Wire strippers for XLR?

[tINY]

Amazon.com: TEKTON 3794 Adjustable Wire Stripper: Home Improvement
I usually use a cheap "adjustable" stripper and just feel my way through the outer jacket.

The properly sized strippers usually work fine for the inner wire insulation.




-tINY

[HSLand]

Those tiny little XLR wires are just a b*tch to strip right. The ones I posted above work, but not very well. The problem is that you have to have a pretty long wire to even fit it into the stripper, so long that you have to clip them to get them down to size...

[Lotus 7]

Real engineers use these. As iINY mentioned, you learn to use them by feel. Once you learn to feel the difference between the resistance of soft insulation vs. hard metal (which is easy with a little practice) they work well for any wire you'll encounter in the audio world. Stripping mic cable conductors for XLRs is a breeze. These work fine for 30 Ga to 10 Ga. wire. They make (4) cuts, so you have to squeeze and slightly rotate the stripper at the same time.

Automatic strippers are not worth the trouble and the multi-holed ones are almost as bad.

[tINY]

Automatic strippers are great for bus wire and even speaker wire when you have the right sized hole.

The cheap adjustable tool is usually the right one for multi-conductor cables.



-tINY

[doulos30]

psssh I can't stand those strippers




I use these 20GA - 32Ga wire strippers every single day and they are awesome

[S21]

I use a coax stripper on the outer jacket, and then an automatic stripper on the twisted pairs. If you are doing lots of wires the automatic stripper is fabulous. If you are just doing one xlr then just bumble through with a kitchen knife... :-)

[Lotus 7]

Strippers are just like "Strippers", everyone has their personal preference.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[mexicola]

Originally Posted by Lotus 7

Real engineers use these. As iINY mentioned, you learn to use them by feel. Once you learn to feel the difference between the resistance of soft insulation vs. hard metal (which is easy with a little practice) they work well for any wire you'll encounter in the audio world. Stripping mic cable conductors for XLRs is a breeze. These work fine for 30 Ga to 10 Ga. wire. They make (4) cuts, so you have to squeeze and slightly rotate the stripper at the same time.

Automatic strippers are not worth the trouble and the multi-holed ones are almost as bad.

Agree 100%!!!! I have a set similar to those and I use them for EVERYTHING. The ones with the multiple sizes are for amateurs.

[jdsowa]

never wire anybody money. especially strippers. take it from someone who's been there.

[Richard Crowley]

When I was a kid (10~12y) a telephone installer showed me how to just use the wire-cutters (dikes) to strip wire. I have been doing it now for 50 years and I can't remember if I even own a proper pair of "wire strippers" anymore. NOTE: NOT RECOMMENDING THIS! Unless you are very careful not to nick the wire! I typically err on the side of a ragged insulation "break" vs nicking the conductor. But then when you solder the wire, the insulation pulls back nice an clean. Unless you are using Teflon insulation, and that is a whole nuther ballgame.

(Insert stripper and dykes pun here if you wish.)

These are my favorite wire cutters by far. They are good for trimming fingernials, also.

[Rick Sutton]

I must have a dozen different wire strippers. Pretty much use different ones for different size jobs. For the individual wires inside something like Mogami I use either standard diagonal cutters (dykes) or more recently a thermal stripper that I really like (got it for about $30 on Ebay)....made by Patco. Quick and no worry of nicking the wires.

[doulos30]

that thing looks cool unnecessary but cool I too like to have odd tools lying around that just do 1 task

[Richard Crowley]

Thermal striping is required by contract for high-reliability assembly (military, NASA, etc.) Specifically to eliminate any chance of even a slight nick of the conductor which could lead to failure in high-vibration applications.

[doulos30]

that's cool I really did mean what I said. I wasn't being smart. I have a powered desoldering station a powered hot air station smd multimeter tweezers etc. I like having specific tools just makes the job easier

[Arthurelletson]

What's wrong with a razor blade?
I use wire cutters as well but you have to be more carful about not going through the conductor. With a sharp blade you can just rest it on the insulation and rotate the cable and you don't have to worry about going through the core.

[Rick Sutton]

Originally Posted by Arthurelletson

What's wrong with a razor blade?
I use wire cutters as well but you have to be more carful about not going through the conductor. With a sharp blade you can just rest it on the insulation and rotate the cable and you don't have to worry about going through the core.

Yeah, I use an exacto knife for that.
When stripping the jacket off of Mogami snake lines I've found this little cheapy to be very quick and clean. It essentially is the same as the razor blade method but the blade is in the device and you hold the cable while you rotate the plastic stripper.

[tINY]

Now. There is an interesting, cheap tool....




-tINY

[S21]

They are about $3 each, and are used in the data/phone cabling industries.

I think they are called a UTP Stripper - the little metal end is for punching down wires into 110 series termination blocks. For doing cable punchdowns they are truely hopeless. Get the right tool for this. For stripping cable jackets they are really great.

[Bill Way]

Having done lots of DIY projects with litz wire, I got used to razor blades, and, with practice, you can be just as fast as with any stripper tool, but far more accurate. Xacto knives are great but I always manage to lose them somewhere but can always find the box of 100 single-edged blades. (Do keep them separate from the un-oiled, un-magetized blades for tape work.)

WW