DEC MMJ, eBay madness

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, C Fernandez wrote: I am familiar with that one. Its uses the same frame design as the Paladin 1300 http://www.paladin-tools.com/view_category.php?id=76 and Greenlee 45504 http://www.mygreenlee.com/products/det.cfm?id=1432&upc=45504 The dies from Ideal, Paladin, and Greenlee for these tools are also interchangeable, though the manufacturers say they aren't ;) Overall, its not a bad frame style, but it does require quite a bit of breakover force compared to the higher end tooling. The Paladin 8000 series frame also works with these style of dies, and doesn't require any breakover force. The extra breakover force really becomes an issue if you are installing more than a handful or so of plugs. After a few dozen, it can really start to hurt. Oddly enough, the first quality crimp tool I bought was a Paladin 1300, which I still own. I've not used it in years now though as the 8000 series frames are so much easier on my hands. If you think the Ideal Crimpmaster was expensive though, these are what I'm currently using: AMP 1-231666-1 modular plug hand tool kit with dies http://www.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Ntt=231666 AMP 853400-6 6 position offset latch die set http://www.mouser.com/search/Refine.aspx?Ntt=853400 GMP 15305 modular plug presser kit http://www.craftworktools.com/ht113.html http://www.gmptools.com/nf/index_MPP.htm http://www.gmptools.com/pdf/15305.pdf The prices are fairly average, sometimes you can find them for $10-20 less for the tools, though I've yet to find the AMP dies for less than $35-40 retail. I still need to buy a long body plug die for my AMP tools as I have a couple boxes of AMP long body plugs that I found surplus last year that I can't yet put to use. -Toth