Thread: Electrical crimpers

The good stuff is a little expensive. Need some quality terminal crimper bits.

Found a Knipex Crimper 97 43 200 for a reasonable price.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271274529614

Only $230 + GST. Not a bad price since they charge about $500 or more for tool without case from Australian retailers.

A set of 97 49 04 Dies for $120 + GST. delivered.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281165502411

Much cheaper than in Australia. $385 total.

Now a set of 97 49 28 Dies for $241 delivered, plus maybe bank transfer fee. Yet to order these.

https://www.misterworker.com/en/knip...901/37780.html

Much more expensive in Australia if you can find any.

So around $650 for the lot.

Got lots of crimpers for different terminals but none that do AMP Superseal terminals very well, so this tool was bought mainly for them and will grab other dies when I see any bargains.

Nev, that seems awfully expensive. I had to google AMP Superseal, but see that they appear similar to Deutsch terminals/connectors which I always thought expensive, but you can get a very serviceable crimping tool to suit from Narva for about $50 IIRC, a lot cheaper than the Knippex crimper you linked to. I know that Knippex make great tools, but to a casual bystander they look pretty over the top price wise.
I guess that if you have to service existing AMP equipped equipment, and there were no other suitable alternatives, well you may not have any choice, but for me if I needed just a few connectors for a project, the Deutsch/Narva combination looks very attractive compared to the AMP/Knippex alternative. I would be interested in any insights that you would care to share on these terminal systems.

Go to an electrical wholesale place- L&H, CETNAJ or similar. You might be surprised. I recall seeing a ratched die style crimp tool for the $190 mark, and that was shelf price (could push them for trade). It was still too rich for my blood though.

I've crimped a few of those style pins with a budget crimp tool in the past, and it works, but not 'quality' like you've specified. For me, the use it gets is minimal, hence difficult to justify a top end tool.

For a 4wd project I have adopted the Deutsch gear, and it is very professional and easy- like has been said- with a $50 crimp tool, and the basic plug and pin kits you can get at a range of places. Deutsch is a little more specific for conductor size though... so keep that in mind if you've got many different size wires.

I have bought Knipex stuff from Olsen store on ebay before- price is great. In one instance shipping was great, the other it was peak covid, and it took 3 months. So YMMV.

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

you can get a very serviceable crimping tool to suit from Narva for about $50 IIRC

I have a Narva kit that does both insulated and non insulated double crimp. Cost about $100. The Narva does not work on the AMP terminals . Too wide and damages the terminal and also crimps the seal too tight. Also have several other crimpers for various terminal types including battery, end sleeves and so on. Sometimes one crimper will do a better job on a certain terminal than the other depending on wire and insulation size even though both specify the same use. The Knipex should be better than any I have for repairs on factory automotive connectors especially.

For the Amp connectors buy the OEM ones, they’re about the only things that do them properly.
At work I use Crescent, Daniels and Pressmaster tools.
Not hard to have $3k sitting in a couple of pockets of your tool bag by the the time you buy some basic die sets and a couple of proprietary ones, especially if they are Daniels.

You'll almost always get the best result using a crimper with the manufacturer's specified die. The die geometry is matched to the crimp- many popular types have two crimped sections, one that crimps to the exposed wire, and one that crimps onto the insulation. The proper die will compress each of these in the correct way, ensuring that the crimp is reliable. Many manufacturers publish guides to crimp quality (Molex, TE, etc.) that are worth a read if you're doing a lot of crimping.

(Also, hello!).

It took a while but I now have all these items. Crimper and one set of dies arrived a few days ago and the AMP Superseal Dies today. Just need time to do some crimper testing now.