After a recommendation, please? For an automatic wire stripper that is well suited to stripping 4mm2 t&e stranded cable

[PotatoSoup]

Hiya, thank you for reading this! I'm struggling more and more to strip cable - I have been using a utility knife and the CPC method but I've seen YouTube videos for automatic strippers. I'm hoping for a recommendation for strippers that are very well suited for doing 4mm2 stranded t&e cable as I imagine the strands are more easily caught with some automatic strippers? (I don't know for sure, as I've never used one!) Thank you!

 

[flameport]

They all need to be adjusted for a particular wire or cable.
Unless you intend to do 100s of identical cuts, they are entirely pointless.

 

[Notch7]

I’ve always found pulling the CPC with a pair of pliers pretty quick.

if you catch the live or neutral insulation that bit usually gets trimmed off anyway.

 

[JohnW2]

I’ve always found pulling the CPC with a pair of pliers pretty quick.

It is, but it stretches the CPC, which makes some people frown on the practice!

Kind Regards, John

 

[flameport]

it stretches the CPC

That is a myth.
Where 'stretching' is observed it's due to the CPC being pulled through the outer sheath relative to the other conductors.
Actually stretching the copper CPC requires more force than any human could provide.

 

[JohnW2]

That is a myth. Where 'stretching' is observed it's due to the CPC being pulled through the outer sheath relative to the other conductors.

That's what I was talking about.

Actually stretching the copper CPC requires more force than any human could provide.

Hmmm. Maybe I "don't know my own strength" I can (and have just tried, to confirm) that I can pull a 1mm² CPC hard enough for it to actually break and 'come off in my hand'. Although it happens too quickly for any stretching to be apparent, I can but presume that some degree of stretching (and reduction of CSA) occurs prior to the fracture.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SUNRAY]

Yeah it's easy to stretch copper wire.
From my scrap bin, 1.5mm² earth from T&E. my test was:
Clamp one end in vice and pull only just enough to be straight and carefully marked 3 times 100mm apart (as accuratly at my eyes allowed with a steel tape measure and fine marker) in the middle of roughly 600mm. Using 2 pairs of pliers, roughly 400mm apart (so well away from the marks) gripped the wire and pulled, one pull with increasing tension lasting about 10 seconds until it snapped at the jaws of one tool. This is after removing from vice and hand to hand so therefore well within human possibility but a damage fracture rather than tensile strength.
Distance between the marks 208mm or 4%. If my mental wiffmertic is right that's 1.44mm². Allowing for 50% error in my test it's 2% or 1.47.

 

[JohnW2]

Yeah it's easy to stretch copper wire. .... From my scrap bin, 1.5mm² earth from T&E. my test was: ......

That perhaps makes two of us who "don't know our own strength", then I'm a bit confused given that, on the basis of his appearance in his videos, flameport doesn't look particularly like a 'weakling'!

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

and a stripper is a waste of time and money

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