Crimps on traces

In an attempt to start making my own traces (and trying to do it right too) I bought a bit of gear including crimps, rolling swivels & glow beads... on the very first cast of my newly constructed (and i thought 'impressive') trace, it snaped & i lost everthing from the shock leader down... at first i thought maybe i'd put too much force into the cast... so i tried again with another one - gently this time, and the exact same thing happened... upon inspection of the second trace (only lost the bottom hook and lead) i found that it was the line at the cimps on the trace that was snapping each time - effectively tightening the crimp onto the line of the trace weaked it to such a point that you could snap it easily with your hands... eh - what am i doing wrong? :oops: how am i *supposed* to use these??
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

What breaking strain is your rig body?

You don't need to crimp too tightly either.

Sounds like the crimps are to tight.I've only recently started making my own rigs(there not great but they worked last night out :) )but the only thing I've learned from reading mags etc. is to make sure the crimps aren't to tight,and the knots are secure (the knot fell apart when i unhooked the fish)...plus as jd asked make sure the crimps are for the breaking strain of the rig.

The slightest squeeze with a pliers is enough to tighten the crimp. So gently, you almost won't realise you've had any effect.

Try to use crimps that are just slightly bigger than your line diameter.

A handy tip when you're cutting your rig body is to cut the mono with a sharp scissors at a 45 degree angle to the line. This gives the line a sharp point and makes it easy to thread the crimps.

Cheers lads.
The line i was using was 20k breaking strain (which was the only line i had to make em with) - Is that too light to begin with?
- Thinking back now i'd say the crimp size was far too big for the line - had to squeeze them quite hard on the line to secure them.

You need to be making your rig body with similar breaking strain as your shock leader - approx 50lb b.s. Also try using coil crimps - these wrap around the rig body and don't do any damage.

I agree, best to use something like Greased Weasle of 50lb for trace and snoods of about 15lb, Amnesia is good for this.

Crimp very gently and its often good to have the crimp slighly loose so you can adjust it. Handy for clipped down rigs.

To avoid this problem when fishing line i don't use crimps. An excellent alternative is, Get your self a roll of telephone wire and cut the outer casing off. Use the small inside wire. Wrap it around the snood/body about 8 times. This will hold in place when casting and can be adjusted if you get any stretch in the rig. I cant get a pic up at the moment but somebody might be able to supply one.
Hope this helps.

Yeah had the same problem myself ! Try not put them on to tight and i found using a pliers with a flat surface helped instead of the one's with teeth grip.