Lets Talk Open Barrel Crimpers - Reviews and Discussion
Certainly the price is right for someone starting. The question is will it cover all their needs.
There are some trickier crimps, like the ones with side by side wires.
Another thing I found the Astro struggled with was crimping the heavy gage ring terminals I selected for the 8, 10 and 12 ga power feed and related wires.
That surprised me because I thought its compound action would make it easy to compress the bigger stuff.
I ended up using the larger of the two replica Packard Crimpers, which isn't really designed for that job, but it got it done.
American Autowire 'replica' Crimpers:
Shown above sitting in the lid of the Astro Crimper box.
American autowire's crimpers are supposed to be replicas of Packard Electric's hand crimpers.
They come with no information, no guidelines, in a plain cardboard box. There is (or was) a video showing how to use it, but they are a one size fits most situation.
In other words, the smaller one (yellow handles) will work for most wire gages and terminals used on a typical car, I guess.
The larger one is called a double - and that seems to be what it originally was for. It was for crimping two wires side by side when using a terminal specifically made with a wider insulation barrel.
In the photo above, the Packard 58 terminal on the right and the one in the jaws are specifically made for holding two wires.
Both crimpers are narrow enough so there are no problems with interference if one is careful.
(Crimper at the topof photo is an older general purpose closed barrel crimper.)
Bottom Line. These work well, but are expensive and seem to be more expensive every time I look. They are not what I'd want to work under the dash with, but are fine under the hood or on the bench. They do require some eyeballing and experimentation when working with smaller (18 and 20 ga) and large wires. On the other hand they provide good leverage on larger heavy ring terminals.
Those might be a good option. Parallel jaws should be a real plus. Could use a detailed review. :poke:
Certainly the price is right for someone starting. The question is will it cover all their needs.
There are some trickier crimps, like the ones with side by side wires.
Another thing I found the Astro struggled with was crimping the heavy gage ring terminals I selected for the 8, 10 and 12 ga power feed and related wires.
That surprised me because I thought its compound action would make it easy to compress the bigger stuff.
I ended up using the larger of the two replica Packard Crimpers, which isn't really designed for that job, but it got it done.
American Autowire 'replica' Crimpers:
Shown above sitting in the lid of the Astro Crimper box.
American autowire's crimpers are supposed to be replicas of Packard Electric's hand crimpers.
They come with no information, no guidelines, in a plain cardboard box. There is (or was) a video showing how to use it, but they are a one size fits most situation.
In other words, the smaller one (yellow handles) will work for most wire gages and terminals used on a typical car, I guess.
The larger one is called a double - and that seems to be what it originally was for. It was for crimping two wires side by side when using a terminal specifically made with a wider insulation barrel.
In the photo above, the Packard 58 terminal on the right and the one in the jaws are specifically made for holding two wires.
Both crimpers are narrow enough so there are no problems with interference if one is careful.
(Crimper at the topof photo is an older general purpose closed barrel crimper.)
Bottom Line. These work well, but are expensive and seem to be more expensive every time I look. They are not what I'd want to work under the dash with, but are fine under the hood or on the bench. They do require some eyeballing and experimentation when working with smaller (18 and 20 ga) and large wires. On the other hand they provide good leverage on larger heavy ring terminals.
