Comparison between factory crimp tools and the cheap ones for D-sub pins

I spent two months chasing intermittent faults on a King Air panel. Turns out the cheap crimp tool from Amazon was crushing the pins just enough to cause bad connections. Swapped to a Daniels AFM8 last week and every single connection worked first time. Has anyone else had to redo half a harness because of a bad tool?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmawood1mo ago

Yeah I used to think the cheap ones were fine until I hit the same wall with intermittent faults.

daniel4741mo ago

Isn't that always how it goes though? You think you're saving a few bucks and then boom, the thing starts acting up like it's got a personal vendetta against you. For me it was power supplies, cheap ones would just randomly die or cause weird reboots. Ended up spending twice as much in the long run testing and replacing them. Kinda makes you wonder if the savings are even worth the headache, doesn't it?