Homemade wire stripper

I am wanting to make a homemade wire stripper for my shop. A little bit about myself first. I have worked on electronics since I was a kid, I had my first repair job at 14. I have learned to save everything but after saving junk for over 30 years I want to clean some stuff out. I have always recycled what I could, copper,steel, aluminum. I have worked on computer for 25 years now and have lots of wire. I have a barrel almost the size of a 55 gallon drum full of cat 5,power cords and other small wires. I then have boxes of all kinds of wire. If I stripped it down I could fill a 55 gallon drum with copper. So with that said I want to make a homemade stripper. I know it is time consuming but what I would like to make a stripper I can strip wires for 5 to 10 minutes after work each day to relax.



I have worked on machines and designed them before. Here is what I was thinking. I have a geared motor that I can use. I plan to make a drum that has a rod in the center. Then the rod will have a pulley that will be spun by a belt connected to the motors pulley. I then plan to have a second drum that has a frame that holds it. It will have a compression spring that pushes this drum down on the second drum. I want to fix a stripper that crushes the insulation so the wire can be pulled out easier.

So here is my question I was looking for a couple of steel drums but I don't have any. I can fabricate a couple by using some kiln dried oak scraps into circles then gluing them together. Then I plan to smooth them out by turning them on a lathe. My question is if I do this will the wood be good enough to put pressure on the wire? Or will I have to search for steel drums. I would like to fabricate this with items I have is possible.

use old aged bodark (boise d'arc)

I have something like that. I made mine with the stainless rollers stripped from a printer/scanner. Works pretty good but i need to come up with an adjustment screw to do various guages. As of now i have to unbolt it and then reset it. Time consuming but it gets the job done.

Originally Posted by willy3486

I am wanting to make a homemade wire stripper for my shop. A little bit about myself first. I have worked on electronics since I was a kid, I had my first repair job at 14. I have learned to save everything but after saving junk for over 30 years I want to clean some stuff out. I have always recycled what I could, copper,steel, aluminum. I have worked on computer for 25 years now and have lots of wire. I have a barrel almost the size of a 55 gallon drum full of cat 5,power cords and other small wires. I then have boxes of all kinds of wire. If I stripped it down I could fill a 55 gallon drum with copper. So with that said I want to make a homemade stripper. I know it is time consuming but what I would like to make a stripper I can strip wires for 5 to 10 minutes after work each day to relax.

I have worked on machines and designed them before. Here is what I was thinking. I have a geared motor that I can use. I plan to make a drum that has a rod in the center. Then the rod will have a pulley that will be spun by a belt connected to the motors pulley. I then plan to have a second drum that has a frame that holds it. It will have a compression spring that pushes this drum down on the second drum. I want to fix a stripper that crushes the insulation so the wire can be pulled out easier.

So here is my question I was looking for a couple of steel drums but I don't have any. I can fabricate a couple by using some kiln dried oak scraps into circles then gluing them together. Then I plan to smooth them out by turning them on a lathe. My question is if I do this will the wood be good enough to put pressure on the wire? Or will I have to search for steel drums. I would like to fabricate this with items I have is possible.

Sounds like something I was working on once.
I was going to use two electric motors with the 'outer winding with the copper wire in it' removed.
The shaft has a cylinder of iron/ali in its centre. Thats the rollers you need.