Aluminum Wiring

[electricalperson]

I use a razor knife, and I don't ring the strands.

I ring the insulation, not all the way through, then cut a slit from the ring to the tip of the wire, grab one edge of the slit with the side of my pliers, then rotate them like a sardine-can key.

The insulation peels right off without a scratch.

that works too i was just saying ive tried both methods yours and the one i use now and i like doing it that way. we strip the jacket of MV cable like that too. dielectric gets a special tool

 

[wireguru]

if you are going to specify that ALL terminations be done with hypress,
no exceptions, it'll work ok. it's less tolerant of poor environmental conditions,
so you'll have more problems near salt water.

i've got a commercial account that got talked into using aluminum wire instead
of copper, and to cover their tushy, the electrical engineer stipulated hypress
MUST be used...

so what does the chucklebunny electrical contractor do? regular setscrew
lugs.... and he cuts the wire so tight there isn't enough to go back and put
the correct lugs on..... the only solution is to cut the leads back, and use
hypress butt splices, and 3m cold shrink tubing...

I would have made the EC repull the runs. Or was this a long time ago and just discovered?

 

[jrannis]

if you are going to specify that ALL terminations be done with hypress,
no exceptions, it'll work ok. it's less tolerant of poor environmental conditions,
so you'll have more problems near salt water.

i've got a commercial account that got talked into using aluminum wire instead
of copper, and to cover their tushy, the electrical engineer stipulated hypress
MUST be used...

so what does the chucklebunny electrical contractor do? regular setscrew
lugs.... and he cuts the wire so tight there isn't enough to go back and put
the correct lugs on..... the only solution is to cut the leads back, and use
hypress butt splices, and 3m cold shrink tubing...

Sorry but I have to disagree, copper and aluminum terminations are no different. There is no reason to hypress conductors on a regular commercial job.
My personal opinion is that large sized copper feeders are a huge waste of resources.
I hate to see 350, 500 and 750 copper. Means lots of aches and pains, cuts and scrapes. I will take aluminum any day.
Remember the days when it was considered a good job to install rigid conduit everywhere and PVC was considered cheap.
Same with cast iron for plumbers.