Anderson Crimper dies

[sternwake]

It appears their 'special tool' has a depth stop in which the business end of the connector resides, while the 'buttcheek' jaws form the crimp.

I am wondering if the depth stop is just for those with little dexterity, and that similar sytle buttcrack crimping dies, without the depth stop, can be used in and achieve the same quality of crimp.

i am trying to save money, and also just have one set of ratcheting crimpers for all my 10awg to 22awg wiring tasks.

I also want to be able to crimp red and blue insulated flat terminals, and I know these require special dies.

But I am not sure the Andersons do.

Looks like these dies will fit many different ratcheting crimpers, and they have no depth stop, and are marketed as Anderson dies.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Die-Set-For-Cri...xyffZSaUE8

One set of the dies in this kit and many other kits, appears to be nearly exactly the same thing:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQT1WGH/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01MQT1WGH&pd_rd_wg=fdFjB&pd_rd_r=CTZ8G6H0RMJTXGGFGCKD&pd_rd_w=sRG1E#customerReviews

I am not sure the depth stop is required, or worth it.

Anybody know if the other buttcheek crimping dies in such kits work on Andersons? I do not really care about the 15 amp versions, 30 and 45 only

I've been crimping them for a long time with 'adequate' tools and then getting a smidge of solder covering them, but this takes too long and I have made mistakes.

[GypsyDogs]

(eagerly awaits response.. I think my iwiss kit has the butt-cheek die.. and I am wanting to use andersonPP on all my swap connections...)

[sternwake]

Heck I really need to see and use these things before I can say what might or might not work based on pictures of the dies. I was hoping someone here with 45 amp powerpoles contacts could see if the largest butt cheek die makes a good crimp.

I made some 10AWG leads with powerpoles today and if I could not get solder sucked into the stranding, i would not trust the crimp made with my Klein crimpers. It is easy to distort the business end of the powerpoles crimping with klein crimpers, then when joined they do not have nearly as much surface area mating as intended and can be a poor electrical connection.

[Blacktank]

my iwiss has a die just like your first link and they are removable so should be able to find other dies for it

anything you want me to do?

[sternwake]

How tightly does the receptacle for the contact head grab the contact? Is the receptacle just for the depth, or is it going to prevent the contact from rolling to one side or the other once the dies start squeezing?

It appears the powerpoles not labelled Anderson, have a different system of dovetail mating the red and black together. When they are connected, do they slide against each other easily or is there a enough friction that they stay mated?

The price of Andersons is pretty hard to swallow., but I've not tried the knockoffs. Some reviews seem very unfavorable and the authors seem to know what they are talking about.

While the Iwiss can be had on ebay for cheaper, the Anderson TC-1 crimper cannot, and was only 2$ more than the Iwiss on Amazon.

i decided to just buy it, and different dies, one for the flag terminals, one for regular insulated connectors. Hopefully they will fit in the TC-1 without too much, or any grinding.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CWMR4KM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/A07FL-female-insulated-1-25-1-5mm2-17-15AWG/dp/B01CWMR9IO/ref=sr_1_2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1519886391&sr=1-2&keywords=Die+Set+for+Insulated+Flag+Terminals&dpID=41tk6q9mXAL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

I also decided to try some knockoff powerpoles:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CSYJ25/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B074CSYJ25&pd_rd_wg=8Yq80&pd_rd_r=0SCMCHP3HTS1DFJ7JJ3V&pd_rd_w=BP2CH

But I Kind of wish I spent the extra for Andersons instead.

[Blacktank]

havent used them yet but can give you this


see those square holes in the  back


the contact end of the plug goes in there



i'll put something together tomorrow and see how they hold

[sternwake]

That last pic is most helpful. It appears the contact cannot rotate and be off position when the dies come down.

Whether the butt crack dies sold in/with other racheting crimper sets can properly crimp these is likely a yes with some practice, but the possibility exists of bending the important part of the contact. Then they might not mate with the full surface area touching and wase some wattage as heat.

That looks like an Authentic anderson contact, not the ones sold with the IWiss tool, correct?

I used up the last of my 45 amp andersons making another 18 foot DC extension cord with a Y splitter on the one end. The losses of the 16-3 cord over 18feet, with the green and black wires in parallel as ground, matters much less than I imagined with the PWM controller. it seems i can still get nearly the full panel rating at that distance with 16-3. Tomorrow i will check at 36 feet, if sunny.

I'm not sure if I can not solder over the powerpole crimps, as I have gotten quite good at it, but the idiot proof crimping tool should lessen the requirement that I do so.

[Blacktank]

they were sold to me as authentic 45 amp anderson powerpoles with the price to prove it,the 30 amp that came with the ratchet got sent to a certain pirate to play around with

not seeing why a buttcheek die wouldnt work,looks the same minus the backing slot for the contact end of the powerpole

[sternwake]

I guess i want to minimize the chances of screwing up the contacts, as they are basically 50 cents each, a dollar for a songle output/imput amd 2$ fpr a joining set pair.

My Klein crimpers do an Ok job with 12 or 14AWg in 30 amp PP's, but stuffing 10AWg into a 45 amp contacts requires a lot of manipulation to close the tangs over the copper stranding, not having stranding squeeze out, or deform the contact. I began just crimping substandard but an otherwise good looking crimp, then heating it and allowing it to suck in as much solder as it took to give me some warm and fuzzies, and improve/practice my soldering skills.

I have had my earliest 45 amp crimps fail, nd I botched some so badly I decided to waste the 50 cents rather than utilize it only to regret it later.

The specialized tool should make it mostly idiot proof, much much faster and I can still get my warm and fuzzies by covering it with solder for my own contacts.

Amazing how much better a soldering iron works when the tip is properly tinned, adn there is a nice clean connection between teh soldering iron/gun and the tip being used. My 140 watt weller gun gets the tip removed, sanded to 800 grit, sprayed with DeOxit d5, then reassembled. It then takes less than half the time for the tinned tip to become molten, compared to if I had just squeezed the trigger without having spent some effort on the contacts first.

[sternwake]

Well, the TC-1 crimpers arrived, as did the Aden windcamp generic powerpoles.

I thought the depth stop portion of the crimper dies was attached to the crimper dies, but it is just a plastic piece that gets held on with a nut that also holds the dies in the tool. removal of this plastic guide, could allow the tool to be used on non insulated non anderson crimps.

The tool does not feel like it is either wonderfully made and precise, nor does it feel sloppy and shoddy.

The extra dies I purchaced for insulated crimps and flag terminals, have not yet arrived.

The Aden powerpoles are better than I expected on initial inspection. The black and red housings mate together very tightly, perhaps too tightly as it took some serious pressure to remove them.

I attached one of them to an Anderson powerpole and when trying to separate it the red and black andersons dovetail parted but the aden stuck to the Anderson.

On initial inspection, The 45 amp contacts appear identical to the Andersons, but the plated copper might not be quite as thick. If I did not use up all my Andersons I could put my digital calipers on them.

Hard to say if it was worth saving 5$ on 10 pair of these over the Andersons. Especially without having assembled them and asking them to pass 40 amps for 20 minutes.

I'll update with pics and more impressions once I actually use it/them.