DIY Electronic Wire Strippers

you want the military version of the ideal (tm) Stripmaster with the smooth rather then serrated jaws. hard to find but worth it. Not mentioned on the Stripmaster page but I know they make it, I own my father's unit, and he worked for a defense contractor. Perfect every time,even in teflon, and adjustable blade assemblies for different sizes of wire, ie I have #22 to #8 installed now.

Steve Roberts

Yes, the Ideal Stripmaster is the only thing I have found that will strip Teflon perfectly every time. The only disadvantage with this tool is that the clamping jaws are quite wide so there must be a certain minimum length of wire which remains unstripped to be able to use this tool. Very short wires are a problem, though probably they could just be avoided in most cases, e.g. using sleeving for those wires instead.

Chris

Gotta add...

Solid state lasers have gotten quite powerful nowadays.. Some are cheap on Ebay..

I'm thinking of spinning a laser around a wire.. Maybe something like a pencil sharpener.. Just stick the wire in. Press a button, the laser spins around and presto... cut wire insulation without a copper nick. All that's needed is to pull off the insulation.

That...or somehow guide that laser light around the wire with a rotating mirror..

D from BC

You could perhaps leave the laser/blade stationary,and rotate the wire on axis.. Might be kinda hard if the other end is already soldered to something though.

We have a beheamoth (sp?) of a machine in the back that can strip any size wire, either or both ends, and cut it to size, all fully programmable than can run 24/7 no problem. I think we paid about $6K US for it.

But I have to tell you, for just doing stuff around the bench, (12ga to maybe 26/28 ga), it's hard to beat the Telvac handheld tool. I've never had a problem with any insulation with it. In fact, for THHN type wires, you can even strip just the plastic coat on top of the PVC jacket!

Or for insulated jacketed pairs, strip just the jacket, etc... Very, very nice tool. Relatively inexpensive too. -mpm

Over 25 years ago, my friend Tony made a wire stripper from two strips of nichrome in a V shape, and heated with about 5 amps from a very low voltage transformer. He perfected the concept and got a patent on it, and he makes and sells them from the basement of his home. I can testify to the fact that they are excellent products which I use myself, and they are required to be used where I work to avoid reliability issues from nicked wires.

At the risk of being labeled a spammer, here is his site, which has a lot of good information on thermal stripping technology:

Paul

Damn..did quick search on Telvac wire striper..nothing yet... :( D from BC

I purchased one of those Patco wire strippers something like 15 years ago now. It's always worked fine... although at the moment I don't know where mine is!

I should mention I only have the "low-end" unit (PTS-10?) and have never tried it on Teflon wire, though.

Is is me...or does this gizmo seem to have an odd shape? Looks like the case shape is for a linear transformer...no smps yet?

It doesn't look ergonomic.. I can't always bring the wire to the tool...Sometimes I have to bring the tool to the wire when the other end of the wire is attached to something. The Patco looks like it has the ergonomics of holding a rock.

I'd like to see the same idea but with a gun shape and with a smps in the handle for light weight handling. Perhaps take the old soldering gun design as seen on

..put in an smps and make the whole design as small as possible..

Heck.. Doesn't it look like all that needed is to put v shaped nichrome on that soldering gun and "presto" it's a Patco wire stripper. :P D from BC

I have to add...

Take this design..

and turn it into a Patco wire stripper.. It's has a 3 oz weight. Now I'm interested :) D from BC

The tool is actually quite comfortable, and you can apply it to a stationary wire if need be.

Some time ago I designed a simple SMPS for a higher power stripper, so that the handheld portion contained only a small toroidal ferrite transformer, and a relatively high voltage at maybe 50 kHz was fed to it through fairly thin, flexible wire. The power for these strippers is only between 2 and 10 watts, so the components are tiny. I think that was a special purpose tool, but it might be available. I'm sure Tony would be able to make something that would meet your needs and desires. You could get an element from him and try it on a soldering gun.

I think a good design might be one that could be attached to your finger, so you would not need to be constantly picking it up and putting it down somewhere. The power supply could be on the bench, maybe even part of a solder station, or it could have a battery pack that could be carried in a pocket, strapped to your arm, or clipped on your belt. I'll talk to him about it. He also has a fascinating line of diving equipment, with battery powered lights and heaters, as well as the most powerful spear gun in the world. That stuff is on his other website

I am now working on a design for his super bright LED diving searchlight. I had posted about that here several months ago.

Paul

Nah..I handle too many tools to have something attached to my finger.

I have another form idea Ever see those paper staple removers? Ex:

Just change the jaws to 2 meshing V nichrome heating elements.

/\\---cord----------------pwr supply----D= / \\ / \\ < > -nichrome V jaws that mesh like scissors

So the action is clamp,melt and then pull. But some problems I see are: The jaws don't completely surround the wire insulation. The jaws can get loaded with goopy melted wire insulation.

Another crazy idea..

The idea is to get two nichrome wires to complete 360 degree contact with the wire insulation

Starts like this:

[------nichrome wire-----]

(O) < wire to be stripped

[-----nichrome wire-----]

Then nichrome wire then wraps around the wire like this:

| | | ---- | | |(O)| | |_|___|_| | | | |

D from BC

The problem with using wire is that the melted insulation can rejoin. You need a sort of barrier, which the flat nichrome strip provides. But the staple remover concept is good. You might be able to use SMD removal tweezers as a starting point.

Paul

D from BC snipped-for-privacy@comic.com posted to sci.electronics.design:

The patents have expired, build your own.

Yayyyyyyy! Expired patents! Wooo hoooo! Party time with strippers. :) D from BC