Campbell - Swaging Tool, 18" Imported 1/16"-3/16" (7679038)

I swage cables for ultralight aircraft. Checked all 3 presses. Checked it with a go- no go crimp gage. They all passed. I compared it to an original telephone company swager. The length of the Nico sleeve is correct in the press. It is normal when you have squeeze out. For the price? I am more than satisfied. Compared to that of a 400-dollar cable swager. I read people complaining of its too hard to work with, very tight and hard for one person to use. Well, if that's the case, you have the right tool, but no experience in THIS type of tool. Thumbs up! Very satisfied.

For non-professional use this is a great tool. If you need for commercial use, I'd suggest you get one of the $200 plus tools made for those who need to make picture perfect swages frequently. That said:The depth of the swage jaws is 0.175 inches (7/40-inch if it matters) and this seems to be deeper than some of the commercial tools I have seen. What this means is that you may not get the perfect pictures of a swag connector you see on u-tube or in some of the google pictures. What you will get is a very tight swage that will hold to almost the breaking strength of the cable if done correctly.Now another observation: Not all swage sleeves or end stops are of equal diameter. Copper may be a little smaller than aluminum. Import sleeves (read Chinese) are metric. End stops can vary all over the map. Bottom line is that the sleeve/end stop you want to swage may not be the same diameter as the jaws of the tool is designed to swage. They will be very close, but not necessarily exact. Thus if this tool is used to swage a fitting that is somewhat larger than the jaw cavities were designed for, the fitting (sleeve/end stop) will begin to "extrude" excess material (copper or aluminum of your fitting) outside of the jaw cavity when the handles are completely closed. Should this happen, try again on your fitting without closing the handles (swage jaws) all the way. Watch the fitting closely, and just when the material starts to extrude beyond the jaw cavity, stop. Then test the swage by putting about 75 percent of your cable breaking load on the connection. If it holds, your swage is okay; if it does not, try again with more compression. Nominal "working load" of a steel cable is between 1/5 and 1/10 of breaking strength depending on the cable application.Finally I must point out that I have used this tool for only 1/16 and 3/32 cable and their fittings. The above is my experience/suggestions for those sizes. Hopefully they will work with the larger sizes of which this tool may be capable, but I do not have personal experience thereof.Overall I am impressed with the build and quality of this tool for its price.Follow up 12/6/2015:I had a problem with aluminum sleeves sticking in the tool. Should this happen to you, I found a solution. Take a Q-tip and use to coat the jaw cavities with a wax based release agent. For the cartridge reloaders out there, what you use on your rifle cartridges in your resizing die will work as long as it is not Hornady One Shot. For the rest, try Kiwi mink oil. Kiwi mink oil is a boot treatment that has characteristics similar to Imperial sizing wax, but at about 1/4 the price. After applying the lube I use for full-length resizing to the jaw cavities, the aluminum sleeves released quite easily. Another possibility is STP oil treatment which some reloaders use as a release agent, but I have not tried it. If you have some on hand, I'd try it first.

I found the tool to be inexpensive and of good quality manufacturing, Heavy duty and very sturdy feels like it will last for years. However it is good for crimping aluminum and copper ferrules and stops ONLY! Steel and stainless steel fittings require heavier swagers. I had to read up on swaging techniques since the last time I used them was many years ago and that old swager is long gone. I also remembered there are several simple but important techniques to using the tool to produce professional looking results but I had forgotten what they were. Now there are several good videos by manufacturers on web sites. For ferrules (for making loops or overlap splices rotate the fitting 180 degrees on every swage or ferrules will look lopsided and bent. Check the diameter of the crimp with a go/nogo gauge. See charts for how many crimps per fitting (depends on size). I've been using them for 1/8 inch stainless steel wire rope (with aluminum fittings). These require 3 crimps for ferrules and 2 for stops. When to tool is fully open to receive the fittings the handles will be almost 180 degrees apart.Pros: (1) Inexpensive (2) Well built should last for years (3) Good precision: ferrules and stops fit exactly. Tool is very solid parts fit well (a little too well tool is stiff at first hard to get fully open).Cons: (1) Tool is well built but will be stiff at first. Hard to get the tool fully open. When to tool is fully open to receive the fittings the handles will be almost 180 degrees apart. (2) Fittings fit just a bit too tightly into the tool. I found that inserting the fitting into the tool first and then making the loop with the steel rope was easier than trying to wrestle the fitting into the tool after the loop is made. (3) NO CABLE CUTTER included in the tool, must use a separate tool.Overall I'm quite satisfied. The tool is worth the money and well made. It works well and makes solid, professional quality crimps.

Thank you

I received the wrong product.

Just wasnt impressed with the design. They could have easily built in a cable cutter on these. Seems like a good build quality just not a great design