WOBANK RIVET NUT CRIMPING TOOL

I'm rebuilding the dash in my 78 step side because I can. In the past, I, like others, had to rely on metal screws to secure the wood dash to the metal, factory dash.  On a whim, I dove into the Net rabbit trails in search of solutions. In the course of said pursuits, I found jam-nuts and crimp. Both looked like possible solutions  for converting metal screw holes to, for example, 10/24 screws.

When looking into jam nuts, users complain of weak crimping tools that just don't have enough umph to handle larger sized jam nuts. Looking further, I found ones that seemed to work using common wrenches, but I would have had to buy one for each size.

Eventually, I found this set up. It cost significantly more, but seemed to cover all the bases.

When the box arrived, the first thing I noted was, it's heavy. That's because it came in a nice, well built and organized case with heads for metric and imperial crimp nuts, and a supply that is likely to cover whatever I need the tool for, for years to come.

I just took the crimper and crimp nuts out to the shop and tried installing a 10-20 crimp nut in a piece of scrap flat metal. It did beautifully.  More so impress for that I was not very careful about the hole size and it was a bit bigger than it needed to be.

After the nut was in place, I tried turning it in my Knipex pliers and could not get it to budge. 

Call this one a winner all the way around.

SIDE NOTE: The instructions do tell you to be careful to not tip the crimpers side to side, to avoiding breaking a mandres. We'll see how these hold up over time, in time.