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Additional hydraulic crimper dies?

Gould

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Jan 18, 2021
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I have the HFS hydraulic crimper with what I thought were dies ranging from 6 awg to 4/0. The highest gauge die is just a little too big for my 6 awg lugs.

I’ve searched with no success. Anyone know of a source for additional dies? Here’s my unit.

Crimper
 
you can take some heavy guage sheet steel, cut a strip, bend it into a U on the existing die and basically make a U-shaped shim to make the die opening "smaller"...unless it is a lot bigger, then you can either machine a new one or if you have a tig welder you can pad it out some.

good luck!
 
Interesting approach. Machining and rig welding aren’t in my vocabulary but I’m sure I can source some sheet metal.
 
I have pretty much the same crimper. Sure has gotten cheaper since I bought mine 10 years ago. If you find a source for new dies please post it here. The sheet metal trick would work for when it is too big but sometimes it is too small and the next size is waaaay too big. Lug sizies seem to be variable these days so it would be great to have more die options.
 
Will do. I should have sprung for the dieless crimper but here we are.
 
I think what you are saying is the 16mm2 die doesn't fit your 6 awg lugs, confirm?
16mm2 is pretty close to 6 awg but not exact.
What lugs are you using?
Some lugs are thicker than others and may give better results.
 
The only to not have to think about it at all is to use an FTZ crimper (or other very expensive model) and colour-coded battery lugs. All other setups are often close, but not quite. It's annoying. I goofed around for years before eventually coughing up the cash to get the right stuff.

A.
 
Yeah, I’m seeing now how the difference in lugs really makes finding the right die difficult. I’m just not that committed for long haul to justify the expense.

@smoothJoey correct, the 16mm2 die is just slightly too big. I starts to make an imprint in the lug but bottoms out before compressing onto the copper. THESE are the lugs I’m using.
 
Yeah, I’m seeing now how the difference in lugs really makes finding the right die difficult. I’m just not that committed for long haul to justify the expense.

@smoothJoey correct, the 16mm2 die is just slightly too big. I starts to make an imprint in the lug but bottoms out before compressing onto the copper. THESE are the lugs I’m using.
If you have a grinder grind some of the flats to make the die close more.
 
I had issues with the crimper/dies as well, I bought good quality lugs too.
Working on 50mm2/1AWG cables, if I got a weak crimp, to fix I would swap in the 35mm2 dies, twist the lug on its side and do a 40-60% pressure crimp.
This fixed the crimp and was all good.
 
Seems there’s a lot of inconsistency with these dies. I ended up grinding down the die to get the gap I needed.
 
Here is a crimper that gets err done, its made in China like most of the others BUT.....the dies have been redisgned by an american engineer to fit the lugs that we use here which are very much thicker than the asian ones.

This is marketed by TEMCO.......Tower Electric Motor Company.......Fremont California, Temcoindustrial.com They have a very nice web presence and can be found on eBay as well, maybe still on Amazon. I have both of these but the larger is the one....it will do from about 6 ga. all the way up to 600MCM, dies are included fot 1/0, 2/0 , 3/0, 4/0, 250MCM, 350MCM etc.....

This company backs what it says with a no questions warranty, Ive dealt with them for years and they have allways done a good deal....

the first pics are the TH0005 10 ga. to 600 MCM with 18 die sets,
second pic, top row of dies, Chinese variant, bottom row of dies, TEMCO dies......check out the difference in sizes! (these dies are for the TH0006 smaller crimper)
third pic is smaller one TH0006 12 ga. to doulble ott (00) alonwg with the harbor freight version, same except with smaller asian dies that fit very thin terminals.
last pic..complete .die sets for the TH0005
 

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Look carefully at the dies, the ones for the Harbor Freight variant are for much smaller crimp lugs. they do not properly crimp the thick shell lugs that are used in American Industry. I used to have to make several test crimps to get it right, with the Temco crimpers the die fits the size stated on it unlike the chinese dies which are way smaller. I get a good crimp first time every time with the Temco crimper......The only difference is the size of the die opening......Yeah it was more money than harbor freight but i do industrial electricity so 350 MCM wire is no stranger to me. Most hobbyists will be happy with the smaller TH0006 but 2/0 cable is small for me. I wont quote their price as i see it has gone up.
 
Here is a crimper that gets err done, its made in China like most of the others BUT.....the dies have been redisgned by an american engineer to fit the lugs that we use here which are very much thicker than the asian ones.

This is marketed by TEMCO.......Tower Electric Motor Company.......Fremont California, Temcoindustrial.com They have a very nice web presence and can be found on eBay as well, maybe still on Amazon. I have both of these but the larger is the one....it will do from about 6 ga. all the way up to 600MCM, dies are included fot 1/0, 2/0 , 3/0, 4/0, 250MCM, 350MCM etc.....

This company backs what it says with a no questions warranty, Ive dealt with them for years and they have allways done a good deal....

the first pics are the TH0005 10 ga. to 600 MCM with 18 die sets,
second pic, top row of dies, Chinese variant, bottom row of dies, TEMCO dies......check out the difference in sizes! (these dies are for the TH0006 smaller crimper)
third pic is smaller one TH0006 12 ga. to doulble ott (00) alonwg with the harbor freight version, same except with smaller asian dies that fit very thin terminals.
last pic..complete .die sets for the TH0005
Yes, I finally broke down and bought the Temco set with 32 different lug sizes. All the regular AWG sizes, plus additional AWG+ sizes.


Expensive, but gives a much better result after you test crimp a few lugs to figure out which size to use for a particular lug/cable combination. This set is HEAVY.
 
@Just John

I have used mine for several years now and its the best that i have found. Its die sizes are very accurate but you do need to do a test crimp. But unlike several others, like the yellow harbor freight one above these dies are made correctly. not undersized to the point of uselessness.
 
Of the four or five dies I used with my TEMCo hydraulic crimper, only one was off. I went to do the crimp and not much happened, so I went down one size. Otherwise, all the rest were spot on. Any mistakes were operator error.
 
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