Author Topic: Stripping Magnet Wire  (Read 19900 times)

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Offline katzohki

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2015, 02:11:58 pm »
As some have mentioned, it depends on the type if the enamel can be melted off.

I do have a tip regarding technique:
Get your soldering iron tip nice and clean.
Place your wire across the tip (I'm assuming chisel tip) about 1/4" from the end of the wire.
Let it heat up (have to experiment here).
Feed solder into the area where the wire and the iron tip meet to form a blob that engulfs the wire.
Pull the wire through the blob to tin it and melt the enamel at the same time.

That should get you much cleaner results than trying to start at the tip. I've used this technique down to 44AWG magnet wire.
 

Offline Warhawk

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #26 on: March 18, 2015, 03:41:08 pm »
It's kind of like using a pair of paper scissors for stripping insulated multistranded wire.  It might get the insulation off, but you'll be taking a bunch of strands with it.

That's why I always use my teeth.  ^-^

 |O
For God's sake don't give this kind of advice to anyone. |O :scared:

Offline Alexei.Polkhanov

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #27 on: March 18, 2015, 05:31:19 pm »
Here is what NASA has to say on subject - see attached picture. Yes everyone would agree that stripping the enamel from 38 gage wire is major b#%^ch.
I tried to shop for these on internet - shipping to Canada turned out to be a b#$%^ch too  :D

 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #28 on: March 18, 2015, 06:27:51 pm »
Basically some gel paint stripper in a bottle, open top, dip wire in and pull out then wipe clean with a single use cloth or a sterile surgical swab.
 

Offline IanB

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #29 on: March 18, 2015, 06:31:50 pm »
Basically some gel paint stripper in a bottle, open top, dip wire in and pull out then wipe clean with a single use cloth or a sterile surgical swab.

The user guide suggests to clean off with a solvent such as denatured alcohol. That would seem better to me since it will more effectively remove any harmful residues.
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #30 on: March 18, 2015, 06:51:30 pm »
Surgical swab is a small non woven cloth square soaked in alcohol, in a convenient sachet for single use. Costs about 5c each in bulk. I use them a lot, and often for their intended medical use.
 

Online Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #31 on: March 18, 2015, 06:52:04 pm »
I use generic acetylsalicylic acid tablets. Somehow, when heated up by a soldering iron, the melting pill can strip the enamel from wire, just stick the wire in the puddle a few times. It's very pungent though.
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 

Offline atferrari

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #32 on: March 19, 2015, 12:41:55 am »
boil it in battery acid.

other methods i've heard work involve a solder pot filled with sodium hydroxide and potassium nitrate.. and watch your eyeballs! 

Chemical extremist?    :P :o
Agustín Tomás
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Offline N2IXK

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #33 on: March 19, 2015, 01:52:34 am »
boil it in battery acid.

other methods i've heard work involve a solder pot filled with sodium hydroxide and potassium nitrate.. and watch your eyeballs! 

Chemical extremist?    :P :o

A true extremist would use ClF3:

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time.php
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2013/04/05/chlorine_trifluoride_some_empirical_findings.php


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Offline T3sl4co1l

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #34 on: March 19, 2015, 09:03:22 am »
boil it in battery acid.

other methods i've heard work involve a solder pot filled with sodium hydroxide and potassium nitrate.. and watch your eyeballs! 

Chemical extremist?    :P :o

I've done this before: take a spoonful of NaOH (sold as drain/pipe cleaner or septic tank treatment), in a sacrificial stainless spoon of course, melt it over a flame (an electric or induction hotplate would be better, but the H2O and CO2 in the flame don't ruin things fast enough to prevent its use), and dip the wire end.  The enamel burns away and the copper surface (ranging from charred enamel residue to oxidized copper) dissolves off, leaving bright shiny metal.  Clean up with copious amounts of water (allow the spoon to cool first, then soak in water -- molten NaOH will spatter if placed directly into water, and NaOH, or solutions of it, will *murder* ocular tissue!), and the copper surface will tin readily.

Of course with the popularity of solderable enamels these days, this is only important on old stuff (I have some spools of brown old-school enameled wire that I use from time to time) and the most tenacious (polyimide and whatnot) types.

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Offline dannyf

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Re: Stripping Magnet Wire
« Reply #35 on: March 19, 2015, 11:02:23 am »
There are solderable mag wires. Just tin it.
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