It really depends on whether you want to do the job properly and reliably or whether you are happy to bodge it and then waste time fixing intermittent problems or going out again to buy new fittings.
This is in the same league as cutting plastic plumbing pipe with a hacksaw.
Yep, that's the way I did it ages back, by holding a small screwdriver either end. That way you don't widen the jaw. I use a proper insertion tool now though. Those disposable plastic insertion tools are a pile of poo.
I've got four phone sockets in this house all of which have worked faultlessly for five years having been neatly done with two small screwdrivers. It's not hard if you're careful and once you've worked out how to stop the jaws twisting it's easy to avoid duff connections.
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It was the pile-of-pooness of the cheapos that come with 'em that led me to work out how to do without. At the time I couldn't afford the proper tool wot with having just moved house and given up work.
Yes. Splash out and spend the whole 50p on a plastic one.
If you shove a screwdriver down the middle, then you hit the tines of the IDC contact and you knacker things. Chances are you get a connection, but the pressure is too low to keep it gas tight. Over time (varying, and dependent on moisture) you then get corrosion and a poor connection.
If you _must_ do it without the real tool, then use a pair of snipe nose pliers to push down on the two sides of the wire, but without hitting the connector tines themelves. This works fine, but it's awkward to do and you're likely to slip and break something.
I wouldn't want to try to bodge it without the right tool, whether I am doing one socket or, as I just have, an entire office phone and computer network.
No. Either it works or its unreliable immediately.
If you use a metal tool, you may damage or force apart the jaws that cut the insulation and slice into the cable to make contact. Credit cards are good, because they are not tough enough to damage anything, and provide a good area to push the wire over.
Its when you have a krone box with 30-40 to be done fast, and reliably that you get the expensive tool
Just doing one, which you can test easily enough and redo, it is a waste of money.
I've done it both ways, and in an emergency the credit card is the best..it almost never pushes the jaws apart, and it almost never cuts the cable accidentally. The little plastic tools, when new, are as good.
I know. We should never ever tighten a nut with a pair of pliers, only with the correct spanner. We should never ever solder when we ought to be crimping. There is always one, and one only correct solution to every problem. Now piss off.
Exactly. And I have done many with the crappo plastic tools and found them fine as long as you only use them about ten times, and I have done many with credit cards. About 95% success rate with those, and never more than one redo.
I've many times cut the WRONG side of the wire when using the pro tools..
They are fast, but the capacity for errors is still there.
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