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It seems whatever method I use I sometimes damage the wire and have to hope I have enough cable to have a 2nd try.

Is there a method that works 100% of the time for someone that is not doing it every day?

A possible duplicate has been pointed out, however it talks about 12/10 guage "Romex" rather then the normal 2.5mm twin and earth we have in the UK.

Walker
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  • Are you removing the outer sheath, or stripping the inner wires? – Tester101 Jan 24 '11 at 13:08
  • Possible duplicate: http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/3366/what-is-the-right-way-to-strip-power-wires – Tester101 Jan 24 '11 at 13:08
  • @Tester, I wish to do both, but removing the outer sheath is the harder bit. – Walker Jan 24 '11 at 13:11
  • This question has been asked before. Take a look at the answers to the question I linked to earlier, they should answer your question. – Tester101 Jan 24 '11 at 13:36
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    [2.5mm T&E](http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Cables) is very similar to 12/2 NM (non-metallic) cable. Romex is a brand name that has become synonymous with NM cable. – Niall C. Jan 24 '11 at 15:45

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There are tools which do the job for you. They will probably take a little adjustment when first used, but then they're fine. They are literally the easiest way to consistently strip mains cable.

Many years ago my father had a hand-held tool explicitly for stripping Australian 240V household wiring cable. It had two clamps, two blades and a two-part action. The first clamped the cable and made the cuts, the second separated the clamps, neatly stripping the end off the cable.

(I should add that I don't strip cable every day but I learnt how to use a small but very sharp pen knife to strip outer sheaths. A bit time-consuming, but I like doing it that way as it works on any sort of multi-core cable. And the trick to not nipping the conductor is to not cut quite all the way through the insulation: let the stripping effort break the last little bit.)

staticsan
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I love this little guy from ideal:

ideal lil ripper stripper

the tool is a hollow tube. there's a hooked blade centered in the middle so that when you push the cable through the tool, it splits the sheath without damaging the conductors. the v-groove at the end is for stripping the individual conductors.

it took almost no time for me to learn to strip the inner conductors without nicking. and now i can strip without even looking at the wire.

longneck
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