Does anyone have a wire stripping machine?

A few months ago I bought a motorized wire stripper. It has saved me many hours work. But it does have its off days and sometimes needs micro adjusting. Mine is the CO-Z model, about $150 on ebay. There are others that look exactly the same.

Does anyone have this model? Have you done anything to get better results?

In my first pic the allen head screw loosens up at times. If I tighten it too much I can not adjust the cutting wheel. The screw is about 1/8" wide but the slot in the big adjusting screw is maybe 3/16" so if I loosen the allen screw there is a lot of up/down play. I feed a wire and as soon as it hits the cutting wheel it pops up about 1-16". Also the cutting head has left/right play of maybe 5 thousands inch. This does not affect the cutting but it vibrates and makes too much noise. So I took off the safety cover and put C clamp.

On my last pic it shows the feed wheel. Most of the wire I strip (12ga or so) fits in the bottom V area. In all machines that is smooth. I took my Dremel machine and and put little scuffs all around. I just did this and I think I get better feeding traction.

Have you done anything to get better results?

Any one with same problems?

I know this is Chinese made (what isn't) but it is very will designed and very sturdy. Just a couple of quirks.
Has anyone tried to get parts? I see cutting wheel but that is it.

Mine is very much like yours Dan. The design is pretty good but there is a learning curve.

1: Look at the second pic. Look at the height adjustment knob. Next ... look at the nut that is touching the blue part.

That nut is a locknut that prevents the height adjustment from changing. Tighten that up with a wrench.You don't need the c-clamp -or- to tighten up the allen head screw.

2: Look at the first & second pics at the adjustable plate for the different wire thicknesses. The very top of whatever hole you are using on the plate should be a little bit below V-groove on the wheel. You get better traction that way.

3: 12 gauge wire isn't all the same. The plastic insulation is thicker on some and thinner on other kinds. You have to adjust the wheel height to the kind you're stripping.

If the wire is squeezing off to one side or the other of the cutting head ... you've got the wheel adjusted down too far.

If the copper wire inside is being scored by the cutting wheel ... you've got the adjustment down too far.

If there are any kinks or bends in the wire you're stripping ... it won't feed through the machine right. The wire you're stripping has to be straight. ( Cut off the insulated kinky ends first and keep em' in a bucket. You can sell those ones as ICW.)

Overall ... it's a pretty nice machine but the Chinese don't tell you anything at all about how to use it in the owner's manual. You have to figure it out for yourself through trial & error.

Word to the wise. Always wear gloves when working with wire. The insulation has rat poison & PFAS in it. The PFAS issue probably won't come into the national spotlight for a few more years but lawsuits against the manufacturers who used it in their products are in the works. It's not as bad as asbestos but it's nothing you want to get in your system if you can help it.

Edited to add: It's a cheap machine but it's fine for occasional use. The only spare part you should need is a new cutting wheel every so often. If it needs more than that ... just scrap it out and get a new one. They pay for themselves in pretty short order.

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Originally Posted by hills

Mine is very much like yours Dan. The design is pretty good but there is a learning curve.

1: look at the nut that is touching the blue part. That nut is a locknut that prevents the height adjustment from changing. You don't need the c-clamp -or- to tighten up the allen head screw.

2: Look at the first & second pics at the adjustable plate for the different wire thicknesses. The very top of whatever hole you are using on the plate should be a little bit below V-groove on the wheel. You get better traction that way.

3: 12 gauge wire isn't all the same. The plastic insulation is thicker on some and thinner on other kinds. the Chinese don't tell you anything at all about how to use it in the owner's manual.

The insulation has rat poison & PFAS in it. It's not as bad as asbestos but it's nothing you want to get in your system if you can help it.

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Thanks for the reply. I bought my stripper eight months ago and do very good with little problems. I know I have run thousands of feet through it.

Regarding your #1:
* That is a double locking nut. I hand tighten both and never have a loosining problem.
* The C-clamp has nothing to do with height adjustment moving. The blade holder and the blue "wall" vibrate and it bugs me. Too much tollerance, maybe .005". I think what I will do about that is put axel grease on both sides of the blade holder. A thin layer will stop the metal to metal noise.
* now the allen head screw is a different story. As I said in my original post the slit in the adjustment screw is wider than the set screw. Maybe by 1/16" I can literally see the blade head move up about that much when I run a wire. I semi-tighten the set screw and do some final adjustments to the blade and then tighten the set screw.

Your #2: Godd idea, I will try. I have always tried to feed the wier flat with the bottom of the V groove.

Your #3: So true. Even within a run of wire from the same spool I can tell the difference. Some wire strips nicely and some just gets a groove and I have to run through the machine a time or two. Yes, on the Chinese insrruction sheet is pretty bad. Very tiny type and horrible English.

Never heard of poisons in the insulation, have to read up on that.

I am happy with it. What I would like to do is have two solid rollers that smash the insulation, forget the cutting wheel. If I had a welder and laithe I could do this myself.

A scrapper friend of mine had the same idea of using two solid rollers as well.

He talks about scrapping out a treadmill for the parts some day but he hasn't gotten around to it just yet. I think it's something he dreams of. If you had the rollers held together with a spring somehow ... they might always be just right for crushing the insulation regardless of thickness variations.

I was thinking along the lines of something factory made. A thing called a sheet metal roller should do the crushing job ... in theory.

Back to the machine that you do have. You might try cutting the 12 ga solid into 2-3 foot lengths. You're apt to find that the wire feeds better and you get a more consistent cut. When it's in long lengths it tends to wiggle and twist around as it's going through.

Cut up a box full of shorter lengths and they will go through the machine like gangbusters. More time spend on prep makes for less time going through the machine.

As regards the poisons:

An electrician friend told me about the rat poison. I opened up a wall once and found both the hot and neutral wires had been stripped completely bare because a rodent had gotten inside the wall pocket and nibbled the insulation off for food. Most likely it happened when the place was closed up and the power shut off for the winter. It's a small miracle that the place never burned to the ground.

They're discovering that large sections of farmland here in Maine have been poisoned with PFAS. It's no good for growing human food anymore. Even the deer that have been out there grazing on the plants in that soil have gotten it into their systems and are unfit to eat.

It begs the question of how best to dispose of the insulation from the wire you've stripped. Around here .... all of our trash goes off to the incinerator. That seems to work okay because the PFAS breaks down at high temps. It's different with our lined landfills. The leachate runs off and has to be collected. That gets trucked off to a wastewater treatment plant but we're now finding the PFAS in the treatment plant sludge.

Jeez ... what a chemical cluster****.

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Originally Posted by hills

A scrapper friend of mine had the same idea of using two solid rollers as well.

He talks about scrapping out a treadmill for the parts some day but he hasn't gotten around to it just yet.

You might try cutting the 12 ga solid into 2-3 foot lengths.

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That is a good idea. I used to make jewelry and have used a rolling mill. They are not cheap ($180 */-) and not motorized. They will take small pieces of silver or gold sheets and compress them into thinner and longer sheets.

Today I did a few hundred feet of 10ga I cut all into 20" lengths and ran through my machine. After cutting down all they ran great. Took maybe 45 minutes to go through the stripper. They peel off good too, that takes longer.

I like that rolling mill. The price really isn't bad compared to sheet metal rollers. If you could attach a high torque / low speed electric motor where the crank handle fits on ? Maybe a DC motor from a motorized wheelchair ?

One thing i found with my stripper is that the very beginning and the very end of the wire doesn't always get a good cut. That can make it hard to start the peel.

Anyhow ... it's not a perfect machine but it's a lot better than anything i built over the years. Sure beats stripping it with a knife.

Now ... if i could only get the wire. It's much harder to come by now that the prices are up. The electricians in my area are either stripping it themselves or running it to the yard as ICW to pick up a little extra money these days.

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Originally Posted by hills

I like that rolling mill. The price really isn't bad compared to sheet metal rollers. If you could attach a high torque / low speed electric motor where the crank handle fits on ? Maybe a DC motor from a motorized wheelchair ?

One thing i found with my stripper is that the very beginning and the very end of the wire doesn't always get a good cut. That can make it hard to start the peel.

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I was thinking along the same line. I have an electric rototiller that might work. one of the gears that connects the motor to the tiller is stripped. (or that is what it sounds like, also sounds plastic) If I could buy replacement gears from maker that might work. Sunjoe is maker/seller. They have very good customer support. I also have their lawn mower and they have replaced it once. Everything is chinese made and quality is fair. Guess they are used to fixing or replacing. tiller is 2 years old and it is also a replacement. (they pay postage both ways too)

yes, most of the time 1/16 to 1/8" of plastic is not cut at top and a bit at the other end. A couple inches from the start I bend the wire into a U and pull straight. The plastic pulls away from the wire. Then I start to strip. Then eact to pull off end.

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Originally Posted by hills

I like that rolling mill. The price really isn't bad compared to sheet metal rollers. If you could attach a high torque / low speed electric motor where the crank handle fits on ? Maybe a DC motor from a motorized wheelchair ?

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How does this look? I am better at photoshop than the workshop. Take the two and adapt.

This forum will not let me add the photo. it says I have exceded my amount. Where do I delete my old photos?
I click on the button to click to view attachments and it take my to a smiley page.v:)v:)

It's hard to tell from the photo. ;)

I dunno ... maybe the graphics use up a lot more bandwidth ? Some forums limit their use out of necessity.

I was thinking that you might be able to couple a low speed DC electrical motor to the sheet metal roller with a Lovejoy brand flex coupling.

You could probably couple an AC motor to the sheet metal roller with a V- belt and the right size pulleys. A small one on the motor and a large one on the roller would probably give you the right speed reduction.

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Originally Posted by hills

It's hard to tell from the photo. ;)

I dunno ... maybe the graphics use up a lot more bandwidth ? Some forums limit their use out of necessity.

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I am not able to upload the photo. I have only uploaded 46 photos at 7.5MB total. I went to that page and there is no way to delete them.
I also started a "ticket" with the forum guru a few days ago and still no answer.

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Originally Posted by cyberdan

I am not able to upload the photo. I have only uploaded 46 photos at 7.5MB total. I went to that page and there is no way to delete them.
I also started a "ticket" with the forum guru a few days ago and still no answer.

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I don't understand they determine how many pics you you can upload. I always resize my photos on my phone and they are 1 MB or less. I currently have 345 pics uploaded using the forum site for a total of 321 MB. I opened a many tickets years ago asking what the maximum was and I'm still waiting for a reply.
Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer.

Well I got a strip meister original with gripper wheel I just got done doing 6-6-8 70lbs of insulated done in 3hrs had to remove grey jacket by hand then removed the ground then used stripper on 6awg also cut the wire into sections to make it faster. Then I have some 12/3 Romex simpull to do 70lbs of that should be fun batteries have to charge they ran outta gas haha.