For the record, I got a cold heat soldering iron (including a second
set of these strippers) for Christmas and y'know? It works pretty darn
well. I don't use it as my every day soldering iron, but you can bet
it will be in my tool box when, for example, I take my combat robots to
competition. The trick to them appears to be be *gentle* with the tips.

-Jim

You mean that thing actually works?! I'm amazed....I made fun of it
everytime I saw
the commercial.

Bruce

On 2005-02-09 08:42:47 -0700, "Bruce Mercer" said:

For the record, I got a cold heat soldering iron (including a second
set of these strippers) for Christmas and y'know? It works pretty darn
well. I don't use it as my every day soldering iron, but you can bet
it will be in my tool box when, for example, I take my combat robots to
competition. The trick to them appears to be be *gentle* with the tips.

-Jim

You mean that thing actually works?! I'm amazed....I made fun of it
everytime I saw
the commercial.

Bruce

Yeah, I tried it soldering a wire to a tube socket. Nothing major.
Worked as advertised. Obviously it *was* hot while melting the solder.

--
-Jim Strickland

"Ken Scharf" wrote in message
. ..
......................... snip .......................
someone was selling just the wire strippers. I got two of the
smaller ones good for .2-3mm wire (what's that in AWG?) and
one of the larger ones good for .2-6mm wire for $20.

From page 61 of Northern Electric "Electrical conductors handbook".
"Standard copper wire AWG" "1968"
AWG Diam. Diam.
Inches Millimetres.

56 0.0005 0.012
54 0.0006 0.016
52 0.0008 0.020
50 0.0010 0.025

48 0.0013 0.032
46 0.0016 0.040
45 0.0019 0.047
44 0.0020 0.051

43 0.0022 0.056
42 0.0025 0.064
41 0.0028 0.071
40 0.0031 0.079

39 0.0035 0.089
38 0.0040 0.102
37 0.0045 0.114
36 0.0050 0.127

35 0.0056 0.142
34 0.0063 0.160
33 0.0071 0.180
32 0.0080 0.203

31 0.0089 0.226
30 0.0100 0.254
29 0.0113 0.287
28 0.0126 0.320

27 0.0142 0.361
26 0.0159 0.404
25 0.0179 0.455
24 0.0201 0.511

23 0.0226 0.574
22 0.0253 0.643
21 0.0285 0.724
20 0.0320 0.813

19 0.0359 0.912
18 0.0403 1.020
17 0.0453 1.150
16 0.0508 1.290

15 0.0571 1.45
14 0.0641 1.63
13 0.0720 1.83
12 0.0808 2.05

10 0.1019 2.588
8 0.1285 3.264
6 0.1620 4.115
4 0.2043 5.189

3 0.2294 5.877
2 0.2576 6.543
1 0.2893 7.348
1/0 0.3249 8.252

"Ken Scharf" wrote in message
. ..
Anybody remember that cold head soldering iron advertised on tv
a while back? It was supposed to come with a pair of these
neat looking wire strippers. Well today at the Miami hamfest
someone was selling just the wire strippers. I got two of the
smaller ones good for .2-3mm wire (what's that in AWG?) and
one of the larger ones good for .2-6mm wire for $20.
These really are cool wire strippers, they quickly strip
any guage wire (in the supported range) without nicking the
wire. They even appear to work on some wire wrap wire that
is usually impossible to strip except with hard to find
'no-nick' brand cutters. (though you have to be carefull to
put the wire in the right hand side of the cutters where
the opening is a bit wider.

I don't know about the ww wire where you are, but the cheap manual wrapping
tools that Radio Shack used to sell work fine for stripping here, they had
that built in hole with a sheet metal plate with an angled slot that you
just pulled the wire into then pulled the wire down. I wrapped many a board
with just that tool, I never did like the power wrapping tools I bought. I
also didn't like the manual tools that held the spools of wire that you
didn't strip since they wrapped tight enough that the posts cut thru the
insulation.

