My first experience with new wire stripper

Well I bought a wire stripper off Ebay, cost was about $137 total as I recall. Its been sitting waiting for me for about a month now.

I discovered it requires a drill with a 1/2" chuck to fit the shaft of the wire stripper. I own 5 or 6 3/8" drills so I bought a new one from Harbor Freight, cost wast about $45 total.

I had a small desk in the shop so I mouted it to the desk. I found I had to elevate the stripper so it was at the same level as the drill.







Below is a photo of the plate that is normally installed to guide smaller wire. I was stripping large coax.



Here is what the coax looks like after being cut by the stripper



Here is the copper sheilding being removed





And here is the center condutor with the insulation split ready to pull out.



I hope this answered some questions, Mike.

I was able to adjust it so I could do the complete cut in one pass.

The wheel is not spring loaded but adjustable. The wheels below are ajustable wider and narrower for larger and smaller wires. Mike.

Originally Posted by Bear

Cool Mike, how small of wire will it do?

I don't know yet. I did strip some 14 gauge stranded and it worked great. It takes some practice to get the adjustments correct. Mike.

I have to thank Shootsitall, he and I met awhile back and he brought his wire stripper. That's what convinced me it was worth a try with an inexpensive wire stripper.

The large high quality coax with copper sheild and copper center conductor really is a good return for the effort. Mike.

Is there a part number or link to where I can get a wire stripper like that? Thanks!

Edit:

Just ebayed it and found it! sorry for cluttering up the board!

Devo, I was about to make a statement about your very question. So do I like, yes. Am I making a lot of money using it, no but wire stripping is not my main scrapping activity.

What I really like about it is its very easy to adjust so I don't have to a lot of sorting which would take up time. I can see the value of one of the strippers with multible blades which should not require adjustment every time you change the type wire you are stripping.

The one thing I have learned is you can strip small gauge wire with it, 18-20gauge. But the problem is some wire has insulation that does not want to split, so the stripped mashes the wire instead.

On some small gauge wire I have tried and succeeded with runing it thru twice. I lightly score on one side then put it thru again scoring on the other side. The copper almost falls out sometimes. It might seem like a lot of extra work to put it thru a second time but the ease of removing the copper stranded wire is well worth it.

I have had less that a great time stripping the wire harness from the power supplies of computers, the multi colored wires. I will continue to try but some is just going into the #2 insulated wire bucket. I hope this helps, Mike.

Thanks for the follow up Mike.

Based on your experience I have decided to order one off of Ebay also.

Rusty don't forget it requires a 1/2" drill, Mike.

Originally Posted by miked

Rusty don't forget it requires a 1/2" drill, Mike.

Yep, got that already. I also have a 18V gear reduction box that I might try on it and make the thing mobile. lol!