Review: WBT 0660 spades.

[piece-it pete]

Hello everyone!

Thought I'd relate my WBT experience.

After finishing (finally!) my CAT5 cables, I needed some spades & found some of these on Audiogon at a reasonable price.

Nice looking, good apparent build quality.

Now, how did it affect my systems' sound?

Wow! Heck with buying speakers, I'll just buy different spades.

Just kidding :). I was looking for build quality. And this is what I got:

Well after stripping the 54 wires (!) (10 ga equivilent) I grabbed a spade, inserted the wire, and promptly broke off the tip of the dinky faux - gold tool they supply in one of the screws. Of course, it's stuck in there. So I had to cut it off & re-strip the 54 wires.

Let me tell you about the tool. It's shaped like a little allen wrench, but not hardened, at comes to a tiny little 6 point star. Using these rediculous little things is IMO a serious design flaw. The spade is good for up to 8 ga. Any electrician (confirmation, please?) will tell you any electrical connection should be pretty darn tight.

So I had a e-mail conversation with Rich over at WBT USA. Very prompt & helpful, he not only made good, even though I bought them used, by sending me immediately an used replacement & new tool (very fair, although I don't know what I'm going to use them for), he also told me that WBT in Germany says that the "deca newton meter" was .5!!! According to my research that is .4 pound feet of torque (again, confirmation?)!!

How much you wanna bet I can hit that just using finger muscles?

Less than one poundfoot? For 8 ga?

I'm going to try to find matching copper set screws that use allen wrenches, but this could be difficult.

So, as helpful as WBT USA was, and as well built overall as they are, until WBT drops the cutesiness & starts using real screws my final review of the WBT 0660 spade is:

NOT RECOMMENDED.

Pete

[skeptic]

Try Thomas and Betts Stakon available at most electrical supply houses. This is one reliable brand electricians have used and trusted for decades. The tool looks like a large pair of steel wire cutters and the working end is a set of dies which makes one hell of a tight connection by swaging the connector and the wire until they are impossible to separate. The price will be music to your ears too and you can use the tool and the lugs for a million different electrical jobs around your house. Check Google under Stakon for a catalog.

[piece-it pete]

My father-in-law has 2-3 pairs of those exact pliers - I've used them for years working on cars!

I guess sometimes you just can't see the forest for the trees.

Thanks!!

Pete