crimping servo leads
 

I can't speak for the Iwiss crimper in particular as I have a cheaper one. I can tell you that it takes practice and in a given sitting I screw up about 20% of my crimps anyway. I don't know what youve learned so far, but maybe this can help:
a) Try to strip your wire as accurately as possible. If you leave too much conductor showing, it will end up not allowing the male pin to insert deeply enough when you put your connectors together.
b) Determine which way the pin goes into the crimper. The conductor half crimps smaller than the insulation half and you can see the size difference when the crimper is fully squeezed.
c) Place the wire into the strippers notch first, lining up the end of the insulation at the demarcation point between the insulation and conductor crimps. Hold the open crimper with wire aligned in place in your left hand.
d) With your right hand, place the pin into the crimper notch sideways, open side first. Orient it as determined in step b. Of course, the crimpable sections have to be roughly within the confines of the notch. The pin should stay in place by friction and compression forces on it from the notch.
e) Use your right hand to squeeze the crimper handles together completing the task. While doing so, maintain your control of the wire location in the notch with your left hand.

Well, that's how I do it, anyhow. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

-Ron

I can't speak for that crimper but I have used similar ones that worked very well once you learn the technique. Not all crimp connectors and tools are created equal and some connector / tool combinations just won't work well. What goes wrong with your connections? Do the tabs fail to fold over evenly or not at all? Does this crimper do the connection and insulation at the same time? I have had best luck with tools that do the two stages of the crimp separately. I use to do these connections a lot in my work and went through quite a few tools before I found one that I really liked ..... and it was the cheapest one I found at the time. Some years ago though so any model or brand info would be out of date.

My crimper does them separately, but the ratchet single step units are superior. Hansen Hobbies has a good video on the process.

Deluxe Crimping Tool

I've been using the Hansen Hobbies Deluxe Crimper for years (which looks identical to the SN28-B, and might in fact be the same thing but rebranded).
I probably screwed up a first few, but I quickly got the hang of it and haven't botched a crimp for years.
Check out that video and things should become clear.

Just got the Hansen crimping kit and wish I had stuck with just purchasing their cable sets which are beautifully made. Went through about a dozen pins until I got three done for one connector. Not too happy with it so more practice needed.

The short instructions using the Hansen crimper that has worked perfectly for me for years:
1. Use the Deluxe crimper, not the economy one.
2. Place the connector in the crimper so that the open side of the connector is facing the bottom of the channel.
3. Be sure to align the back edge of the connector with the face of the crimper tool, and make sure that the connector is not skewed in the opening.
4. Close the crimper handle ONLY a click so that there is just enough pressure to hold the connector in place but to not allow the connector ears to start folding in yet.
5. Twist the wire so that there are no individual threads sticking out.
6. Place the wire in the connector so that the insulation is up against the connector end.
7. Crimp hard until the crimper bottoms out. (Keep in mind that you are doing the pins one at a time).
8. The connector might stick just a little in the tool, but a gentle tug of the wire will release it.
9. In doing all three of the connectors, be sure that you orient each of them to each other so that they face in the same direction (so that you don't have to twist a wire to align them before stabbing them into the plastic part of the connector).
10. Verify that the little raised part of the connector emerges out into the open area of the plastic part (that's what locks the pin in place).
11. Also be sure to line up all three of the pins into the connector at the same time so that you can push them all in together.
12. Done

That procedure has been bullet proof for me as long as I can remember. I haven't lost a pin since the first three or four that I ruined when I started out in the beginning as a newbee making my own cables.

Highflight.... Good steps! The key is step #3 as I was trying to center the connector in the slot. Lining up the back edge is critical to keep the connector from being hopelessly stuck in the die! It still takes a bit of pressure on some connectors to get them out, but like you said, a slight push outward right where the connector/wire emerges from the tool gets them out. It took me about a dozen connector pins until I got them to the point I was happy with, but I was using 22 gauge wire. Doing 24 gauge wires is a lot easier. A bit of learning curve, but I sure like the harness I just got done.