Quote:
Originally Posted by Sperkowsky
The extremely flexible insulation can make it an extremely frustrating cable to put into power poles and in the end you usually have to cut more insulation off the wire then you really should. Your milage may vary, this is just what I've found from some experience.
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Silicon wire AKA Wet Noodle wire, tends to be a bit harder to strip then typical low strand count wire such as Zipwire which utilises PVC insulation. The reason that it is difficult is that unlike normal PVC insulation the silicon stretches rather than being "cut" by the wire stripper. After having a bit of difficulty myself, I came up with a method of stripping silicon wire for power-poles that I feel is quite effective.
-To start off with you measure the amount of insulation that needs to be removed, for this I hold the 45A PP contact next to the wire, keep in mind that you want wire strands in the smaller crimping part as well. I can't remember exactly, but I think that it is approximately 7mm of insulation that needs to be removed.
-Using a sharp blade of a box cutter, multitool or scalpel etc, start to cut around the insulation at the 7mm mark slowly rotating the wire. You need to be careful that you only cut the insulation and not the strands of wire( they are small and easy to damage, you want every strand possible for a good connection and lower resistance). You keep cutting until you have made a slice around the entirety of the wire, making two separate bits of insulation.
-You then line up the cut with the separator on the wire stripper and pull the insulation off, you could also use a pair of pliers for this.
This method ensures that the insulation is the exact length that you need, it also helps you when you are crimping it as the contact sits flush against the silicon. You can do a similar cutting action with a sharp pair of side-cutters. It is actually very quick to do once you have practiced enough,
Happy Crimping
I'll take some photos of the various stages in the next few days.