Since the main power leads will already be in place under the layout and above my head. I was wondering if anyone has found an easy way to strip the wire for attaching the track feeder wires. I was also wondering if attaching the main power leads to bus bars around the layout, then running the feeds to them would a viable alternative.
Thanks Don Altenberger
In german this tool is called "Absetzzange". It cuts the isolation and shifts it back. This works well in the middle of a wire. I use it exactly for what you asked for :-).
Regards, Kurt
Our club layout did a rewiring for DCC last year. They ran the bus wires (14AWG) and then used a wire striper to make the cuts in the insulation. The problem was they thought using the one type of stripper that would push the insulation aside was a good idea. It was a handled thing that did a nice job of striping an end but what they forgot was if you try pushing in the middle, that extra insulation has to go somewhere. So it would bunch, kink, and sometime crowd out the prior spots they were trying to attach wires to, not very pretty.
At a different club, and any time I'm doing it, we make two cuts in the insulation, about a quarter inch apart. Then you take a knife and make a slit along the wire splitting the insulation. Remove that piece of insulation. Then you can make your wraps and solder to the wire. I cover the final work with a short wrap of the 'fusible' electric tape, that's the stretch rubber type. Other types didn't seem to hold up over time as well. Painting on the 'liquid tape' also works well but if you have to redo something it's a real mess.
And when you are doing the connections, I always take one drop and bind it one direction and then bind the other drop in the other direction. My reason is the tension of the curve of the wire will help hold the two points on the bus apart. So while working on it, and it's not insulated, the odds of a short are held lower.
If I can dig up a digital camera with a good close-up setting, I'll post pictures of bother methods on the respective club sites.
Hi Don,
Radio Shack has a Kronos wire stripper for $12.95 that might work. However, this tool (picture) looks like you have to manually select wire size.
I use a Gardner Bender Automatic Wire Stripper -- looks like their Model SE-94 -- that _does_ work. This stripper adjusts to wire size and separates the insulation (one squeeze does it all) so you can solder a drop right around the wire.
Be careful, some automatic strippers are End strippers only - they won't open up the insulation.
I had to do some searching to find the GB stripper - it used to be at Radio Shack - but finally found it listed at
When I was a kid and didn't know there were such things as wire strippers, I used a lighter to heat the insulation on the wire then a long finger nail to scrape it off.
Crude but effective.
Try this tool from Loys Toys (I have no affiliation):
Ed
in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Dori at snipped-for-privacy@zerokids.net wrote on 3/13/06 2:27 AM:
I have used the tip of a hot soldering iron to strip the middle of a wire, especially when I don't want the wire to get nicked.
I just slice a small piece of insulation , 1/4" or so , off the side with a utility knife or pocket knife and then make a cut on each end with a wire stripper and pop that piece off. I use a small Ideal brand stripper. I think it's a T4 , not sure but any similiar stripper would be OK. It's quick and easy to do this way. Easist way I've found.
Ken Day
What you need is a wire stripper that's settable to the wire gauge. Then all you need to do is a couple quick twirls around the buss wire to strip at two points, and then cut a line between them with a razor blade knife. The cylinder of insulation will then just peel off.
Alternatives are using a 'vampire tap' splice, or uninsulated wires. The latter makes avoiding shorts difficult, and I don't recommend it. The former are expensive, but pretty nice. *
Dori spake thus:
I'd say the majority opinion here, which I agree with, is that it's best just to make two cuts in the insulation a short distance apart and slice the insulation open between them, exposing the wire. Don't even bother with wire strippers; just use a good knife. (This assumes you're using solid wire. Stranded would work but might be more prone to breaking strands this way.)
The best connection would be to solder the feeders to the bus. Shouldn't be hard to do, assuming you have good access to the area.
Majority opinion or not, I still like the wire stripper which LoysToys sells. I've tried all of the suggested methods; with thick gauge wire (#12), cutting as suggesed below works OK. But with stranded wire (more flexible), or with smaller wire (ie.#18 for feeders), cutting tends to nick the wires, or the actual wire size is pretty small.
Once I bought the stripper (it's about $12.5 (+S&H), stripping mid wire became extremely easy, and I like it better for stripping the ends, too. Since there is NO blade, you can't nick or cut the actual wire; if you try it on too small a wire gauge, it will break the wire unless you take care. I've used it on as small as #28 gauge wire.
