[geeks] Recommendation for RJ45 crimper tool?

[Michael Parson]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 07:21:29AM -0400, Steve Haavik wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Michael Parson wrote:
>
>> paid about $45 for mine from a local shop, but some days, I've wished
>> I'd gotten the nicer AMP set for ~$80.  But mine works fine for the
>
> I've still got one of the nice AMP crimpers from 10 years ago. The problem
> I have with it is the connectors are just a little different (crimps in 2
> places) and I can't use the cheap connectors my employer is willing to
> buy.

Ah yes, good quality connectors are almost as important as quality
crimpers.

First big wiring job I did back in 1995, we were wiring up a new
computer lab at the university I was working for.  They made extra sure
to get the high-quality CAT-5 cabling (Beldon Data-twist 350? something
like that, the suck there was each pair was bonded together and had
to be split before making any cables, punches, whatever).  But they
wouldn't pay for CAT-5 jacks.  Then my brilliant boss did not understand
why the network switches cost so much more than the hubs, so, without
checking with anyone, changed the order to get hubs instead.

She also didn't see the point in patch-panels, but we were able to
convince her to let us put in wall jacks so we didn't have home-runs for
each computer going from the desks, up the walls, over the ceiling, and
down into the closet straight into the switches^Whubs.

Then I got blamed for the collisions on our ~200 node Novell 4.11
network.

> I've got one for work that does RJ11 and RJ45 that I've worn out to
> the point where I can't cut wire with it (built in cutters/strippers)
> but it still crimps fine after 5 years and a few thousand cables. No
> idea who made it (just says made in Taiwan) and I remember it coming
> in a plain white box.

I never use the cutters on the crimpers.  Just a personal preference,
I've always found them awkward.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org