LMR-400 Question

Any tricks for cutting through the plastic between the braid and center conductor? It always feels like pulling teeth even with the sharpest of knives.

I just use a utility knife with a brand new blade. Take care not to nick the center conductor.

Or a coax stripper made for it. I use LMR-400 at work, and the RF Industries stripper is excellent. Really fast, and clean.

DX Engineering has one too, a little different design. Yea, they are about $40 to $50, which kind of sucks.

Attachment 10074

If you do it with a really sharp blade, and not a stripper, bend the coax a bit after cutting into the outer jacket. This will avoid nicking the braid. Same for the center insulator. Bend it so the cut is on the outside of the bend, and it will split. Work your way around the wire, about a third at a time.

Take care not to cut all the way thru to the wires underneath. This works for any insulated wire.

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Originally Posted by WØTKX

Or a coax stripper made for it. I use LMR-400 at work, and the RF Industries stripper is excellent. Really fast, and clean.

DX Engineering has one too, a little different design. Yea, they are about $40 to $50, which kind of sucks.

Attachment 10074

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I use cutters pretty much like that as well. I have 2 and 3 stage units for just about every size of coax. They do make life easy.

There are cheaper ones, but after a point, I'll use a knife instead of a cheapie.

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Originally Posted by WØTKX

Three are cheaper ones, but after a point, I'll use a knife instead of a cheapie.

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+ 76 Maxwells.

With the cheaper ones, I can almost guarantee that at least 100% of the time, there will be a few strands of the shield microscopically wrapped around the center conductor.

I use a sharp pipe cutter - it works very well on LMR400. I start by removing outer jacket, braid and inner dielectric far enough to fit the center pin of the connector, then I strip off the outer jacket far enough that it will still screw part way onto the threads in the connector. As someone pointed out, a large pipe cutter doesn't work that well on smaller coax, but there are smaller pipe cutters out there, too.

I have used a pipe cutter as well. It works!

blah LMR-400 junk IMO get yourself some 1/2 heliax.

Elitist VHF Ham Pig!

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Originally Posted by WØTKX

Elitist VHF Ham Pig!

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Elitist?? No way.

VHF is for people who can't do HF.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WØTKX

Or a coax stripper made for it. I use LMR-400 at work, and the RF Industries stripper is excellent. Really fast, and clean.

Yea, they are about $40 to $50, which kind of sucks.

Attachment 10074

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Depends on how much stripping you want to do.


(on edit) eeeewwww. Grody. Grody to the max.