Helpful hint on these crimpers: Most of them have a “release trigger” in between the two handles. After you complete the crimp you can see that the rear of the terminal has a nice bowtie shape around the insulation (Figure 15). As with the other crimper, you simply squeeze these crimpers until they release. Again, you may insert the wire onto the terminal and then place it into the crimper, or you may position the terminal into the crimper first as shown in Figure 14. The other side of the die as shown in Figure 13 has half-moon-shaped cavities and is used to crimp the conductor. This is the side of the crimper that will be used to crimp the insulation. If you look at Figure 12, you see that this is the front of the die with the colored dots and the cavity is shaped somewhat like a bowtie. You’ll notice there are basically two rows of teeth to the crimper. Note that these pins may be soldered in place rather than crimped, and if done properly will be just as acceptable. A properly crimped pin will have four or eight indentations around the circumference of the pin as seen in Figure 10. ![]() This is true for both certified and imported tools. The indent crimper is easy to use: You simply squeeze it together until it releases. If you are using a properly configured tool, the crimper will ensure proper depth placement of the pin as depicted in Figure 9. You may also place the pin into the crimper and then insert the wire if you are sure the length of the stripped conductor is correct. With the pin placed on the wire, you then insert it into the open cavity in the crimper face (see Figure 8). You’ll notice on the small D-Sub pins that there is a little window (sometimes called a “witness hole”) that allows you to see when the conductor is inserted the correct distance into the pin as in Figure 7. (As far as I know, only B&C and SteinAir make the necessary modifications to imported tools for proper crimping.) To use this tool first place a pin onto the wire you just stripped. For crimping on these pins, most avionics shops will use a Mil-Spec certified crimper, but most homebuilders will be using a lower cost version as shown in Figure 6. The first device we’ll crimp here is a simple D-Sub machined pin, which is used throughout an airplane, from avionics to trim, wire, sensors and more. Once the wire is stripped, you can crimp on whichever type of pin or terminal you need. Some of the tools from “big box stores” will be of good quality, but others not so much. If you purchase your tools from a company that focuses on high quality tools or electrical components, you should be safe. ![]() Some import quality tools are acceptable as is, others must be modified to be acceptable. Most of your tools should be in the mid-level price range. For the purpose of this article I’ll presuppose that you are using aircraft quality wire and aircraft quality terminals-no automotive or hardware store brand components! Indeed, there are a number of cases of airplanes-from large jetliners to small sport aircraft-that have crashed as a result of a simple wire terminal failure. ![]() Even the most basic homebuilt aircraft will likely have a few wires that have been done improperly, resulting in bad repercussions. So, yes, this process may not be as exciting as looking at fancy EFISes and GPSes, but being able to properly crimp wires is vital to your finished airplane. Perhaps later we will have an opportunity to review other topics, but for this exercise I wanted to focus particularly on stripping a wire and crimping a terminal on the end of a wire. Many of you call and write asking for a simple overview of basic “wiremanship,” so I thought I’d start out with a beginner’s guide to wire stripping and crimping.
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