Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Stripping wire...

I find it much easier to use the hole for the next smallest gauge with LIGHT preasure, just enough to break the outer sheath. Then I move up to the larger size your supposed to use to pull it off. This way I rarely lose any wire strands.

So, for 12 gauge wire, I start with the 14 gauge hole on the stripper tool. Using light preasure I break the outer coating, then movie up to the 12 gauge hole to pull it off, works great.

Oh yeah, I also twist the bare wires with my fingers before inserting them into the wire terminal on the AVR.

I'll second the monoprice.com suggestion. I recently ordered a couple of AV cables and about a dozen pairs of banana plugs. My total was like $40. It would have been over $150 if I'd purchased the same stuff at the local big-box electronics store. I will be doing a lot of my 'nuts-and-bolts' shopping at monoprice from now on!

I purchased the other type of banana plugs, the ones with compression fittings. They seem to work well and look great, although it took me a few tries to figure out how best to attach the speaker wire to them!

Real men use wire cutters to strip wire.

Real, real men use their teeth.

I learned to not use my teeth when I was rewiring the phone jack in my apartment in college. Everything was going fine until my future wife decided to call...

Real, real, men ask their future wives to call when they're stripping wire with their teeth.

Also they will replace outlets and light switches without shutting off the breaker first.
(I replaced a couple switches last week and didn't bother with the breaker... Only got shocked once or twice. Kinda fun, actually, but I'm strange that way.)

Careful, or you could end up looking like this:

Agreed, Peter, it is fun in a sick masochistic sort of way. I did it a few times when i was wiring the basement, even a couple of breakers in the panel box with the main breaker still on...those i was pretty damn careful on.

Possibly the stupidest thing i accomplished though was giving myself a hell of a shock when the electrical inspector was over to check that the wiring i had done was up to code...."yes you can just ignore these couple of wires hanging from the roof. They are stapled up there and i haven't bothered to pull them down yet because i was thinking i might use the same run to wire something else in." As i grab the collection of wires with my hand to prove to him that they weren't hot i got a very nice jolt. He just looked at me and said, "you might want to put a marrette on that." Tough to get more bone-headed than that.