Showerthought: I've been stripping coax wrong for like 8 years

I was on a job last Tuesday at a house in Austin and the homeowner watched me strip a cable and asked why I was cutting the braid off with my knife instead of using the proper tool. He showed me his little strip tool that does it in one twist and I felt like a total idiot. How long did it take you guys to figure out you were doing basic stuff the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

wood.uma5d ago

Right, I actually read an article in some trade magazine a while back that said something like 60% of techs don't strip coax with the right tool. They just learn from whoever taught them and keep doing it that way forever. It's not your fault, it's just how the trade gets passed down. That homeowner probably felt like a hero showing you his trick, but honestly, the number of people who still use a knife on RG6 is WAY higher than you'd think. I switched to a compression style fitting kit years ago and it made my life ten times easier, no more nicking the center conductor with a blade. You're not an idiot, you just needed one person to show you the better way.

violag805d ago

Compression kits are fine but a good knife and steady hand never hurt anyone lol.

fiona_hunt715d ago

Oh come on, is it really that deep though? I mean I get that using the right tool is better, but I've been using a basic stripper I got at a hardware store for like 8 years and my connections work fine. Never had a call back about signal loss or anything. Half the time the problem is the cheap fittings people buy, not how you strip the wire.