what's going on my friends this is dustin stelzer with electricianu
today's episode we're going to talk a little bit about stripping wire
using different methodologies hand stripping using tools and everything around stripping wires
before we begin i just want to point out that this video is sponsored by milwaukee thank you so much
milwaukee it is a part of their grid program so those of you that don't know what milwaukee
grid is um it's an entire hub for apprentices so if you're new to an apprenticeship or you're
about to get into an apprenticeship the grid has a whole bunch of different videos
and resources and things they give do giveaways they send out newsletters with extra information
so the whole bunch of resources involved with the milwaukee good program there's
a link in the description below let's say we're going to do these four receptacles
so
all right i've got all these different tools that have the ability to strip
what else do i got i got needle nose that strip like look at how many options i have
you'll notice that i just randomly pull tools out when i'm working and i like all of these cut
all of these strip all of these bend all of these almost actually no every single one of them has a
a threading tool well except that one but you can put threads in that and actually cut
a bolt down and it doesn't mess up the ends of the threads so i have all these different options and
we'll talk about them this one right here is just a preference that i have because it does number
eight so it does really large conductors and it you know it's a clean um a clean strip for me
when i've got like large stranded number eight um but i and i like how small it is like it's really
really small compact fits in your hand i keep these because these are kind of like a pair of um
lineman's pliers they've got that you know blunt edge so i can twist wire nuts or twist wires for
putting wire nuts on but it still has a bunch of stripping options and it still has bolt cutters
it still cuts and ergonomically i kind of like how the handles are bent so i might use that
one for something this one's just another kind of like generic use one that you know doesn't
have any large sizes or anything just kind of your typical sizes but it does oh it actually does have
the threading and the bolt cutting um needle nose i use for everything and i just figure well if i'm
already gonna have needle nose i might as well have the stripping and the cutting and you know
there's a crimping option in there too and then these i love these things are super clean and
crisp uh they work just like needle nose and they've got enough grip up here too
that you can kind of um you know like really grab onto something they've got this outer
edge that's a little bit riveted so if i'm ever like cleaning out some conduit
i can stick that in there they've got the bolt cutting options they've got this inside cutting
edge and it's the only ones that i've seen that have like kind of a curved cutting edge
that usually you just don't see that plus it goes from number eight all the way number 18 for solid
stranded goes from 10 to 20. so just really good so when you strip out one thing that you want to
think about is the insulation around these conductors um is stuck really well to it so
if you try to say like uh just cut this and pull it off it'll come off but you're gonna
have a little bit harder time if you keep the tool 90 degrees to the wire it'll still come off
that's totally fine but what i've found over the years is if i take instead of
going straight on like this if i kick the tool back a little bit and then strip do that
then all you have to do is turn the tool like this and it already pops the wire off
so it's like it just comes off so much easier that's just a method that i use
um let me do it again like every time i strip anything i go boom and then pop it and go now
the one thing you don't want to do is you don't want to like go at an angle like this and try to
pull it off at an angle it's not going to come off i've seen helpers do this over and over
they're like why would it come off it's like dude straighten the tool out you have a cutting edge
that's like digging into that copper right now it's sharp you know like you're actually
digging into it so yeah so you need to strip it and pop it straight and then it comes right off
nice and pretty so let's see how quick we can strip doing that method boom bend boom bend
boom like no resistance at all right just super easy
now if you're just going to use a regular stripper instead of one of those i'd do the same thing
it's a little bit easier to tell how dramatic it is but just boom
another thing too when i'm stripping i don't ever let go
like with my left hand when i'm holding on i hold on so that i can use this tool right here i see
a lot of apprentices that will go like this and then they'll let go and then they'll sit and try
to strip and then they're like fighting this wire like no grab on to this thing when you go to strip
like use your fingers kind of as a guide as to where to put the tool and then strip off
sometimes i will like push with my finger if i'm feeling like the you know the wire is not gonna
slide as easily but look i like lay the tool on my fingers and then i do my angle pop it off
and then you can still hang on and then just push with your finger that works also or sometimes
you'll see what i just did there see there's a whole bunch of different methods it's just kind
of stuff that you get used to while you're doing this but yeah a lot of times i'll bend it and i'll
actually grab on with the rest of my fingers and i'll just use my thumb to push the tool up
