CT100 crimping

[Rick Hughes]

After initial problems getting correct CT100 crimp tool - decided to make a start. I am slightly confused by the use of a 3 step coax stripper tool. I bought this at same time as ratchet crimp, and the little beast creates neatly a 4mm piece of exposed braid and an 8mm piece of dielectric and the exposed core conductor.

Now the next step is to fold back the braid over the sheath, and this leave an increased length of dielectric ... (now becomes 12mm). The Vitelec connectors require 5mm of dielectric and 7mm or core ... now 'tis easy enough to cut this dielectric back with a knife ... but doesn't this sort of negate the point of a fancy 3 step cutter - if in fact you still have to manually cut ? ... in fact the cut of the dielectric it makes is not used at all ?

Maybe I should remove the third blade and just have it cut the sheath & braid ?

In case I am not very clear in describing this - please see ..

word doc shows steps with pics & measurements.

I did ask the company which was correct tool for CT100 - and they advised the one I bought i.e. :

first item - Universal Coax stripper - DCS-322

Maybe it's normal to have to manually adjust - seems such a waste of 3 step tool, unless tool is meant for something else and they are just selling it as a CT100 tool.

[Andy Burns]

Did you ever come across something accurately described as universal?

had one that stripped the right lengths for thinwire Ethernet but lost it somewhere along the way.

[Andy Wade]

That's because all one-piece crimp F plugs require a 2-level strip. (IME only the type with a separate crimp sleeve require a 3-level strip, and those are quite rare in the TV distribution world.)

The industry-standard stripping dimensions are to expose 6.5 mm of dielectric, leaving the foil in place if the connector will accept it, and 6.5 mm of inner conductor. These measurements derive from US CATV practice, where they are 0.25 in. (x2).

The prepared cable should look a bit like this:

---------===== \/\/\======= /\/\/ |------ \/\/\======= ^ ---------===== | ^ 6.5 mm inner ^ | | 6.5 mm dielectric (with foil left on if poss.) | braid combed back over sheath

Obviously, adjust the dimensions if your connector clearly needs it. The end of the dielectric should end up flush with the outer conductor mating end face of the connector body (the face which abuts the end of the female connector when mated) and the cable inner conductor should protrude about 1 - 2 mm beyond the end of the nut part of the male connector.

HTH

[Alan]

In message , Andy Wade wrote

See also

[Osprey]

The Vitelec spec is to trim to expose 8mm of foil/braid, fold craid back and remove the foil, follwed by 5mm of exposed dielectric ... as you say you would crimp on then trim core back to 1-2mm protruding.