Thanks, that was super helpful. All of the people complaining about cutting towards your hand... I agree that you should go find another way to do it. The way it was done in the video with a gentle rocking of the blade back/forth is not going to suddenly cut through 5 inches of plastic and slice your hand. If you're afraid to do that, it's probably best to hire a professional.
Yup watched a tech slice right into his knuckle all the way to the bone using that exact method. Only takes one twist of the wrist to send that blade flying down the cable into your hand holding it.
Yep. That's dangerous. I'm sure Kimball, being a pro, is confident that he won't slice his finger off but showing this method to tyros isn't a good idea.
This is easy to do once safely but at the end of a long day wiring up your backyard you are going to start to make mistakes so don’t hate on people for wanting to be safe. Absolutely wear a glove on the danger hand. Also, it helps to lay the Romex on a flat surface, that will prevent you from jamming the blade into your femoral artery if your hand slips and bleeding to death on the job site. As a side note, use a new blade, it makes it much easier.
Cutting towards your hand with a utility knife. Super. And instead of running you knife all the way down, as soon as you cut the end back an inch you can just pull each conductor apart from the others. Less time and you don’t risk losing a finger
Excellent and super helpful video. The close-up shots were a difference maker. For as many DIY videos as there are on RU-vid, this particular topic seems to have a lot of low-quality videos unfortunately.
Best way is using an Irwin automatic stripper. One squeeze and the entire outer jacket separates from the rest of the cable. Just slide it off and your done. Takes all of 3 seconds. Then use it to strip your wires.
I lay the wire flat on a board, place the tip of the blade into the wire about 6 inches back and pull the wire through the stationary blade. Not a fan of stitches.
