6 Mistakes DIYers Make Using Wire Strippers on Electrical Projects; #3 is Dangerous!
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- Опубликовано: 16 май 2024
- Learn how to use wire strippers for DIY electrical
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If you are doing DIY electrical projects at home, you are going to be using wire strippers. Don’t make the mistakes in this video.
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0:00 Introduction
0:24 Mistake #1: Stripping too much or too little insulation
1:02 Mistake #2 Not twisting after cutting
1:35 Mistake #3 Using the wrong gauge cutter
2:11 Mistake #4 Not using the J hook holes
2:45 Mistake #5 Using small cutters to cut Romex
3:27 Mistake #6 Not using the pliers
4:17 Wrapup
The information provided in this video is for informational purposes only. Usage of any information in this video is done at your own risk and the host and producer accept no liability. You should consult the local building code and requirements in your area and abide by all regulations when taking on any project in your home. Consult a licensed professional if you feel uncomfortable with any of the information in this video.
Many links are affiliate links where you pay the same amount and the seller compensates me a small amount for doing the work to recommend only those tools and products I trust. 
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I have two issues with recommendations here:
1. It is very easy to nick the wire when rotating the stripping tool around it before stripping. This will cause the wire to break in the future from fatigue induced cracking. If the correct technique is used with the cutter, there is no need for this rotation. As to correct technique…
2. When stripping wire, you have the tool backwards. The beveled edge of the blades should be facing the bulk of the wire and the flat side should be facing the insulation to be removed. When you strip as you show, the bevel is trying to ride up on the insulation and pry the tool open and this also is what makes it hard to get the insulation to break free cleanly. Turn the tool around so that the beveled side is facing the bulk of the wire and the straight side of the blade is facing the insulation to be removed. This is also generally the side with the wire size labels on it which should be facing you as you hold the wire and push the tool away from you to strip the insulation.
Right off the bat, at 0:32, damaged wire is visible. Also, pushing with the beveled edge may be why he has problems stripping without twisting the tool.
every decent wire stripper I've used has one beveled side facing each direction. that's because the blades bypass each other slightly instead of trying to meet perfectly.
@@kenbrown2808 I agree if you are using something like an Ideal style stripper where it grips the wire, cuts the insulation and then pulls off the insulation all in one operation. Yes, some of the pliers style strippers with bypass blades are OK, but I was referring mainly to the auto style strippers which generally don’t have bypass blades and have a bevel on only one side. I personally usage my Ideal strippers most of the time, but for wires of heavier gauge I use the cheap auto style strippers and they work fine if you strip with the flat side towards the insulation being removed.
@@LTVoyager yeah, the cheap stamped stripper/crimpers are a world untoo themselves.
I usually strip the wire at the next sized up notch, like stripping a 14 gauge in the 12 gauge notch. Not much harder to pull, but it’s a lot harder to nick that wire.
1:02 *NEVER TWIST the stripper. That will nick/score the wire, causing a place of weakness. It may not bother you, but the metal fatigue in that location can cause a complete fail for the next guy.! The PROPER way is to bite the wire, release slightly, then turn 90° and do it again. That will cut all the insulation without damaging the wire.*
Otherwise, nice video. Especially no annoying music, no just babbling to hear your own voice.
I was thinking the same thing, you can see the score in two places at 0:32 . It's surprising how quickly the copper fails at those nicks with a bit of bending.
@@chrisingram7277 *Yes, very poor job.* _SeeJaneDrill also suggested gouging the wire like this. Amazing how many people think they’re experts!_
He's using the tool backwards. Note the beveled edges around the openings on the side he's trimming. The flat side should be used on the trim end, eliminating the need to twist unless the incorrect AWG opening is selected.
Wrong
Again HOT STRIPPER...
Another tip; if the insulation is stuck (or strippers are dull), or when working with some old THN and the insulation has adhered more to the wire, two quick pinches on the insulation 90º apart will break the insulation bond free from the conductor...
I like using the linesman pliers for this as the nose has less teeth (smooth and not pierce or nick the conductor).
