Wire Stripping

Bkessler

Does any one know of a good wire stripping machine, I have heard of one that hooks up to a hole hawg and is very affordable. thanks bk

fridaymean

A sharp utility knife works well for me. A machine seems like it would take longer.

firemike

Don't fit in a tool belt easily either...

Seriously, do you have reason you need a machine to strip wire? Production reasons or something? A fabricating shop? Most of the power strippers I have seen/used are expensive and finiky. You have to set them up for each wire/insulation size, and sometimes it took a while to get it working right.

I even bought one of those Ideal Strip-matics, the pliers that "grip and strip" in one squeeze. They were only good if you had a whole bunch of wires to strip at one time. To keep pulling them out to strip a wire ot two was a PITA. Plus you couldn't cut with them. My little $8 Ideal T-Stripper lets me cut, strip, and form a loop with one tool.

CE1

My first question would be what type and size of wire are you talking about. My second question would be what quanity of wires do you need to strip #/hr.

There are thermo wire striping machines that are use in a production setting and there are hand held units also. You need to justify the cost of the equipment as to the labor savings "ROI".

Ken@K&R

I could be wrong but I think he means a stripping machine to get the cuts ready for the scrap yard. It's going at over $1.30 a pound here cleaned.

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Ken

Bkessler

Ken is right, I have a couple of big demo's coming up and am expecting a lot of big wire feeders, and a wire stripping machine would pay for itself fast. thanks bk.

CE1

Try this website: http://www.bigbuks.com/ or http://www.bigbuks.com/special_offer.htm

wirenut

sound like a ggod job for a 1st year apprentice

Webhoist

works well,, if they are long runs to strip tie one end off on something and hook the other end to a vehicle ( lawn mower) draw it tight and slit the whole length with razor knife and give it a rip. stripped miles of copper this way. with a 12 pk on a saturday its all good!

Speedy Petey

With the price of copper today it truly IS ALL good.
All except for buying it that is.

$3.08 again today with a high of $3.11!!

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Speedy Petey

Copper Futures in Shanghai Surge to Record Amid Supply Concerns

It's getting fricken scary folks!

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frenchsparky

I dont know if related in here or not but i did heard rumors but seems i think i can confermed the price of scrap copper gone thru the roof one person did mention it is 3 bucks per pound so,, if that true i going do this >> <<

p.s. i did noted that the cost of new wires allready start to climb up each time i did check it keep jump up right now i have to change my price list to reflect the recent change of price of wires etc [ dont start with fuel prices ]

Merci , Marc

Rounders

I know ripley tools makes one that mounts to drill. dont know if it feeds down the whole wire but they are worth checking out. I use their 4x4 stripper for all larger gauge wires. 2/0 and up, utility companies use their stuff and its great. If you have to strip a lot of larger gauge wires I highly recommend it. Ripley-tools.com

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Brett
Boylston Electrical Company

Chris Kovacs

Hey Yall, I had a bunch of welding cable to strip.It had the soft rubber coating,but was slow to strip.I took an antique washing machine hand-crank two roll squeezer , called a "Mangler" ,and modified it to strip the cable.I sheetrock screwed a piece of wood to the bottom ,so you could mount it in a vice.Then I made two pieces of wood with guide holes and screwed them to both sides of the rollers.Then I place a utilty blade on the outer guide board to cut it.Bango!It worked .You could guide and untangle the cable with your left hand and crank with your right.I went from stripping 50 feet an hour with a utility knife to about 400 feet per hour, not bad!What I need now is some advice on a multi thickness stripper that is fairly lowtech and inexpensive.I see one on the web for $320.00,but ouch,I don't get that much wire to pay for it! Any advice?

JAL

I got $2.25 lb for unstripped wire about 1 1/2 weeks ago. It's better to let the scrap dealer do it. It's alot of work to strip wire and by the time you add labor it's not cost effective to bother stripping it. The price of copper is going up faster than the price of your labor. Do the math, your call.

Speedy Petey

$2.25 UNSTRIPPED?!?!?!?! Holy crap!
About 1 1/2 weeks ago I got $2.40 CLEAN.

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JAL

That is what I said too. I think the scrap guy is speculating and hording it, waiting for the price to go up. He kept asking me if I had any more. I got some more clean stuff and going to hold on to it for a while. Might get a better price for it the longer I hold on to it. Never Know.

brian11973

Just Thursday I got about a $1.10 FOR brass! I was paid $2.60 for # 1 copper (clean). $2.25 for #2 (solder, paint,etc). Almost $200 for 2 1/2 buckets. A friend from Tenn. said he was getting $3.17 for #1. The scrap yards in my area will take burnt wire for #1 if you burn if off clean. No left overs from insulation, turning green, etc. If you can't strip it, burn it in a big brush pile. (Yeah, I know EPA regulations, the chinanese are polutioning like hell, "third world country")Where I live, this is hard to do with any large amounts. With these prices, I did burn two small motors in a campfire over the weekend. I haven't done this for a few years, problaly ten. The work involved to strip, it is problaly not worth it. Six or so years ago, a coworker & I would strip our scrap from houses after work. We just used old, blown up strippers. We just stripped six inches ( or whatever we thought we could pull off), cut, repeat. McDump as a second job would have paid better. If you beat the wire into a bucket, maybe 30 pounds. We were cutting the wire 2 inches long, 75-100 pounds to a bucket. You should have seen the guys at the scrap yard trying to dump them!

brian11973

I just sort out my scrap. I will cut apart plumbing pipe when I get it. I do strip big wire, #4 or bigger. If you get the wire straight & the knife in the right place, you can cut off the side of the wire. Then just pull off the insulation. The #12 from houses, I just sort out bare from insulated. With these prices, I may just have to strip, burn again ????

brian11973

One more thing. Now that I buy the wire, I use a 5 gallon bucket. I throw all the scrap in it. Very handy for the sore knees, too. I use it for "tails". I also try not to pull any more than neccessary, just enough to get to the wirenut. The last 2400 square foot house I wired (by myself), I left with 5 lbs or less scrap, went in with a full bucket.