Have you ever faced the tediousness of a long wiring job, where keystone jacks number in the hundreds and every single one of them needs to be punched down? Hand strain is common, fatigue can cause inconsistent punchdowns, and both can lead to wasted time and issues with the quality of your punchdown terminations.

The purpose of the Xpress Jack® Punchdown Termination Kit is to eliminate hand strain and inconsistent punchdowns to make keystone jack termination easier than ever. The kit includes the Cat5/6 Cable Jacket Stripper and the Scissor-Run Electrician’s Scissors to prep your cable, ten blue and ten white Keystone Cat6 110 Jacks to get your project started, and the Xpress Jack Punchdown Tool to terminate your Keystone Jacks in one quick, easy motion.

The Xpress Jack Punchdown tool is made to last with its heavy duty all carbon tool steel construction and a rust-resistant black oxide finish. Unlike a punchdown tool, however, it’s easier to use. All you need to do is insert the unterminated, wired keystone jack into the die cavity of the Xpress Jack, then press the Xpress Jack’s handles together. The handles are made to be operated with one hand and are ergonomically designed with a comfortable grip to reduce hand stress on large jobs. Upon termination, the Xpress Jack seats and trims all eight conductors in one smooth motion, saving time and energy and reducing the likelihood of inconsistent terminations, damage to property, and even personal injury.

Wire rope is a material used in a multitude of different industries, from military applications to construction to DIY projects by a casual homeowner. Low-cost and versatile, wire rope is chosen primarily for its heavy load bearing capabilities and for its reliability, flexibility, and its ease of operation and maintenance. However, installing wire rope can be difficult, especially if the ends of the wire rope have been frayed by an inefficient cutter, like a hack-saw or a grinder. This makes it almost impossible to insert wire rope into the appropriate fittings, such as clamps, thimbles, ferrules, or sleeves.

So instead of cutting your wire rope with a hack-saw, grinder, welding torch, or even a Dremel tool – which is both time consuming and potentially dangerous – use a dedicated wire rope cutter like the Platinum Tools Wire Rope Cutter.
Made from carbon tool steel with a rust resistant black oxide finish, the Wire Rope Cutter is designed to cut through the toughest wire rope and cable, from 3-millimeter steel rope and cable to up to 6.5-millimeter soft cabling, all with specially formulated cutting jaws that won’t unwind the wire rope. The cutter has spring-loaded, comfort grip TPR handles to reduce the stress on your hands from repeated cable and wire rope cutting, as well as a storage latch to keep this cutter’s tool profile small in your workbench or tool chest. Unlike most other wire rope cutters on the market, the Wire Rope Cutter even has a cavity for looping and crimping wire rope sleeves built into the handles of the cutter itself.

For professional technicians and DIYers alike – whatever their level of usage – this is a must-have two-in-one tool that is a sound, money-saving investment for both industrial use and home repair projects, or anywhere that wire rope is used.

Tired of stabbing yourself in the hand with a punchdown tool? Standard keystone jacks are cumbersome to terminate, and if you’re not careful, then a misaligned punchdown tool can cause personal injury or damage to property, such as walls or furniture. Even if the punchdown tool is used properly, prepping the cable and wiring up the keystone for punchdown on each individual conductor can take a long time. You also run the risk of losing your punchdown tool on a job, making it nearly impossible to continue punching down on standard keystone jacks.

Enter the Keystone Cat6A Jack.

The Keystone Cat6A Jack is a reusable, tool-less keystone jack with a color-coded T568A/B wiring guide block to hold conductors in place for termination. This makes it easy to terminate and cheaper to use, since no punch down tool is required to terminate the jack. Since the jack is reusable, any wiring mistakes can be easily fixed without wasting a keystone jack, and inviting additional possibility of injury from a punchdown tool.

Designed to fit industry standard wall jacks and unloaded patch panels, the Keystone Cat6A Jack can easily replace any worn out or outdated keystone jacks and it can integrate into newer wiring projects with little difficulty. With the ease of use and its reusability, this makes the Keystone Cat6A Jack a great fit for both DIY-ers and professional cable installers. Cable installers will also appreciate the wide range of cables that can be used with this jack, as it works with solid or stranded conductors from 24 to 22 AWG.

The Keystone Cat6A Jack has 50µ gold contacts and meets Cat6A channel shielded and unshielded performance up to 100 meters. The jack also exceeds TIA/ EIA-568-C.2 standards and is RoHS compliant and UL listed.

With the advent of larger cable outer diameters and insulation diameters for conductors in Cat6 and Cat6A cables, finding one piece shielded connectors that are easy and convenient to use while still able to handle the increased outer diameters of cables and insulation diameters of conductors has become progressively more difficult. Shielded connectors that are large enough to handle these larger conductors are often multi-piece connectors, requiring multiple tools to prep the connector and making termination of these cables inconvenient at best and prohibitive at worst.

In 2017, Platinum Tools came out with the ezEX-RJ45® Termination System, consisting of the EXO Crimp Frame® with interchangeable die sets, and the ezEX-RJ45 connectors, which come in two sizes, the ezEX™44s and the ezEX™48s. These connectors are designed to handle the larger insulation diameters used in Cat6 and Cat6A cables while still maintaining the EZ-RJ45 pass-through design that allows users to check their wire configuration before crimping.

To facilitate the termination of large-conductor, shielded Cat6 and Cat6A cables, the shielded ezEX-RJ45 connectors have an improved pass-through design with Hi-Lo staggered conductor channels. This lets large conductors pass through the connector to verify wiring order before termination, and an attached load bar on the front of the connector allows for a clean, flush trim when crimped with the patented EXO Crimp Frame + EXO-EX Die™. Combined, these features allow the user to save time and money without sacrificing performance on high-end jobs.

The shielded ezEX-RJ45 connectors come in two sizes. The ezEX44s can handle a max outer diameter of 0.280 inches (7.10 millimeters), with an insulation diameter range of 0.039 inches to 0.044 inches (1.0 – 1.12 millimeters). The ezEX48s can handle a max outer cable diameter of 0.305 inches (7.75 millimeters), with an insulation diameter range of 0.043 inches to 0.048 inches (1.09 – 1.22 millimeters). The shielded ezEX44s are available with both external and internal ground options, while the shielded ezEX48s are available with an external ground option only.

Curious about finding connectors to fit your cable? Try our Connector Selector Guide! This guide will ask you a few questions about Cable Jacket max outer diameter and Conductor insulation diameter and what kind of connector you plan on using (whether it be shielded or unshielded, solid or stranded). Then it displays the connector(s) that will best fit your cable!