Spent $300 on a premium coax stripper - saved my wrists but killed my speed

I bought that Klein-brand coax stripper that cuts and strips in one pass thinking it'd be a game changer for my installs. Turns out the old manual way is still faster for me, especially on tight attic crawls where you need to feel the cable. Has anyone else tried upgrading tools and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

paul_taylor211mo ago

Wait, do you really think the one-pass tools strip too much? @emerym36 I actually found the opposite - once I adjusted the depth setting it was MORE consistent than my manual method, especially in tight spaces where I can't get good leverage with my fingers.

emerym361mo ago

Watched a review from that old-school cable guy on YouTube who tested like 10 different strippers and he said the same thing. The one-pass tools strip too much insulation for coax compared to the feel you get with a standard tool. Got mine and yeah, it's a wrist saver for sure when you're doing a ton of drops from a ladder, but crawling in an attic it's like having a blindfold on. Kind of a bummer since I really wanted it to be the magic bullet for my installs.

lewis.finley1mo ago

Three hundred bucks for a wire stripper seems like a lot to worry about the "feel" of the cable. It either strips the jacket or it doesn't.