# Two New Tools for the Workbench



## Darkness Falls (Jan 11, 2016)

Hello all,

It's been a few days since I've been on. The holidays wore me out and I've been busy processing motherboards.

I bought a couple tools that arrived this week and I thought I would share.

The first one is a wire stripper. I actually seen this stripper in a YouTube video of a fellow member and thought I would give it a try. So far, it has worked flawlessly. It has stripped even the smallest of wires that I've tried. The thing I like best abou it is it uses standard utility blades as opposed to specialty blades found in some other strippers. 



The other tool that arrived was something called a rework station. Basically it's an adjustable temp soldering iron with several tips and an adjustable heat gun with extra tips as well. I used a $25 Amazon gift card I got for Christmas and spent another $30 I think on it. So far, it's held up better than I thought.


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## Grelko (Jan 11, 2016)

Have you tried stripping solid and braided with that? I have one that's similar, except there's holes for different wire sizes, but if I wanted to strip romex or or solid, the wire has to be almost perfectly straight, or it'll get stuck while pulling it through.


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## Darkness Falls (Jan 11, 2016)

Grelko said:


> Have you tried stripping solid and braided with that? I have one that's similar, except there's holes for different wire sizes, but if I wanted to strip romex or or solid, the wire has to be almost perfectly straight, or it'll get stuck while pulling it through.



I have done both. That's the nice part about the pulley, as long as you keep tension on the wire, the pulley centers it for you on the blade. I'll try to take a picture with my iPad to give you a close-up.
In addition, the blade is adjustable in and out to handle different sizes.


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## Darkness Falls (Jan 11, 2016)

I should also mention that as of this post, I have two plastic 55 gallon barrels full of power cords and extension cords sitting in my garage. Once I explained what this was to my wife, I got the green light to buy. :lol:


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## kurtak (Jan 11, 2016)

Darkness

The wire stripper - I want one - or I should say I NEED one - how much are they & where do I get one - A link to where you got yours would be nice 

Kurt


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## Darkness Falls (Jan 11, 2016)

kurtak said:


> Darkness
> 
> The wire stripper - I want one - or I should say I NEED one - how much are they & where do I get one - A link to where you got yours would be nice
> 
> Kurt



Not cheap at $130 but pays for itself by not selling your cords at the insulated copper price.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_Rzu7Qivs[/youtube]

Website:
http://shop.rbfproductsinc.com/Adjustable-Scrap-Wire-Stripper-WS-001.htm


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## Grelko (Jan 11, 2016)

I should start saving up for 1 of these also. It looks like it'll work MUCH better than the 1 I have. 

Here's the same 1 that I bought a while ago. For $40, it "might" have paid itself off by now. It only weighs a few ounces and sometimes feels like it's going to break, when I use heavier guage wire (Works great for vacuum or extension cords "after" you split them into single wires though). http://www.amazon.com/Handheld-Stripper-Stripping-Machine-Recycling/dp/B00HUZD3LQ

Mods, please delete this, if linking to amazon isn't allowed.

Edit - I forgot to add, that if the wire you are stripping, has any small cuts in it, they'll get caught while going through the holes. Also, the wheel with the wire dimensions, likes to shift and gets the wire caught, or doesn't cut properly. It uses a "mini" utility blade. Last but not least, while pulling wire through it, you'll normally have alot of tiny pieces of the insulation stuck behind the wheel, all over your hand, shirt, pants, floor, and you may have to re-pull the same piece through a couple times to make sure all of it IS cut, before removing the insulation... :|


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## g_axelsson (Jan 11, 2016)

That is a very nice stripper, the V-groove in the wheel gives better centering the higher tension you put into the wire and the wheel allows you to control both ends. A lot better than the two prototypes I've made so far of a wire stripper. I need to dig out a good bearing and hit the workshop....

He should have given you one for free, this thread will probably boost his sales.  Maybe we can get a group buy with a volume discount for members of the forum. :lol: 

As for linking out to useful tools and even non-working tools. As long as there is a type of review, like "this works/not works" and it's on topic I don't see any problem with it. It helps our members to find good working tools and avoid the bad apples.

Göran


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## Grelko (Jan 11, 2016)

g_axelsson said:


> He should have given you one for free, this thread will probably boost his sales.  Maybe we can get a group buy with a volume discount for members of the forum. :lol:
> Göran



We have almost 35,000 members on this site, let's say 25% of them are active, so that would be 8,750. Out of those people, I figure atleast 25% of them would be scrappers, or people running their own buisnesses etc, who tear apart materials to recycle the metals. So that is almost 2200 people that could potentially buy this item, if they all liked it and can afford it. Plus if a buisness or person who liked it alot, they might buy more than 1.


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## g_axelsson (Jan 11, 2016)

... only 62 views of this thread so far.

But over time many threads hits 1000 views or more so the impact factor of this forum is quite high. That's also an argument to hit the preview button every time before posting something.

Göran


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## Impster (Jan 11, 2016)

Those are nice, I still use the utility knife method. I looked at some wire strippers years ago but they were way to expensive.


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