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Small gauge wire strippers

JD955SC

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Joined
Mar 13, 2011
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1,349
Location
The South
I had to change a camera connection plug this week that used rather small gauge stranded wires. The unsoldering and soldering went fine but trying to strip back the wire insulation on the new wires was very irritating. The problem with “normal” size wire strippers is that while the smallest notch did the job the wires were so fragile it was easy to break

What is a good pair of strippers for this size of wire? Since we are also getting into small Ethernet wires I need an appropriate size stripper for these tiny wires
 

mitch504

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Joined
Feb 27, 2010
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5,776
Location
Andrews SC
I have a pair I bought at Radio Shack about 30 yrs ago to work on 2-way radios. they are about 3 inches overall and have a v cut in each blade and a sliding screw to adjust for wire size.
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry

mekanik

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Aug 20, 2015
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942
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Canada's Northwest
I picked these up in the Snap-On truck. They were not that expensive either considering where I bought them.
They are small about 6" long good for working in tight places. The smallest wire stripper is 22 gauge or 0.65".
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MarshallPowerGen

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Joined
Nov 26, 2017
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442
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Northwestern USA
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Generator Technician & Equipment Mechanic
I picked these up in the Snap-On truck. They were not that expensive either considering where I bought them.
They are small about 6" long good for working in tight places. The smallest wire stripper is 22 gauge or 0.65".
I have those PWC6 pliers but branded Matco, and they can strip pretty tiny comm wire (smaller than 22 with a bit of a squeeze).

Just looked on the Snap-on site, and according to the website the newer style PWC7A pliers now range from stranded 22-32 AWG, so I'll be buying those in the future.
 

Camshawn

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Jan 25, 2017
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585
Location
Langley BC
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retired
Small wire is a challenge. I have used most strippers with verifying success. A lot of small wire will strip with just the right pressure pinching the insulation with whatever cutter/ pliers are handy. I try to test on a piece of extra wire to get the pressure right. The V type you can feel the insulation starting to cut before you get to the wire. Then stop squeezing and pull the insulation off with the tool. Cam
 
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