[encantotom]

i am looking for a good way to hex crimp ferrules on 4 and 2 gauge wire.  you can buy hex crimpers down to 5 gauge on ebay, but having spent some time looking have not come up with anything for larger wires.  i have 2 and 4 gauge ferrules...

i have not yet tried one of my 2 hydraulic cable crimpers but i suspect it will destroy the thin metal ferrule

anyone have any ideas?

thanks

tom

[encantotom]

i ordered some crimpable pins to try with a regular crimper.

tom

[Jack Houpe]

Not a total solution but I cut short pieces of 1/4, 3/16 copper tubing I had and used the a hand crimper but wouldn't be afraid of of using hydraulic crimpers them

[Gnawrocki1]

Tom, 
I have a hand crimper that should work, at least for some of your work, I believe I bought from ferrules direct.  It is part number FD1004UL, but it might be discontinued.  I bought it on steep discount.  

However I believe it is a square crimper with a waffle type pattern.  I used it once for something not intended for and it seemed fine.  You can borrow it if you like..  It says it is for 10 to 4 Ga so it might for your size ferrules depending on wall thickness.

It reads 6 10 16 and 25mm^2

I forgot I might also have another one that I bought for hand crimping anderson connectors from Powerwerks that has a bunch of additional dies. I can look into it tonight if you like.

I would think the hydraulic crimper would work too, you might need to adjust to a smaller size thought because of the thinner wall of most ferrules

[cwl1979]

Personally I'm to cheap to spend extra money on ferules, I tin the ends and crimp on connectors as needed.

[arcticdude]

I bought this one:

https://www.amazon.com/TEMCo-Hydraulic-C...161&sr=8-1

It’s worked quite well on the cables I needed to make so far. It’s always done a very consistent crimp.

[Gnawrocki1]

I have that one as well, I have had good luck with TemCo crimper.  I have seen on other forums that the seals have gone out almost immediately, but they do provide an additional set of seals but mine has been flawless.

I made a board that the crimper installs into so that I have a "tabletop" setup where I only have to push down on 1 handle and it works pretty good and have crimped up to 2/0 cable when I upgraded to LiFepo4 batteries and did a ton of crimps making all of the battery connections. It is not very portable if you have to haul out to a tight area though.

[encantotom]

i have 2 different hydraulic crimpers as well. from humongo to small

tom

[arcticdude]

Knock on wood, I haven’t had any issues with the seals on mine. I have had it almost 6 years, though it doesn’t seem that long. As I’m getting ready to change out both inverters, I hope it continues to perform well.