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.
The message from Andy Hall contains these words:
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.
The message from snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com contains these words:
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.
And often snap the boot crimp in half.
Can't say I have,but is that from you're personal experience?
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.
Got any network cabling ? Now try installing Cat6 with a screwdriver and bent tines. Then take a look on your TDR and see the difference.
It's easy £120 chargable vist that one & yes I for one have met up with such things in the past
I cannot believe that we are having a discussion about doing a job properly with the correct tool costing £7 and bodging it with screwdrivers.
metal and usually have a wire trimmer built in.
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.
Colin Bignell
The message from Andy Dingley contains these words:
Yes, but it's all punched down 'cos I happened to have the right tool handy.
No. Use an expired credit card for IDC punch down. Filing or cutting a slot in it is even better.
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.
The plastic tools are good for about 10 insertions after which they wear too much.
They are ideal for a quick job when you don't want to spend a fortune on a proper IDC tool.
Can do. Its down to care when doing it.
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.
If you want peace of mind, pay some other bugger like Bill to do it for you.;-)
However, credit card works well. If DIY'ing.
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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