Stripping Magnet Wire

[CaptnYellowShirt]

How do you strip magnet wire?

I've always resorted to 1000 grit sand paper, but its tedious work and leaves the end thinner (and more brittle) than it should be.

[Psi]

I use a scaple blade and scrap the desired length.
It takes about 8 passes at 45deg around the circumference.

 

[Po6ept]

A puddle of solder on your iron tip will often do the trick.  The enamel usually comes right off.  You can also try dipping the wire end into a small amount of lacquer thinner, but I usually just use a hobby knife as Psi suggested

[T3sl4co1l]

Depends on type.  Old (actually enamel, usually brown) doesn't come off with heat and has to be scraped off.

Almost anything new is going to be a solderable polyester or polyurethane type, which burns off under the solder.  Apply plenty of solder, flux and use a relatively high temperature (400C or so) if your iron is adjustable.

Of course, the hottest magnet wire coatings are polyimide based and do not come off; they again must be scraped or whatever.  Or there might be some ridiculously nasty chemicals, but...

Tim

[ivaylo]

Burn it with a match then clean with IPA or similar.

[johansen]

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!

[rr100]

If soldering iron isn't hot enough then a match or lighter should do the trick. Wipe it with a tissue while it's hot and if it doesn't break it should be nice and clean. Or use fingers and nails
I know people who have to mind which finger are using to probe if something (like a transistor radiator) is hot because some of the fingers are already pretty much "adapted" to hot terminals (while soldering), some occasional solder here and there, etc.

[FoXX]

Simple question:

What is magnet wire?

/FoXX

[lapm]

Simple question:

What is magnet wire?

/FoXX

Coated solid core copper wire. If you have ever taken a part transformer, coil, etc... you have seen this stuff. Coating is usually very thin on these.

[N2IXK]

Once upon a time, there was a commercial goop called "Strip-X" for doing this. Just dip the end of the wire in it, wait a few seconds, and wipe the softened enamel off. Worked great! I think GC electronics sold it, but haven't seen it in years, so it probably contained some really nasty substance that got banned at some point.

Some folks claim good results by placing the wire end on an aspirin (not acetaminophen or other) tablet, and heating with a soldering iron, melting the wire down into the tablet. This only seems to work on some insulation formulations, not all of them. And it stinks...

If you aren't dealing with heat strippable "thermaleze" insulation, then scraping with a razor blade/scalpel or sanding with fine grit emery paper is the way to go.

[SeanB]

Fine 800-1200 grit waterpaper pieces glued inside a wooden clothes peg, and wipe the wire through the jaws. You need the 2 part clothes pegs with a spring, not the US split type.

[Phaedrus]

Burn it with a match then clean with IPA or similar.

Lagunitas, or do you have to use Stone?

[N2IXK]

Burn it with a match then clean with IPA or similar.

Lagunitas, or do you have to use Stone?

If you use Stone, it has to be the "Enjoy By", and within the allotted time.

I prefer Dogfish Head 120 Minute, myself. That stuff will clean anything...

[JackOfVA]

Knipex model 15 11 120 coated wire stripper. http://www.knipex.com/index.php?id=1216&L=1&page=group_detail&parentID=1363&groupID=1390

I bought one along with a complete set of jaws a couple years ago and use it nearly every day. Great tool.

I also use a solder pot for self-fluxing magnet wire, but not all magnet wire is this type. And if you strip most of the insulation away before using the solder pot, it does not develop the crud on top nearly as fast.

Also, the old GC "Strip-Ex" is no longer available, but there's a more or less equivalent product available at hardware stores. It's a paint stripper for "hard to remove" paint. Can't recall the name at the moment, but I bought some a few years ago - it has the same consistency -- halfway between a gel and a normal liquid -- and will remove standard magnet wire insulation. But I have not used it after acquiring the Knipex tool.

[Richard Head]

There are a few options:

1. A scalpel as mentioned.
2. A special stripper that looks like a pair of tweezers with blades that you pull over the wire. Quite easy to use.
3. A special handheld machine that has 3 round rotating blades that spin and strip the wire as you pull the wire through them. Not suitable for very thin wire.
4. Chemical stripper. Nasty stuff that fumes and eventually dries out and if it isn't neutralised it can corrode the wires afterwards.

If the wire is Polyurethane coated you can use a soldering iron or solder pot, no problem. Unfortunately PU wire cannot handle high temp operation so isn't suitable for high power density transfomers.

I have heard that if you heat the wire to red and dip it in methylated spirits (methyl alcohol) the insulation peels off. Sounds dubious and dangerous.

Dick

[Dago]

Heat to red hot then dip to IPA or ethanol, works pretty well.

[IanB]

I'm pretty sure that heating a wire to red hot and dipping it in ethanol (denatured alcohol, methylated spirits) runs the risk of the alcohol catching fire. Since alcohol burns with a nearly invisible flame, this is very dangerous. Many people have been admitted to hospital with severe burn injuries related to alcohol vapor explosions.

Don't mix naked flames, red hot wires and alcohol on the same bench! 

[DaveW]

In lieu of the chemical strippers, formic acid works extremely well and costs much less, I tend to use this when heat alone won't shift the insulation. Try not to smell the acid though... The knipex strippers also work very well

[robrenz]

These look like they work nicely but you need one for each wire size.

[casinada]

Fire and IPA, can't get simpler than that.

[Smokey]

This is one of those "Right tool for the job" kind of things.  Sure you can MacGyver it, and it might look ok with your naked eyeball, but that doens't mean it's done right.

The magnet wire has to be be the kind which is intended to have the insulation come off with heat for that to work.  They all aren't like that like people have said.

Watch out with the xacto knife scrape method.  Take a look at the wire under a real microscope after you are done and you will see why.  The blade ends up nicking the wire all over the place.  Expect your equivalent wire gauge to be half what it used to be at least because of all the cuts and flat spots.  Plus it will break at the cuts when you try to wind it around something like a transformer pin.

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.  If you will be doing it more than once, get the wire stripper.

[CaptnYellowShirt]

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. 

[Smokey]

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. 

You have to wonder where inspiration for some things might have come from....

[robrenz]

Very compact DIY solution in this thread

[TimFox]

If you are using a blade or similar mechanical stripper, be careful to remove the enamel all (or mostly) the way around the wire.  Since some enamels are vaguely copper-colored, it can be easy to miss some resulting in a questionable final connection.

[katzohki]

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.

[Warhawk]

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. 

 
For God's sake don't give this kind of advice to anyone.

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

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 

[SeanB]

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.

[IanB]

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.

[SeanB]

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.

[Alex Eisenhut]

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.

[atferrari]

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?   

[N2IXK]

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?   

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

[T3sl4co1l]

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?   

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.

Tim

[dannyf]

There are solderable mag wires. Just tin it.