Introduction: Precision Wire Stripper - New Video Links

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Manual rotary wire stripper from a Bic pen, a screwdriver, and a razor blade.

I recently bought a spool of 30AWG teflon wire. I thought it would be great for prototyping, because a hot soldering iron won't melt the insulation. Well, it's sort of not great at all... the problem is this wire is hard to strip. None of my wire strippers worked, including my DIY "hot tweezer" stripper. The only way I could strip it was with a a razor blade and a lot of care. So after a lot of thought and a couple of other prototypes, I came up with this.

Here's a video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJzRcn9hIZU

Here's a vid of my homemade nichrome wire tweezer stripper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2hXvcF6ANU

Step 1: Action

A V-shaped cutting edge resides on the end of the tip. You hold the wire in a pair of pliers, like so, and you slip the tool over the wire. Holding the tool flat against the pliers, you position so that the blades contact the insulation. Then you carefully twist the tool, keeping pressure towards the wire.

Make one or two complete revolutions.

Step 2: Stripped!

Now, dislodge the tool from the wire. As you are slipping the tool off of the wire, you can now grab the insulation with the tool and slide it off.

If you think this is a lot of trouble to strip a wire... it is. But if you have ever stripped 30AWG teflon wire and know of a better way, then please post it!

FYI, a "hot tweezer" stripper works great on regular wrapping wire.

Step 3: Construction

Take a Bic pen. Remove the collet that holds the tip. Save for later. Cut the barrel into several one-inch sections.

Take some standard razor blades, as for window scraping. Put on safety glasses. Snap them into little bits. Keep snapping until you get two good size blades for each bit of pen barrel.

Lay the blades out into little "V" shapes.

Now mix up some epoxy. Apply to end of pen barrel and press down over the razor blades, so that the blades fit basically like so, in the picture. Repeat for the remaing sets. Let epoxy set.

Using a Dremel and cutting wheel, grind the excess parts of the razor blade away, until it looks like the pic.

Now take your screwdriver, and cut the tip off of it. Take the pen collet and stuff the end of the screwdriver in it. After you are sure it fits properly, make it permanent using super glue. Now you can slip the blades onto the screwdriver, and when they get dull, you have replacements ready to go.