Muzata 60ton Upgraded Custom Hydraulic Hand Crimper Tool for 5/32" Stainless Steel Cable Railing Kit Hardware Wire Rope Swaging 1Pair Dies CT01, CT1

Finally bit the bullet and replaced our railing on our log cabin on the lake with a wire railing. It came out great and I should have done it years before. We have a log cabin lake house on a lake in new York we built in 2012. The log cabin kit used log spindles for the railing. Looked good for the log home theme but… My wife is only 5 foot tall and when sitting in a chair on the deck, the railing blocked most of the view of the lake! So I did a bunch of research and came up with the below installation as the best for us and it looks fantastic.As you will see in the complete photos, I kept the log up rights but took out the log rails and spindles. Since I was keeping the log up rights, I realized that trying to drill the wires through the logs and keep them perfectly straight and evenly separated, even using a jig, was going to be nearly impossible. Thus my first idea of one long wire run from end to end (40 feet) using turnbuckles on one end, didn’t look like a valid solution. Then I ran into the Threaded Swag Lag Screws. I realized I can do 5 different groups of wires using the lag screws into the log up rights and not have to drill through them, only predrill starter holes for the Lag screws. We laid out the top rail, out of same wood as the cabin. And for the two widest sections on the left we used a section of the top rail as an upright that is drilled through as a wire support. The two long section on the left are 10’ 6” each and the three shorter sections on the right are 5’ 6” each (give or take a little).Material I purchased to do the job:All I bought were items 1 through 5 below, all through Amazon. The total was only $332 for all of it including the tools. With the outcome I got at the end – this was a steal in my book (no pun intended).1. Steel DN Mate 40 Packs T316 Stainless Steel Right&Left Handed Thread Swage Lag Screws for Wood Post of 1/8" Cable Railing Kit,Deck Railing Hardware/Stair Deck Railing,DIY Wood Baluster Kit,With Wrench2. Bysn 1/8 T316 Stainless Steel Cable, Aircraft Cable for Deck Railing, 7 x 7 Strands Construction Braided Steel Cable, 500FT Wire Rope Cable for Railing3. Muzata Wire Cutters, Stainless Steel Wire Rope Aircraft Bicycle Cable Cutter, Up to 5/32" Deck Railing Cable, CR12,Series CT14. Muzata Custom Hydraulic Hand Crimper Tool for 1/8" Stainless Steel Cable Railing Kit System Fittings- Wire Rope Swaging,2019 Upgrade Version Crimping-60 Ton CT01,CT15. 100Pack T316 Stainless Steel Protective Protector Sleeves for 1/8" 5/32" 3/16" Deck Cable Railing Kit with A Free Drill Bit (100 Pack)Installation:Took two days. Day one was removing the old railing sections and I had to replace three up right logs as they were starting to show signs of rot. Once we had the uprights replaced and the top rail wood in place, we could start running the wires. Day 2, running all the wires. The front of my deck is 40 feet wide. I put the wires at 3” apart and made a plywood template with predrilled holes at the exact placements I need to put the lags screws. We would then hold the template up against the log up rights, and I would predrill the holes for the lags using the template holes. The logs come with a drill bit for predrilling them. So no errors in the holes being too big or too small. I had predrilled out the two upright sections that were being used as wire guides and I put in the steel protective sleeves on each side of those holes. When you start, put the lags in (noting one side the lags are reveres threaded for turning later) per the instruction we put the lags in about 1/3 to ½ way in. a tip we found somewhere is do every other wire first as the little wrenches you have to turn the lags in will hit the next wire. This helped make them go a lot faster. Also for pre-starting the lags, I chucked them into my cordless drill and used the drill to start them. Way faster than by hand. Then measure the distance from Wood to wood and subtract 1 1/2” from the length of the wire. We used the Muzata wire cutters above and had to make over 100 cuts. They worked great for all cuts. Didn’t detect any dulling by the end which was nice! Then slide the wire into a Lag and use the crimper to put two crimps on each lag. Seems easy enough but by the teim you are getting to your 200th crimp, your arms are definitely tired. Just keep repeating this for all the wires. And your done. Well… We had five sections of wire, 10 wires each section so that is 20 lag screws per section or 100 lags total, 2 crimps per lag or 200 crimps, and 50 lengths of wires totaling ~ 400 feet. Took all day but when we were done, it looked great! I highly recommend this and it is totally a do it yourself task if you are just even modestly handy. My wife and I did it by ourselves and our friends can’t stop complementing how big a difference it makes. We were very pleased with all the wire products and tools we used. We had no issues with any of it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Fair tool at best, of course you get what you pay for. Not a high quality crimper but it got the job done on a budget. Would not use it all the time time as a trade tool, it just won't hold up. Had to bang back the head into shape after it bent during use, oil cylinder leaked a little and the crimp assembly misshaped, etc. In any case just be aware of the expectations for a cheap crimper and buy with caution.

I installed 40 cable rails, making for 80 crimps and the crimper did not fail throughout the long process. Sturdy and strong. TIP-tightening the release valve well between crimps makes for fewer pumps than if it isn't secure. Wish it had a better way to hold this onto the swage end that isn't awkward, but not sure what that design would be- other than having a second pair of hands to help hold during pumping, which makes it much easier.

It came with only the 1/8" die. The other dies, which appear in the pictures, are missing. I feel cheated.

Was a little wary that a review complained had to pump and pump, but was for one job (maybe others in the future) so did not want to break the bank. Installed the cables for a deck in an afternoon, was easy as could be, don't have to be the Hulk to use it, and probably saved the cost of the tool using swaged fittings vs swageless.