Another fundamental thing to point out, is to always position the J-hook coming from the left with the end on the right. This helps close the hook when turning clockwise rather than opening the hook. This is especially important when using stranded wire.
Loved the j hook holes!
Very good lesson.
Great video! Short and to the point
I'm glad you found the video helpful.
Great video. In example #1, besides the insulation problem, you also have a situation where the wire stripper cut into the wire thus weakening it possible causing it to break in the future.
Thanks for pointing that out. So two mistakes in one photo!
That is where the hot stripper comes in..
Great advice.
I'm glad you found the video helpful.
Great info 👍👍
I'm glad you found the video helpful.
Pro tip: Notice how he puts the wire stripper tool at a 90 degree angle to the wire? Don't do that. Rather, put the tool at a 45 degree angle to the wire, make the cut and watch the insulation almost pop off with little to no force needed. Cheers!
That’s wrong too. Get good strippers and cut them at 90 degrees and use your thumb to push it off
Hmmm, doesn’t that run the risk of cutting into the copper itself?
What’s a preaux-ject?
I am industrial construction, retrofit and maintenance electrician,only, now, 30 years.
Residential work I never do, because.... USE the Gas Darned screw cutters on the the strippers! FFS!
I hated spending hours a day try to turn out yoke screws that were cammed out to death and 7/8" too long!
Also NEVER get the Milwaukee strippers. Too much exposed metal near the tip of your index finger and you WILL
find juice one day, especially when new to the field. You prefer to just see sparks when u cut through energized romex not feel it. Wera, Wiha, Knipex or Greenlee are safer choices. The metal does not ingress so much into the
comfort grip or insulated zone.
That twist is only required when the wire you're using is undersized or your strippers are hellishly dull..
When stripping the insulin to use the next higher gauge cutter from the one used to cu the insulation. This prevents the cutter from biting the wire as the insulation is pulled off.
Release some of your hand pressure when you go to actually pull the insulation off after sizing and cutting the insulation, this will make the insulation slide off FAR easier.
I like to use my thumb to push the stripper away when stripping cable instead of just pulling feels more controlled.
12/2 gauge back in the early 2000s was in the white sheathing
when in doubt, start with the largest size. easier to go to a smaller size than to fix a nicked wire.
All through the 90's when I was pulling it.. Looked the same as 14ga just slightly bigger..
@@twistedhillbilly6157 fun fact: the color coded sheathing was introduced in the early 2000s, because it made it easier to identify in warehouses, and being easier to identify in the installation was just a convenient side effect.
1K congrats
Thanks
Twisting the wire stripper around is going to ring the wire and create a weak point which can break in the wire nut.
Most common d.i.y. mistake........thinking that by watching some video you can perform electrical work.....I'm sorry I spent 40 yrs as an electrician and way to often saw injuries from I'll informed people
Best practtice is to use a better wire stripper.
#2 only happens when your strippers are dull or otherwise junk. Good sharp strippers always cut cleanly all the way through the insulation all the way around.
Try buying better strippers.
A note not mentioned, Do not strip insulation from a wire that is still powered. If your power wire touches the ground, of if the ground is charged, then the ark will destroy your wire strippers for that gage stripper. There goes $17 in tools.
Excellent reminder! More than just your tool can be damaged! Never work on live wires as a DIYer. Professionals have the training and skills to do that if they need to.
It took a while to find the ground fault issue. It was another breaker in the main panel. Breaker #12 was messed up someplace. Luckily the line was only in an unfinished part of the basement. Took it off line and ran a new cable to that section of the building.
Aw c'mon..where's the thrill in that?🤣
Discovering the powered ground was enlightning, however, if I want to strip 12 gage wire again, I need to buy another pair. $17 is $17 and it is not my regular job.@@MojoPup
@@upgradeyourhomediy I can't imagine a case where a DIYer would need to work with live wiring. In all my decades of working with electricity, the only live wires I've ever worked with, have been telephone ccts
#4 isn't a mistake if you don't need a hook in your termination.
One of the your suggestions about spinning the strippers is incorrect as that could easily Nick The Wire if you have the right size gauge stripper it should go all the way through the insulation without spinning it if you wish to spend afterwards afterwards you are supposed to go one size bigger
That's not an electrician's plier. An electrician's plier is like a pair of classic Kleins.
