Dealing With Very Tiny Wire ?

I use an Exacto knife with a new blade to remove (carefully) insulation from tiny wires. I cut all the way around the insulation without cutting into the metal wire and then pull the insulation off with my fingers.

You can then fold the wire back on itself and twist together to make a "thicker" wire that the screw lug can grab onto.

I have also used solder to attach a thicker piece of wire to the end of the thinner wire, so the bare end of the thicker wire goes into the screw lug connector. Braid the ends of the wires to each other and use a holder with clamps to secure the wire(s) and solder carefully and quickly. A good electronic solder that melts quickly and a quality iron are your friends here. Finish with some shrink wrap.     

Don, I use these HANLONG TOOLS HT-5023-R Tool Wire Strippers, and I can assure you they'll strip that wire just fine.  They are good for #20 to #30 wire, and I'm sure those signals don't have anything finer than #30 wire!

Careful application of the "thumbnail" an work also.  Sometimes I will use a lighter and melt the insulation a bit.  Think thats fun.  Try soldering one of those.

I also use the stripper that gunrunnerjohn recommended.  It works great.

I use this for very thin wires. Place the wire on a block of wood then hold a hot soldering iron on the end length of the wire to strip and pull the wire out from under the iron. Insulation will be gone.

Thanks for all your kind replies folks. I will try the soldering iron method and I ordered the wire strippers that GRJ recommended.

Can we bring back vacuum tubes and other stuff with big pins that just plug into their sockets so easily?

Don

@Don Merz 070317 posted:

Can we bring back vacuum tubes and other stuff with big pins that just plug into their sockets so easily?

I can see it now, my Super-Chuffer would grow from a one inch square board to about an 8" cube!  It would only be suitable for much larger scales!

As noted previously, both the X-acto knife approach to scrape insulation and the Hanlong wire-stripper solutions work.

George

I'm a fan of the lighter method, particularly for stripping enameled bell wire.

Mitch

Enameled wire is a unique case, traditional wire strippers aren't all that useful for that type of wire.  However, I vastly prefer the strippers to flames to any normal wire with standard coatings.

I use the wire stripper shown below

Once the wire is striped I crimp on wire ferrules - then insert into the terminal connector. Below is a 22 gauge. I use up to 28 gauge.

@Joe Fauty posted:

I use the wire stripper shown below

Hadn’t seen that one before. Looks interesting.

I have about every other stripper but for the last 30 years or so been using this one. Very fast and nothing to line up. Set the tension and go.

Pete