Chris Reitz dot Com

The TC-PDT's Krone head

ok, so I got my punchdown tool yesterday, and spent a little while (2 hours – HA!) punching some audio cable down. I think I gave the thing a pretty decent workout.

First of all, I’ll say it’s waaaay better than the screwdriver I was using before. It punches wires down very nicely, with a lot less effort and problems than the screwdriver approach.

That having been said, there’s good reason why the TC-PDT cost $16 and the one from Full Compass that I’d mentioned before cost $170. it’s a little tough to tell in the photo (sorry about the bad focus—cell phone pic), but it’s got a little chisel blade on the side of it, that’s supposed to cut off the wire, so it’s flush with the side of the punch block. It doesn’t work all that well. It sort of cuts off the wire, but kind of leaves it hanging, and if you punch the wire down at the wrong angle, you can shave plastic off the punch block itself. Whoopsie.

From what I’ve seen, the $170 tool has a little wire cutter at the end that snips off the wire, like a pair of scissors. That seems to me to be a better design. That having been said, $170 for a tool that I’m going to use probably another ten times ever would be just a wee bit impractical.

All said, I’d say the tool is really good for the money.