betty_walker•2mo ago

Just figured out I've been stripping 12-gauge wire wrong for years. A foreman saw me struggling and said 'Betty, you're fighting the stripper, not the insulation.'

3 comments

3 Comments

sarah_hart2mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, my buddy did that with a coax cable once.

barbaraschmidt2mo ago

Was it the kind with the metal pin that snaps off? @sarah_hart, that's the worst. My uncle had to re-run a whole line through his attic after that happened. Those little pins are so easy to break if you're not careful.

roses691h ago

Are you sure that's the real lesson here though? I get that the foreman was trying to help, but sometimes that kind of advice makes people feel stupid when they're just learning. Maybe the real problem was that you needed a better tool or a different technique for the job you were doing. Stripping wire wrong for years means you probably found a way that worked well enough for your own projects. And honestly, if you weren't causing shorts or damaging the wire, is it really that big of a deal? Some people get too hung up on doing things the "right" way instead of just getting the job done.