Cat6 Crimping

emp123 · September 2008

Backstory: Im wiring several rooms in my house with Cat6 internet jacks (a total of 12 jacks) and cable tv wall jacks (a total of 6).

Both the cable tv and cat6 wall jacks are pretty easy to do, crimping the cable with rj45 plugs is a pain in the ass. The plugs Im using have loaders but even with them I am having great difficulty getting each wire into its respective slot. Does anybody have any tips on how to make this easier on myself?

jhunter46 · September 2008

I've always found that cutting them extra long and straightening each one out completely before lining them up is the easiest. Then you can just cut them down to the correct size.

emp123 · September 2008

Well, I think Ive identified one major issue, the loaders that came with the RJ45 plugs are really shitty, Like, they dont line the cables up with the holes in the plug. Luckily I also have a bunch of RJ45 plugs without loaders, and while I absolutely hate using these (lining up 8 wires is a huge pain in the ass), Im really tempted to just use them instead.

Oh, and just to make sure Im doing this correctly, the order Im using (on both ends) is:
Orange-White
Orange
Green-White
Blue
Blue-White
Green
Brown-White
Brown

DeShadowC · September 2008

That's standard b so you'll be fine.

supabeast · September 2008

Crimping RJ-45s is just a PITA and it can take a while to get good. It also doesn’t help that some kinds of wire are much harder to crimp than others.

emp123 · September 2008

Lame, I was really hoping there was some secret I was just missing out on. Oh well, Ill keep trying. Thanks guys.

wunderbar · September 2008

yea, I had to crimp about 10 cable ends a few months ago at a job site. What a bitch that was. There really is no real easy way to do it. Just have to work patiently

exoplasm · September 2008

The secret is not to strip the ends of each color wire.

Ludious · September 2008

as someone who has crimped more ends than a lot of network techs, I find the best way is to untwist all of your pairs and straighten out each wire individually by running your index and thumb straight up each wire. Then, align your wires, and with your index and thumb bend the aligned wires back and forth a bit and then run your fingers straight up the wires.

This pretty much "sets" the wire in position, then just slide it in the 45, make sure you can see copper tips on the end of the plug, and crimp.

Also make sure you have shielding pushed INSIDE where the crimp goes down, otherwise you wind up with a bad end in a few weeks/months/years depending on movement.

I hope that made sense.

edit-

Also, make sure you have a good pair of scissors, pref. electrician's dikes. Strip off more wire than you need for your crimp. Give yourself a good 1-3inches to play with depending on how nimble your fingers are. I am pretty fudge fingered, so I always strip enough out for a good 3 inches, then I set my wire and clip it down to size to fit into the 45.

Make sure you also cut off the thread before you crimp. Some technicians leave that crap hanging, and it's just not professional, or needed.

DeShadowC · September 2008

Ludious wrote: »

Also make sure you have shielding pushed INSIDE where the crimp goes down, otherwise you wind up with a bad end in a few weeks/months/years depending on movement.

I want to reemphasize this. A lot of people who crimp their own don't do this, and even a lot of cheaper store bought ones have this same problem. Its cheap and you'll definitely have problems down the road.

Penny Arcade

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