I don't make patch cords, I have better things to do with my time. I always insist on female data jacks, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.
I got a call from one of my suppliers, they had intalled C5 to demo, a home style sound system. All the C5 had to have male RJ-45 ends crimped on the ends of the cables. I used solid wire ends. I would test the cables, one wire would be open, replace ends other wire open.
What is the life of a crimp tool? What brand of ends do you all use, AMP or some other brand name, or overseas cheap ones. Thanks for your help.

Do yourself a favor. Search RJ45 and take some time to read you'll find a lot of stuff. Registered Jack refers to wiring scheme, not the number of pins or positions the jack has.

For 8p8c mod plugs I have used the same tool for years with no problems you just have to get the right plug end for the type wire your putting it on. The last plugs I bought were from ICC. You'd have to put a lot of mod plugs on to wear one out. I'd say you're either not fully inserting the wires into the plug or your plug ends are bad.

I use a decent plug crimper with plugs made for the cable type (solid for solid, stranded for stranded).

Dressing and cutting the pairs very neatly with a good pair of scissors will help with avoiding opens. I find that applying light pressure to the pairs when cutting lessens the wire's 'rebound' (when I let go, the wire ends stay where I cut them). Also, I keep my plugs in a tiny ziploc bag so that no foreign particles can get inside and interfere with a good connection.

Just curious on that home audio system: why couldn't you use an 8p8c keystone with a patch cord instead of a plug?

As for tool life, no idea: I don't crimp enough plugs with it to wear it out.

Jack

Years ago the AMP tool would only work correctly on AMP plugs,don't know about now.The tool would break other mfg plugs.

I run a college cabling course, and I do have the students crimp 8P8C mod ends on both solid and stranded cable with the appropriate type of mod ends. I'm pretty sure I've seen every which way that someone can mess up a crimp. When the students have opens on the solid wire, I can crimp again with a bit more force and that typically solves the problem. My students use the Ideal CrimpMaster tools, and you need to apply quite a bit of force. What I actually tell them is to squeeze the the crimpers until they hear a popping sound...from their hand not the tool. It's a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Sometimes with solid wire you can do absolutely everything right, and you still get an open. If you have cheap plugs, this is even more likely. What basically happens is the blades on the plug go a little bit wide, and instead of contacting the copper they leave a little skin of insulation between the blade and the conductor. Sometimes this shows up as an intermittent problem, or high attenuation on one pair. You really have no control over this, although buying better quality plugs will help.

My advice is to avoid crimping mod plugs on solid cable unless absolutely necessary. Making custom cables for phone system installation is acceptable. Solid conductor patch cables, even with the best mod plugs, is never acceptable. In my experience, problems with mod plugs on solid Cat3 are much less likely than with Cat5e.

I\'ve had good luck with the GMP modular plug presser I crimp only when I have to

That's the one I use too Skip and if you notice there are dies for different manufacturer's plugs. I suspect then that other "less quality" pressers will work with only a limited number of manufacturer's plugs if not only one.

I also recommend not using scissors to do the final trim, use your cutters. Seems the blunt cut made by the scissors makes it difficult to insert the wires into the plug. The > cut from the cutters allows them to slide right in.

-Hal

Thanks for the advice. Have a great day off??

I will back that up... with scissors you get a slight bend at the end of the cuts because they actually twist the ends, which angles them a little off. With the dykes you get a straight cut that does not bend or twist the ends, making the insertion much easier and the contact cleaner.

that's one of those things I hadn't thought about but it makes perfect sense

:thumb:

I hate how that AMP tool only terminated the AMP plugs. I always forget then I'm at the site and I grab the tool and the plugs don't work .... angry. I have to carry all the tools on the truck because that one time I decide not to bring a certain tool is when I need it!

Triple check the Plug.
I find that the ones for solid wire tend to have 3 prongs per blade with the center one slightly offset. That way the solid core of the wire gets trapped and doesn't role away from the blade. The pins with only 2 prongs are for the stranded copper. The 3 Prongs do work better on Stranded than the 2 prongs on Solid. If you stick with the right plug for the cable wire type, ensure you see copper at the end of the plug before inserting into the crimp tool, and firmly press the cable into the crimp before and during crimping your success should be well above 95%
Also make sure the you are not using a CAT6 plug on a CAT5(3) cable. The AWG is larger on CAT6.

Here is the scoop on the AMP plugs as per Wikipedia:

"There are two types of 8P8C plugs, sockets, and diesets (used for crimping): Western Electric/Stewart Stamping (WE/SS) and Tyco/AMP. While both types look remarkably similar, they are exclusive and cannot be interchanged. Tyco/AMP 8P8C plugs are proprietary, and have smaller spacing between contacts than the WE/SS style. As a result, using a WE/SS 8P8C crimp dieset on a Tyco/AMP 8P8C plug will crush the top of the connector, and vice versa. While the WE/SS 8P8C plug is more common than Tyco/AMP, it is still important to know what style is being used to avoid damaging the plug during crimping."

I dont do alot of crimping either but when I do I have very few problems. I do as Clinton described and squeeze the hell out of em and then do it a couple more times just for good measure. I use a scissors to do my final trim and haven't had any problems with getting the wires to fit. I prefer a ratcheting type crimper. The first crimper I started with was not of the ratcheting type and seemed to have quite a bit of play in the handles thus causing the actual crimping pins to not line up in the die. That caused quite a few busted plugs and a lot of frustration. Ive used a ratcheting crimper from Ideal for quite a few years now and it works great.

I also have a ratcheting crimper by Ideal. I use Tyco ends and rarely have one fail a test.

I bought a racket Amp crimp tool, on ebay quite awhile ago,the one that front loads. I didn't realize that you could only use Amp ends it. I had bought some Amp cat 5E 8 pos plugs, the two piece ones last winter. So this AM went back used the Amp crimp tool and the Amp ends all was well. Thanks everybody for your help. I didn't realize that you can only use and ends in an Amp tool.

Tyco/Greenlee crimper/Snips to cut off the wires evenly....near 100% on a very regular basis. Just pay attention to what you are doing, take a good look and make sure you can see 8 little copper dots inside the plug before you crimp it and give it a nice solid squeeze...oh check your wiremap too!