Strip meister original problems

Hi bought a strip meister original with gripper wheel and I have to use the biggest hole on it to strip awg 2 aluminum and bigger bit it doesn't like the awg 2 it's got 7 strands and it keeps slipping off center any ideas to make this less of a pain please let me know?. It worked fine for romex inside wires works fine for 4/0 .

I haven't used the Stripmeister but there are a few things you might try.

You might have the cutting wheel set down too far. Too much downward pressure can cause the wire to squeeze of to one side or the other.

You might try cutting the cable into two foot long pieces and see if they feed through the machine better.

See if the plate on the front with the holes in it is adjustable. Tinker with the adjustment. Try setting it a little high or a little lower than it should be and see if that makes any difference.

( I get some wire that feeds better when the front plate is set a little lower than it ought to be. )

I tried stripping the aluminum cable. My machine worked well enough ... but it didn't seem like it was worth the extra time it took to strip it.

Originally Posted by hills

I tried stripping the aluminum cable. My machine worked well enough ... but it didn't seem like it was worth the extra time it took to strip it.

As a generalization, the soread between Ins Al Wire and EC Wire tends to be broader than MCM vs. Bare Bright. This is because a fair amount of the Ins Al is just 65-70% recovery but the strong majority is 80-85% recovery so the pricing for Ins Al is *always* low. It's the only wire I strip at my place lol

Originally Posted by JJinLV

As a generalization, the soread between Ins Al Wire and EC Wire tends to be broader than MCM vs. Bare Bright. This is because a fair amount of the Ins Al is just 65-70% recovery but the strong majority is 80-85% recovery so the pricing for Ins Al is *always* low. It's the only wire I strip at my place lol

It guess it's situational. The scrap prices here in Maine aren't that great. Just checked one of the better paying yards and they're paying .20 for insulated aluminum & .40 for stripped.

At 40 cents a pound i would hard put to strip enough in an hour just to make minimum wage.


Give me some copper MCM and i'm in hog heaven. That's easy money.

The 14, 12, & 10 ga. romex is a bit more work but i use it as a fill in job.

The other thing is transport. It's pretty expensive to buy/own/operate a pickup truck here. The only way i can see to justify the expense is to work with it every day and having it earning good money for you. The nearest yard is a sixty mile run each way so that's easily $60.00 in actual operating expense not to mention half a day's work.

I get by okay with my little Subaru outback. With 300 lb minimum loads of copper -or- brass the payouts at the yard are fairly good and operating expenses are reasonable enough. Even better if i can combine purposes and hit the scrapyard while i'm on other business in the area.

I would take a beating if i tried to do steel or aluminum. The juice wouldn't be worth the squeeze.

It's a different story if you are operating on a larger scale in a major metropolitan area.