Automatic wire strippers!

A few months ago, a friend let me use his IRWIN
Self-Adjusting Wire Strippers. Sold! I figured they would be
well over $50 but they are less than $20. Should have bought
one when they were first available. Wish I had had one
decades ago. Would have saved so much time and tremendous
amount of hassle.

That is a preliminary opinion based on one use. But it was
6-12 extremely thin (maybe 24-30 AWG) stranded wires and it
did a great job, me having no experience and not even asking
for instruction. Thick wire should be a breeze.

I did not want to buy any more tools, would rather do
computer stuff now, but that is an exception. The thing is
not much more expensive than a lousy ordinary wire stripper.

John Doe wrote:

A few months ago, a friend let me use his IRWIN
Self-Adjusting Wire Strippers. Sold! I figured they would be
well over $50 but they are less than $20. Should have bought
one when they were first available. Wish I had had one
decades ago. Would have saved so much time and tremendous
amount of hassle.

That is a preliminary opinion based on one use. But it was
6-12 extremely thin (maybe 24-30 AWG) stranded wires and it
did a great job, me having no experience and not even asking
for instruction. Thick wire should be a breeze.

I did not want to buy any more tools, would rather do
computer stuff now, but that is an exception. The thing is
not much more expensive than a lousy ordinary wire stripper.

Was it this item?
http://www.irwin.com/tools/pliers-ad...-wire-stripper
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ire%20stripper

VanguardLH wrote:

http://www.irwin.com/tools/pliers-ad...wrenches/self-
adjusting-wire-stripper

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...ting-Stripper-
2078300/dp/B000OQ21CA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1492117062&sr=8-3
&keywords=Self-Adjusting+Wire+Stripper

Tried it on some regular power cord wire. Wonderful. I so
wish I had this decades ago. Then again, it wasn't available
decades ago. Not that I do that much, but it would have been
so much nicer. Wire stripping has always been a hassle. I do
not like losing a strand or two of stranded wire. Apparently
this tool does not damage the wire.

Sorry, forgot to unwrap...

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...+Wire+Stripper

John Doe wrote:

Sorry, forgot to unwrap...

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...+Wire+Stripper

Great for at home where you can have gobs of tools available in several
toolboxes or at a workbench or cabinets. When travelling, I just have
what fits in the one toolbox in my car so just the essential tools are
in there. I use the wire cutter in a needle nose pliers to crimp (dent)
around the insulation and then use the cutter to grip (not cut) the
insulation to yank it off. The insulation breaks off at the crimp spot.
My father's company was into construction, HVAC, electrical, and I saw
this same technique by his electricians and where I learned it. Never
needed to use anything more although I do have a more fancy one at home
that I'll use when I'm there - unless it would take too long to hike
over to that toolbox hoping to dig into the right one.

Make a video...

--
VanguardLH V nguard.LH wrote:

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From: VanguardLH V nguard.LH
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Subject: Automatic wire strippers!
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John Doe always.look message.header wrote:

Sorry, forgot to unwrap...

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...+Wire+Stripper

Great for at home where you can have gobs of tools available in several
toolboxes or at a workbench or cabinets. When travelling, I just have
what fits in the one toolbox in my car so just the essential tools are
in there. I use the wire cutter in a needle nose pliers to crimp (dent)
around the insulation and then use the cutter to grip (not cut) the
insulation to yank it off. The insulation breaks off at the crimp spot.
My father's company was into construction, HVAC, electrical, and I saw
this same technique by his electricians and where I learned it. Never
needed to use anything more although I do have a more fancy one at home
that I'll use when I'm there - unless it would take too long to hike
over to that toolbox hoping to dig into the right one.

John Doe wrote:
VanguardLH wrote:

http://www.irwin.com/tools/pliers-ad...wrenches/self-
adjusting-wire-stripper

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...ting-Stripper-
2078300/dp/B000OQ21CA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1492117062&sr=8-3
&keywords=Self-Adjusting+Wire+Stripper

Tried it on some regular power cord wire. Wonderful. I so
wish I had this decades ago. Then again, it wasn't available
decades ago. Not that I do that much, but it would have been
so much nicer. Wire stripping has always been a hassle. I do
not like losing a strand or two of stranded wire. Apparently
this tool does not damage the wire.

Automatic wire strippers have existed for a long time.

We had a pair at work.

Only problem with them was:

1) Price. They charged "industrial" prices for them.
2) Probably didn't work quite as well as the one you got.

I played with ours at work, but felt no attraction to them.
They were a novelty item in the tool chest.

I did most of my work with this style.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...Stripper-Wire/

Everyone has probably seen this kind, and these suck.
It takes a good deal of practice to keep the wire
nicking to a minimum. I used these for some number of
years as a hobbyist, before I got my first T-5 style
stripper. The non-automated ones still take practice,
but the ones in the following picture make the practice
brutal. I expect a lot of people, this is all they had
on sale at the hardware store.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...9937p.html#srp

And there are all sorts of insulation types, each with
their own foibles. Not every wire stripping job is easy.

Paul

Paul wrote:

John Doe wrote:

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...+Wire+Stripper

Tried it on some regular power cord wire. Wonderful. I so
wish I had this decades ago. Then again, it wasn't available
decades ago. Not that I do that much, but it would have been
so much nicer. Wire stripping has always been a hassle. I do
not like losing a strand or two of stranded wire. Apparently
this tool does not damage the wire.

Automatic wire strippers have existed for a long time.

We had a pair at work.

Shurly you can find images on Google...

Only problem with them was:

1) Price. They charged "industrial" prices for them.

I expected this one to cost a lot more.

2) Probably didn't work quite as well as the one you got.

I played with ours at work, but felt no attraction to them.
They were a novelty item in the tool chest.