so there's all kinds of little tips and tricks and things that you're going to learn over the years
but really it's just like getting your fingers used to doing the same thing now when i bend
hooks i use this stripper and i put it inside of that loop and i hold on to it firmly with my hand
on the back side of what i stripped off with this finger and i bend the hook i don't go like this
and let go and then try to bend a hook because look what happens like you just it's a shitty
you know huge like crappy hook so you always want to control the end that you're working
with so i usually put a little bit in there i don't go all the way through like this i just go
at the very tip and then i roll it and i roll it tightly as tight as that tool will allow me to
make it now the benefit of using different tools to bend your hooks is like with this
because of this tool look at how skinny it is so i'm going to be able to roll a lot tighter
hook with something like that than something like this you know i could stick to the tip and i could
roll something really tight or i could go back here and it just gives me a little bit
more control to bend a hook that's a little bit you know thicker same thing you know if i wanted
to use these i could do the same thing i could just take the very tip of it and i could roll
a hook but that tool is not going to allow me to get very tight so you know just did it all of it
works it's all okay even you know regular needle nose boom um every one of them are okay it's just
kind of what you get used to and how you do things but those are just some of the things that i do
now another thing that we're going to come across when we are stripping out conductors is the
conductors of different sizes so much larger conductors and for that we've got some tools
at our disposal so if we are doing really big conductors we've got really big dies that we could
use to put inside of this tool and then the end of the tool or the end of the wire we would stick
inside of this and it strips off i don't have any wire that's that big to test any of this with
let's see what sizes i do have though two awg so i'm going to take my 2 ot awg die stick it in here
there's a little lever on the side that's your release
make sure it twists in place and then it's just going to twist as you feed a wire in there so
put this in there and see how it takes the insulation off
now that didn't take it off very much so we have to adjust the depth
for whatever we want so like let's say we want two inches of the end to be stripped off we pull
that thing out re-tighten this so that this stays then that moves the inside of the tool back more
so now when i do it again i can go way deep inside of there look how much of that's going in
pull it out boom you're stripped off look how quick that was so back in the day before we
had tools like this we had to literally take our knife and we had to score the entire side of this
by hand and most people that don't have those tools are still doing it this way i'm not gonna
lie sometimes i'm not in the field and i don't have that so i take this um helps if you take
like a needle nose or something and grab onto it and pull it off so you can do the same thing it's
just a little bit more arduous when you've got all of these different conductors to mess with
um you know it's just more time-consuming this tool saves you a whole bunch of time all right
so that's q8g let's just skip to the biggest size that i've got four odd awg so we'll go 400 for 4
stick that thing in make sure it snaps in place
hit the trigger
and boom so quick so efficient now i don't have any dies that are smaller than one not so pretty
much anything smaller than one not i have to do by hand so let's look at i don't know um this
is probably number two yeah this is no this is for awg so i would do the same thing one way i
could do this i could cut it and just score all the way around and then go at an angle and cut
all of that off you can try to peel it off by hand or it takes a little bit more time but
you have to put your tool down pick up another tool put the tool down and go back
or you could uh number eight and number six are really good for this at number four it starts
to become a little bit more difficult but you could just score right around this thing you
got to be careful you don't want to like mess up any of those conductors so when you score
you're just kind of lightly doing this you could score with the cutting edge or you can actually
score with the teeth it all works the same
but then you use your thumb to sit and try to pull that off now it's a pain in the butt when you're
doing this with bigger conductors because these are spun so you actually kind of have to spin this
while you're pulling it off it's just a little bit more arduous after a while your thumb is
going to be in pain when you're doing it that way so it's just more of a pain in the butt way to do
it that's why a lot of people with these bigger ones they'll just take their knife they'll score
the end cut around it and then either with their fingers pull it off or they'll take some tool and
pull it off but that my folks is stripping conductors all right one last time i want
to thank milwaukee for sending these rad strippers and combination strippers needle nose these things
are really cool if you guys have not yet make sure if you're an apprentice go check out the
grid program there's a link in the description below there's all kinds of useful resources
so once you get into your apprenticeship they've got a whole bunch of stuff there for you thank
you guys so much for watching i really appreciate your attention and i will see in the next episode
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