Elco Machine

Interviewer: What’s that contraption?

Shop: That’s our Elco machine. It’s a pneumatic machine that crimps Elco pins on cables. The reel has a roll on pins that feed into the machine. The operator inserts a prepped wire end into a small slot on that plexiglass panel in front, steps on a footswitch, and the machine makes a perfect crimp. For our installations we use Bittree patchbays, which use Elco connectors. Each patchbay has 288 pins, so this machine is much faster and easier than hand crimping.

Interviewer: I can imagine!

Shop: David was given the machine about 6 years ago, but it had changed hands many times and was broken. Getting it running nearly drove him nuts. It uses compressed air to drive a large piston, but the piston shaft was broken. John Costa at Westcam in North Hollywood, who does all our custom panels, is a genius with machines and said he’d give it a try. Poor John spent months getting the crazy thing fixed and working right.

John got the piston repaired without too much trouble but the machine had other problems, and the mechanisms were out of adjustment. They phoned the manufacturer, but learned that the original owner never fully paid for it, the company wasn’t too willing to help. John finally figured out all the tweaks and David had that workstation build with a work light, fold out table, tool drawer, and adjustable armrest. Sounds great, huh? It worked great for about two months, then froze up and died. John came over and sweated over it day after day, without success. David said he was ready take it out on a boat and drop it into Santa Monica Bay. But John finally got it all sorted out, and now the machine works perfectly.

Interviewer: Well, we’ve reached the end of our little tour. Thanks for your time.

Shop: You know, I’d like to get in one more promotional plug.

Interviewer: : I’m outta here, but go for it.

Shop: We hope you like what you’ve seen, so, whether you need an LA3A serviced...