Bought a $90 coax crimper on Amazon and it stripped the dielectric on 3 fittings before I caught it

Picked up one of those cheap ratcheting crimpers last month to save some cash. First job was replacing a BNC connector on a Garmin GNS 530W antenna cable. On the third crimp I noticed the center pin was wobbly. Pulled it off and saw the crimp die was chipped, gouging the insulation. Cost me two more fittings and an hour of troubleshooting before I borrowed my buddy's $400 Daniels crimper. Anyone else get burned by budget tools on coax work?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_schmidt821mo ago

Yeah I gotta push back on the "budget tools burned me" angle here. You bought a $90 crimper that stripped the dielectric on three fittings, but that's not a cheap tool problem, that's a specific bad tool problem. I've used a $30 Klein crimper for years on LMR-400 and RG-213 without any chipping or gouging. The issue isn't the price point, it's that you grabbed a random Amazon special without checking reviews or testing it on scrap first. Cheap tools can work fine if you buy from a known brand and don't expect them to match a $400 Daniels on precision. A chipped die is just bad manufacturing, not a sign that you need to spend four hundred bucks.

the_taylor1mo ago

Reminds me of people hating on cheap tools when really they just bought the wrong one.