Hi All:
My recommendation is to use the tool made by the company that makes your
connector. They know what works best with their connectors. Having said
that, all BNC's for RG174 and RG58 are almost the same and the inexpensive
tool made by Amphonal and others work very well. It will cost you from $50
to $70 but it will work OK. They take interchangeable dies and you can use
the dies from almost any similar looking tool in any of the handles. Type
N's for RG-213 work well in crimp and I've think that Amphonal's RFX series
crimp on PL259 (available for 213 and 58 with crimp braid and solder center
conductor) works well and a tool with interchangeable dies makes going all
crimp a little cheaper.
About 20 years ago I quit using as much as possible solder on connectors. I
find a well assembled crimp better in all respects than an average solder on
connector. I've used a lot of them too. I've worked for years in the High
Energy Physics world and have installed 1000's of connectors on coax. As an
example one small experiment we did had 9 miles of RG-213 with crimp on
connectors and 1 miles of RG174 cut into 2' pieces with connectors crimped
on. Not one failure do to connectors in the 4 years the experiment ran. The
secret is to follow the manufactures directions EXACTLY and take care not to
nick the braid or center conductor when striping the coax.

John Passaneau
Penn State University
University Park Pa.
"Roy Lewallen" wrote in message
...
Danny Richardson wrote:

Thank you for the response, however, because others have suggested
soldering I feel an explanation may be in order. I have been installing
soldered coax connectors for more than fifty
years and feel I was pretty good at it, however, with advancing years
I have lost considerable motor skills and can not hold a soldering
iron (or anything else) very steady. My problem, at the moment, is
trying to make up some BNC connectors using RG-174. Although crimp on
connecters may not be the best choice, for me they appear to be a
viable option. Hence my inquiry as to what would be a good choice in
crimp on tools.

That's definitely a good reason, and the kind I appreciate more and more
as time goes by. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm in the same boat, so
I'll pay attention to the tool suggestions too.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Once a month or a thousand times a day? It makes a difference. I do about
ten a month, and a plain old automotive crimp terminal tool ($15) works just
fine. Some have been in service for ten years with nary a failure. Put a
dab of RTV over the crimp and coax, then shrink some sleeving down over RTV,
crimp, & coax to make a hermetically sealed connection.

Jim



"Danny Richardson" wrote in message
...
Looking for suggestions for a good crimp tool for installing coax
connectors. It will primarily for BNC connectors on RG-174, 58 and 59
cables. Although the RG-8 cable family capability would be nice too.

I do wish to avoid being a captive customer in that brand X crimp tool
only works well with brand X connectors.

And, of course, looking for the best bank for the buck.

Thanks,

Danny

"Danny Richardson" wrote in message
...
Looking for suggestions for a good crimp tool for installing coax
connectors. It will primarily for BNC connectors on RG-174, 58 and 59
cables. Although the RG-8 cable family capability would be nice too.

I do wish to avoid being a captive customer in that brand X crimp tool
only works well with brand X connectors.

And, of course, looking for the best bank for the buck.

Thanks,

Danny

IF, 75 ohm BNC is okay .....for your specific application ...
then I would seriously consider the Snap-N-Seal (20.3mm) or Stirling
(19.3mm) compression connectors and tools. Note the size difference. USA
CATV operators seem to have adopted one of these 2 approaches nationally.

Connectors are available as BNC, F, RCA.
https://www.tselectronic.com/thomandbetts/sns6bnc.html

https://www.tselectronic.com/thomand...sns1p6rmx.html

Supported RG-59/U; RG-6/U (various shield versions) and RG-11/U
https://www.tselectronic.com/thomandbetts/sns.html

In article ,
Danny Richardson wrote:

Looking for suggestions for a good crimp tool for installing coax
connectors. It will primarily for BNC connectors on RG-174, 58 and 59
cables. Although the RG-8 cable family capability would be nice too.

I do wish to avoid being a captive customer in that brand X crimp tool
only works well with brand X connectors.

And, of course, looking for the best bank for the buck.

Thanks,

Danny

try to ebay search crimp tools there is usually a few companies that
sell a kit w/a ratachted crimper that has changable dies and include a
die or 2 2 dies should cover what you need sometimes the kit will
also include a few crimp lugs, which you might not need

cost for a brand new one w/2 dies cost me 25usd they will crimp
any standard connector that mates w/the standard dies

if you only need to make one or 2 radio shack and simular places have
crimp tools that are either plier type or that look like a ratached
tool but aren't actually ratached at radioshack you'll sometimes pay
close to what a ratached unit cost from above their plier looking
one is pretty cheep

if you don't make many they do sell connectors that don't need crimpn'


good luck