October 25, 2024

Electrical - wires and such

This deserves a whole section, but I just want to cover one hot tip I just discovered.

Stripping rebellious wire

I bought some fluorescent fixtures at home depot years ago. Inside they say "American fluorescent corporation", but I have my doubts about the American part. The ballasts have all failed and been replaced, and some of the replacement ballasts are failing and getting replaced. Once I use up the replacement ballasts I have on hand, I am switching to direct wired LED "bulbs".

But the topic here is the wire. The cheapest, most horrible wire imaginable was used in these things. It was impossible to strip until I learned this trick. Use the stripper to chop the insulation where you would like it to be stripped to. Don't waste time trying to pull it off. Get some pliers with smooth jaws and crush the insulation past where you "chopped it". Crush it to a flat ribbon -- this decouples the insulation from the wire inside, Then use the stripper to pull it off as you normally would. Discovering this has saved my sanity.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Home repair pages / tom@mmto.org