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[Al Rettich]

Today I made four 300’ CAT 5e cables.  The connectors made you put the wire through the connector then crimp it.  All was well. However, you have to cut the excess cable off.  I tried two different types of side cutters, scissors, even a straight blade.  Still to much excess.  How do y’all cut it off?

[Steve-White]

Hmmm, subscribed.  I have a couple to make for network routing at my house - maybe 50-60'.  Recently bought a Klein crimp set, haven't used it yet.

[Scott Helmke]

I went back to the regular plugs.

That being said, a good pair of circuit board flush cutting diagonal cutters works pretty well.

[Patrick Tracy]

Are you talking about male or female ends? The male ends I've used require precise trimming of the wires before inserting them into the connector, but there is no excess wire as they're crimped internally. The panel mount female ends use a punch down tool that also trims the wires as part of the operation.

[boburtz]

Today I made four 300’ CAT 5e cables.  The connectors made you put the wire through the connector then crimp it.  All was well. However, you have to cut the excess cable off.  I tried two different types of side cutters, scissors, even a straight blade.  Still to much excess.  How do y’all cut it off?

I think the "pass through" connectors you have are designed to work with a specific crimper that crimps and trims in one motion. You should get one of those crimpers. I prefer the pass-through when assembling rj45 connectors because it's very easy to see that you have the wires in the correct order. I've never tried using the pass-through ends without the trimming crimper. Home depot sells that crimper, they are worth the extra price imho.

[David Sturzenbecher]

You need a crimper specifically for “EZ” RJ45s


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[Eric Bowerman]

Are you talking about male or female ends? The male ends I've used require precise trimming of the wires before inserting them into the connector, but there is no excess wire as they're crimped internally. The panel mount female ends use a punch down tool that also trims the wires as part of the operation.

This is what I have always used as well. I've terminated thousands of ends, both male and female. I didn't know there was a cheater way to do it...

[Russell Ault]

This is what I have always used as well. I've terminated thousands of ends, both male and female. I didn't know there was a cheater way to do it...

As David mentioned, "pass-through" or "EZ" 8P8C connectors are so-called because the wires pass all the way through the connector and are (ideally) trimmed to length as part of the crimping process. This means you don't have judge the correct length of wire to un-twist before crimping, which keeps the untwisted portion as short as possible (which, in turn, becomes a bigger deal as you start trying to terminate to higher cable specs).

As the OP mentioned, if a traditional generic crimp tool is used it can be difficult to trim off the excess to the correct length (the flush-cutting side-cutters that Scott mentioned are worth a try; you could also try using a sharp knife to cut the wire against the body of the connector, which IIRC is basically what the crimp tool does). Leaving a little extra wire poking out may cause connector mating issues, and it may also impact performance of the cable (I wouldn't normally worry about that for Cat5E/1Gbps operation, but a 300' cable is already pushing towards the extremes of the spec, particularly if it's stranded).

Hmmm, subscribed.  I have a couple to make for network routing at my house - maybe 50-60'.  Recently bought a Klein crimp set, haven't used it yet.

For "horizontal runs" I'd suggest using jacks instead of plugs, which use 110 punch-down blocks instead of being crimped (your crimper set might have also included a punch-down tool). You'll also want to use solid cable (which tends to have better performance characteristics than stranded and can also sometimes be a little easier to fish).

-Russ

[Erik Jerde]

Today I made four 300’ CAT 5e cables.  The connectors made you put the wire through the connector then crimp it.  All was well. However, you have to cut the excess cable off.  I tried two different types of side cutters, scissors, even a straight blade.  Still to much excess.  How do y’all cut it off?

Ive trimmed EZ style connectors with a new (very sharp) razor blade with success.

That said, I recommend against using them.  Some mfgrs explicitly say that using them voids the warranty.  This is due to a risk of shorts between the wires and some jacks having metal parts that can be shorted against.  It’s been a couple years since I looked it up and I don’t recall which mfgrs had this policy, I just stopped using them.  I believe crestron may have been one.  If you must use an ez connector then after inserting the cable trim it back as close to the connector as possible with a flushcut (do it straight).  Then before crimping slide the cable back so that all the conductors are recessed into the connector.  That way you pretty much eliminate any chance of the conductors shorting out.

[John L Nobile]

As David mentioned, "pass-through" or "EZ" 8P8C connectors are so-called because the wires pass all the way through the connector and are (ideally) trimmed to length as part of the crimping process.

Is there any advantage to using these over the "normal" RJ45 connectors? I've made hundreds with RJ45 and have gotten quite good at making them. But if there's a better way, I'm listening.

[ProSoundWeb Community]