How To: Terminating a Keystone Jack Onto Cat6A Direct Burial Ethernet

[@profrabinow6566]

Sell keystones in lower than 12 / color packs!!! I don’t do much cabling but like your products. Most of my networks are small / just a few pulls. I use different keystone colors rather than number cables. Yellow port in office is yellow back at closet. So I need 2 of each color on that job. 12 of each color is too many for me. No one else does it this way?!!

[@trueCABLE]

Hello! Thank you for your feedback. We did offer 2 packs at one time (and still do in some styles) but they were not really selling well. I can tell you that if we have more requests for less than 12 packs we will revisit the idea! As to nobody else selling in more than 2 packs, there are quite a few sellers on Amazon that offer 25 packs as the minimum quantity. We tried to strike a balance.

[@InternetJunkHuman]

I think the problem is that you assume all installers will have fingernails and the opportunity to exert tension onto a perfectly flat surface. This does not happen out in the real world and these are by no means toolless jacks. You will need more than the termination tool so be prepared. Bring all your tools with you. The problem is with thick CAT6 wires and the insides of the keystone posts. It is easy enough to maybe pull them into their grooves with needle nose plyers, if your lucky. Sometimes it takes a plastic spudger or a punch down tool, but without punching it down. Same problem every time, wire gets caught on inside of the post. Not bad for the top 2, but the rest can be a struggle. In real world scenarios you are sometimes crammed up against a wall sitting or laying down, because that is all the cable length you have to deal with. Sometimes the client wants you to fix what they have. Often I am standing up, with the keystone in a puck first. I love all the other trueCABLE products, but these pist me off while I am trying to get a job done. Please test these with sweaty hands, after doing 20 in a row, calluses on fingertips and also only 1 foot of cable to work with.

[@trueCABLE]

Hello and I have been in the same position as you, being a fellow installer. Literally. I was once backed up flat to a wall, keystone in front of me, while trying to terminate a keystone. Not fun. This often occurs on upgrades/retrofits/retermination. I often prefer our punch jacks and rapid termination tool for Categories 6 and lower with insulated conductors that are 1.05mm and less in thickness. The moment you get to 1.08mm you have a fight with the traditional punch keystone as most (including ours) have a 1.10mm limit before the IDC towers literally distort to fit the conductors. Our "toolless" keystones allow for conductor thicknesses approaching 1.20mm but they do require some tools, just not the 110 punch tool. So, you gain more compatibility with thicker conductors with the "toolless" keystones but trade off size and speed of termination with the "toolless" version as there are more parts, and more parts to lose in the process. Never a free lunch, eh? This will become even more of an issue with the industry changing over to more effective Cat6A ANEXT protection with discontinuous ANEXT barriers and thick insulated conductors of 1.10mm and above, which is what Cat6A unshielded will look like in the coming year at some point. Our "toolless" keystones can accept this revision to the design of Cat6A U/UTP but the punch jacks cannot at the moment. A redesigned Cat6A unshielded punch keystone, specific to thicker insulated conductors (but losing lower thickness compatibility) will be required as well. I too often carry an old credit card for help seating conductors, as they can be ruinous on ones fingers to seat into the slots prior to punching. Stay tuned for a lot more around this in the coming new year!