Who cuts all the cables when removing test equipment????.........

[Calambres]

In my country (Spain) it is mandatory to remove (cut) the power cables from the appliances prior to disposal.
Workers at official disposal points advise you to cut all other cables connected to those appliances.

[Zoli]

It's not just non-technical people who do this.  For some cable television technicians, they do service de-installations by simply cutting the coax near the tap instead of unscrewing the F-connector.

I understand that. Those F connectors are a PITA, with corrosion causing the thread to jam. Why bother with the risk of a problem occurring, when you can get away with a simple snip?

Cut, then remove with deep socket drive - that's the easiest and proper way to deal with corroded connectors in my experience(OK, maybe add some weasel piss  ).

[Bud]

They do you a favour by preserving the panel connectors and keep them from damage 

[BrokenYugo]

It's good practice in automotive salvage, always nice to have free pigtails and none of the connectors chewed up. Nobody is pulling a body harness so no harm in cutting on that side.

For used test gear it seems a little crude, but presumably you're paying bottom dollar if it was uninstalled junkyard parts picker style.

[pdenisowski]

In my country (Spain) it is mandatory to remove (cut) the power cables from the appliances prior to disposal.

Interesting.  I haven't bought any appliances in the EU / UK lately, but in the "old days" I seem to recall that you also had to also attach the power cable when you bought them.

[wasedadoc]

In my country (Spain) it is mandatory to remove (cut) the power cables from the appliances prior to disposal.

Interesting.  I haven't bought any appliances in the EU / UK lately, but in the "old days" I seem to recall that you also had to also attach the power cable when you bought them.

Those old days are long gone.

[wraper]

Removing properly takes quite a bit of time, you cannot just pull these out. If your task is removing the equipment as fast and cheap as possible, that's pretty much what you'll do. Also entities that are removing and reselling/recycling/disposing this stuff most likely have different priorities.