Any advice on how to SOFTEN the Insulation on wire?

**TheDude80** · 10-15-2014, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by JayBear480

If it were summer, I wouldn't even need a razor, just a moist towelette and the ****ed stuff would fall right off. It's starting to get cool out, I just spent the night (midnight-5am) scrapping in my backyard wearing sandals and my toes are quite cold. I think the temperature has been dropping to the low 70's, almost sweater weather BRRRRRRRRRRRR! (Irony is that I grew up in New England....my how the blood thins)

How much? Maybe 5 to 8 pounds, give or take. I strip about 80% of all wire I get ("Communication Wire" excluded, the kind with several tiny, individually insulated wires inside of the main, outer insulation.) The thin #2 wire you find inside of a TV (from inside of TVs and other items I break down) and power cords/similar are the only types of wire I regularly get, so wire like this, while not a big deal to most, is a rare occurrence for me. It's a little thicker than the solid core wire you find behind the control panels/whatever they're called on the front of Water Heaters.

Not sure if this would help, but have you tried a hook blade instead of a straight blade? It's what I use to cut roofing shingles which are probably about as thick as the coating on the wire you're referring to. If its 70 out (which you should know is not cold coming from New England

) and the rubber coating is warm a hook blade should work much better. You just have to make sure and pull up on the blade as you slide it down the wire, otherwise it will keep getting caught up. Hope this helps.

**newattitude** · 10-15-2014, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by TheDude80

Not sure if this would help, but have you tried a hook blade instead of a straight blade? It's what I use to cut roofing shingles which are probably about as thick as the coating on the wire you're referring to. If its 70 out (which you should know is not cold coming from New England

) and the rubber coating is warm a hook blade should work much better. You just have to make sure and pull up on the blade as you slide it down the wire, otherwise it will keep getting caught up. Hope this helps.

Omigosh, two weeks ago I spent the day FREAKING out separating this stuff from a mess of KE-RAP that the boss bought at auction because a buyer was coming for it and he was freaking out that it was ready (6 gaylords worth). I used a hook stripper to make sure if it was copper vs AL and it hardly even made a dent in the stuff (pretty sure its what the OP is talking about: #1 heavy and the coating was HARD!!!!!!!). I dulled one blade in like 15 minutes and well, lets just say I learned REAL fast how to tell if it were AL vs copper vs #2 without a blade.

If I ever found this stuff on the side of the road I'd just negotiate for a better price (if I had enough to make that kind of price difference and say eff it and move on to the next project).

I'm not sure anything would soften this stuff, not even a nuclear blast lol.