first portion 192 and a second portion 194 wherein the cradle 190 may be affixed to the body 100 between the first side 120 and the second side 130 and the portions reside in a plane substantially parallel with the bottom surface 110 the cable cradle 190 may serve various purposes for the tool including inter alia alignment of the wire or cable 310 and restraint of the connector 300 during the compression process the portions 192 194 of the cable cradle 190 may be configured to have a diameter that allows the wire or cable 310 to pass to the connector 300 but may also be configured to have a diameter that is less than that of the compression sleeve of the connector 300 that drives the connector onto the retaining ring through movement of the sliding head 160 optionally a bearing 215 can be disposed over the protruding component 200 of the sliding head 160 within the guidance portion 210 that is a groove guide slot a ridge opening aperture channel cut groove hole recess slit socket space channel or other relatively straight surface to catch retain and guide the protruding component 200 for the entirety of the range of motion of the sliding head 160 the size of the connector relates to the size of the chambers in the tool in that a first compressed length 235 may correspond to a first compression channel portion 170 of the body 100 in conjunction with the head 160 and a second compressed length 265 may correspond to the second compression channel portion 180 of the head the compressed length.