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Random pilot swore his wire-stripping trick saved him $200 a week
This Delta 737 captain told me to stop using my standard strippers and just heat-shrink the ends with a lighter before crimping. I laughed it off until last Wednesday when I tried it on a bundle of 22-gauge wires in a Cessna 172, and it actually cut my rework time by half. Any other techs tried this or got a better method?
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theawest1mo ago
Saw a thread on this in an aviation maintenance group last month. Those guys swear by the heat-shrink trick for any gauge under 18, especially in tight avionics bays where you can't get a good crimp with regular strippers. One guy mentioned he had a whole spool of 18-gauge wire where the insulation kept splitting, and the lighter trick saved him from re-terminating the whole bundle. He just hit it with a bic, let it shrink, then crimped like normal.
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tylerw921mo ago
@theawest Gotta respectfully disagree on this one. Heat shrinking the insulation after stripping can leave a brittle spot right where the wire flexes, which is the last thing you want in avionics. A proper stripper that doesn't nick the strands is a better long term fix than relying on a lighter every time.
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