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Been stripping wire wrong for 10 years til this morning
I was doing a panel swap at a house in Denver and my helper asked why I was nicking the copper so bad. I been using my lineman's pliers to strip 12 gauge for a decade and always had tiny cuts in the wire. He handed me his Klein auto strippers and I couldnt believe how clean it came out. Took me like 20 seconds to get used to the action but now I feel dumb for fighting with my old method all these years. The stripped wire looked brand new and went into the breaker way smoother. Has anyone else dealt with realizing your basic technique was trash after watching someone younger show you a better way?
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gavinm8916d ago
I been using lineman's pliers to strip 12 gauge for a decade" man that hit home lmao. I did the same thing for years with my oldlinesman's and just thought tiny nicks were part of the job. My coworker handed me a pair of auto strippers during a service call and I felt like such a clown when I saw how clean the copper came out. What finally made it click for me was realizing the nicks were causing weak points in the wire, especially in tight boxes where you bend stuff around. I switched to a basic Klein auto stripper and never looked back, it's way faster and I don't have to fight with the tool. Honestly the best part is not feeling that little catching sensation when you pull the insulation off, just clean smooth cuts every time. Took me like a weekend of practice to get the muscle memory down but now I can't believe I wasted so much time being stubborn about my old method.
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the_ruby16d ago
The best tool is the one you actually use every day without fighting it, and auto strippers just make that part of the job disappear. Once you get used to that smooth feel, going back to nicking wire feels like driving a car with square tires. Nothing wrong with lineman's if that's all you got but once you see the difference there's really no going back.
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