Just punch the wires down with a small flathead screwdriver, then cut them off with a pair of small sharp scissors. Many punchdown ends are crap right out of the box, so it’s not worth making a big deal out of using an actual punchdown tool unless you’re going to be doing dozens or hundreds of terminations.
Thanks for answering. I’ve seen these tips earlier and they make sense.
Plus many of the RJ45 jacks come with a small tool.
But since I have this one I may go ahead and take it apart and see if the little blades
can be sharpened on a diamond plate. Out of the box, the device did one good trim but then began to fail.
One followup question then I quit: is there an exploded view of the
device I showed? I could not locate it.
The topic views here are really all over the place. 200,000 on chloroform? Just wondering.
I put my question in here because there was a good answer on something earlier.
I can’t tell from the pictures in the link - are you punching down 110 or bix? My experience is with this, and I find that the scissor on the bix tip routinely fails to cut while the blade on the 110 tip almost always works, although often one needs to give the wires a little twist to finish the job.
I have to recommend against using a small screwdriver as a punch - I’ve done this myself in a pinch but the tendency to slip, to gouge insulation, etc makes it a really sub-par tool for the job. Your cheap punch should punch well enough, and if it just isn’t cutting then punch with the punch and snip with small flush-cut sidecutters.
I just hate when the punch just bends the wire instead of forcing it down into the gap. That can’t happen with a screwdriver. I also don’t care too much about accidentally stripping the insulation. It’s going to be in a box anyway, with the plastic guards over the punchdown block as well.
Yes I didn’t know the difference in the cutting mechanism so got stung.
For $1.80 USD I couldn’t resist and may still try to repair it. I have a practice RJ45 jack
to use mounted in a Visegrip ™ arrangement. I don’t like the idea of putting the scissors end through a finger.
For those interested, the Youtube from CableSupplycompany has the best tutorial I’ve seen and a handyman place has detailed pics for assembly which cleared up much of my confusion about RJ45’s.
This has a lot of pics but more importantly explains the difference between the A and B color group and then shows where the wire colors should go on the jack for the usual installation.
None of that can be found on the sheet with even an expensive (almost $7.00 at Radio Shack) RJ45 packaged jack.
[QUOTE=Gorsnak]
I can’t tell from the pictures in the link - are you punching down 110 or bix?
[/QUOTE]
As soon as I heard “scissors” my thoughts immediately ran to BIX, but the OP bought a Krone tool. Equally obscure, unless you’re with the telephone company in some odd areas of Canada or New England.
Seconded, thirded, etc on not using screwdrivers and dikes to punch wires as it’s a surefire way to damage the jack or terminal and have a flaky connection that will cause no end of frustration at some point in the future. You’ll get better results with one of these disposable tools and leaving short (untrimmed) wire tails.
As for me, you can have my Harris/Fluke D914 when you pry if from my cold, dead hands.
My money is on a pass-through connection, with a regular Ethernet end on either side. That’s less likely to fail if it gets jostled, and easier to replace if it fails. Well, actually, passing the wire through a scoop or something and just terminating it at the device is even better.
Okay now I know another kind of plate covering at the wall.
I just got done covering up a plain ol’ hole in one wall that passed the cable out through a box on the other side. I’m not even using that anymore and put a blank plate over the hole for cosmetics My cable run is now just exposed along the wall
at the floor.
Have you considered fishing it down the wall? You could go up into the attic (or down into the basement) and then back into the wall to pop out wherever you want. If it gets too complex to explain then post a couple of pics. I can talk you through it.
Thanks but this is an apartment. I haven’t even seen any new carpet.
Over the years I can’t recall why I put it through the wall unless there was a concern at the time for data loss in the cable run. That must have been hooey. Currently the cable run around corners at the base of the wall is not troublesome.
