crimpers (except the Chinese import) you can buy seal kits and recalibrate them almost forever. You can complain about accuracy but from experience even with marked U dies once you get off into the weeds with fine strand and compacted cables you will find many cases of under/overcrimping forcing you to adjust due size. It should talk about this in the manuals.

When doing 15+ kV crimps it’s very important to check the crimps, use hex crimps instead of indent, rotate it so the crimps don’t line up, and file off overcrimp “wings” where none of this matters for low voltage. Lots of gotchas. Doing MV terminations forces you to be much better at terminations at any voltage especially for 35 kV where every little blemish causes a failure.
 
paulengr said:
Plus the Chinese made “yellow” hand hydraulic ones for $100 on Amazon are surprisingly not bad but what you want is the blue one because the dies are gauge size instead of metric. Can get from Tempco. It’s not high quality but it gets the job done for years. I basically used one up after 3 years in a motor shop and it was a “hand me down”. Most of these crimpers (except the Chinese import) you can buy seal kits and recalibrate them almost forever. You can complain about accuracy but from experience even with marked U dies once you get off into the weeds with fine strand and compacted cables you will find many cases of under/overcrimping forcing you to adjust due size. It should talk about this in the manuals.

When doing 15+ kV crimps it’s very important to check the crimps, use hex crimps instead of indent, rotate it so the crimps don’t line up, and file off overcrimp “wings” where none of this matters for low voltage. Lots of gotchas. Doing MV terminations forces you to be much better at terminations at any voltage especially for 35 kV where every little blemish causes a failure.
Click to expand...
This ? link

I worry about using a crimper like that without a specific die being a code violation.
 
topiramax said:
This ? link

I worry about using a crimper like that without a specific die being a code violation.
Click to expand...

Interesting you should bring that up. Code…NEC is silent. UL standard basically lists lugs as a component. It’s not an assembly until you crimp it on the cable. All lugs list a specific crimper or crimpers to use. But also there are many crimpers that are multi-brand/lug so they can work with many different lug brands and they are Listed to do so. What is not Listed per UL is the dies themselves. And although those Chinese crimpers are most definitely not Listed the dies have nothing to do with it. If it did U dies would be Listed and maybe one other such as KC35 but the popular BG and O and other typical utility squeeze ons probably never would get Listed since they are part of the utility realm which does not fall under NEC and doesn’t require Listing. In practice having done thousands of crimps nobody has ever yet checked my die numbers. There is always a first time but so far never.

The few times it has come up the big reaction is they are surprised I don’t use wire nuts, split bolts, or insulated taps. I’d rather see them use some kind of crimper, maybe even a cheap hammer crimper, as opposed to one of those other connectors. I’d consider a Chinese crimper crimped connection vastiy superior to any wire but in a peckerhead.
 
paulengr said:
Interesting you should bring that up. Code…NEC is silent. UL standard basically lists lugs as a component. It’s not an assembly until you crimp it on the cable. All lugs list a specific crimper or crimpers to use. But also there are many crimpers that are multi-brand/lug so they can work with many different lug brands and they are Listed to do so. What is not Listed per UL is the dies themselves. And although those Chinese crimpers are most definitely not Listed the dies have nothing to do with it. If it did U dies would be Listed and maybe one other such as KC35 but the popular BG and O and other typical utility squeeze ons probably never would get Listed since they are part of the utility realm which does not fall under NEC and doesn’t require Listing. In practice having done thousands of crimps nobody has ever yet checked my die numbers. There is always a first time but so far never.

The few times it has come up the big reaction is they are surprised I don’t use wire nuts, split bolts, or insulated taps. I’d rather see them use some kind of crimper, maybe even a cheap hammer crimper, as opposed to one of those other connectors. I’d consider a Chinese crimper crimped connection vastiy superior to any wire but in a peckerhead.
Click to expand...
You are probably right about that. The only thing is the typical use of a wire nut is when a reversible connection is needed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top