How to strip outer plastic from very skinny wire?

May 24, 2024 5:48 PM

For a simple (ha) DIY home lamp repair project, I need to figure out how to strip a few centimeters of plastic from a very skinny wire. Is there a fairly easy and foolproof way to do this?

That is the whole question.

posted by PaulVario to Technology (16 answers total)

If you don't have a wire stripper (which is really the tool you need if you don't want to accidentally slice through all the filaments in the wire bundle, take the wire to a hardware store and ask if they have an open wire stripper you can test out.
posted by yellowcandy at 5:50 PM on May 24 [6 favorites]

Lay the wire flat on a table. Use a single edge razor blade held mostly flat on the wire to shave the insulation off one side. Repeat until you have enough of a gap to slide the wire through, then cut the remaining piece of insulation off.
posted by disconnect at 6:18 PM on May 24 [3 favorites]

Wire stripper.

Improvised methods run the risk of cutting through the wire, meaning you may have to extend / replace it, and now you've got two problems. Use the right tool for the job.
posted by Sauce Trough at 7:19 PM on May 24 [8 favorites]

For the super skinny ones, you can usually nick the insulation with scissors, the pinch the wire at the nick, and pull it straight off.
posted by advicepig at 7:21 PM on May 24 [3 favorites]

When I was a kid I'd bite the wire into the gap of my front teeth, then pull.

But I like the "visit the hardware store and ask" answer better.
posted by Marky at 11:07 PM on May 24 [3 favorites]

If you have a heat gun, gently heat up the end of the wire until the insulation becomes gooey, grab it and pull it off. Do not use open flame because of a) nasty fumes and b) if the insulation catches fire the cores become brittle and as stated already, you now have two problems.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:41 PM on May 24

For very thin wire, most mechanical means pose the risk of nicking or breaking the wire.
If the insulation can be softened by heat, then grasping and pulling on the wire will remove the insulation. (On preview what Stoneshop said above.) Some soldering guns have tips meant for cutting or forming plastic which do a neat job of melting the insulation in one spot.

If the insulation is not softened by heat, then you will need other mechanical means. Just take your time and move slowly.

Here is a basic video of the mechanical process.
posted by tronec at 11:50 PM on May 24 [1 favorite]

If you have long fingernails then you can sometimes get it to go by pinching the insulation between your nails. If you're stripping a longer length and particularly if it's stranded do it in stages.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:11 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]

how to strip a few centimeters of plastic from a very skinny wire

Given that "very skinny wire" is going to mean wildly different things to different people, a photo of what you're trying to accomplish would help you get more applicable answers.

I am having trouble coming to grips with why I would ever need to remove a few centimetres of insulation from any wire I would personally consider skinny; to me, this requirement has the distinct scent of bodge and there may well be a more sound way to do what needs to be done.
posted by flabdablet at 3:56 AM on May 25 [3 favorites]

Get a tiny wire stripper and do it in small chunks - if it's 4 cm, about a cm at a time.

Get a piece of similar diameter wire at the place you get the wire stripper and practice the pressure first.
posted by cobaltnine at 4:17 AM on May 25

Wire strippers can be as cheap as. $6.

But I'm somewhat concerned by the "very tiny" part. If the wire is thinner than the tool was designed for, it is not going be easy, peezy.

I would want to take a fairly sharp knife, and get held it tightly in position, blade up. (Someone could hold it for you.) Starting gently, roll the wire on the knife edge beginning gently, then harder by degrees until you find the point where it just cuts the cover on the wire. Remove a half inch of cover. If you need more bare wire than that, do it it steps.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:55 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]

Starting gently, roll the wire on the knife edge beginning gently, then harder by degrees until you find the point where it just cuts the cover on the wire.

You don't even need to cut the jacket all the way through to the core, either. Just getting a good scratch most of the way around it, or even two separate scratches on opposite sides, will be enough to let you pull the jacket end off with your fingers. The principle at work is the same one that lets you tear otherwise very strong tape very easily just by making a little nick in its edge to get the tear started.

If you can't pull the cut section of jacket off the wire, the issue will not be that the cut you're making is too shallow, it will be that it's too far from the end of the wire and you need to strip it in multiple steps. You can make the cuts for all of those steps before pulling off any of the cut ends to save you having to pick up and put down the knife multiple times.

When I'm doing this, I use a razor-sharp utility knife and press the wire onto it gently enough that the blade doesn't cut into my skin. The risk of bleeding all over my workbench focuses my attention quite wonderfully.

If you have a scrap length of the same kind of wire, doing half a dozen practice strippings on that should set you up pretty well for the real job.
posted by flabdablet at 5:15 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]

If you don’t know what you are doing with a wirestripper it is super easy to just cut the whole wire by mistake. Before I had the hang of using a wirestripper, I would sometimes use a lit match to slightly burn the insulation and then just use my fingers to pull the insulation off.
posted by Mid at 7:03 AM on May 25

[...] a photo of what you're trying to accomplish would help you get more applicable answers.

That was my reaction too - lighting is not a context in which you normally encounter wire that's difficult to strip, so you'll probably get more useful recommendations if you tell us a bit more about what you're trying to do.
posted by offog at 7:54 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]

For me a very skinny wire is sub 1mm in diameter and I use my teeth (gently), pinch with my fingernails or pass through a flame. I don't think we are talking the same skinny though? Give us a diameter.
posted by J.R. Hartley at 1:06 PM on May 25

Easy? Sure, this is what wirestrippers are for, just make sure you get one that handles the wire gauge of your cord to avoid damaging the conductor. Foolproof? Given we're dealing with mains voltage here, the risk is certainly higher if something goes wrong. I'd agree that more detail about the project might give better answers here.
posted by Aleyn at 5:37 PM on May 25