I keep trying to strip this damned wire but the copper wire inside the tubeing constantly ends up getting split apart instead of staying together. Im pretty sure Im doing it right Ive done it before easily. The wire is very old though could that be the problem?
I never use a wire stripper, just side cutters. Grip the insulation firmly with the flat face of the cutters away from you and pull. It might help to gently crimp all around the insulation first.
Grab wire, and twist until it's back together, problem solved.
A good stripper has settings for each wire size. Make sure you have it set to the correct size. Are you nicking the wire or cutting some of the strands? if not, then that the wire gets split is not a problem. Just twist the strands back together. ending up stranded? the wire starts out solid or stranded, you can't make solid into stranded. .
There is isia tool called wire stripper available in tools store.Buy one and use it.It can be adjusted for different guague of wires,it cuts only insulation not the copper wire inside,
You need a tool that cuts through the insulation with a pair of half circle dies so that the wire is surrounded by the cutter, but not bruised by it. Of course, you need a different size for each wire gauge. Some also pull the insulation chunk off automatically with a single squeeze. I'll add some links to examples, manual and automatic. -- Regards, John Popelish
