bark_eater 

I'd like to buy a ratcheting crimper and a wire stripper that will work with B+M and SON wires and connectors. I'm looking at a bunch of options on Amazon but it not clear which tools will work best for the application. I was hoping some one else had success finding an alternative to the high end German tools. Thanks, Woody

kingston 

Not sure what you consider budget, but I bought one of these son crimpers recently. Any open barrel crimper should work as long as it has the right sizes for whatever wires and connectors you are using. Cheapest one I found was around twenty bucks, so I figured I'd just get the german one since I was also ordering a bunch of other stuff from germany anyway.

pdlamb

I put my last system together with a pocket knife for stripping the wires, and a needle nose plier I already had to crimp the connectors. Hard to get any cheaper than using what you've got!

bark_eater 

Thanks guys. I'm looking for the happy medium here...

kingston 

The son crimper has two slots, 1.5-2.5mm for the insulation crimp and 0.5-1.0mm for the wire crimp, so look for one that has something like a 10-14 awg slot for the insulation crimp and a 16-24 awg slot for the wire crimp.

You can decide how cheap you want to go.

Tourist in MSN

I usually use a replaceable blade utility knife with a much sharper blade than pocket knife, that requires that I be very careful as the knife can easily cut through the wires that I do not want to cut. Sometimes I cut too much metal and then have to shorten my wire a bit on my second try. Perhaps I should try using a Victorinox instead as that might not cut copper as easily?

Pliers, usually use a long nose one, but the first pliers that my eyes land on is likely to be a good candidate.

danmyersmn

you can buy an English screen printed version of the SON tool at any ACE, HomeDepot, Lowes, Menards, etc. for around $10.00. I have a few of them laying around and I don't like them. I just finished installing a SANYO hub and B&W lights using this $12 item: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Woods-Multi-Tool/50331069

kingston 

You can get a crimper from harbor freight for under five bucks, but it's not an open barrel crimper designed to work with the Schmidt/B&M open barrel spade connectors.

bark_eater 

This is what I'm looking at, but there are a bunch of different models to choose from that look the same to me, even from the same manufacture.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...PYCMRIKV&psc=1

fietsbob

I solder and use heat shrink tubing zip ties
a handy thing from Radio shack has 2 alligator clips and a magnifying lens on a base
to hold the 2 things for soldering with pencil ish soldering iron so flux and solder too..

now Schmidt has introduced its own coax plug connectors , I have yet to try..





....

Tandem Tom

Ah Radio Shack. How I miss them!

kingston 

I had the same problem, so I just spent the extra fifteen dollars on something I was sure would work.

fietsbob

I like my 1 squeeze wire stripper..

kingston 

My new son crimper, some coax wire and connecters arrived in the mail today so I re-wired a tail-light and installed a coax plug on the hub. The crimpers are solid. I'm happy with the purchase.

unterhausen

When I clicked on your link, Amazon tells me I have the 28-18 version of that. I bought it for a different purpose than what you are proposing though, specifically the crimp ends to go into screw terminals. It's a nice crimper, not sure about the size for the schmidt connectors. I much prefer ratcheting crimpers over anything that doesn't ratchet. I sometimes buy used ones on ebay, but it seems that the Chinese have this down pretty well for 1/10 the price

bark_eater 

28-18 aqg is the size I ended up ordering. It will likely be a couple weeks before I get to wiring a bike. I will report back.