Side Cutters or cable Shears

[Dustydazzler]

So for cutting , stripping and preparing cable what is your prefered tool

Cable side cutters

Cable shears

 

[UNG]

What type of cable

 

[Dustydazzler]

pvc/pvc

 

[7029 dave]

T&E = side cutters
SWA = Knife, hacksaw, side cutters ( SWA 10mm> cable croppers)
MICC= hacksaw, side cutters,Ringing tool, potting tool
Tails= cable croppers

 

[buzzlightyear]

keep these in the van just in case in need a fry up.

 

[Strima]

Looking at some installations I think they’ve used a starved rat.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Or you came along after this guy ?

 

[telectrix]

nicely damaged insulation on the white. what a plonker. i could do better with a blunt kitchen knife.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I have seen a few YouTube tutorials U.S and U.K where they show someone munching around the cable with pliers to chew through the outer insulation.
must be a new method as I certainly wasn’t shown this way

 

[loz2754]

Sorry @Dustydazzler but it's not a fair poll.
There are so many different types of cable, each with its preferred stripping method and tool.
I use both sidecutters and shears, 2 different automatic stripping tools, and a rotary stripping tool and sometimes a knife.

 

[telectrix]

Sorry @Dustydazzler but it's not a fair poll.
There are so many different types of cable, each with its preferred stripping method and tool.
I use both sidecutters and shears, 2 different automatic stripping tools, and a rotary stripping tool and sometimes a knife.

and he's missed out teeth.

 

[7029 dave]

and he's missed out teeth.

Knew somebody who did that and was killed by electrocution, alas he was not an electrician.

 

[loz2754]

Was he a rat?

 

[telectrix]

I can't do it anymore. lost 4 teeth to a 6mm SWA.

 

[7029 dave]

Just a young lad tragic.

 

[nicebutdim]

These are interesting. Shears with side cutter form factor and stepped blades for your pleasure reduced effort.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Had a set of Nws shears which I primarily used for meter tails , they were great and sliced big cores with ease.
Not sure where they are now thou , think I loaned them out once and never got them back grr

They guys in the Vid are using the side cutters wrong thou on bigger cables , if you need to use side cutters because that’s all you have to hand then do the cut in 2 motions nipping half the cable then rotating the cable 180 between cuts. This avoids most of the squeezing / squashing

 

[nicebutdim]

Had a set of Nws shears which I primarily used for meter tails , they were great and sliced big cores with ease.
Not sure where they are now thou , think I loaned them out once and never got them back grr

They guys in the Vid are using the side cutters wrong thou on bigger cables , if you need to use side cutters because that’s all you have to hand then do the cut in 2 motions nipping half the cable then rotating the cable 180 between cuts. This avoids most of the squeezing / squashing

Was actually thinking those Knipex stepcutters would be ideal for you as they do the work of much longer shears.

 

[pc1966]

For T&E the self-adjusting stripper things work quite well, except for occasionally biting your palms.

For smaller wires I often find these work well, even on PTFE insulation:

https://cpc.farnell.com/ideal/45-121/t-stripper-16-26-awg-stranded/dp/TL00592

I also have the equivalent for typical power cables and it works fine:

https://cpc.farnell.com/ideal/45-120-341/metric-wire-stripper-0-75-6-0/dp/TL00610

They do one covering 0.5mm to 4mm which is probably a good bet for doing typical flexible cables:

https://cpc.farnell.com/ideal/45-125-341/metric-wire-stripper-0-5mm-to/dp/TL00596

 

[pc1966]

I also got one of the side-cutters with a gap for 1.5mm and 2.5mm cable and find it is a pain as often it fails to cut as expected due to the gap (e.g. on cable ties, etc). So looked like a good idea, in practice not so handy.