wire: to strip or not to strip.

i never strip stranded wire but a neighbor gave me some wire that came from rewiring most of a boat. the whole thing is about 5/8 diameter and then has 3 separate insulated pieces inside that are stranded wire. the outside seems very tough. At first i thought i would strip it but i dont know if i am up to it or if it would even be worth it.

anybody have any comments on boat wire? i do plan to do a test strip to check recover percentages. I just saw this post and thought i would ask.

Originally Posted by jghilino

to strip or not to strip?

i guess that makes me a stripper

I'm with you, sorta :-)

uppps i see i deleted part of my comment above. the deleted part was concerning how tough the outside insulation feels to me. when asking for comments on boat wire i was referring to the deleted comment not if it was worth stripping. More of, is it harder to handle bc its made for ocean/exposure to more elements or anybody have any suggestions how to handle it. maybe its just as tough as lots of other but i have not been exposed.

Didnt think of that. thanks! great idea. it just turned cold yesterday.... freezing my Floridian arse off but hopefully it will be back to 80F next wk. i will give it a try. Its all nasty with black soot on it so i keep putting off deciding to strip or not.

Originally Posted by jghilino

sit it out on the hood of a car on a hot summer day, then try to strip it it cuts alot better

Originally Posted by jghilino

to strip or not to strip?

i guess that makes me a stripper

That must be why i hear music whenever you are around

I just think choosing an efficient and reliable wire stripping machine is very important if you choose to strip wire. It will repay you.

Bic it!

what happened to Highvoltageprocessing?

I found a real good stripper for low volume or on the go stripping on fleeBay. Copper Scrap Wire Stripping Hand Tool Pocket Stripper SR1 | eBay

Wow, long link

I strip solid wire 16ga. And up. Stranded, I strip 12ga and up. I want to save up for a powered one, but this one works good.

If you strip the wire, you have to remove the clips on the ends of the wire too. That adds to the time taken & removes from the first actual weighin of the wire.
You don't get paid for the clips like you do when you sell insulated wire.

I sell the wire as plastic coated wire if its the same size or under the same sized wire we get in car looms, house wire etc.
I do clean off all the tape, seperate plastic & those plastic clips & get $3 a Kg.

Larger wire & degaussing cables etc I clean down to copper & clip off the soldered ends & get #1 @ $7.60 Kg.

A good striping tool would pay for it's self , Sure some wire has less profit - but there is always some kinda gain. X mas lites well thats a dif breed best left to some one like me .

Thanks for getting rid of the spam post whichever mod that was...lol. Crazy spammers!

Gotta love it.

An to stay on topic...I'm not a stripper and you all should be thankful. /zing!

Sirscrapalot - Bad bad leroy brown, baddest man in the whole **** town

Sorry for reviving an older thread, but I might have something useful for beginners...

The large heavy duty scissors (the big silver ones) can strip about 30 feet per minute of a single strand of solid core wire (that means first removing the outer-most insulation to isolate the single strands) if you loosen the screw that holds the two parts together, and cut into the insulation at an angle that is similar to sharpening a stick. Just don't cut so deep that you are cutting into the actual wire.

The other blade of the scissors will act as a guide to keep the wire level as it runs past it slightly ahead of the cutting blade (The scissor blades will be spread open about an inch apart. That's why you need to loosen the screw... so the wire can fit through the scissors while the blades are so close together).

It may take a few tries to get it started, but once it does you will be able to strip a line down the insulation as fast as you can pull the wire through the scissors. You may have to get the cut started again every so often.

After you have cut the insulation along the wire, the insulation will pull off effortlessly.

I just finished successfully doing this to average house wire from the house I am cleaning out to demolish. One type was in round black outer insulation and had three solid core wires, with cardboard type filling, strangely enough (seems flammable). The other was white "flat" cord with two solid core wires. Sorry, I am not familiar with official wire classifications.