Wire Stripping
With all pages like this, you read the frames from left to right, then go down a level, and carry on, like a comic book.

To make any connection on a piece of wire, you need to remove some of the insulation and expose the inner conductor core, you want to remove just enough insulation to make a sound connection, too much, and you'll have the excess hanging out the back of the connection, that looks untidy, and will be the weakest link if wire is put under stress, wire used in motor vehicles is multi stranded, so it's flexible, but when you make a connection with the wire, the connector is not flexible, so unless the connector grips the insulation as well as the inner conductor, too much movement of the wire will cause the wire to break off where it goes into the connector,
Strip too little insulation off, and you wont have enough exposed conductor to make an electrically sound connection, a basic guide is to strip off about 15mm of insulation for most connections.
These are automatic wire strippers, they have a set of jaws at the front of the head, that grips the wire's insulation, inside the gripping jaws, is a pair of blades that cut through the wires insulation, the silver knob on the back of the head adjusts the tension of the cutters, so they only cut the insulation, and not the conductors, below the head is a second set of blades that are for cutting wires to length, the wire stripping jaws have millimetre length markings, to help you get the same amount of wire stripped off each time, (certain joints require short lengths of stripped wire, others long)

 This is how you use these wire strippers, hold them in one hand, put the wire that you want to strip the insulation from into the jaws, upto the length you need (for most things 15 mm is plenty), squeeze the handles, and the jaws will grip the wire's insulation, you'll feel resistance, squeeze harder and the cutter blades will come down into the wires insulation (the tension adjuster at the back will need to be set up for certain wire types, for standard automotive type wires, it needs to be pretty hard (screwed in far), for things like silicone covered wire, you'll need to back the adjuster off or it will cut into the conductor of the cable, if the tension is too loose for tough the wire, the blades will just scrape along the insulation, not actually cutting properly)
This is what happens when you squeeze the handles together tightly, the blades move backwards, stripping the insulation off the wire perfectly, don't worry if you reach the end of the travel, and the piece of insulation has not cleared the conductors, you pull that off manually afterwards.

 When your finished squeezing the handles, release them, and the jaws will open up again, releasing the freshly stripped wire like this.
Then just pull the cut insulation off the now bared wire, chuck it away as it's of no use anymore, you will then want to twist the strands of bared wire together, just grab the end of the bared wire like this, and twist clockwise, the strands will move around into a spiral position, keeping then together and preventing stray strands sticking out of the finished joint, causing potential shorts, or just looking untidy.

The automatic strippers are very easy to use, you get consistent bared wires using it, all at the same length if you take a second to put the wire into the mark you've been using, they cost about £10, you can get cheaper ones from the market, that don't have the tensioner, and for normal hard covered wire, they are usually fine for a while (the spring eventually goes weak, and the strippers fail to cut the insulation cleanly.. the ones with the tensioner adjuster can be tightened down again to over come that),

Another type of wire stripper is this type below.


These are kind of like normal pliers, but the teeth at the ends have V notches in them, and you adjust the amount the cut into the wires using the thumb screw on the side, put the wire in the V notches, and squeeze the handles, you have to pull the wire backwards your self, and there are no markings for stripping length, They are cheaper than the automatic type, but not by much.

And this is a combination wire stripper, wire cutter, bolt cutter and crimp tool, these are very cheap, and are mainly sold for making crimp connections (explained in the crimping section), the row of notches above the handles are for different sized of wires, they're cheap and cheerful, do the job, but you usually end up using the wrong size notch, and stripping a few strands of conductor as well as the insulation.

