Discuss Which cable stripping tool for scrap? in the Electrical Tools and Products area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

HappyHippyDad

-
Esteemed
Arms
Reaction score
5,578
@gaz101 's thread got me thinking about stripping all my scrap cables rather than taking them in for weighing with all the insulation on.

The cable I have is nearly all 1mm-6mm. I realise many of you feel it is not worth the time stripping the smaller cables but I would be quite happy spending a few hours doing it every so often on a quiet Sunday and wondered if there is a machine that strips down to 1mm twin and earth?
 
@gaz101 's thread got me thinking about stripping all my scrap cables rather than taking them in for weighing with all the insulation on.

The cable I have is nearly all 1mm-6mm. I realise many of you feel it is not worth the time stripping the smaller cables but I would be quite happy spending a few hours doing it every so often on a quiet Sunday and wondered if there is a machine that strips down to 1mm twin and earth?
The one in my photo goes down to .5mm singles
 
This one looks quite good View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/UTENSILI-TOOLS-SHOP-Copper-Wire-Stripping-Machine/dp/B01LYRI5IC/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=wire+stripping+machine&qid=1590414440&s=diy&sr=1-8

It has good reviews and strips down to 1mm. Is this the best sort of stripper to be looking for?
I'm looking for a manual machine, not electric.
Any recommendations for a manual stripper which strips down to 1mm?
Please try and refrain from any jokes @Baddegg and @telectrix although I realise this will be difficult for you both :D

My only concern with the above machine is that is does not have little wheels either side of the blade that stop the cable escaping the blade. The following machine has the little wheels but I cannot find it for sale, also i expect it to be too expensive (just showing it for the example really)
 
Last edited:
back in the day, we gave the apprentice a sharp knife and a box of band-aids and told him to get on with it.
 
@happyhippydad thats the one I have. Mine is bare metal. I got mine off eBay and it was about £50(ish). Works fine on larger cables but stuff like 1.5 is easier to strip by hand. SWA is easy to do but I find you are better off cutting it down into 30-50cm sections. The winding handle comes off and you can attach a drill to it.
 
To be honest unless you are processing serious amounts it's not worth doing.
Even with the stripper I've got now anything under 6 mm t&e and 10 mm armoured is sorted and put in retrospective dumpy bags and weighed like that , untouched.
The single wheel stripper's are just a gimmick , as the cable hardly ever goes through straight and if you have more than one size to do it is a absolute ball ache adjusting it and dialling it in for each piece.
I have attached a couple of photos of the one I use at the moment and you may be able to see that it uses two sets of top and bottom spring loaded rollers and a cutting disc in the top for the first set and a cutting disc in the bottom for the second set.
Even with this set up it can be problematic with some cables.
You will also see a single wheel stipper which somebody gave me before I brought the current stripper , it got used for about 2 hrs and then got ditched in favour of the Stanley knife , the cut was very hit and miss and once it has gone through you do not really want to send cable through again as it tends to leave shards of copper.
In my experience you are looking at around £1800 + for a decent stripper and once you take in to account your time storage and waste desposal of the sheathing it can be a bit of a labour of love.

I keep toying with getting a shredder and building a cleaning plant which would save having to sort the different grades and sizes before you even get to cutting it into manageable lengths to strip.
But this would cost any where from £5 - 15 grand and the local scrap yard has mentioned that they are not so keen on paying top bright prices as it is not so easy to guarantee the grade of copper w
hen powdered.
Which cable stripping tool for scrap? IMG_20200525_163914472 - EletriciansForums.netWhich cable stripping tool for scrap? IMG_20200525_163858608 - EletriciansForums.netWhich cable stripping tool for scrap? IMG_20200525_163841986 - EletriciansForums.netWhich cable stripping tool for scrap? IMG_20200525_163745091 - EletriciansForums.netWhich cable stripping tool for scrap? IMG_20200525_163605005 - EletriciansForums.net
 
We've got one of this type which can be found on ebay around the £50 mark, turning it by hand is boring but you can attach a drill to it and get it going a bit quicker.
We bought it specifically for a few hundreds of metres of 70mm singles we had stripped out (12 x100TPN circuits all wired in 70mm and crammed into a 6x6 trunking)

It's pretty good for big batches of conductors that are all the same size as long as you straighten them.

I don't think it would be much quicker than using a knife for small solid core cables though.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I may take a chance with the amazon one and have a play with it.
 
Update...

I decided to go for the ultra cheap £20 ebay version rather than risk it on the £100 version.

Which cable stripping tool for scrap? Stripper - EletriciansForums.net

The only real difference I could see was that the £100 version had a handle so it would be easier to feed the first bit in and also perhaps the 'pull' would be more steady so the blade is less likely to come out of the pvc insulation (not sure about that though).

