Good sidecutters?

[Olivertool]

Good afternoon.
I plan to change electrical wires in the whole country house, everywhere I lay NYM 3 by 1.5 and 3 by 2.5 mm.
Need a tool to remove the insulation of the outer shell and from the internal wiring.
What can I choose from this list spam link removed? thank

[themadhippy]

Need a tool to remove the insulation of the outer shell and from the internal wiring

Forget side cutters,a decent knife,not the  stanley variety,is much easier.

[Addicted2AnalogTek]

Good afternoon.
I plan to change electrical wires in the whole country house, everywhere I lay NYM 3 by 1.5 and 3 by 2.5 mm.
Need a tool to remove the insulation of the outer shell and from the internal wiring.
What can I choose from this list https://solderingironguide.com/reviews/best-wire-cutters/? thank

3 x 1.5mm and 3 x 2.5mm?  If you're in the USA like your country icon states, this is 16 AWG and 14 AWG.  More specifically, you'd mostly be using 2 conductor with ground wire.

For starters, current residential applications use 14-2 with ground for lighting only and 12-2 with ground for receptacles (outlet circuits). 
14-2 with 15 amp breaker at the panel ONLY and 12-2 with 20 amp or 15 amp breaker at the panel. If you run any smaller diameter conductor than 14AWG anywhere in your home wiring, you're creating a fire hazard, as there are no breakers smaller than 15A made for residential breaker panel applications.

You can safely install a 15A breaker on a circuit with wire no smaller than 14AWG, and 20A breaker with wire no smaller than 12AWG. (Assuming everything is wired correctly, with correctly twisted and wire-nutted connections, secured connections to screw terminals on outlets and switches, etc. etc.)

If you haven't done any residential wiring before, I'd suggest that you consult a professional journeyman or master electrician, as you can easily create fire hazards and potentially burn down your house and set fire to surrounding vegetation and/or structures.  There's a reason why CODE enforcement and the NEC (National Electrical Code) exist, and it's not just to be a pain in the butt.


If you're going to insist on performing the work yourself, call the local CODE enforcement office and make sure that you're outside of the area which requires a permit to perform such work. (In my case, outside of city limits.)
Get yourself a good, comprehensive home wiring guide.
Consult a licensed electrician and/or CODE enforcement officer regarding proper practices:

What size wire do I need for X application? What size breaker for these devices at X length of wire run?
Where must the wires be stapled? *answer is within 8" of any box entrance and every 32" of open run*
etc. etc.


Typical attitude of people I've observed before attempting to do construction related work:   "How hard can it be? Seems quite simple."
Typical attitude of engineers regarding construction work:    "I'm an engineer, dammit!  I can do your job better than you!"
Typical outcome of both:    "Shit!  I should have called in a professional..."

[helius]

I have a "K.Y.P." automatic cable stripper, like this:

They are also branded as C.K, Stanley, Irwin, and Gardner Bender. (and I found "Högert" and "Toolzone" branded pieces during my image search.) All these tools are identical except for the color.

It works pretty well on typical NM-B type jacketed cable. You can also use it to strip the wires, however I prefer using an Ideal Stripmaster to do that.


The cable stripper does not work on UF-B direct burial cable, because that does not use a loose jacket, but a rubber extrusion that surrounds the wires. To dress the wires you need to use a penknife (in the US, we call them X-Actos). You can also use the penknife to cut NM-B jacket, as long as you are careful not to nick the wire insulation. In some situations this is more convenient because the K.Y.P. tool is 10" long and requires more working space.

[Andrew LB]

Yeah, i know its from last year but this thread was a wealth of good info while informing my recent purchase of a pair of Lindstrom side cutters. They are absolutely incredible.


As for the previous post, I have a pair of automatic cable strippers like those made yellow ones made by Vise Grip and use them for everything from 10 gauge to as fine as 28 gauge with zero issues or damage to the conductor. They're especially nice when stripping solid conductor wire.

And while i know that guy wanting to rewire a house is probably long gone, I'd like to reiterate that if you think side cutters would be appropriate  for stripping 12/2 or 14/2 residential ROMEX wires, you have no business replacing a simple wall outlet, let alone rewiring an entire house. You will likely end up burning your house down, or at the very least fail inspection miserably, resulting in having to pay a professional a lot of money to re-do the entire job which will costs thousands of dollars.

