Hi Allan, All the solar contractors I've worked with in Africa use these Chinese hydraulic crimpers. Yes the dies are metric and the ones I have used did not have AWG equivalents marked on them, but I've always been able to find the right die size to make good crimps on both heavy wall and thin wall lugs. Each crimp takes 20-40 seconds longer than my long-handled high leverage HexCrimp tool from QuickCable, because you have to pump the hydraulic cylinder a bunch of times, and then releasing the pressure to open it back up takes more time. Changing dies between different sizes is much slower than rotating the HexCrimp die heads. For an occasional crimp in the field the slowness is not a problem but if you are fabricating lots of short cables for series/parallel interconnects I think the slowness would get frustrating, especially if you are used to a high-leverage, one squeeze type of crimper.
But they do work and are certainly affordable! As with all cheap Chinese stuff I worry about the quality of the steel and other materials, and the possibility of it just breaking apart one day, but from my experience these seem to be appropriately heavy-duty and a good value. All the best, Eric *Eric YoungrenSolar Nexus International* PO Box 894 1016 Discovery Way Eastsound, WA 98245 USA (360) 376-6842 www.solarnexusinternational.com w <http://www.solarnexus.wordpress.com/>ww.picopowerboss.com Skype name: ericyoungren On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 3:35 PM, Allan Sindelar <al...@sindelarsolar.com> wrote: > Wrenches, > Has anyone used the cheap Chinese hydraulic cable crimpers? Any field > reports? Dies appear to be metric; do they correspond to AWG? All of these > kits run about $45, which is absurd, as a Klein manual crimper for up to > 4/0 runs $200+, and that's what I expected to buy before I came across lots > of these on Ebay. > > An example: > http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-Ton-Hydraulic-Wire-Crimper-Crimping-Tool-11-Dies-Battery-Cable-Lug-Terminal-/310896486645?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4862dfe8f5 > > I'm hesitant without good reviews, but it's tempting. No lectures, please. > > Thank you, > Allan > > -- > > *Allan Sindelar* > al...@sindelarsolar.com > NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional > NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional > New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician > Founder (Retired), Positive Energy, Inc. > *505 780-2738 <505%20780-2738> cell* > > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > > >
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