I must say I was surprised! It worked... on 1mm!

It took 30 mins of having a play with it, learning where to position the blade and how far apart to have the wheels either side of it, but it worked. It created a small score all along the 1mm which I then just peeled off easily. It didn't jump out of the PVC once.

I only had a couple of metres of scrap to strip (as I've just taken 30kg to be weighed in :frowning:), so I cant say if this machine will be consistent, but for £20 I think it will be more than recouping it's cost the next time I have a weigh in.

Lets say I could do 5Kg in an hour. Cost of bright £4 p/Kg. £20 p/hour to sip a beer in the garden, listen to the radio and pull a piece of cable :).
 
Last edited:
Update on the £20 cable stripper in the above post.

It strips 6mm without any problems. It strips 2.5mm without problems.

I have since stripped a larger amount of 1mm than when I first tested the machine so I can give more of an insight into how effective it is...

It is fiddly and for each new bit of 1mm It takes a few failed attempts to get the machine (blade and holding wheels) correctly set up. Even then it sometimes didn't actually score the insulation, it seemed to rub a little off the side but this was still enough to be able to peel the insulation off.

I do hear what everyone is saying about 1mm not worth the time and effect to strip. I agree that for the amount of time it takes it will only relate to about £5 an hour. However, if you enjoy doing it and are at a loose end then why not.
 
Update on the £20 cable stripper in the above post.

It strips 6mm without any problems. It strips 2.5mm without problems.

I have since stripped a larger amount of 1mm than when I first tested the machine so I can give more of an insight into how effective it is...

It is fiddly and for each new bit of 1mm It takes a few failed attempts to get the machine (blade and holding wheels) correctly set up. Even then it sometimes didn't actually score the insulation, it seemed to rub a little off the side but this was still enough to be able to peel the insulation off.

I do hear what everyone is saying about 1mm not worth the time and effect to strip. I agree that for the amount of time it takes it will only relate to about £5 an hour. However, if you enjoy doing it and are at a loose end then why not.
Good for you . It is a sacrilege to waste the Earth's none recurring resources ,and you get paid for it too:)
 
Update on the £20 cable stripper in the above post.

It strips 6mm without any problems. It strips 2.5mm without problems.

I have since stripped a larger amount of 1mm than when I first tested the machine so I can give more of an insight into how effective it is...

It is fiddly and for each new bit of 1mm It takes a few failed attempts to get the machine (blade and holding wheels) correctly set up. Even then it sometimes didn't actually score the insulation, it seemed to rub a little off the side but this was still enough to be able to peel the insulation off.

I do hear what everyone is saying about 1mm not worth the time and effect to strip. I agree that for the amount of time it takes it will only relate to about £5 an hour. However, if you enjoy doing it and are at a loose end then why not.
can we have a link to that £20 jobby?
 
Good for you . It is a sacrilege to waste the Earth's none recurring resources ,and you get paid for it too:)
Well, that's where it gets a little complicated. By stripping the cable and taking the bright copper into be weighed you are then left with all the insulation which I am not sure what to do with. Had I taken the cable to weighed in with all the insulation left on then the insulation gets recycled as it all gets shredded (micronisation) and then sorted.
During my next visit to the scrap dealer i will take in all the insulation and ask if he will take it for recycling but I'd be surprised if he does.
can we have a link to that £20 jobby?
Not sure why it says 'manual handle', there's no handle, you just pull the cable through.
 
The problem with re-cycling any coloured plastic is it can only come out as a black pellet to be used again, most domestic people (that means us) do not like their kitchen dust pans and brush's in black, so the demand for black pellets is low compared too original colours.
 
@gaz101 's thread got me thinking about stripping all my scrap cables rather than taking them in for weighing with all the insulation on.

The cable I have is nearly all 1mm-6mm. I realise many of you feel it is not worth the time stripping the smaller cables but I would be quite happy spending a few hours doing it every so often on a quiet Sunday and wondered if there is a machine that strips down to 1mm twin and earth?

At our scrappy they just grade cables and take them as they come.
 

Reply to Which cable stripping tool for scrap? in the Electrical Tools and Products area at ElectriciansForums.net

Electricians Tools | Electrical Tools and Products

Thanks for visiting ElectriciansForums.net, we hope you find the Electricians Tools you're looking for. It's free to sign up to and post a question yourself to find a tool or tool supplier either local to you, or online. Our community of electricians and electrical engineers will do their best to find the best tool supplier for you.

We also have a Tiling Tools advice from the worlds largest Tiling community. And then the Plumbers Forums with Plumbers Tools Advice.

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

YOUR Unread Posts

This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock