Wire and Strippers question.

[mike_mccue]

Hi,
I am interested in doing some work with Teflon coated wire.

I occasionally build DIY guitar amps with cloth covered wire and place shrink wrap at each end.
I also do some general purpose work with modern insulated wire. Most of my work is large scale and ham-fisted compared to todays micro standards.

I have purchased a Pallidan stripper upon recommendation I received here and it has been great. Especially when I work on small microphone lines etc. I really like that tool and am glad it was recomended.


I would like to try speeding up my DIY guitar amp assembly time... but I don't want to use regular hook up wire where I might end up with some melted disfigurement. I have become use to the tidy appearance of the trimmed and wrapped cloth wire.

I thought perhaps, because I use so little wire that I can try Teflon wire, but my Pallidan is described as unsuitable for stripping Teflon.

Is there some other stripping tool that I might use to work as quickly and accurately as the Pallidan stripper does with vinyl type insulation?


Thanks for any advice you might share.


best regards,
mike

[jrfrond]

I'd go with Teflon wire. You don't have to worry about the insulation sagging and burning, but it IS pricier than PVC. Irradiated PVC wire stands up better to heat than standard PVC, so that's an option too. There's no advantage at all to cloth-covered wire except for aesthetics, and I never had a problem stripping Teflon with regular strippers. Technically, it's supposed to be thermal stripped, but whatever... it works.

[diagrammatiks]

just go a gauge bigger then you would normally with teflon...

i wouldn't go any smaller then 20-22.

should strip fine.

[mike_mccue]

Thanks for the advice. I didn't know what I might not know about Teflon.

This is the Paladin tool that I was speaking of:




I guess I should order up some wire and try it.


Thanks again.

best regards,
mike

[diagrammatiks]

Oh that's an auto-stripper huh?

I just use a klein tools one from home depot.

also unless you are buying brand name or mil spec wire teflon isn't anymore expensive then pvc anymore.

It's like .15 cents a foot max for 22awg.

[big_teee]

I'd go with Teflon wire. You don't have to worry about the insulation sagging and burning, but it IS pricier than PVC. Irradiated PVC wire stands up better to heat than standard PVC, so that's an option too. There's no advantage at all to cloth-covered wire except for aesthetics, and I never had a problem stripping Teflon with regular strippers. Technically, it's supposed to be thermal stripped, but whatever... it works.

John: I did a thread on better grade PVC or Topcoat and no luck.
Maybe you are talking about what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for the Pre tinned 20 ga wire that Is soldered all in one piece, but has a better grade of Insulation.
I have a tail piece that came off of a transformer that is what I'm looking for.
Where Can I buy this better grade of pretinned PVC wire?
Thanks in advance.
Terry

[cminor9]

Oh that's an auto-stripper huh?

I just use a klein tools one from home depot.

also unless you are buying brand name or mil spec wire teflon isn't anymore expensive then pvc anymore.

It's like .15 cents a foot max for 22awg.

I got some 20ga silver clad teflon wire at a local surplus place for .02 a foot. I bought hundreds of feet of it. Come to think of it, time to go back for more.

If you are fortunate enough to have a surplus place nearby, that might be a good bet.

[loudthud]

I use a thermal stripper on teflon wire and won't go back to anything else. The greatest advantage of the thermal stripper besides not nicking the wire is the low stress you put on the wire when stripping it. I strip one end of the wire from the spool and solder it in place. Then route the wire to it's destination and cut to length. Now you can strip the 2nd end of the wire without having to pull much of it from where it's routed and solder it in place.

[Enzo]

You know, I am a tool junkie, like I supose many of us are. But so seldom any more is there something I don;t have. I do not have a thermal stripper. I'm just gonna have to get me one, you have convinced me.

[big_teee]

Those Thermal strippers seem to cost big Bux!
What brand is most popular?
B_T

[mike_mccue]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Can you tell me anything about shopping for something like that?


best regards,
mike

[rf7]

Paladin makes a tool for stripping Teflon wire: Teflon wire stripper, but I've never had any luck with using it. And I worked at 2 different shops that had that stripper, and they never worked well. The thermal stripper is the way to go for Teflon wire. Just look on E-bay for a used one that works.

[km6xz]

ditto the thermal strippers. I use the Teledyne StripAll which I got surplus for $8. I've used it for 25 years and it looks to be good for another 25.
One issue with Teflon is the high wicking tendency. There is a high failure rate with Teflon wire if the joint is in an environment with any vibration and the joint was soldered without minimizing the wicking action. If in doubt, a high press style crimp connection will be more reliable.

The wicking come from the high heat conduction of the silver plated wire, the solder literally is sucked up under the insulation and the combination becomes very brittle. One way to reduce the wicking is to use a clip on heat sink like we used to use when soldering Germanium transistors. Also, leaving more room between the joint and the start of the insulation helps. For road worthiness, use crimp connections where possible, much better conductivity than solder filled joints. High current joints stay cooler if crimped well than soldered joints, plus the Teflon wire connection stays more flexible and vibration tolerant.

If set up correctly to handle it, Teflon wire is great, very abrasion resistant, high voltage and thin insulation, good for over 200C, stays flexible in freezing weather, chemically very stable, won't oxidize and change in flexibility and best of all, looks good. Do not set the temperature too high on the thermal strippers, the fumes are toxic...but so are the fumes I've inhaled over the decades in cleaners, lead solder, etc....

[Ronsonic]

My experience is that the Paladin isn't much good on teflon. But any standard stripper, if sharp and well fitted to the wire size will do a good job. You may need to give it a turn instead of just clamp and pull but it'll do the job just fine.

[Tom Phillips]

There is a discussion here http://music-electronics-forum.com/t9673/ in which R.G. posted the following link to a relatively inexpensive thermal wire stripper line.
The PTS-10 Patco Inc wire strippers, thermal wire stripper, wire stripper cutter, wire cutter, cable stripper, coaxial cable stripper, wire stripping, cable stripping tool Anyone used these?

They sell models for PVC & for Teflon. I’m a tool junkie too and have been considering getting one of their thermal wire strippers for Teflon but have not taken the plunge yet.

Tom