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PSA: stop soldering every pin on a cannon plug, crimp tools saved my sanity
When I started out at a shop near DFW, the old heads taught me to solder every single pin on a cannon plug, and I did it that way on probably 40 harnesses. Last year I switched to a Daniels crimp tool with the right positioner and my pin pushback issues just vanished, plus I can knock out a 37 pin connector in about 20 minutes instead of two hours. I know some of you are going to say solder is more reliable, but I have pulled apart 15 year old crimped pins that still passed a pull test while my old solder joints were cracking from vibration. The mil spec crimpers are not cheap, like 400 bucks for the frame and positioners, but it paid for itself in one avionics install. Anyone else make the switch or am I in the minority here?
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anna49114d ago
How are you handling the wire prep side of it though? I found that the strip length matters way more with crimp than solder since you cant just fill the cup with extra solder to make up for a short strip. The Daniels positioner has that gauge on it but I still see guys eyeballing it and then wondering why they get intermittent opens after a few hundred flight hours. Also curious what wire type you are running, because the old tin plated stuff crimps totally different than silver plated. Did you have to retrain the whole shop or was it just you making the switch?
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