Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[dlctcg]

Anyone have experience with this?

Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool

Amazing deals on this Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

Have 2 of them, 1 for work & 1 for the garage... It's not a everyday tool but they are really handy to have. Sometimes a little awkward to use, a third hand can be useful at times depending on the location of the crimp you are making; no issue using them at the bench.

We would sometimes have the dies drop out because of the position we needed to get the tool in & they just slide in to the hole on the tool. We resolved it by using a little dab of Sil-Glyde lubricating compound in the holes on the tool. It is sticky enough to hold the dies in & works great (& doesn't melt & make a mess when you leave the tool case in the truck in the summer).

Other than that it works good with a good selection of dies, I would guess on of my sets is 8+ yrs old. There are similar & less expensive units on Amazon & eBay.

 

[Fallon]

Have 2 of them, 1 for work & 1 for the garage... It's not a everyday tool but they are really handy to have. Sometimes a little awkward to use, a third hand can be useful at times depending on the location of the crimp you are making; no issue using them at the bench.

We would sometimes have the dies drop out because of the position we needed to get the tool in & they just slide in to the hole on the tool. We resolved it by using a little dab of Sil-Glyde lubricating compound in the holes on the tool. It is sticky enough to hold the dies in & works great (& doesn't melt & make a mess when you leave the tool case in the truck in the summer).

Other than that it works good with a good selection of dies, I would guess on of my sets is 8+ yrs old. There are similar & less expensive units on Amazon & eBay.

I have Goplus 16 Ton Hydraulic Wire Crimper Battery Cable Lug Terminal Crimping Tool w/ 11 Dies - - Amazon.com which is identicle tone HF use to sell. The one they have now has a 1 sided end on it which is probably weaker but more convenient.

Mine has been fiddly but entirely adequate for a cheap Chinese tool. Maybe 200 crimps on it over the past few years. A better one would be better, but likely not worth the price even for an advanced home user. Would buy again.

 

[BravoXray]

Anyone have experience with this?

Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool

Amazing deals on this Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

Yes, I have one, and it works great. You just have to learn which size dies to use with which size wire/connector.

 

[Fallon]

Yes, I have one, and it works great. You just have to learn which size dies to use with which size wire/connector.

Hydraulic Crimping Tool for Large SB and Powerpole Contacts has a chart of die size for a given wire size.

 

[dragoneggs]

Have 2 of them, 1 for work & 1 for the garage... It's not a everyday tool but they are really handy to have. Sometimes a little awkward to use, a third hand can be useful at times depending on the location of the crimp you are making; no issue using them at the bench.

We would sometimes have the dies drop out because of the position we needed to get the tool in & they just slide in to the hole on the tool. We resolved it by using a little dab of Sil-Glyde lubricating compound in the holes on the tool. It is sticky enough to hold the dies in & works great (& doesn't melt & make a mess when you leave the tool case in the truck in the summer).

Other than that it works good with a good selection of dies, I would guess on of my sets is 8+ yrs old. There are similar & less expensive units on Amazon & eBay.

I have only used the hand power crimpers but what I do like about them is the dies are held in place and can be rotated with a push of a pin on each jaw.

On needing three hands... that is my biggest problem. Extremely hard to keep the terminal snug on to the wire while crimping with two hands.

 

[crazyal]

I don't have one of those crimpers but I do have multiple ones that are much higher quality. I can't see how it would be useful for crimping small diameter wires. It would be like using a sledge hammer to drive a nail. For larger wires I think it would be useful. I have a very similar tool for flaring brake lines. It's just not very fast.

If you are looking for something to do smaller wires (up to 10 gauge) then Tyco makes a great one. It has a spring loaded arm that holds the connector so you just need to hold the crimper in one hand and the wire in the other. But they are expensive. You probably can find a used one on ebay though. The plastic on the handles break on the older ones but they are still fully functional.

59824-1 | eBay

 

[BravoXray]

On needing three hands... that is my biggest problem. Extremely hard to keep the terminal snug on to the wire while crimping with two hands.

Yeah, humans should have been born with three or four hands.

I usually clamp the fixed handle in the vise with soft jaws to use it.

 

[Diggin It]

Yeah, humans should have been born with three or four hands.

As usual, Rod was way ahead of you:

 

[skikir]

I wonder if you could pick up one of those at HF.

 

[BukitCase]

Skikir, welcome to TBN;

Here's HF's version

Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool

Amazing deals on this Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

I have one, could use a couple improvements but works OK once you figure out which dies to use for what... Steve