Of course this is a hobbyist view, if I had to wrap dozens of boards a day
instead of one every couple of months I'm sure I would have a differenet
opinion of wrappers.
thanks, John.
KC5DWD

john graesser wrote:
"Ken Scharf" wrote in message
. ..

Anybody remember that cold head soldering iron advertised on tv
a while back? It was supposed to come with a pair of these
neat looking wire strippers. Well today at the Miami hamfest
someone was selling just the wire strippers. I got two of the
smaller ones good for .2-3mm wire (what's that in AWG?) and
one of the larger ones good for .2-6mm wire for $20.
These really are cool wire strippers, they quickly strip
any guage wire (in the supported range) without nicking the
wire. They even appear to work on some wire wrap wire that
is usually impossible to strip except with hard to find
'no-nick' brand cutters. (though you have to be carefull to
put the wire in the right hand side of the cutters where
the opening is a bit wider.


I don't know about the ww wire where you are, but the cheap manual wrapping
tools that Radio Shack used to sell work fine for stripping here, they had
that built in hole with a sheet metal plate with an angled slot that you
just pulled the wire into then pulled the wire down. I wrapped many a board
with just that tool, I never did like the power wrapping tools I bought. I
also didn't like the manual tools that held the spools of wire that you
didn't strip since they wrapped tight enough that the posts cut thru the
insulation.

Of course this is a hobbyist view, if I had to wrap dozens of boards a day
instead of one every couple of months I'm sure I would have a differenet
opinion of wrappers.
thanks, John.
KC5DWD


The only good way to wire wrap is with the battery operated
tool with the bit inside the sleeve. (Gardner-Denver)
The self stripper tools
had to be used with special wire that stripped easily.
BTW I have this huge spool of teflon insulated ww wire (30g)
that is real tough to strip. Got it surplus.

On 08/02/2005 1:52 PM, john graesser wrote:
"Ken Scharf" wrote in message
. ..

Anybody remember that cold head soldering iron advertised on tv
a while back? It was supposed to come with a pair of these
neat looking wire strippers. Well today at the Miami hamfest
someone was selling just the wire strippers. I got two of the
smaller ones good for .2-3mm wire (what's that in AWG?) and
one of the larger ones good for .2-6mm wire for $20.
These really are cool wire strippers, they quickly strip
any guage wire (in the supported range) without nicking the
wire. They even appear to work on some wire wrap wire that
is usually impossible to strip except with hard to find
'no-nick' brand cutters. (though you have to be carefull to
put the wire in the right hand side of the cutters where
the opening is a bit wider.


I don't know about the ww wire where you are, but the cheap manual wrapping
tools that Radio Shack used to sell work fine for stripping here, they had
that built in hole with a sheet metal plate with an angled slot that you
just pulled the wire into then pulled the wire down. I wrapped many a board
with just that tool, I never did like the power wrapping tools I bought. I
also didn't like the manual tools that held the spools of wire that you
didn't strip since they wrapped tight enough that the posts cut thru the
insulation.

Of course this is a hobbyist view, if I had to wrap dozens of boards a day
instead of one every couple of months I'm sure I would have a differenet
opinion of wrappers.
thanks, John.
KC5DWD


When I used to work for an engineering firm, we used to prototype in
wirewrap. Generally, we'd wrap up a handful of modules for testing.
Production would be properly soldered boards (I once assembled 200 of
'em myself when we were in a pinch.) This was almost all digital
electronics, but a fair amount of the control was discrete parts (we had
a lot of buffers and drivers, since this stuff talked to 500v grain
elevator hardware), with an EPROM running the show.

We found the only way to maintain a prototype over weeks was with tight,
self-stripping connections. Mostly because we ended up unwrapping
things a fair amount, and then re-wrapping with fresh connections. We
tried the simpler tools that you strip by hand, but they kept losing the
mechanical connection to the posts after a few weeks of digging around
and re-wrapping, which caused spurious and hard to diagnose problems.
Once we switched to the right post and wrap combo, things were much easier.

Obviously, this is about using the right tool for the application. I
haven't wrapped wire in years, so at this point I'd be likely to stick
it in my eye or something.