I did most of my work with this style.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...Stripper-Wire/

Everyone has probably seen this kind, and these suck.
It takes a good deal of practice to keep the wire
nicking to a minimum. I used these for some number of
years as a hobbyist, before I got my first T-5 style
stripper. The non-automated ones still take practice,
but the ones in the following picture make the practice
brutal. I expect a lot of people, this is all they had
on sale at the hardware store.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...9937p.html#srp

And there are all sorts of insulation types, each with
their own foibles. Not every wire stripping job is easy.

I have very good coordination, as in mouse-slinging
multiplayer gaming and juggling. But I find the large
majority of wire stripping to be a pain in the rear.

Besides the issues you mention, one obvious problem with the
typical wire strippers you point to is the fact the cutting
edges are angled in opposite directions. When you are pulling
to remove the insulation, one side of the cutter is digging
into the wire and the other side is moving away from the
wire. But I doubt the junk can be made any other way.
Otherwise it will not cut into the insulation.

Check out some of the videos on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/ZytYjq9X78A?t=204

According to this guy it was $35 in 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKMAhbQfYsg

John Doe wrote:

Paul wrote:

John Doe wrote:

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...+Wire+Stripper

Tried it on some regular power cord wire. Wonderful. I so
wish I had this decades ago. Then again, it wasn't available
decades ago. Not that I do that much, but it would have been
so much nicer. Wire stripping has always been a hassle. I do
not like losing a strand or two of stranded wire. Apparently
this tool does not damage the wire.

Automatic wire strippers have existed for a long time.

We had a pair at work.

Shurly you can find images on Google...

Only problem with them was:

1) Price. They charged "industrial" prices for them.

I expected this one to cost a lot more.

2) Probably didn't work quite as well as the one you got.

I played with ours at work, but felt no attraction to them.
They were a novelty item in the tool chest.

I did most of my work with this style.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...Stripper-Wire/

Everyone has probably seen this kind, and these suck.
It takes a good deal of practice to keep the wire
nicking to a minimum. I used these for some number of
years as a hobbyist, before I got my first T-5 style
stripper. The non-automated ones still take practice,
but the ones in the following picture make the practice
brutal. I expect a lot of people, this is all they had
on sale at the hardware store.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ma...9937p.html#srp

And there are all sorts of insulation types, each with
their own foibles. Not every wire stripping job is easy.

I have very good coordination, as in mouse-slinging
multiplayer gaming and juggling. But I find the large
majority of wire stripping to be a pain in the rear.

Besides the issues you mention, one obvious problem with the
typical wire strippers you point to is the fact the cutting
edges are angled in opposite directions. When you are pulling
to remove the insulation, one side of the cutter is digging
into the wire and the other side is moving away from the
wire. But I doubt the junk can be made any other way.
Otherwise it will not cut into the insulation.

Check out some of the videos on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/ZytYjq9X78A?t=204

As mentioned in my other reply, the auto-stripper is not cutting the
insulation. It is pinching the insulation between the top and bottom
teeth in the right-side jaws and then TEARING the insulation away. That
is the same technique used with the cutters in a needle nose pliers.
You do NOT cut the insulation when using the cutter blades. You PINCH
the insulation. Whether you use the needle nose or auto-stripper, you
are tearing the insulation. Cutting into it means a [high] potential
for nicking the wires which makes them break when flexed or worse
cutting some strands of the twisted wire. This is the same way you do
coax: you SCORE (not cut through) the outer sheath to tear it away to
expose the braided ground shield. Cutting into insulation should only
be done by specialized stripper designed for specific cabling because
those tools know just how far to cut into the insulation.

The auto-stripper affords consistent operation versus someone that
rarely does any wiring; however, experienced electricians have done this
so often that it has become muscle memory, like you learning to juggle
so you eventually aren't a clumsy juggler dropping everything. You'll
see the same difference between someone that has done lots of soldering
(wires, PCB, or plumbing) versus a one-time DIYer. Someone might come
up with a tool that cuts copper pipe, unburrs the end, sands the end to
remove oxide, and pre-applies rosin but I doubt many plumbers are going
to bother toting it around. More likely that tool, if it exists, in the
shop where lots of baseboard radiators or other repetitive construction
were applied.

I've yet to see an electrician toting around an auto-stripper. It could
speed up their work but they're pretty pharking quick already. Seems
more like a tool to keep in the shop for repetitive work on numerous
wiring jobs or something a hobbyist would like to compensate for their
lack of expertise. The tool has its place and this one is cheap;
however, auto-strippers aren't new and I've yet to see an electrician
packing one in his toolbox but I have seen them toting specialized
crimpers, like for RJ-45/11 jacks or for coax connectors.

If you're looking for something handy to fill up your toolbox, yep, this
tool is one. My toolboxes are so full that putting in more gadgets
means having to get a bigger toolbox. The older I get, the harder it
gets to lug around a bigger toolbox which still ends up packed tight
with tools and parts. The more space in a toolbox, the more gets packed
into it and the heavier it gets. If I was planning on doing a big
wiring job, like replacing the old circuit breaker box that has Franklin
breakers (no longer available since they went out of business around 40
years ago) and adding more circuits so the breakers snap off less,
especially for the garage, yeah, I'd get one of these during the
planning stage. For putting in a replacement wall switch, nah, I
wouldn't bother buying one of these. For building my own PCs (to keep
this discussion on-topic here), I definitely wouldn't need this tool.

It's a good tool. It employs the same technique that I use with a
needle nose pliers to tear away the insulation (not cut through it). I
have an old auto-stripper but it does cut into the insulation so I have
to be careful in which recess the wire is placed (I start oversized and
reduce if needed). At first, I thought it was a neat gadget. Now it
just sits and is rarely used in my electrical toolbox.