Ed
in article 4415d952$0$3692$ snipped-for-privacy@news.adtechcomputers.com, David Nebenzahl at snipped-for-privacy@but.us.chickens wrote on 3/13/06 12:43 PM:
Edward A. Oates spake thus:
So how does it push the insulation apart without bunching it up? I'm curious.
Despite netiquette, I hate bottom posting and won't do it. I've been using the internet since 1968 (original government stuff and usenet), so don't lecture me. The internet is at least partially about choices, and if you don't like my top posting, the "rule" me out.
Ed
in article 4415dd6d$0$3692$ snipped-for-privacy@news.adtechcomputers.com, David Nebenzahl at snipped-for-privacy@but.us.chickens wrote on 3/13/06 1:00 PM:
An alternative to stripping and soldering is to use tap splices. They're a lot faster and easier. They pierce the insulation and require just one squeeze of a pair of pliers. The only problem is that they're made for connecting two wires of the same (or near same) size.
Bus bars are a perfectly viable alternative.
-- Bill McC.
Edward A. Oates spake thus:
Well, OK. However, due your ranting, you didn't answer my question (about how your wire stripper manages not to bunch up the insulation as it pushes it apart).
Speaking of top/bottom posting:
back to front). (like trying to read a book from everything is in reverse order do when you top post, since written? That's what you have to from bottom to top, like this is Do you actually like to read text
I always figured the bottom posters (eeeuuuwwww - visions of Vlad the Impaler) just either hadn't yet procured a decent threaded newsreader or had but hadn't figured out to read stuff in thread order.
in article 4415f20d$0$3695$ snipped-for-privacy@news.adtechcomputers.com, David Nebenzahl at snipped-for-privacy@but.us.chickens wrote on 3/13/06 2:28 PM:
...stuff deleted...
Just so Mr. Nebensahi doesn't lecture me again on bottom, top, or sideways posting...I'll bottom post this time.
My reasons for top posting and preferring it go back to my original usenet days (where I lost the netiquette battle, though there was a substantial minority (OK, there were only a few dozens of us at the outset) who agreed with me. In a LONG series of replies, you don't see the latest stuff on the initial screen, but must scroll down to it. I much prefer to see the latest stuff first, and if I've been following the discussion, I know the context. If not, the I get to scroll to catch up. It is a preference. Like when people leave me phone messages with their phone numbers at the end of a 10 minute message which I didn't want to hear anyway. Oh, well, we disagree: not a surprising even here in the news groups.
4, You are correct that I should bottom post for consistency so that posts either read from top to bottom or bottom to top, not top to middle back to mid top, to bottom, up to middle....
Tell you what, in the interests of netiquitte, I'll set my reader to bottom post even though it makes me reset my point above my sig because bottom puts my sig in, then set the insertion point below that...yikes! Microsoft strikes again (Entourage).
in article 14wmuw6isb50w$.qr85wpt576ni$. snipped-for-privacy@40tude.net, Steve Caple at snipped-for-privacy@commoncast.net wrote on 3/13/06 2:28 PM:
No, my MS newreader (Entourage) almost does the right thing. I fixed it by wriing a script which I will use to reply so appease the (eeuuuwwwww) bottom-post-a-phobics. But since I've been useneting and emailing for about
38 years (including pre-arpanet release testing), at least I have old guy status going for me. And in a few hours, I'll forget this entire thread ;-}I've always used a stripper of some kind from the cheap sissors kind to fancy expensive ones, whatever was available to me at the moment. I've never worried about the piling up of the insulation on one side but rather do my soldering away from it so that eventually it will come back and cover over most of the stripped area. I'll note that you often have to be quick as the insulation often likes to come back to where it was.
-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?
"Bill McCutcheon" wrote in news:jZlRf.3788$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net:
Bill,
At our club, we have been using Scotchlok IDC T-Tap Disconnects for attaching feeder wires to bus wires. The T-Tap is an insulation displacement connector that is attached to bus wire. We use lineman's pliers to squeeze the tap onto the bus wire, but I suppose any good pliers would do. The tap provides a connection for the feeder wire. Just crimp a standard 1/4 in. male blade connector onto the end of your feeder wire, and it will fit the tap. The big advantage of this system is that connections can be broken, and then reattached, which can be helpful when you are trying to track down a short.
We have been purchasing the taps from Mouser. Here is a link to the catalog page:
The male blade connectors we have been able to purchase at Home Depot.
Hope this helps.
Alton Highsmith
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