A few years ago I did a complete rewire of a 3 bedroom home and while i'm not an electrician, i spent an incredible amount of time learning what is involved and all the procedures and code requirements necessary to do it properly. I also had a close friend who is an actual electrician on speed dial during the wiring process and paid him to do the actual panel installation and wiring of the breakers, bus bars, etc. It was a lot of work to rewire that house, and i took about 3x longer than a pro would have, but it was a great learning experience. When the city inspector came to check it out, he commented to my electrician friend who was standing there that it was one of the cleanest re-wiring jobs he'd ever seen. He then told the inspector that I did all the work, he just sat around and drank my beer. As you can imagine, i was stoked to hear that.

Back to a point i made earlier regarding breaker panels....  I don't care how confident you are in your wiring abilities, leave the panel to a professional. As someone who had the unfortunate experience of encountering an arc flash and lived to tell about it, heed my warnings on this. Had it been a 480v panel, i wouldn't be typing this right now.

[coppercone2]

what the electrician will do, is wire it, then take the time to reattach the panel with all the screws, tighten them, then turn it on

these accidents usually happen because its not neat, time is not taken, and people want to turn it on without the cover reattached.

Should a panel ever be live when the cover is taken off? Usually not, it means something is mondo fucked up if you need to do that. Should a panel be turned on for the first time ever without a cover? Never ever. I think people think that something will glow red hot so they can 'save' it. What you are supposed to do is turn it on for a while then look at it with a thermal camera after its deenergized to see if something is suspicious.

Also, the usual scientific method, don't do 15 jobs at once without testing them inbetween. You change one thing, verify it, secure it, leave it alone.

This all comes down to avoiding time savers to stay safe. Or thinking about how many more years you can get from the circuit breaker if you only turn it on ONCE to save money.

[Monkeh]

And while i know that guy wanting to rewire a house is probably long gone, I'd like to reiterate that if you think side cutters would be appropriate  for stripping 12/2 or 14/2 residential ROMEX wires, you have no business replacing a simple wall outlet, let alone rewiring an entire house. You will likely end up burning your house down, or at the very least fail inspection miserably, resulting in having to pay a professional a lot of money to re-do the entire job which will costs thousands of dollars.

And yet, much as I don't do it this way.. they're sufficient. Snip down the middle, split the jacket with the earth conductor, snip the jacket off. No fires involved.

ps. that was just a contextual spammer, and one from a different country with different wiring.

[coppercone2]

get the jacket stripping tool dude, its 4$

you need to buy the home depot electrical isle out when you do this (with the more expensive brands). Its still cheaper then a electrician. There is little bullshit there to waste money on.

That means
-get the little tightening wrenches for galvinzied tubing.
-get the insulated drivers
-get the insulated tools
-get the good flash light
-get the jacket stripper
-get all the other shit

Like I said, if you do any significant amount of work, its going to be cheaper, your hands will hurt less too.

[Monkeh]

get the jacket stripping tool dude, its 4$

Why.. would I buy a cheap tool for cables I don't use?

For a bonus comment:

Should a panel ever be live when the cover is taken off? Usually not, it means something is mondo fucked up if you need to do that.

It's called 'live testing' and is, in fact, something which needs doing in many places.

[coppercone2]

get the jacket stripping tool dude, its 4$

Why.. would I buy a cheap tool for cables I don't use?

it has a special blade that insures you won't nick anything and it saves your hands and you work more precisely. The noobs can use it. Most people are going to reach for a box cutter here.

Cables are fucking fancy shit. you need the right gear. Also, you respect bend radius of wires, you should not yank on a wire, even if you can. I feel like im watching bonobos peel bananas when I see ground wires being yanked.

All those tools ensure cleaner work with less chance of cable damage occurring. Then you can detect a fault.

What happens without the tool : ape picks up knurled pliers, digs way into the ground wire, yanks it too far, makes a 90 degree bend in the wire, ends up reusing the bit that was damaged with the pliers.

[Monkeh]

get the jacket stripping tool dude, its 4$

Why.. would I buy a cheap tool for cables I don't use?

it has a special blade that insures you won't nick anything and it saves your hands and you work more precisely. The noobs can use it. Most people are going to reach for a box cutter here.

