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Stripping Wire Instructions & How to Use Wire Stripper
Electrical work is no different than any other mechanical activity in that you have to have tools suited for the job at hand. One of the most common activities in electrical work is stripping wire to make connections at outlet receptacles, switches, junction boxes and lights. That calls for using wire strippers--which are really multifunction tools that strip wire and do a few other useful things.
In the course of this article we have to use some basic electrical terms. If you are not familiar with them, here they are:
AWG (American Wire Gauge): This is the standard unit of measure for the diameter of a wire used in residential electrical work.
Cable: A group of more than one wire surrounded by insulation and a sheath. In residential electrical work, this is frequently listed as something like 12/2 cable, to name one type. This stands for a cable with two 12-AWG conductors. When a bare copper ground wire is included in the cable, the cable would be labeled "12/2 with ground."
Sheath: The outer protective surface of a cable.
Our discussion here concerns solid copper wire. But every wire stripper (at least that we know of) includes the AWG number for solid wire on one blade and gives the equivalent for stranded wire on the opposite blade. Wire strippers are not intended to cut steel wire.
Stripping wire is not exactly what I would call a dainty job, nor is it complex. Having said that, I don't mean to make these instructions sound overly precise. Still, it does require some finesse.
There are several things you want to avoid. Most importantly, don't nick the conductor. Pay attention and insert the wire into the correct stripping hole. Properly stripped wire has no tool marks on it.
Next, when you bend the stripped wire to put it under a terminal screw, don't bend it into a U shape but into something more like the top of a shepherd's crook. Bend the wire so it wraps three-quarters of the way around the screw but does not touch itself. Strippers have holes marked for bending wire but you cannot make a 3/4 bend with them. The stripper will get caught in the end of the hook. Instead, bend the wire into a U shape and then finish the job with the plier tips on the end of the strippers, or use a pair of needle nose pliers start to finish or just to complete the bend.
A word of realism is in order here. The heavier the conductor, the more difficult it is to bend the wire into a nice tidy little three-quarters hook (this is particularly the case with 12 AWG, which is in most cases the maximum gauge that a homeowner will use).
Also, be wary of inexpensive wire stripping tools. Aside from their numerous flaws, their wire-bending holes have a 90° outside edge--an edge, in other words, that has a tendency to nick copper wire. Better-quality strippers have a slightly reamed edge on their wire-bending holes. If you notice that the hole's edge isn't reamed or is rough, smooth it with a jeweler's file or with a small cone-shape grinding stone chucked into a Dremel rotary tool. This isn't easy to do. Wire strippers are built from very tough high-carbon steel.
In the beginning, you may find it easier to strip a bit more wire than you need and then cleanly snip off any excess copper. With more practice, you'll get the amount of stripped wire right without having to clip off any excess. You don't want to strip a wire to find that you don't have enough to work with and then have to go through the trouble of unbending it and tugging a piece of insulation over a bend or kink. Aside from being inefficient, the fewer times you bend and unbend copper wire the better.
Working any metal without softening it by heating is known as cold working. Copper building wire is manufactured to be quite rugged--but only up to a point. Repeated bending (cold working) has the effect of making a piece of the wire harder than the surrounding metal (in a phenomenon known as work hardening). A work-hardened section of wire tends to be more brittle and more prone to cracking.
Be especially aware of cold working old wires when you are doing electrical repairs on an old house. If you find copper conductors that are particularly beat up, just snip off the bad material and strip some more insulation so you can make the electrical connection with a fresh piece of wire. If there isn't enough wire to do that, you're better off pulling in fresh wire to make the repair.
To summarize this, as far as electrical work is concerned, strip the wire, bend it and snip off any unnecessary wire. Then leave it alone.
A final cautionary note: As any electrician will tell you, don't strip too much wire when using a wire connector. There should be no bare wire visible below the wire connector's skirt.
Just the opposite holds for screw terminal connections on switches and outlet receptacles. Strip enough wire so that there is no insulation under the terminal screw's head after you've screwed it down.
Having said all that, here's where we show you the individual steps:
Step 1:
Slice the cable sheath. We show the procedure using a utility knife because it saves the expense of having to buy another tool called a cable ripper. Bend the sheathing out of the way.
Step 2:
Slice off the excess sheathing and the paper wrapping around the wires. Use the wire stripper itself or a pair of diagonal cutters as shown here.
Step 3:
Bend the other two wires out of the way. Insert a wire into the proper stripping hole and close the handles. The tool's cutting action should be crisp.
Step 4:
Sometimes you can slide the stripping tool forward and push the insulation off the wire. Other times you need to grip the insulation just on the other side of the cut and pull the insulation off the wire. Don't grip the insulation on the end of the wire because you're liable to chew up the copper. If you find the insulation does not slide readily off the wire, you've either not severed it completely or you're gripping the insulation too firmly with the pliers. The serrations on the plier tips are quite sharp, and they will dig through the insulation and into the copper beneath if you apply too much pressure.
Step 5:
Push a wire into the bending hole and begin to bend the wire to shape. An alternative method is to use needlenose pliers and roll the pliers around the wire to make the hook-shaped bend.
Alternative Step 5:
Use the tip of the strippers or use a pair of needlenose pliers to form the hook-shaped bend in the end of the wire.
This article introduces stripping wire and how to use wire stripper.
Keywords
Wire Stripper, Stripping Wire
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