Spent 2 years using the wrong wire crimper for D-sub pins

I mean, I thought I was doing it right. I had this cheap ratcheting crimper I got from a surplus store for like 30 bucks, and I was using it for all my D-sub pin crimps. Last month I was on a job at a small airport in Wichita and an old avionics guy walks by my bench, sees me crimping, and just goes 'you know that's for coax, right?' I stared at him for a solid 10 seconds. He showed me his Daniels crimper and the difference was night and day. The pins actually locked into the connector instead of just sort of sitting there. I've been reworking connections on a King KX 155 install for three days because of this. Has anyone else used the wrong tool for this long and only realized it from someone calling them out?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkerrodriguez1mo ago

Classic case of "if it works it ain't stupid" until someone proves it is.

the_mia1mo ago

Did you ever catch yourself defending a bad idea just because it hadn't failed yet? I used to think that way, but watching a few close calls at work made me realize luck often masks real problems. Experience taught me it's better to question things before they break instead of after.

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