Stephen Tashiro
09-22-2012, 12:45 AM
Why do crimpers for thick wire connectors have the feature of a ratcheting action?
In shopping for crimpers for thick wire, I noticed that most of them advertised the ability to ratchet. I bought a "Crimp Tool For Non-Insulated Terminal 8-2 AWG" and have used it few times. I don't understand why the ratcheting feature is desirable. It doesn't have anything to do with how much force the crimper can exert. It's somewhat of a nuisance to release the ratchet after each crimp and on the particular crimper I bought, it's hard to disable the ratcheting. When fully open the crimper handles spread too wide for me to comfortably grasp, so the ratchet does let me get control of the tool before relasing the crimp. Is that the only purpose for the ratchet?
In shopping for crimpers for thick wire, I noticed that most of them advertised the ability to ratchet. I bought a "Crimp Tool For Non-Insulated Terminal 8-2 AWG" and have used it few times. I don't understand why the ratcheting feature is desirable. It doesn't have anything to do with how much force the crimper can exert. It's somewhat of a nuisance to release the ratchet after each crimp and on the particular crimper I bought, it's hard to disable the ratcheting. When fully open the crimper handles spread too wide for me to comfortably grasp, so the ratchet does let me get control of the tool before relasing the crimp. Is that the only purpose for the ratchet?