PSA: The guy who showed me how to crimp D-sub pins changed my whole approach

I used to just wing it with a cheap pair of pliers and hope the pins held. Six months ago, an old tech named Mike at our hangar in Atlanta stopped me mid-job and showed me his MIL-spec crimper. He said 'you're crushing the insulation, not the wire core' and made me redo a pin in front of him. He spent 10 minutes teaching me the right depth and how to check a pin with a magnifier. After that, I went from 1 in 5 pins failing a pull test to zero fails on the last 40 connectors I did. Has anyone else had a senior tech call them out on a basic routine task and it totally stick with you?

2 comments

2 Comments

hart.mark17d ago

Man that story with Mike and the crimper hits close to home for me. I had a similar thing happen with a guy named Pete who worked on rack systems back in the day. He watched me solder a connector and just said "stop, you're making a cold joint" and handed me his old Weller station. He showed me how to tin the tip and let the solder flow into the joint instead of globbing it on. After that my soldering went from shaky to solid and I never went back to my old way. It's wild how one simple correction from someone who knows their stuff can change everything you do from then on. Those lessons stick with you way more than a book or video ever could.

michaelchen17d ago

Yeah Pete sounds like one of those old school guys who just had the touch, I had a similar thing with a guy named Frank who fixed my whole attitude about wiring. He just walked over, looked at my work for two seconds, and said "you're fighting the tool instead of letting it do the work." After he showed me how to let the iron do the heating it clicked and I stopped messing up connections. Those quick corrections from someone who actually does the work are way better than any tutorial I've watched since.