I bought some speaker wire and an adjustable auto-stripper. I don't remember the gauge of the wire, but I wanna say it's 16ga. It's got a pretty sturdy plastic outer insulation and the speaker wires are twisted inside.
The outer wire is too thick for my auto-stripper and I'm afraid of damaging the wires inside when I'm trying to strip it. So, my plan has been to cut the outer layer by using just a dumb little craft scissors, because that's the only scissors I have right now, but it's obviously slow going. I've been cutting down the wire, being careful not to nick the speaker wires inside and then cut the insulation once I've exposed enough of the inner wires to strip them/fit them in my banana plugs.
My question is this: Is there some kind of specialty scissors I can get that is effective at cutting the outside insulation while also not really damaging the inner wires? Is there a recommended type of scissor, like a small but blunt nose, so I can fit it inside the outer insulation but not cut the inner wire?
Best Answer
For speakers, losing a couple of strands of the wire itself is irrelevant. I know that some of the wire mfrs hawk their "gold plated" wire and make a huge deal about conductivity, but in reality it's all bunk. 16ga wire is rated for 10A, even a typical 350W speaker is going to draw maybe 6 to 7A.