Cables are fucking fancy shit. you need the right gear. Also, you respect bend radius of wires, you should not yank on a wire, even if you can. I feel like im watching bonobos peel bananas when I see ground wires being yanked.

I think you're missing the point. Look at the flag.

Peeling the jacket on a bit of romex isn't going to cause any damage.

[coppercone2]

get the jacket stripping tool dude, its 4$

Why.. would I buy a cheap tool for cables I don't use?

it has a special blade that insures you won't nick anything and it saves your hands and you work more precisely. The noobs can use it. Most people are going to reach for a box cutter here.

Cables are fucking fancy shit. you need the right gear. Also, you respect bend radius of wires, you should not yank on a wire, even if you can. I feel like im watching bonobos peel bananas when I see ground wires being yanked.

I think you're missing the point. Look at the flag.

Peeling the jacket on a bit of romex isn't going to cause any damage.

What happens without the tool : ape picks up knurled pliers, digs way into the ground wire, yanks it too far, makes a 90 degree bend in the wire, ends up reusing the bit that was damaged with the pliers. Then has to also straiten wire.

Release the psychos that manage to tighten lug nuts with box cutters.

[Monkeh]

What happens without the tool : ape picks up knurled pliers, digs way into the ground wire, yanks it too far, makes a 90 degree bend in the wire, ends up reusing the bit that was damaged with the pliers. Then has to also straiten wire.

You don't even need pliers - you can just use the cutters. It doesn't require much force to peel that crap.

[dreamcat4]

OK I think we are getting a bit side tracked here. More important thing to do is: please post a link for:

* lingstrom side cutters

* jacket stripping tool

If you think these things. That they are such a strong recommendation. If people dont want to get them then that is their issue. At least we will know which ones they are you guys are recommending here for us! Thank you

 


BTW another thing I was curious about:

Might be nice to know (since we are on this topic general) who here will bother to read the manufacturer specs on the breaker units to find the torque setting for the screw terminals. When wiring them up. And then actually torque them to spec which is to to ensure longest possible lifetime and safe guard against potential long term issue that may occur eventually if its either under or over torque by too much. Or if you otherwise think thats unnecessary bullshit because hand feeling through the screwdriver is close enough not to matter enough. So that is being unnecessary / over obsessive. Since i see qualified electricians who are all safe in all of these other respects when wiring panels. But do not bother to do that specific step (to torque with such an appropriate tool, to its documented manufacturer specs).

Perhaps if i saw it done by a German electrician maybe he more likely would... because you know how Germans are always going around talking about the 'preciseness' of everything. It matter so much to those guys

 

Also its so true what the other person here commented... that the standards indeed can vary considerably between countries. I am thinking old houses in the eastern european and russian states. They can be death traps almost. So whilst you might care for the 'main panel' they will say: 'Oh no problem! Nothing to worry about! There is no such 'main box' you speak of. Actually there is not word in our language for that. Here look - it is hole in ground leading through sewer.'

I'm not saying that it means to ignore safety. What I am saying is that the nature of the specific safety advice is naturally must be rather different in order to be as safe in more adverse operating conditions in other parts of the world. Not that I myself live in such places. So it would be nice to hear from others about those kinds of challenges.

[Monkeh]

Might be nice to know (since we are on this topic general) who here will bother to read the manufacturer specs on the breaker units to find the torque setting for the screw terminals. When wiring them up. And then actually torque them to spec which is to to ensure longest possible lifetime and safe guard against potential long term issue that may occur eventually if its either under or over torque by too much. Or if you otherwise think thats unnecessary bullshit because hand feeling through the screwdriver is close enough not to matter enough. So that is being unnecessary / over obsessive. Since i see qualified electricians who are all safe in all of these other respects when wiring panels. But do not bother to do that specific step (to torque with such an appropriate tool, to its documented manufacturer specs).

The yanks likely have no concept of this for normal terminals. Over here, such a contentious topic. Personally, I'm fine with doing them up by hand - if you're not doing lots of them. A professional running around doing stuff all day, every day? Sure, they've got a good feel for it - but they're still human and still make mistakes, and they get a lot of chances to do so. Remove the human element, because humans suck.

