After 8 years I just realized my wire stripping method was costing me time on every termination.

I was watching a new apprentice and saw him strip a 12-gauge wire in one smooth motion while I was still doing my old two-step pinch and pull, so which method do you actually find faster?

3 comments

3 Comments

ericfox2mo ago

Eight years and you never noticed the pinch and pull was slow? That's wild. The one-motion strip is absolutely faster once your hands get the muscle memory. I had the same moment watching a guy on a commercial site. My whole crew switched methods after that. How many terminations do you think that old habit added up to?

tyler_hunt722mo ago

Honestly makes you wonder how much time gets wasted on the old way. @ericfox, that muscle memory point is huge, it feels clunky at first but then it just clicks. Bet the switch saved your crew a crazy amount of hours over a year.

brookerobinson1mo ago

it just clicks" - see I don't know about that. I've been doing this work for over a decade and I still think the old pinch and pull is more reliable. Everyone talks about muscle memory but what about consistency? When you're doing hundreds of terminations in a day, one bad pull can waste way more time than ten perfect slow ones. The fast method might save time on paper but it's also easier to mess up when you're tired or the wire's a little weird. Maybe I'm just old school but I've seen too many guys rush through and create problems down the line. Sometimes the "slow" way is actually the faster way if you factor in rework.