diy solar

diy solar

Crimpers-buy once; cry once

@RayfromTX

The Temco crimper is made in China and are the same as the ones sold on ebay, the whole difference are the dies which are designed and engineered by Tower Electric Motor Company in San Leandro, California (Temco) which are sized for the much more robost american made connectors such as the Thomas Betts connectors that I have to use due to legal requirements and as used in industry where we must meet OSHA and be U.L. listed, and the dies are hardened, unlike the tinny chinese ones. This results in a far superior crimp.

Temco stands behind their tools which are widely used in industry.
 
Firstascent said:
What happened when you used a full 2AWG die set instead of half and half 2 and 4?
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Hey, total brain fart here! When I did this, with the 2awg wire & lug, the crimp was not tight enough, not the other way around. I was thinking of my gauges backward as bigger number is bigger...

To be fair, it's been months and a few hundred crimps since then.
 
corporate.joe said:
I have that very same kit purchased from amazon. Hasn't failed me. Incredibly easy to crimp, effort wise. Is a little awkward to hold and insert the lug and wire with only two hands. I've only crimped 2awg and 6awg with it. The wire cutter works great for both of those as well. Smaller blade cuts the jacket on 10/6awg solar wire great.

Joe-
Click to expand...
I like to mount mine in a vise for just normal battery cables. Obviously this does not work if you are routing cables through a rig, but for standard length cables that I make it's a real treat.
 
wired1 said:
So, like I said, I'm cheap but I'd like a backup if (when?) my cheap Chinese hydraulic crimpers leak. Has anyone tried this caliber of manual crimpers and had bad luck? They sell for about $30...
View attachment 71997
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I've got a pair takes two hands to operate but does work and makes a solid crimp. Not sure how long it will last I've made about 30 crimps so far.
 
HighTechLab said:
I like to mount mine in a vise for just normal battery cables. Obviously this does not work if you are routing cables through a rig, but for standard length cables that I make it's a real treat.
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?‍♂️ Doh, I have a vise on the workbench and it never occurred to me to use it.
 
In case someone stumbles upon this thread.

I should have listened. Temco broke after a few dozen crimps.
 
Wow this is an old thread. Feeling nostalgic.

How to fix your Temco crimper video below - I did this in April of 2022 and only just yesterday (Dec 28 2023) did I have a failure (blew the seal on the piston). This thing has survived about 6 different new guys, some that thought they had to go until the pump stopped (10kPSI+), tens of thousands of crimps, and even a few mistakes of mismatched dies that extruded the copper to the 9th dimension. I'd call that a win.

 
Last edited:
Great. Thanks!

Curious when you stop pumping the handle.

From memory, the instructions were vague. Something like “until you feel significant resistance.”
 
I use a 16ton crimper for large jobs :


and a 10 ton small crimper for mid to small jobs :


I can't imagine doing any serious cable making without a hydraulic crimper. Every crimp is perfect with one of these. Even if you mess up the cables are usually still usable. The crimper can't mess up so if it comes out wrong it is the operator.

The small one I have I have made probably about 20 cables or so with.

The large one I have made hundreds of cables with and it still works like new.

One of the key things with hydraulic crimpers is to pay attention and stop trying to crush the ends once it has made it to being flush with the die. So far every one I have seen fail for other people has been where they keep trying to pump the handle after the dies are completely flush. Something has to give somewhere and it usually breaks the crimper or blows a seal. Common sense really.

The reason I have made so many cables with the large crimper has to do with word getting around that I had the thing and could make really large cable ends. The telephone company bunch and the power company bunch have had me make all kinds of cable crimps for them with it.
 
Bluedog225 said:
Great. Thanks!

Curious when you stop pumping the handle.

From memory, the instructions were vague. Something like “until you feel significant resistance.”
Click to expand...
Just watch the dies and when they are flush its done. If you try to go by the resistance you will end up breaking the tool eventually. Some say you have to keep pressing even when it looks done but that really has to do with using the wrong die size to start with. If you use the right die size then its fully crimped as soon as the die's come together.
 
One other pro tip with the hydraulic crimpers. Label your dies.

They all are stamped with sizes but trust me you will get the feel for which one does best for each cable size. Label them with a sharpie once you figure out which one to use for each cable size. Saves a ton of time and makes sure you will make good cables each time. Don't label them right off the bat going by the stamping or any instruction sheet that came with it. Wait till you make some cables first :)
 
Bluedog225 said:
Great. Thanks!

Curious when you stop pumping the handle.

From memory, the instructions were vague. Something like “until you feel significant resistance.”
Click to expand...

I go by feel and observation. I try to watch as the dies come together and stop when they are flush. But I always stop when I feel resistance.

Hundreds of great crimps on my TEMCo hydraulic crimpers. As Crowz said above, not all the dies are the perfect fit for the size they are labeled as. I have just one size die that isn't quite right. The rest are spot on. I'm using TEMCo cables and lugs. I don't know how much difference that makes.
 
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