Hi - so I avoid connectors that you have to crimp at all costs, but occasionally I get stuck having to deal with them. Normally I just kind of squish them together with needle nose pliers - but it's a huge pain and doesn't work as well as I'd like. So - is there a special method for crimping connectors? And I understand there are crimping tools out there - but are there universal crimpers? I'd hate to have to get a tool for each type of connector I want to crimp... Thanks!
There are crimp tools out there and some are specific for the type of connector, and some even have different dies for different wire sizes. The needle nose plier approach usually turns out poor results because the force is not high enough for a gas tight connection, so after a while the connection fails because of oxidation. What type connector/pin do you want to crimp?
currently it's the Molex 9503061 (http://www.molex.com/customer.html?supplierPN=009503061) with pins 8560106 (http://www.molex.com/customer.html?supplierPN=008560106). Normally I am using smaller crimp pins though - like those for DB9 connectors, or even these awful things: connector: http://www.molex.com/customer.html?supplierPN=550631490 pins: http://www.molex.com/customer.html?supplierPN=506418041
Radioshack has a cheap pin crimper around $10USD. It has sizes from 16AWG to 28AWG. But its nowhere near the useability of the manfacturer crimpers. But the manufacturer crimpers cost $200+USD and only go to one set of pins. For hobby use, you can practice using the radioshack cheappies. One tip: I dont trust any connection to just crimping. I tin the wire end, crimp it, then fill any space left over with solder.
I usualy just do the 'ol bend em over with needle nose pliers routine, and then solder the connection.
