I have a wire stripper which works fine on the ends of wire, to cut and take off the insulation in one motion. (Won’t work on the middle of a wire) I also have the standard stripper with holes for different sizes of wire. I don’t think I have down the right technique to take insulation off the center of bus wire, so a feeder can be soldered on to it. How do you do this? Thanks, Hal
It’s quite simple accually…
If your thinking what im thinking that is…
Try this:
First, just get a pair of wire cutters
Take your wire (marked the area you want to strip) And slightly cut through the insulation with it. Then take your strippers with each cut area and go into the middle of your marked area. That should do it for ya… (clean it up with an Xacto Knife if you wish!!! ) Good luck
Hope that helps
If you need pictures just contact me at raptor5@comcast.net and i’ll see what I can do for ya.
You have the wrong tool. Go to Home Depot and get the blue-handled Ideal wire stripper. It strips in the middle of the wire or at the ends, doesn’t matter. There are several different size holes in it for different wire sizes, just clamp over the bus wire, squeeze genetly, and it will peel back a section of the insulation without nicking the wire underneath.
–Randy
We just used the Xacto knife. Run it around the wire at the two ends of the area you want to expose, then slice the insulation lengthwise and pull it off. You can actuallt put the knife against the wire, with your thumb on the other side and roll the wire with your other hand to cut around it.
The danger with using wire cutters with stranded bus wire is that you take the chance of cutting some of the strands which effectivley cuts down the size of your bus wire and its current carrying capacity.
Insert the part from the laywers about Xacto knives being sharp and that you should be careful, blah, blah. You get the idea.
My Teeth, the Dentist loves me, been using my teeth as wire strippers for over 40 years, so long as you keep them clean they do a great job.
I use #12 solid wire, small wire cutters and an exacto.
Be safe.
YES, YES, YES!!! Do not waste your time and money this is the answer. Works on #10 up to #22, does not knick the wire and leaves a perfect strip to solder to. One squeeze is one strip.
Use Posi-Taps. No stripping, no soldering, quick and easy.
Jerry
Jerry,
What’s a Posi-Tap? Is that a “suitcase” connector?
They make a wire stripper (available at Home Depot - Lowes) that grips the wire insulation and just pulls it apart. I have found this type to work on most sizes of wire from the phone wire up to #8.
I just use this stripper to pull the insulation apart at the point on the buss wire that I want to solder the drops and wrap the drop wire around the buss and then solder it. The heat from the soldering makes the insulation on the buss wires push back together and basically insulates the solder joint. I off-set the drop wires on the buss wires so I do not have to ever wrap tape to insulate the joint.
A Much faster method than cutting with an x-acto knife and much less chance of getting cut. Been there.
As for using methods which are not soldered when the air line industry strats to use them then I MIGHT think about using them (NOT)
Solder never fails! - Unless YOU don’t know how to solder!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
No, it’s a device that that has screw-in connectors that piece the wire’s insulation. I got mine in the auto department at Wal-Mart. Here is their website:
Jerry
So how much are these Wal-Mart specials?
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Don’t recall the cost but certainly more expensive than soldering. But, they are well worth it to me as I don’t like soldering under my layout and don’t like to have to strip the insulation.
Jerry
I do use “suitcase” connectors, so I don’t have to strip, solder, and re-insulate bus wires. The proper name for these is “insulation displacment connector,” abbreviated IDC. The only brand I use and the brand I recommend is Scotchlok by 3M. I buy them from Mouser Electronics, www.mouser.com. If you search on that site for Scotchlok IDCs you’ll find them right away. Mouser discounts for quantity, and the IDCs are cheapest by the hundreds. The two sizes I use are no. 567 (brown) for 10-12AWG wire on the through or “run” side and 14-18AWG wire on the stub or “tap” side, and no. 558 (red) for 18-22AWG wire on both sides. There’s an expensive tool for compressing the U-shaped “knife” that cuts into the wires, but cheap Robo-Grip cam-action pliers will do the job very well. Channelocks work okay too. IDC connectors quickly make a solid, insulated splice with a lot less trouble than stripping and soldering. So long, Andy
Yes the IDC connectors will work (FOR A WHILE) but will eventually fail (UNLESS you have your layout in a controlled environment)(air conditioned and dehudmidifier) If it is in a humid basement then after a few years the track wiring will begin to degrade.
We had it happen to our Club Lionel display. We could not figure out why certain blocks would slow the train down. When we did testing of the connections the problem would go away for a while as we were moving the wires around and it must have caused the minute corrosion at the connector to make good contact with the two wires again and the train would run properly for a few months.
It got so bad we had to set the block toggles for the other transformer and apply more track power to the bad section just to keep the trains running the same speed during several of our shows. Until we could trouble shoot the wiring. Then it would just start working OK again. This kept happenig for several years until we made some track changes and soldered the drop wires to the buss wire. Problem went away!
And we were using #12 drop wires solderd to the track (Gragraves brand) and had #12 buss wires run from the main terminal board to the track. All of the buss wires had wire ends crimped and soldered. (notice the soldering thing here) The only place we took a short cut was with the IDCs connecting the drop wires to the buss wires.
So if you have a wet basement be aware that you WILL have problems just when you don’t want them.
BOB H - Clarion, PA
I’m with Bob H. on this one. No matter how you strip that wire, soldering is the only way to go for a positive connection. We have soldered every wire and joint on our railroad and over a 15 year period have had absolutely no trouble related to poor connections in the wire or rail.
Yes the Scotch (And other brands) connectors work, but you have to consider the problem with dissimilar metals causing corrosion, specially if you have a damp basement/garage. Many people have used them with no problems, but enough have had problems to make me not want to take that chance since it will be a royal pain to go back and re-do all those connections later.
I haven’t been on this forum too long, but try a search for any threads concerning those connectors or start a new one to see what other people have expereinced with them.
Got my wire stripper at Radio Shack. Made by Kronus, red handles on the ones I have. Says it takes 10 - 24 ga wire, easy to adjust for length. Also has cutter and crimper on the handle. Cost about $18 if I remember correctly. Have one from cheap tool catalog, basically the same tool but not nearly as good quality. Think it is different than rrinker’s but does a nice job. Good luck.
Here is one older thread: RE: Wiring DCC-track power to main buss
You can find others if you search for “suitcase connectors”
Jerry
Here is another thread that might help (or add confusion)??
RE: DCC Wiring
Jerry
I’ll drink to that. Teeth provide an opportunity for adjustable cutting depths based upon actual feel, not like what’s felt through wire stripper handles covered with rubber, etc.
Plus with Teeth, they’re always there for immediate use…like opening an Alka-Seltzer package in a restaurant or even trimming a sharp fingernail when out in the desert.
And you certainly can’t eat Prime Rib or pretzels with wire strippers 