Had a debate with a lead about using the factory crimp tool for D-sub pins

He said my hand-crimps on the 9-pin connectors were inconsistent, showed me a failed continuity test from last month. I switched to the official tool, but it's slower. Which side are you on, speed or guaranteed spec?

4 comments

4 Comments

jenny421mo agoOG Member

This is just like people who skip reading the manual and then wonder why stuff breaks.

hunt.hayden1mo ago

Totally feel that lol. Learned the hard way with some cheap crimpers that caused so many headaches later.

charlesschmidt13d ago

But is it really just about the tool itself? I used a cheap crimper for years on home projects and never had a single issue, but maybe I got lucky or was just working with lower stakes stuff. The thing is, you can spend a fortune on a high-end tool and still mess up if your technique is sloppy or you rush the prep work. I've seen guys with thousand dollar crimpers make a mess because they didn't strip the wire clean or used the wrong die. So yeah, proper tool helps, but skill and patience matter just as much in my book. Not gonna say guarantees are a bad thing, just that it's not the whole story.

charlieh741mo ago

Yeah, I was all about speed for years. Then I had a whole batch of sensor cables fail in the field. Tracking down those intermittent faults took ten times longer than just doing it right with the proper tool the first time. Guaranteed spec wins every time now.