[themadhippy]

Snip down the middle, split the jacket with the earth conductor, snip the jacket off

AKA the cheese wire method,little chance of damaging  the other cores , quick,and you only need to carry 2 tools when second fixing,however it dont work so well on a bit of 120mm swa.
 Also i would like to add another vote for lindstrom , recently inherited  a pair of pliers that are as old,if not older than me,bit of wd40 to overcome several years sitting unused and they cut like  new ,6mm HO7,no problem.Unfortunately  the cable shears didnt fair so well,maybe  something to do with them  being used to prune roses for several years.

[coppercone2]

particularly if roses are fertilized with sulfur

For the torque wrenches,
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/wiha/28750/431-2133-ND/8569546?utm_adgroup=Screw%20and%20Nut%20Drivers%20-%20Bits%2C%20Blades%20and%20Handles&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping_Tools&utm_term=&utm_content=Screw%20and%20Nut%20Drivers%20-%20Bits%2C%20Blades%20and%20Handles&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuKCCzbHD6QIVBYbICh2E2gUEEAQYByABEgIZrvD_BwE

https://www.wihatools.com/fixed-torque-thandles




Problem is, with service in USA, no one knows shit on old systems

Something that I am looking to add is big round nose pliers for bending nice loops.


Also, not ALL the german tools are great. Some are just german. I had a combo cable stripper and jacket knife that was horrible. It had a double ended blade fixed to a blade of metal spring loaded to the handle. No knife control on thick insulation since it was built like a hooked dagger built into a razor blade. It worked, but I had to be really careful using that tool to get the job done. It felt really flimsy because it was dangerous to use, and after you used it for a few hours non stop your brain kinda turns off and the tool becomes way dangerous as you get tired. It does allow you to do the job perfectly at first though.

[themadhippy]

only torqued terminations on one contract,but that also required the use of threadloc on every screw terminal,and as mentioned above you do get a feel for the correct tightness,and give the wires a tug just to be sure.

[Doctorandus_P]

I dislike wiha tools a lot.
Quality of the tools themselves is quite nice, but the plastic they use for handles and such is horrible. Within just a few years it often deteriorates so much you can peel it off with a finger nail.

[Monkeh]

only torqued terminations on one contract,but that also required the use of threadloc on every screw terminal,and as mentioned above you do get a feel for the correct tightness,and give the wires a tug just to be sure.

It's not really optional now. Manufacturer's instructions and all that.

[coppercone2]

only torqued terminations on one contract,but that also required the use of threadloc on every screw terminal,and as mentioned above you do get a feel for the correct tightness,and give the wires a tug just to be sure.

you need to go by manufacturers directions when dealing with threadlocker, it gets complicated

threadlocker requires a clean connector without grease, has some kind of cure time prior to install, and it expires, smells bad, has different tightening properties. No idea what happens if you try to add threadlocker to a torque specified joint that was specified without threadlocker either.

[dreamcat4]

I dislike wiha tools a lot.

Thats fine just get the wera torque vde driver kit instead then. Also seems to be cheaper here (bat least in europe area).

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B06XF2B539/

Looks clumsy so also not everybody is going to like that one either. But they also provide a 2nd backup slimmer not-torque handle too in same kit.

Still waiting for links to those myserious

* londstrom side cutters

and

* $4 jacket stripping tool

[Neomys Sapiens]

You need this?

https://www.lindstromtools.com

I also recommend Erem and those:
https://www.bernstein-werkzeuge.de

[BradC]

No idea what happens if you try to add threadlocker to a torque specified joint that was specified without threadlocker either.

You overtorque the joint. The correct way to do it is to measure the fastener stretch on a series of correctly torqued "clean and dry" joints, then apply threalocker and measure the torque required to achieve the same stretch. That's pretty hard on tiny little screws captive in a breaker/terminal strip.

[coppercone2]

i could see that being done on a floating bus bar. How to do it inside a complex electrical assembly like a subassembly? Some might be accessible with special micrometers/calipers but IDK its hard

Some stuff with a exposed lug maybe you can take out on a bench to test

it would be a whole boondogle to figure out an old system to make sure stuff did not get loosened out of spec

then how do you qualify loctite to get a repeatable torque spec? Measure its viscosity? I guess you don't really need to know unless its a business.