This may/may not be relevant. I have a motorized stripper so that is probably something different.

1: The wire will slip off to one side if the cutter is down too far. You want to score the insulation and not the copper wire inside.

2: The machine works well on solid core wire. It doesn't work very well if stripping finely stranded wire. Finely stranded wire slips off to one side.

3: You have to do fine adjustments for each kind of wire you are stripping. The diameter of 14 ga.,12 ga., 10 ga., and cable is different. A machine set up for 12 ga. wouldn't strip the other sizes very well.



It's like anything else .... there's a certain learning curve. It's hard to get it set precisely right at first but it gets easier with practice.