Need help with crimping together BNC cables.
December 8, 2006 10:17 AM   Subscribe

Can someone point me to a good how-to on crimping BNC connectors onto cables?

I need to become familiar with making BNC cables for my job. We will primarily be using them for composite video signals, but will also be using them for low-frequency transducer signals.

I have rounded up what supplies we have around the site and this is what I've come up with:

* A BNC crimp tool. Image 1 Image 2.
* A wire stripper. Image.
* 500 feet of RG 59 (75 ohm) cable.

What I need to know is:
* Is my crimp tool and wire stripper sufficient for crimping connectors onto my RG 59 cable?
** If not, what would you recommend?
* What type of male BNC connectors should I get for these tools? I have no examples available on-site.
* Where is a good guide with lots of pictures on how to crimp these connectors to the cable?

I have done LOTS of CAT5 and CAT6 RJ45 crimps in my day, so I have some crimping experience.

No high-frequency plans for these. All applications are less then MHz so there is very little concern over reflection and impedance matching. Lets not get smith charts involved here, thanks!

Thank you for your time!
posted by nickerbocker to Technology (6 answers total)
 
Unless you require the tutorial to have color pictures, this one (apparently a page from a college class on LAN Hardware) may be enough. From the picture you link to, you may need another tool.
posted by nkyad at 10:31 AM on December 8, 2006


Response by poster: I have wire cutters (dikes).
posted by nickerbocker at 10:42 AM on December 8, 2006


i can't remember for certain, but this book has a section on building cables, stripping things and so on. i think it covers BNC connectors (at least, i would think so), so you might try tracking it down in a library.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 1:47 PM on December 8, 2006


If you can do CAT6 you will find BNC a piece of cake.
Looks like exactly the right tools.
This place has some connectors.
Looks like you want the X59402Q
posted by MtDewd at 2:21 PM on December 8, 2006


This page is another college-course guide to installing BNCs; it has more diagrams and fewer photos.

The procedure for crimping them differs based on what type of connector you're going to put on the end, and -- less importantly -- what size coax you're using. There are some cheap twist-on types that are easy to install (no crimping) but tend to pull off if you're not careful, and are electrically sloppy; the standard for radio work (IMHO) are Amphenols (like those in the above instruction set). The "official" BNC installation instructions from Amphenol are here (PDF). Many people have their own little tricks, as you can see by comparing these to the college page.

If you want to buy connectors locally I suggest heading to any place that sells amateur radio gear; if that's not an option then Digikey, Mouser, or Newark all carry the full Amphenol line, I think. I have seen the twist-ons in the past at RadioShack, but they carry less and less stuff like that anymore; you might find them at electrical supply houses or perhaps even home improvement stores, since they sometimes get used for CCTV stuff.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:12 PM on December 8, 2006


We always had good luck with Trompeter connectors and crimpers, as they were what the customer specified. Part of our routine was to perform a pull-test on every connector (with a BNC-equipped fish scale), and the only times we had them pull off was when a field tech was found to be using a crimper that was, indeed, out of calibration.

If you can afford the four-indent center pin crimper to go along with the set, they produce more consistent results than the two-jaw smash type.

In central-office applications, the connections we made in the field were always attached to the back of the equipment, and secured to a tie bar so there was no moving stress on the joint. If you're building patch cords (for which you should really be using WECo 440 connectors and jacks), pick up some stiff adhesive-lined heatshrink to reinforce the back of the assembly. Flexion and tension kill connectors. If your connector vendor sells a matched strain-relief boot that fits the connector exactly, go with that instead, but otherwise generic boots never fit right.

Pomona also makes all sorts of connector and patch cord products with which you should be familiar, including wall-hanging patch cord organizers to tame the tangled mess. No lab should be without one.
posted by Myself at 6:44 AM on December 9, 2006


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