 And then you have the cheapest wire strippers of all, Almost everyone will have a pair of these, to use them, you open the jaws up a little, insert the wire to be stripped into the centre notches at the middle of the tool, close the jaws, and pull the wire out, the cutters bite through the insulation, and the action of  you pulling the wire backwards, strips the selected length of insulation off , the cut of piece of insulation stays inside the tool, until you open the jaws up again and retrieve it manually (certain makes of this tool keeps the bit of insulation for a while, chewing on it like it was a sweet, before finally spitting it out :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: To make any connection on a piece of wire, you need to remove some of the insulation and expose the inner conductor core, you want to remove just enough insulation to make a sound connection, too much, and you'll have the excess hanging out the back of the connection, that looks untidy, and will be the weakest link if wire is put under stress, wire used in motor vehicles is multi stranded, so it's flexible, but when you make a connection with the wire, the connector is not flexible, so unless the connector grips the insulation as well as the inner conductor, too much movement of the wire will cause the wire to break off where it goes into the connector, Strip too little insulation off, and you wont have enough exposed conductor to make an electrically sound connection, a basic guide is to strip off about 15mm of insulation for most connections. These are automatic wire strippers, they have a set of jaws at the front of the head, that grips the wire's insulation, inside the gripping jaws, is a pair of blades that cut through the wires insulation, the silver knob on the back of the head adjusts the tension of the cutters, so they only cut the insulation, and not the conductors, below the head is a second set of blades that are for cutting wires to length, the wire stripping jaws have millimetre length markings, to help you get the same amount of wire stripped off each time, (certain joints require short lengths of stripped wire, others long)   This is how you use these wire strippers, hold them in one hand, put the wire that you want to strip the insulation from into the jaws, upto the length you need (for most things 15 mm is plenty), squeeze the handles, and the jaws will grip the wire's insulation, you'll feel resistance, squeeze harder and the cutter blades will come down into the wires insulation (the tension adjuster at the back will need to be set up for certain wire types, for standard automotive type wires, it needs to be pretty hard (screwed in far), for things like silicone covered wire, you'll need to back the adjuster off or it will cut into the conductor of the cable, if the tension is too loose for tough the wire, the blades will just scrape along the insulation, not actually cutting properly)   This is what happens when you squeeze the handles together tightly, the blades move backwards, stripping the insulation off the wire perfectly, don't worry if you reach the end of the travel, and the piece of insulation has not cleared the conductors, you pull that off manually afterwards. When your finished squeezing the handles, release them, and the jaws will open up again, releasing the freshly stripped wire like this.   Then just pull the cut insulation off the now bared wire, chuck it away as it's of no use anymore, you will then want to twist the strands of bared wire together, just grab the end of the bared wire like this, and twist clockwise, the strands will move around into a spiral position, keeping then together and preventing stray strands sticking out of the finished joint, causing potential shorts, or just looking untidy. The automatic strippers are very easy to use, you get consistent bared wires using it, all at the same length if you take a second to put the wire into the mark you've been using, they cost about £10, you can get cheaper ones from the market, that don't have the tensioner, and for normal hard covered wire, they are usually fine for a while (the spring eventually goes weak, and the strippers fail to cut the insulation cleanly.. the ones with the tensioner adjuster can be tightened down again to over come that), Another type of wire stripper is this type below. These are kind of like normal pliers, but the teeth at the ends have V notches in them, and you adjust the amount the cut into the wires using the thumb screw on the side, put the wire in the V notches, and squeeze the handles, you have to pull the wire backwards your self, and there are no markings for stripping length, They are cheaper than the automatic type, but not by much. And this is a combination wire stripper, wire cutter, bolt cutter and crimp tool, these are very cheap, and are mainly sold for making crimp connections (explained in the crimping section), the row of notches above the handles are for different sized of wires, they're cheap and cheerful, do the job, but you usually end up using the wrong size notch, and stripping a few strands of conductor as well as the insulation. And then you have the cheapest wire strippers of all, Almost everyone will have a pair of these, to use them, you open the jaws up a little, insert the wire to be stripped into the centre notches at the middle of the tool, close the jaws, and pull the wire out, the cutters bite through the insulation, and the action of  you pulling the wire backwards, strips the selected length of insulation off , the cut of piece of insulation stays inside the tool, until you open the jaws up again and retrieve it manually (certain makes of this tool keeps the bit of insulation for a while, chewing on it like it was a sweet, before finally spitting it out :).