was simply called Strip-X.

Sounds like methylene chloride. Faster than acetone at evaporating so it has to be dissolved in a thicker substance. Very nasty on the skin. Burns like Drain-o (sodium hydroxide), but methylene chloride penetrates 2mm or 3mm almost instantly, while sodium hydroxide seems to stay on the surface.

All this to avoid using a pocket knife? I bet you guys pluck your eyebrows and watch Barbara Streisand movies.

Hint: Don't polish the edge. Leave it as rough as your sharpening stone leaves it so you can tell when you are cutting your own skin.

 

I use an open pair of wire strippers..I lay the top jaw of the strippers on the wire and just drag it off. I do not close the stripper, just use the contoured edge of the jaw to scrape it off. When I'm done on the top side, I turn the wire over and do the other..

Me too, but I use a semi-blunt pair and squeeze them around the wire and drag it off. It strips both front and back, and only needs two or three goes (with slightly different rotation).

If done right it only puts a very slight pull force on the wire and the wire does not get bent etc as might happen with emery or a scraping knife and benchtop.

 

I use an open pair of wire strippers..I lay the top jaw of the strippers on the wire and just drag it off. I do not close the stripper, just use the contoured edge of the jaw to scrape it off. When I'm done on the top side, I turn the wire over and do the other..

26g was working on a 22g wire I could only get the one side, with it closed.

I never thought about just laying over the jaw and a little pressure with my thumb. Then turning it over, that's a good one, I might give it a try.

I'm thinking a spring pinch tools with emery or just pinch it and draw.

 

Lightly scrape with boxcutter blade.

Seems to work just fine.

 

Be careful with fine wire using a blade because if you nick the wire it will be very susceptible to breaking at that point.

There are solvents specifically intended to remove the enamal from wire. I think the one we used when I was at NIST (haven't used it in a couple decades, so may not be around any more) was simply called Strip-X. You just opened the bottle, dipped the wires into it, removed them and recapped the bottle. The solvent was like a thin paste so a film of it stayed on the wires. Then you waited for a few minutes and wiped them clean with a paper towel or tissue and you were ready to solder. A bottle of that stuff just lasted forever. I was there for three years and several groups used the same bottle and it had pretty much the same amount in it when I left as when I started.

Having said that, it was nasty stuff that you didn't want getting on you and you didn't want to go breathing the fumes, but since it was open-dip-close and then wipe a tiny amount off it was quite tame in practice.

A Swan & Morton scalpel with size 10 blades is sharp enough to scrape the enamel with very light pressure (just as well since the blades are pretty brittle!) - with very thin wire, if you bare just enough copper to tin it, the heat will peel the enamel in the immediate vicinity.

 

None of these solutions seem altogether satisfactory?

I tried that Strip-X chemical stuff in the past, but it only works with a few types of insulation.

I have always been annoyed by this process, this begs for a new product that totally nails the solution.

 

Sounds like methylene chloride. Faster than acetone at evaporating so it has to be dissolved in a thicker substance. Very nasty on the skin. Burns like Drain-o (sodium hydroxide), but methylene chloride penetrates 2mm or 3mm almost instantly, while sodium hydroxide seems to stay on the surface.

All this to avoid using a pocket knife? I bet you guys pluck your eyebrows and watch Barbara Streisand movies.

No, all this to avoid losing a day's work and a thousand dollars worth of liquid helium because one of your #40 AWG voltage taps broke off down in the cryogen.

When you are stripping the ends of a couple dozen sets twenty-foot long twisted pairs made from #40 guage wire that is going to be routed down through a cryostat that goes from room temp to liquid helium and sealed in so that replacing the twisted pairs is a multi-day undertaking and when those twisted pairs are going to be soldered and desoldered to the sides of test wires that are the size of a 0.5mm pencil lead (without getting any solder on the top or bottom of the test wire), you tend to be a bit finicky about using techniques than can cause the slightest nick in one of those leads.

 

Show of hands: How many people were talking about stripping 40 AWG wire?

 

Show of hands: How many people were talking about stripping 40 AWG wire?

Actually... you were.

Your statement, "All of this to avoid using a pocket knife," was in response to the post in which I specifically stated, "Be careful with fine wire using a blade because if you nick the wire it will be very susceptible to breaking at that point."

How can that be read other than to mean that you think using a pocket knife to strip fine wire is the way to go?

 

Show of hands: How many people were talking about stripping 40 AWG wire?

No hands here, I didn't even know what 40 AWG was until I looked up comparison charts for obsolete wire measurement systems.

In modern terms that's 0.08mm diameter! Probably a good idea to pay a bit extra for heat strippable enamel wire.

 

I just had to experiment.....succeeded in stripping the ends of .08mm copper, using an Exacto knife.

Time consuming as hell, but it didn't break.

 

Where I worked we made car air conditioner clutch coils as one product. Now this was automatic equipment, but they used a pair of rotating wire brushes to strip the insulation. The wire brushes weren't the big diameter ones like on a bench grinder, but small ones like for a Dremel tool. They worked great at getting the insulation of and not hurting the wire.

 

Four pages on how to strip mag wire?

Geez.

 

You can go to User CP and set your page length for 40 posts. That might help.

 

I just had to experiment.....succeeded in stripping the ends of .08mm copper, using an Exacto knife.

Time consuming as hell, but it didn't break.

You only have to damage the coating enough to expose some copper to tin some solder onto - from there; heat from the iron should peel the coating.

 

Four pages on how to strip mag wire?

Geez.

Right, you would think. Until you have to clean a 1000 or more, maybe then this "Thread" might be worth it.

If you were a "Tech" you would get it.

 

If you are lucky you may have the new magnet wire that has insulation that acts as a flux when burnt during soldering.
If you have the type of enamel used in motor winding then you are going to have to use sandpaper or scrape as this type cannot be removed with soldering iron heat.
Max.

 

Ok, I like this one. I found this by accident.... the "Thread" was .... What type of solder is best for a solder pot?


From that forum:

I took an older Weller soldering gun, broke up a larger diode with a stud mount (i think it was a 1N5588 or similar with big stud) and used a nut on the stud to bolt it right between the tip of the gun. The diode with lead broken off and guts drilled out formed a small 'pot' made of mostly copper. When the gun trigger it pulled in, the little pot would heat up and melt the solder inside. Didnt take long to get it hot and then i was able to tin the small wires that way.

I guess you use rosin with yours? That's a good idea. I cant remember what i used if anything. (Lots of times it was also used to cook off the enamel at the ends of some magnet wires.)

So, if you have a solder pot and need to do a lot. Cooking and tinning at the same time.

 

The End.

At least for me anyway. Not perfect, but just hopefully good enough.

 

Where I worked we made car air conditioner clutch coils as one product. Now this was automatic equipment, but they used a pair of rotating wire brushes to strip the insulation. The wire brushes weren't the big diameter ones like on a bench grinder, but small ones like for a Dremel tool. They worked great at getting the insulation of and not hurting the wire.

I missed this.