# Has anyone any experience with this wire stripper?



## user 12009 (Apr 25, 2011)

This looks pretty simple and well built.







I am getting tired of taking in insulated copper wire and found this machine on ebay for $100 (free ship) I get my fair share of heavier wire and there is no way I will strip by hand.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Apr 25, 2011)

That looks like a nice piece of equipment. Olny drawback I see is it looks like the rollers or not spring loaded and the constant adjustment for the different sizes of wires that will be fed into it.


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## Claudie (Apr 25, 2011)

Where did you get that?


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## glondor (Apr 25, 2011)

Looks pretty good to me. Nice and simple. I can picture pulling heavy wire thru that with a small winch from an atv. I don't like the mount tho. I would have it mounted in a more sturdy manner. Maybe run the cable to be stripped thru some sort of fair-lead first to try to take kinks out. Maybe something on the output side to plow the split insulation off. Or at least loosen it a bit.


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## user 12009 (Apr 25, 2011)

Claudie said:


> Where did you get that?


Off ebay - did a search for wire strippers.

Here is an active one, good for another week. They seem to sell these all the time.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Manual-Wire-Str...lectrical_Equipment_Tools&hash=item25632b5441


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## Claudie (Apr 25, 2011)

WOW! I had no idea they were that expensive. It does look like a good tool though. :|


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## qst42know (Apr 25, 2011)

A winch is severe overkill the only resistance is the blade sliding through plastic. Simple tools can perform quite well and not cost $100. 

You only need a block of hard maple (one for each wire size), a bench vice, and a box knife blade.

Drill a hole the wire size passes through easily and saw to the hole with a thin hack saw blade. Install the blade in the saw cut and grip it tight in the vice closing the saw cut on the blade. Be certain to break off any blade exposed above the cut.

These are more durable than the wood but still primitive. Some of the saw cuts aren't even centered but still work quite well.


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## glondor (Apr 25, 2011)

My suggestion is not overkill if you are stripping cable 1/2 to 3/4 inches or larger in diameter. It is a bear to do by hand. First it is heavy. The insulator is thick. It molds to the wire and is hard to pull off. Pulling 20 foot lengths thru a stripper with a small winch would make it much easier. There is no easy way to handle the larger stuff, but short of a power feed stripper.....A winch will do.


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## Harold_V (Apr 26, 2011)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> That looks like a nice piece of equipment. Olny drawback I see is it looks like the rollers or not spring loaded and the constant adjustment for the different sizes of wires that will be fed into it.


I expect that spring loading would be a mistake. You need a rigid setup to prevent the knife from wandering out of the cut. My money says it will work quite well. The insulation itself should offer just enough give to allow for minor variations. Rollers should make pulling dead easy. 

Harold


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## Barren Realms 007 (Apr 26, 2011)

Harold_V said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
> 
> 
> > That looks like a nice piece of equipment. Olny drawback I see is it looks like the rollers or not spring loaded and the constant adjustment for the different sizes of wires that will be fed into it.
> ...



I should have clarified that, the knife should be stationary, it would help if the rollers had heavy spings so less adjustment's would have to be made.


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## Fournines (Apr 26, 2011)

I think they showed that wire stripper on the Discovery channel. Except they were talking about medieval torture devices.... :shock:


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## Sodbuster (Apr 27, 2011)

I knew a guy that had something like this mounted to the end of a garage door opener ( opposite of the motor) T-bar track. 
At the slider where the door would have connected he was using one of those wire mesh gripper tools like an electrician would use to pull his bundled wires through a conduit. 

He would stand at the cutter end (with the door opener), attach the gripper, cycle the door opener to the open position, cut the wire and cycle it back to the door closed position to release the gripper and reconnect it for the next pull. 

When he released the wire from the gripper he would have the wire in hand and pull the jacket off and make two piles on the garage floor. It would pull about 6'- 7' at a time, what ever the stroke of the door opener was. 

Most of what I seen him strip was the aluminum triplex type entrance wire, but he was using it for copper also. 

The guy would have a dozen single strands 80'-100' or so all stretched out in the yard and drive way. 
The hardest thing on his part, he would have to bend over and pick up the next strand and feed it through the cutter about 6-8" before he could get ahold of it with the gripper. 
It was a pertly slick setup 

His cutter wasn't a blade it was a cutter wheel out of a large pipe cutter, using allot of spring pressure and skewed at a slight angel it would open the cut as it pulled through.

Ray


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