CrimsonEclipse

I'm not 100% sure what the proper terminology is.
The crimper for the cable housing metal tip.
I've seen crimping that's radial (making 2 dents that circle the entire radius of the cable end) and a hex pattern.

For the life of me, I cannot find a proper crimping tool.

I'm sure I've used one before, so it HAS to exist.

Any guidance?

delbiker1 

Small vise grip

Aubergine 

yep. Works great.

Polaris OBark

Small vice grip should be fine, but also an electrical wire stripper often has a crimper on it.

Sorry, I wrongly assumed it was the cable wire end-cap we were considering.

BCDrums

There is a crimper built into this old Shimano cable/housing cutter. You can see it just above the spring. If you have a similar tool it might have one too.


Cable cutter with crimper

Good luck!

LesterOfPuppets

Shimano cable cutters have a crimp right above the spring



Park cutters have one for the cable housing ferrules AND the little cable end caps.

Iride01 

If the cable housings are routed correctly and your cables attached and adjusted properly, you don't need to crimp them.

I question that some of the other responses aren't thinking you meant the crimp ends for the cable itself.

LesterOfPuppets

Yeah I don't bother anymore myself. BITD I'd ride MTB in the mud a lot so it was nice to have them crimped on when I relubed the cables.

Housing was mentioned, so I just went with it.

maddog34

Park tool EP-1 or CN-10.. both have crimpers for the housing end caps and fray-preventing cable caps.

i have a CN-10 sitting here, it has a Hex shaped housing die, and another small crimp die for the cable caps..

searching: "bicycle cable housing end cap crimper" brought up a load of options, from el-cheapo, to way too spendy.

personally, i use the tip of a crisp pair of standard pliers on the cable caps, presented at a 45 deg. angle to the cap.. it leaves a distinctive triangle in the cap... and on the metal housing ends i use the circular serrated jaws of the same pliers, in two positions...

and Knipex 8" side cutters are Far superior to the Park cable shears for cutting tasks. Channel Lock makes some nice side cutters too.

there are 4 other bike shops within 40 miles of my shop... i can usually tell which shop did the tune-up on a bike last by looking at the cable cap crimp pattern... until they hire a new mechanic, anyway.

Kontact 

The tools shown in the pictures are for the housing ferrules.

CrimsonEclipse

Thanke everyone!

That makes sense.

I appreciate the assist.

Paul_P

Good looking one by Quaxar :

https://quaxarengineering.com/pro019.html

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/p...qcp01_15191100

Camilo

I've never crimped a cable housing end caps. Do people do that? Why?

FBinNY 

The tools most mentioned are fine for the tips crimped onto the end of inner wires.

Fitting an end cap to housing calls for a tool that forms a full circle crimp. I've seen and used tools like this for air and hydraulic lines, but never saw dies small enough for cable housing.

Aubergine 

I have the same question. Besides being unnecessary to crimp the ferrules/housing end caps, would not a crimp risk flattening the housing and binding the cable? (Unless a circular crimper is used, as FBinNY notes.)

Kontact 

Once again, this hex shape is for ferrules, not wire crimps. It doesn't crush the housing at all, but creates 6 flats that wedge onto the housing so it can't easily fall off when you are doing things like fishing the housing into an aero brake lever.

You put the tool mid-ferrule, not at the end. It is for use with 5mm housing, not 4mm shift housing.

I've done it, it works well, and I normally wouldn't bother.

veganbikes

Park Tool now has a specific tool for it. I generally use the one in my Knipex Cable cutters though I have used my pliers in the past or even carefully used a pair of cable cutters but you really have to be precise which is not easy.

Duragrouch

Interestingly, those are configured like left-hand scissors or shears. I'll have to look at my old ones, see if same.

Paul_P

You're right. I just acquired this tool and found it awkward to use without realizing why.
Unlike with scissors, you can't see what you're doing and the angle is wrong which makes clean cutting difficult.

Kapusta

I have never crimped a housing ferrule. It never occurred to me that anyone did. Nor can I see any reason to do it.

My Park housing/cable cutters have a small crimp for wire end caps, but not a big one for housing ferrules.

wheelreason

A properly sized cable end will fit snuggly on the housing, and even if it doesn't crimping is unnecessary, I've never crimped one, and I own a bunch of crimpers for electrical work. I did the OEM spaghetti mess on the HVAC air handler last year, they cheesed out on the wires, and a bunch of them had heat damage on the connectors, in addittion to looking like a mess.

Kontact 

Then you haven't dealt with a lot of older aero brake levers. I have, crimping helps.

Aubergine 

Hmmm, this I can see. The ferrules do have a tendency to get stuck inside the lever if you need to remove the housing and cable.

Iride01 

So we should assume that everyone asking questions in this forum are using the older aero brake levers that crimping helps?

smd4

I only run older aero brake levers. I've never felt the need to crimp the housing ferrules.