Stripping Ribbon Wire Without Tool (2023 Update)

Does anyone have a secret way to neatly strip ribbon wire (all at once) without a dedicated tool, or doing one conductor at a time.

I have tried cutting across both sides with a snap knife, bending back and forth, and pulling ... but some of the wires break off even though not cut through.

I even tried to soften the plastic with a heat gun.

Tough stuff that PVC.

Mark Henderson

Reply to
mhenderson
Loading thread data ...
:

tried using a soldering iron as a "knife" to cut the isolation from both si des?

-Lasse

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

** One of these does a nice job, and is not DEDICATED to ribbon wire.

formatting link

Takes 13mm wide bites, you don't need all at once.

Look for a "T-Rex" wire stripper.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Tough it is. Any reason you can't use a standard ribbon cable terminator?

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com 
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Marching to a different kettle of fish.
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Need to solder certain wires together. Could use a PCB mount terminator, but would be extra work creating the wire links.

Mark Henderson

Reply to
mhenderson

Just get a small butane torch and melt the PVC, a thermoplastic. (torch $7 at Harbor Fright.) Just watch the PVC carefully, playing the flame back and forth constantly, and it will soften and get very easy to handle. Your hea t gun too diffuse and not hot enough. A piece of green scotch pad scrub pa d good for grabbing it, or a rough wash cloth/ shop towel, or a rough leath er welder glove. When it gets soft, you are dealing with maple syrup-taffy, and you need a tough and rough grabber to get rid of it. (also to insulate your skin from it. It is very dangerous to work with, because it will adhe re to your skin when hot. So the leather welder glove (again HF $2) a good idea. Put it on your right (dominant hand.) Hold ribbon in your left hand. Play torch right hand. Put torch down and point away. Grab goo with your gl oved right hand. ) DANGER!

Reply to
haiticare2011

I found it helps to score across the plastic on both sides with a snap kife before using the jaw-type stripper.

Mark Henderson

Reply to
mhenderson

Those are well-known to RIP small wire to shreds. UN-buy and invest the money more profitably in door-to-door dehydrated water sales.

Reply to
Robert Baer

"Robert Baer= lunatic troll "

** Lucky the topic is *ribbon cable* - eh ??

FYI:

Fuck off, you demented, moronic troll.

Reply to
Phil Allison

On a sunny day (Mon, 03 Feb 2014 18:58:57 -0800) it happened Robert Baer wrote in :

On top of that, I use ribbon wire a lot to make connections:

formatting link
One thing I always do is _TWIST) the ends of the wire together before soldering. If you do not do that, tehn he strands fan out and good chance it will short something next to it. To be able to _twist_ the wire you need to get access to the individual strands, That means splitting the cable, stripping one wire at the time (I use cutters on my finger nails), and twisting the stripped end by hand, then soldering.
formatting link

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Even then, compare the labor of simply crimping the ribbon connectors on plus making up jumpers on a PC board or behind the header for the ribbon cable connection, to having to strip and fiddle around with every ribbon cable conductor.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com 
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
If you are going to try cross-country skiing, 
start with a small country.
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Mark - we might be able to help. We have a special ribbon cable stripper machine. Chris

formatting link

Reply to
Chris949

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.