Stripping coax with a knife instead of the proper tool drives me nuts

Was helping a buddy troubleshoot a bad VOR/LOC receiver last week and found the coax on his new install was nicked from using a utility knife. Cheap $25 stripper from Grainger would've saved him 4 hours of rework. How many of you actually carry the right stripping tool in your kit?

3 comments

3 Comments

angela_harris28d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah you say that but I've been stripping coax with a knife for 15 years and never had a problem, it's all about having a light hand and knowing where the braid sits. Honestly those Ideal strippers just give guys an excuse to get careless.

ryan_shah3828d ago

Had a 182RG in the shop two years ago where the previous guy used a razor blade on the RG400 for the GPS antenna. The DME kept dropping out and we chased it for two days before I pulled the connector off and saw the braid was cut halfway through at the 3 inch mark. I bought a yellow Ideal coax stripper after that and it lives in my main pouch. Still use a knife for the jacket sometimes but I never touch the braid or dielectric with metal anymore. Cost me 30 bucks and maybe 10 minutes of practice to never have that problem again.

murphy.aaron28d ago

Yeah @ryan_shah38 that DME gremlin sounds like a nightmare, two days of chasing a cut braid is brutal. Did you ever figure out if the previous guy was using a regular utility knife or one of those hook-style blade cutters? Ive seen guys swear by the hook blades for coax but I always worry they dig in too deep on the braid too. Wonder if that yellow Ideal stripper would work on the smaller stuff like RG316 or if its mainly for the bigger cables.