I got a cheap 30kg spring balance for some ghetto tensile strength testing of crimp terminals. Made in Germany which was a pleasant surprise.
Well I can confirm the TE PIDG terminals work nicely with both the Pressmaster KSA0760 and the official mil spec TE/AMP 59250 tool. I tried it with 22awg wire and the wire just keeps breaking at the ~11kgf/24lbf mark, which is around the break strength of normal 22awg wire.
I find it interesting that the Pressmaster consistently broke at the strain relief crimp, but the AMP broke where the conductor crimp is. Perhaps the Pressmaster is overly stressing the strain relief crimp, which makes sense because the AMP has 4 adjustment settings for wire insulation whereas the Pressmaster cannot be adjusted.
I want to get some high tensile strength wire for testing (specced up to ~16kgf break strength for 22awg)... well maybe not at a dollar+ per foot, ouch. Ughh I'll try fit it in with my next digikey order.
![Tongue :P](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)
For some reason I was nervous using the crimp terminals at the thin end of the range (22-16awg normally) and was concerned it would be a bit weak, but it looks like I was worried over nothing. Mil spec was 15lbf for 22awg, UL spec was 8lbf, so it looks like the AMP 59250 still performs extremely well (24lbf, wire strength) despite its age/wear because I did get it used for real cheap after all.
I briefly tested 16awg wire and I maxed out the scale at 30kgf/66lbf without the wire or crimp failing, it's reaaaaally uncomfortable to pull that much so I called it quits. Mil spec is 50lbf (UL is 30lbf) and break strength is supposed to be around the 75lbf mark for 16awg wire.