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Had a chat with a senior tech at ORD that flipped my thinking on crimp pin repairs
He told me he's been re-pinning connectors with a $20 hand crimper for 30 years and never had a failure, which made me question why I've been spending $400 on calibration for my fancy pneumatic one. Has anyone else found the expensive tool is just a crutch for bad technique?
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dakota_rivera25d ago
Oh man, I gotta push back on that. That $20 hand crimper might work for him, but I've seen plenty of guys jack up pins using cheap tools because they can't feel the right depth. The calibration on the expensive ones catches stuff you'd never spot by eye, like handle wear or die misalignment that leads to intermittent failures down the line. Isn't the real question how many of those "30 year no failure" claims are just luck because nobody checked the connections under a microscope?
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valwest25d ago
Worn out dies on a cheap crimper will crush the insulation before the pin is fully seated every time. That's the kind of intermittent failure that doesn't show up until the gear is vibrating at 10,000 feet.
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