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Just realized the crimp tool I bought in Dallas three years ago was the reason my coax connections kept failing.
I was redoing a whole panel in a King Air last week and finally noticed the die was slightly off center, making every single crimp just a hair loose, which explains the intermittent faults I've been chasing for months, anyone else had a tool fail in a way that wasn't obvious?
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uma6596mo ago
Ever think about how a tool can be fine for one job but ruin another? My old wire stripper worked great on regular house wire. Tried it on some thin thermostat wire and it kept nicking the strands. The cut depth was just a little too aggressive for the smaller stuff. Took me forever to figure out why my connections were so brittle. Sometimes the tool isn't broken, it's just wrong for the material in your hand.
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spencerross6mo ago
That "slightly off center" die is the worst kind of problem. It's not broken enough to be obvious, just broken enough to waste your whole week. I had a pin vise once where the chuck was worn just enough to let bits slip under torque. Spent two days blaming my technique before I caught it. Those hidden tool faults are so frustrating.
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the_jessica6mo ago
Disagree on this one. That slightly off die is actually a great teacher. It forces you to pay way more attention to your setup and feel. A perfect tool lets you get lazy. A flawed one makes you learn the real limits of the process. Finding that hidden fault is frustrating, but fixing it or working around it makes you way better. I'd take a tricky tool that makes me think over a perfect one any day.
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