Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Gardea on January 4, 2012 at 3:04pm

I found the same tool for less than $40 at my local Home Depot or Lowes in the cable/wire aisle. It does have an adjustment you may need to tune to get your swaging to pass using the go/no-go gauge, but it worked great once I got it zeroed in. Worked best when one of the handles is secured in a bench vise. I have nearly 80 hours on my Zodiac and all swaged sleeves are holding tight.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Fitzpatrick on January 4, 2012 at 6:08pm

Hi Christopher:  Yeah way too much money.  I bought a similar Nico press knock off here in Canada! for $65.00.  Brian

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Permalink Reply by Mark Maltais on January 5, 2012 at 11:10am

Where did you find the knock-off?

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Permalink Reply by Tim Treat on January 4, 2012 at 8:31pm

I used the home depot tool. I bought a 1 inch pipe flange and a 1 ft long nipple. I bolted that to my bench with the nipple verticle and stuck one of the handles in the pipe nipple. It works great.

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Permalink Reply by David Gallagher on January 5, 2012 at 11:21am

I used the much cheaper Aircraft Spruce swager:

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/no2swageit.php

It also worked for swaging terminal ends onto my battery and ground cables. It is a little cumbersome to use the first time, but you get it figured out pretty quick.

 

Dave

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Permalink Reply by Tim Treat on January 5, 2012 at 11:25am

That one at aircraft spruce is not as easy to use without a helper. I think I will have to use it on a couple of them in tight spots. It needs a longer handle.

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Permalink Reply by Gary Burdett on January 5, 2012 at 12:47pm

Dave,
I used the bolt type swager for two sleeves and the threads were so galled after that that the bolt broke trying t remove it. I sent it back to ATS who makes it and I am sure the answer will be that I over torqued it, however, I found that the two halves had to contact to make the go/no go gage and since I was using a six inch wrench to tighten it, I only tightened until contact. They also sell a fifty dollar economy swager that looks like the more expensive models, that is with two handles. Is the one from spruce marked with ATS on the tool?

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Permalink Reply by JEFF COCHRAN on January 6, 2012 at 7:18am

David,

I also used the cheaper smaller bolt version of the "swageit" tool and found it to work very well.  Working alone it was easy to swag and also easy to get into confined spaces and still work.  I do not think I could have used the handled version as well as many were made installed in the plane.

 I never thought of using on electric cables, but that is a great idea.

Jeff

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Permalink Reply by Jim B Belcher on January 7, 2012 at 8:26am

This is a lot like other tools that have a higher priced version. Unless you are going to do the task a lot more times than it will be done on a Zenith, it doesn't seem to me to be worth the additional cost.

You wind up paying for convenience. There just aren't that many places on an aircraft that need terminals swaged.

I've had this tool for many years, and used it on other aircraft as well as the Zenith. Myself, I wouldn't upgrade, and I'm relatively clumsy with tools.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Nail on January 8, 2012 at 5:17pm

I ended up going to home depot, they only had one for 20 bucks...buried on the cable isle. Seems fine. It has four groves up to 3/16 (largest). It looks exactly like the 200 dollar nicropress. I know there is a big mark up when it comes to "aircraft" grade parts/tools, but this is ridiculous. What is the difference?

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