The way people strip stranded wire drives me nuts now

I was working on an old Peavey amp from 1982 last week and the guy before me had nicked half the conductors on every single wire with his strippers. Back when I started in the 90s we used a simple $5 pair of Ideal strippers and you just got a feel for the pressure. Now I see guys squeezing the life out of their strippers or using the wrong notch and it makes me wonder how many intermittent shorts they create. Anyone else notice this getting worse with younger techs?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindareed14d ago

Gotta agree with you on this one. The whole trick with stranded wire is knowing when to stop squeezing before you hit copper. I swear some guys just grab the biggest notch they can find and yank down like they're starting a lawnmower, then wonder why their solder joints look like crap. It's not rocket science, you just need to match the wire gauge to the right hole and use a light touch. The worst is when they strip it back too far and leave bare wire sticking out past the terminal, asking for a short later.

blair_gibson7814d ago

Caught myself doing that just last week on an old lamp I was rewiring. Got in a hurry and stripped it back way too much, then spent twenty minutes trying to tuck the copper back under the insulation so it wouldn't touch anything it shouldn't.