My shop's 'official' wire stripper vs a 99 cent keychain tool

We got a fancy new automatic wire stripper at work, cost like $300. Tried it on some 22 gauge in a tight spot on a King Air panel, it kept jamming. My buddy pulls out this tiny keychain stripper he got at a trade show 3 years ago. One clean pull, perfect strip, no nicks. We timed it, the keychain tool was 4 seconds faster per wire over 10 tries. The expensive one is now a paperweight. Anyone else have a super cheap tool that just works better than the 'right' one?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan97219d ago

That King Air panel is a tight fit for any tool. The automatic stripper probably needs a longer, straight section of wire to work right. The keychain tool just fits the job better in that cramped space.

wyattc7619d ago

Watched my buddy try to use his fancy auto-stripper on a King Air last month. He fought with it for ten minutes trying to get a straight pull in that mess behind the radio stack. Finally grabbed his old keychain tool and had the wire done in like two seconds.

kelly.daniel12d ago

Man, this reminds me of the time I saw a guy drop his good stripper into the avionics bay. Had to pull half the rack to fish it out.