Best way to strip AC cable

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JJWalecka

JJWalecka

Senior Member
Location
New England
Besides using seatek rotosplits and a good blade is there another way to strip steel BX cable? A battery powered armored cable stripper?
 
Old school is a good hacksaw. I used one for 25 years until it started to damage my elbow. Now I use a rotosplit. Back in the day I could cut it faster with a hacksaw. Now with aluminum jacketed cable a lot of guys just snap and cut with dykes.
 
At one time my crew was about 12 men. The trucks had rortosplits but 2 or 3 guys cut with dykes. I never had a AC/MC terminatuion fault on the rotosplit jobs whereas I did on the others ie: I'm a rotosplit fan.
 
The real big mc feeders work well with a hacksaw. I do a better job honestly with dykes than a rotosplit. They're sometimes finicky when setting depth when it hasn't been used for a bit. I've never had a termination fault from dykes but I have had an integral clamp pinch an MC cable to much and pop.
 
Most of my career was spent running very large scale jobs with several men under me. When MC became popular, I first used the Roto-Split and anti-short bushings provided with the cable. It didn't take me long to determine the quickest and best way was to use dykes and electrical tape. I wasn't about to order another 1000 anti-short bushings just to watch them get swept up every day and thrown in the dumpster because so many got dumped on the ground. You can always pull 1/4" - 3/8" of wire out from the sheath after cutting off the metal jacket. Use cheap black tape, don't waste your 33, and make a couple wraps before cutting off your plastic, shove the wire back inside the metal, trim your plastic. It will never short against the jacket and you won't have to buy more anti-shorts just to see 50% of them wasted.
 
Rick 0920 said:
Most of my career was spent running very large scale jobs with several men under me. When MC became popular, I first used the Roto-Split and anti-short bushings provided with the cable. It didn't take me long to determine the quickest and best way was to use dykes and electrical tape. I wasn't about to order another 1000 anti-short bushings just to watch them get swept up every day and thrown in the dumpster because so many got dumped on the ground. You can always pull 1/4" - 3/8" of wire out from the sheath after cutting off the metal jacket. Use cheap black tape, don't waste your 33, and make a couple wraps before cutting off your plastic, shove the wire back inside the metal, trim your plastic. It will never short against the jacket and you won't have to buy more anti-shorts just to see 50% of them wasted.
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Mc cable installation does not require anti-short bushing. Imo, if they are provided I have no problem using them. Oh yeah. I grew up with BX so I always used a hacksaw and never did enough mc cable to worry about which way is faster. I can usually make 2 to 3 cuts at an angle with the hacksaw and a twist, all done.
 
tank728 said:
These work rather well
www.kleintools.com

All-Purpose Shears and BX Cable Cutter - 1104 | Klein Tools

These All-Purpose Shears and BX cable cutter cut BX cable, sheet metal, steel strapping and bundling wire. Lightweight and compact, this tool features a wire stripping notch in nose for added convenience. The handle cavity is designed to restore BX cable to original shape after cutting.
www.kleintools.com www.kleintools.com
Click to expand...
Yes 1104's are much better than dykes for cutting MC and BX
 
I strip MC and AC by bending and snapping, then cutting, trimming, and rounding.

If it's not very long, I'll just unwind the spiral and then cut, etc., like above.
 
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