Can't Crimp Terminals

[1Mustang]

I've spent the better part of the day trying to crimp the wire extensions to the 4 pin terminal, after destroying 9 crimps so far i still can't get the motor extension wire to get in the 4 pin plug.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[Polygonhell]

You can buy a $20 crimping tool, or you can make it even easier with the $60 correct crimping tool.
Or you can take your time with a decent pair of point nose pliers.
If the wire insulation has is too large you'll never make it work, I assume you are using the smaller wire provided with the kit for the extension?
Most of the issues are with the crimp around the wire insulation, it can end up too big to fit into the plastic housing, you have to take you're time and make sure it's symmetric. Even then I often have to feed the pin in mm by mm with pliers. The wires on the steppers themselves is a really tight fit.
I wired 2 printers with just pliers, and hated crimping every connection, but managed to do it, so it can be done.
I now own the cheaper crimping tool and it's certainly easier, but it's still not something I look forwards to.

[Jimustanguitar]

I've always done this with needle-nose pliers. A crimp tool is nice, but not absolutely necessary. It's a tedious task because of the small scale of what you're working with, but it's pretty straight forward if you can overcome that first bit. A magnifying glass from a set of soldering helping hands isn't a bad idea.

The first step is stripping the wire back the correct amount. The inner set of square tabs is supposed to crimp over the exposed copper for an electrical connection, and the outer set of pointed tabs is supposed to crimp around the insulation for strain relief. You can see how this should line up here.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/pOB14AH.jpg[/img]

Next, you need to fold down the square tabs one at a time over the bare copper. They should nicely fold over each-other if you do it just right. The key when not using the correct crimp tool is to fold the tabs one at a time while making sure that the copper is completely contained under the fold.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/djbZgHt.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/o9tpK1Z.jpg[/img]

After both square tabs are securely folded over the bare copper, fold the pointed tabs over the insulation. These tabs will lay down next to each-other instead of folding over each-other.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/N8EQmQK.jpg[/img]

After you're done, you can touch a dab of solder where the copper is crimped under the tabs, but you only need a very very very little amount. I wouldn't recommend this to someone who wasn't pretty decent at soldering. If you flow too much into it, the pin won't fit into the plastic housing and you'll have to cut it off and start over.

If you need to buy more pins, they're quite cheap. Manufacturer # 16-02-0097

[kit]

I've crimped the Molex pins using pliers. They werent pretty but they fit into the 4-pin connector. The thing is that the Red Wire fits in very nicely and the "tab" on the top of the Molex Pin engages the opening in the 4-pin connector.
The problem is that NONE of the other wires have that same kind of fit. I crimped them correctly with the first prongs over the insulation and the second set of prongs over the wire itself.
Here are some pictures.
Should I be worrying that the other wires dont fit as nicely as the Red Wire??

[img]http://i.imgur.com/7tDBlVJ.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/jMNYzQd.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/qkhkKMQ.jpg[/img]

[geneb]

As long as the tiny little locking tab engages the square hole in the connector, you're good. I've had issue with this before and I use a very, very tiny flat bladed jewelers screwdriver to push the connector all the way in. The downside of this is that if you have a problem, you'll wreck the connector housing or the crimp socket getting it out.

g.

[jmick]

If you shop around you can get the right wrench for $23 and it does a great job.

http://www.amazon.com/HT-225D-Cycle-Rat ... 3KK758WMXQ

[Eaglezsoar]

You can buy a $20 crimping tool, or you can make it even easier with the $60 correct crimping tool.
Or you can take your time with a decent pair of point nose pliers.
If the wire insulation has is too large you'll never make it work, I assume you are using the smaller wire provided with the kit for the extension?
Most of the issues are with the crimp around the wire insulation, it can end up too big to fit into the plastic housing, you have to take you're time and make sure it's symmetric. Even then I often have to feed the pin in mm by mm with pliers. The wires on the steppers themselves is a really tight fit.
I wired 2 printers with just pliers, and hated crimping every connection, but managed to do it, so it can be done.
I now own the cheaper crimping tool and it's certainly easier, but it's still not something I look forwards to.

Do you have a link to the $60 crimping tool?

[kit]

Geneb:
I dont trust my bad crimping skills so I think its best if i just cut the wires off and recrimp them once i get the right crimper and new molex pins.
I've finished the base today and Ill be moving onto installing the towers.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/J1dL0jw.jpg[/img]

Im going to leave the X,Y,Z wires from the stepper motors in the electronics bay. Will i still be able to to get to them easily at the end of assembly?

jmick:
Thanks for the link.

[geneb]

You can easily pull the wires back out in order to have room to crimp them without a problem. I really do recommend that you get a ratcheting crimping tool.

Here's a very good video that shows the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vptd2n5p5-I

For the stepper motor wires, you'll use the larger of the two crimping locations in the crimp die.

A point that's not obvious is that when he loads the crimp socket into the tool, because it "ratchets" he can hold the crimp socket in place by friction. This allows easy manipulation of the wire without having to make sure he keeps the proper amount of tension on the tool in order to hold on to the crimp socket.

Note that with my crimp tool, it doesn't fold the tabs that grip the insulation fully, so I give it a second pass with a set of very small needle nose pliers.

g.

[Reederoo]

I am building the Rostock Max V2 right now and am about to crimp the hot end and thermistor wire connectors, but there seems to be a problem with the wires being 18 AWG and the molex 16-02-0097 connectors specified for 30-24 AWG. How are people getting this to work? Do you have to splice a smaller gauge wire to the 18 AWG and then crimp to that, or are you recommending to just fudge it and force the 18 AWG wire to work by smashing it until it fits? I have the crimp tool ordered to arrive tomorrow, but I am not sure if even the right crimp tool will solve this problem. Please advise

[RegB]

I think the hansenhobbies web site is about as good as you will find.
Watch them VERY carefully, there are some subtleties I didn't catch the first time and probably some more that I still haven't got.

I bought the fancy schmantzy tool, studied all the videos and STILL didn't get GOOD crimps with pins that STAY in the housings everywhere.
DO pay attention to getting the pin in the housing the right way around, or the tab doesn't lock in, etc.

No offense intended to anyone here, but I think a few of the responders have been a bit too MODEST about their skills (-:

[DavidF]

I soldered them to the crimp terminals, then bent the tabs over, seemed easier for me that way.

[bdjohns1]

I think the hansenhobbies web site is about as good as you will find.
Watch them VERY carefully, there are some subtleties I didn't catch the first time and probably some more that I still haven't got.

I bought the fancy schmantzy tool, studied all the videos and STILL didn't get GOOD crimps with pins that STAY in the housings everywhere.
DO pay attention to getting the pin in the housing the right way around, or the tab doesn't lock in, etc.

I got hansen's tool - it worked like a champ once I realized that the crimp connector needs to be oriented the right way. The "anvil" is slightly tapered, and if you do it backwards, you'll just break the connector and/or the wire.

[Jimustanguitar]

Glad you got it!

For future readers, Gene added the YouTube video that helped me to the current manual. Start watching at 4:15 for a nice how to with a crimp tool like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... hCgU#t=255