I have decided to clean out the piles of assorted scrap wire & cable. Besides the utility knife and a comfortable stool, has anybody seen or made an economical mechanical copper wire stripping setup?
One idea I have been bouncing around in my head, is to take an old MIG welding wire feeder and machine V-grooves in the drive wheels just wide enough for the copper, and crush the insulation off of 12 AWG and 10 AWG conductors. I saw a similiar design in a scrap yard for stripping 2/0 THHN years ago.
Larry C
Well there's this on e-bay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wire-Stripping-...pper_W0QQitemZ160243988303QQcmdZViewItemKinda pricey just to strip some wire for a one time use, but if you do it frequently it could pay for itself in time saved.
Of course this is a little better priced.
The Wire Zipper:
http://www.thewirezipper.com/features.htmLooks like it would be fast.
I have never used either of these methods. Just found them thru a search and they looked to be good options.
This is fairly cool.
http://www.tpub.com/content/neets/14176/css/14176_44.htmLooks easy enough to make. Not sure how safe it is though. Maybe proceed with caution.
Clamp one end in a vice and pull the wire tight. Makes for easier stripping.
Can't vouch for any of these ... but they look promising:
www.arpiusa.com
Last time I stripped a large amount of wire, I clamped one end in the vice, and held a utility knife at an angle and just walked to the end.
I have some of that rubber/cloth coated twu type wire that is also tinned guess its really old but looks like it will be hard to strip. its about 300 ft of #3
Question: Maybe I should be asking my boss this one... but now that you mention it - we have a huge bin of scrap wire that goes to the recycler (assuming) every so often. Obviously they are selling the copper, but does the recycler just melt off the insulation?
Some scrap dealers just ship the stuff to China or some 3rd world country. There, they just toss the wire into a fire and burn the insulation off. Bad news for the environment, and nearby neighbors.
Labor is so cheap in China they probably strip the wire with a box knife. I have always heard "burned" wire was not "bright" copper and not worth as much.
It is interesting just how much "recycling" is going on these days. I am in the middle of a renovation and at least a dozen people a day go through my trash. I put a pile of nasty mixed aluminum, steel and wood with nails in it on the curb and it was gone in 41 minutes. I told them take it all or leave it, they took it all. Today I had a guy going through old wood and roofing material to find about 4 feet of Romex.
My recycler has never questioned that fact that it was burned. Very little of what I brought was actually burned however. It was still #2 because it was under 10 gauge.
I think most recyclers will have one of those auto-stripping machines... Not sure what they do for voice & data cable, though.