Platinum Tools EZ-RJ45 Crimp Tool for RJ-11, RJ-12 and RJ-45

This is a very nice crimper. It cuts the wires flush off the end of the connector in one easy crimping action. It will not let you continue squeezing once the connector is crimped. My traditional crimper would let me continue squeezing. I would occasionally bend the retaining clip or break it completely. I also had problems with the Platinum Tools 100035 EZ-RJ45 Cat5e Strain Relief. When I was using my traditional crimper. In many cases the strain relief would come loose. Once I started using this EZ-RJ45 crimper. All of my problems with the strain relief boots were gone. I have absolutely no regrets about buying this crimper.

Works well, lets me make CAT6 connections with the twists very close to the pins, using EZ RJ-45 connectors. (Sometimes doesn't quite cut the wires on the "ends" e.g. orange+white and brown--sometimes these hang by a thread of plastic and I need to pull them to remove them, but still works great and lets me make very tight connections.)When used with the matching EZ RJ-45 strain-relief locking clip protectors, it is necessary to press down the clip covers to insert the plug all the way into the crimper. If you don't do this the wires will not be cut close enough to the plug.

This crimper is well made and does a great job. It has a comfortable grip and a ratchet to help ensure enough force is used. When used with the matching connectors it allows you to work much faster then before while making fewer mistakes. The only real issue is that it does not always cut all of the excess off. It usually gets almost everything cut, but the excess at pins 1 and 8 usually remain attached by their jacket and have to be wiggled or snipped off. It really does not slow you down much, but it can get frustrating at times. The wire cutter / stripper combo built in to this crimper leaves a lot to be desired. It function fine enough for someone making a few cables and most pros will have specific tools for each task so it is not really an issue.One interesting feature that will help those that don't make patch cables on a regular basis, engraved on the tool is the location of pins 1 and 8 and the color code for both ethernet wiring standards (T-568A and T-568B).

Worked as intended

This is the second revision of the tool, ive bought 2 of the first one (100054C, the 100 dollar one) and 1 of this one (100004C), and all of them have the same problem, they either miss crimp pins 1 or 8 or they miss crimp in a line, like an angle from pin 1 to 4 or 8 to 5.The first one worked fine for a few crimps then started failing, second one behaved the same, this one just straight not worked right off the bat, i thought they changed the design to fix it, aparently not, they changed it to make it cheaper, you can tell by the heaviness of the tool they reduced the thickness of the steel to cut costs (thus why its $50 now instead of $120).On the up side, the crimp base is exchangeable now, so all they need to do to make it up to us is make new good quality blocks, so that we can replace these and the tool will work fine.I removed the die block and examined it under a magnifying glass and sure enough the reason why it doesnt work is REALLY bad quality control, the 2 edge pins that crimp pins 1 and 8 are rounded off and all textured where the bad cast iron mold wasnt even sanded to be completely slick.The old tool had a similar problem. the solution I found to "workaround" this problem is to grab a wedge like object (like the flat wedge on the back of a swiss army knife) and jam it on the left or right side of the jack to force it to the left or right (depending on what pin is failing to crimp), make sure its jammed it as tight as you can and crimp while holding it in place (yeah circus act), it will now crimp properlySeriously platinum, your whole system is great but is brought down by trying to cut down costs, please invest a little more in the Die tool please, the ratch is ok, i spent 350 bucks on a AMP/Tyco professional tool which is what im using to pre-crimp your connectors because that one doesnt fail, i would pay just as much for a tool from you if it worked properly.And on another note, your metal cutting blades are terrible, im sure the manufacturer making them told you they were stainless steel, well they start getting rust spots in a week i have to resharpen them every 30 crimps because they start failing to cut the wires, and they get "kinked" when cutting the 24 AWG copper cable trims off belden cat 6 cable, which im not very sure hows that even possible.Your dream of a good tool that revolutionizes the industry is being brought down by saving a buck on manufacturing, bad quality control, and someone not paying attention to your customers.Dont let this great product die because of this.If you want I can send you all 3 tools so you can look at them yourself, for now im adding the 3 tools and the Tyco/AMP tool so you can see for yourself.

I almost took a star away because the quality is less than the pro version of this tool, but the price is lower so I got what I paid for. I used the pro version if this tool at my last job, but needed to buy one for my personal use so I bought the cheaper one. It still makes great connections, but doesn't cleanly cut the excess wire off. The ends of the outer two wires hang on by a thread of insulation.If you have a few extra bucks, I recommend getting the pro version of this tool.

For those that rarely make network cables or those that do, this is the must have crimper. Peal the coating back, set up the correct order of pairs, slide them into the EZ RJ45 connector and crimp. The tool crimps and cuts off the ends of the wires at the same time. If you do not make cables on a regular basis, then this is the tool to buy. More expensive for the tool and more expensive for the connectors. Will pay for itself easily.

Works as expected, easy to use for pass through & non pass through