With proper technique and practice, you can strip and bend with full size Klein lineman pliers. No nicking of the wire and tight 'J' shape for screws.
@@chrisblue1515 True. That's possible. It's worlds easier with an Ideal T-stripper, though. No thinking, and they weigh nearly nothing in your pouch. And... zero risk of nicking a wire, even before coffee.
Hint: In the USA, the pronunciation "prah-ject" is preferred greatly over "proh-ject".
Many years ago I failed an inspection for using j hooks under the screw. The inspectors job is to force people to hire electricians. It has forced me not to get permits.
That's unfortunate. Not all inspectors are that way.
Was the hook going the right way under the screw? If so I would have challenged that inspector to show me where in NEC or anywhere else it was prohibited.
@@davidhunt6508 of course it was fine just small town bs. His brother in law was probably the electrician because the inspector would just wait six weeks before he came back. Had to hire the electrician who said everything was fine and the inspector signed off without ever inspecting it again. If you ever got mad or heaven forbid got a lawyer you might as well move out. I noticed all these losers use to get all the good jobs until I found out all the hiring got done in the bar if you bought the right guy a lot of beer. I was not a bar goer.
2:45. Small cutters work just fine. Doesn’t matter how the cut is made, you’re gonna strip the wire anyway.
You should probably be using diagonal cutters(dykes) or linesman's players to cut the ROMEX, and leave the cutters on the strippers for individual wires. Trying to cut too big of wire, especially on cheap strippers will likely cause them to dull faster and possibly bend out of shape.
Many jurisdictions do not allow amateur DIY’s to do this type of work. If something goes wrong with your work, your insurance will not pay out in the event of, say, an electrical fire. Where I live you need a registered electrician to sign off your work. You might just as well pay a professional in the first place!
If theres such thing as pro-jects, are there amateur-jects also?
#6 is never a mistake. Leave that tip alone. Use your needlenose instead.
Can your wire strippers crimp butt connectors?
Should know how to use tools before you teach others how
Can’t use romex
Just get a qualified sparky to do the job
Mistake #0.5 Making an instructional video pretending to have knowledge yet Referring to a receptacle as an outlet giving no consideration to the FACT that the model and NEMA #'s have an R not an O
Real electricians do not use that type of stripper.
0:35 Stripping too little (in this case) doesn’t matter. Insulation will be squeezed through, like using IDC connectors (Insulation Displacement Connector). That’s how you make an airtight connection.
Maybe not. I’ve had cases where the insulation did not get compressed and the connection was faulty. It’s not hard to just read and follow instructions.
Not always. This is very poor practice. There should be NO insulation under the screw head.
You do burglar alarms don't you ??
#5: use your dikes to cut ROMEX. Or your Kleins / ChanNelLocks (electrician's pliers). Never use your strippers. Never even buy strippers that can cut ROMEX. You'll just wear out the scissor-type cutter immediately and have to use your dikes.
Start with dikes. Start, in fact, with LAP-JOINT dikes. Never use box-joint dikes that way. They're suitable only for single strands of copper wire.
Mistake #7! Watching this video !
There surely is some reason why you comment so.
I would be grateful if you elaborate because it (peeling off insulation) involves proper/improper flow of current . If not properly done is risky for human life/equipment.
So negative! Come on.
Huh? @@ratansharma951
It's a mistake to not use something that seldom has any practical utility at all and doesn't even exist on some of the best strippers out there? Shame on you for making that statement.
Who doesn’t know this. Waste of video footage. You aren’t the first person to post this.
Please don't badmouth someone's video so generically. If there is something wrong with the content, point out and correct the specific error(s). If there's nothing wrong with the video, why make negative comments? Presenters go to much effort to make their videos.
If this is too elementary for you, still, no reason to criticize it; it may have been a waste of time for you, but this might all be new to a brand new DIYer. I've been doing electrical stuff for the past 50 years of my 70+ years of life, and until recently I didn't know about using the hole in the cutters to make the J-hook. I thought I knew everything; I was wrong; NOW I know everything!