No epoxy- crimp style fiber termination

[bkrike]

Hi,
We are looking at getting into terminating our own fiber. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with the crimp only style kits such as Amp lightcrimp. (I have no experience with fiber termination, but 15 years with copper)

If so, do these work well?
Does anyone have other recommendations for getting into fiber termination? We usually just sub out the termination after we pull it, but I think it is time to move past that.

thanks

 

[diveman7683]

Hey bkrike

if you want to get into fiber termination, you need to be willing to spend a litte money and get the right stuff. Go with 3M hotmelts. They are real easy to use and are virtually fail proof.
I've been doing fiber terminations for about 10 years and find the 3M the best. Epoxy style connector are good too, but crimp-ons tend to come loose, especially in an industrial setting.

 

[bluealhunter]

Good day,

My 2 cents...

I like Corning Cable Systems UniCam products.
Easy to learn/use (even in tight spaces). I'm not the best at polishing so I REALLY like these.

http://www.corningcablesystems.com/web/privnet/privnet.nsf/ehtml/lanchap6

Good Luck

 

[youcandoit]

Unicam in a volatile environment is not a good idea. Unicam are not as robust as hotmelt, uv or anarobic. i say anarobic ST all the way.

 

[Sunrise05]

Each has it's place.
Unicam is easy to use but you need the kit for them. Also, using an OTDR is difficult with the Unicams due to ghost effect of the matching gel.
My vote is with either 3M hotmelt or an epoxy type such as Siemon. Leviton makes a thread lock that is reuseable, in case you make a mistake, but I have heard mixed feedback on that one.

 

[bkrike]

Well, I went ahead and got an Amp lightcrimp kit, partly because of this post:
thread575-871839

I do appreciate your comments though.
I just have no experience with terminating fiber, so I wanted one that was easy. I am not too worried about volatile environments, as all our terminations are in phone rooms, and we always put the fiber in some type of patch box/ panel. We probably will terminate less than 30 strands per year, so I don’t see myself getting a lot of practice either.

I will let you guys know how it goes, but if anyone has experience with the Amp in the mean time, I would like to hear your thoughts.

 

[ttech]

per the post you mentioned

It turned Out I was scanning using the wrong parameters now they pass with no problem.

 

[bkrike]

thanks TTech- that makes me feel better about it.

 

[oldtimerbob]

I use the Leviton 'threadlock' fiber connectors now and they work great.
No glue, no mess and if you blow one you can re-use the connector,thus saving the cost of having to throw one away and using another.