After hurting your teeth and slicing more thumbs with Stanley blades than you care to remember, you’re probably ready to put one of these simple wire stripping solutions on your birthday list. Not only does it spare you pain, it has two other key advantages that make it more than a luxury for any professional job.
Professional compliance
Wiring standards these days are very strict – UK and EU legislation means that electrical engineers of all kinds are required to have well formed electrical joins and contacts. Gone are the days when an unevenly cut, or split, wire sheathing hanging out of a plug or a junction box might have escaped notice.
Draper’s professional range of tools includes automatic wire strippers which prepare your wire ends neatly and with precise engineering matched to the width of the wire and the type of junction. The tool’s replaceable blades are accurately notched and honed to strip five insulation or wire diameters, 1.0, 1.6, 2.0, 2.6 and 3.2mm. As you squeeze the easy-grip handles, automatic clamping seizes the wire with exactly the right amount of tension to allow the wire to be stripped without over-stretching it internally and risking fraying, splitting or even wire snapping inside the cable where you can’t see it.
The stripped ends will be uniform in every way, not only making the job much easier but presenting the best possible impression to anyone who encounters your handiwork.
Improved productivity
Spring loaded easy-grip handles virtually make it a one-handed operation and remain firm and comfortable in the hand, even if your job entails hours of wire stripping. The speed and ease of operation saves you a lot of time over the course of a working day, increasing your productivity or extending your lunch break – the choice is yours!
The steps
Identify the gauge of wire you’re stripping, to ensure it falls within the range of the tool. You may be able to find this printed on its sheathing, either in millimetres or occasionally in the older British Imperial gauge system (in which a 14 gauge is approximately 2mm). A pocket gauging tool is handy to have – it’s a simple disc with grooves for different sizes of wire.
Insert your cabling crossways, with the end set against the length gauge facility that extends perpendicularly from the tool.
Squeeze the handles together and the steel alloy jaws will create a perfect 360-degree radius cut and pull off the sheathing in one motion. Job done!
You can use the tool on several internal strands simultaneously – ensuring impressively neat uniformity that’s also ideal for proper safety clamping inside the plug or junction.
There’s one other step we should mentioned – first check your automatic wire strippers are a Draper quality product, that comes with Drapers’ guarantee of quality and long life. Replacement blades are available for this product – because you will doubtless wear out the teeth long before you wear out the tool.