Heard a lead tech say something that has me worried about the new wire strippers

I was working a panel pull on a 737NG yesterday and overheard this senior guy telling an apprentice that the new automatic wire strippers we just got are fine for solid core but not for the fine stranded stuff we use in avionics. He said he already saw two guys nick wires on the last install because they were using them without checking the gauge adjustment first. That got me thinking, because I almost grabbed a pair myself to speed up a harness repair last week. I pulled one apart after he said that and sure enough, the blade depth stop was set way too tight from the factory. Has anyone else noticed these newer tools causing more issues than they solve, or am I just being paranoid about a QA miss?

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brown.gavin28d ago

You said "he already saw two guys nick wires" - that's the real tell right there. It ain't the tool being bad, it's guys not checking the adjustment before they use it. I've been using those auto strippers for about six months now and they work fine if you actually take two seconds to set the blade depth like you're supposed to. The factory settings are always garbage, that's just how it is with any new tool. I can't count how many times I've seen dudes grab a pair, jam it on a wire, and wonder why it cuts strands. Same story with the old manual ones if nobody bothered to dial them in right.