My coax stripper was backwards for 2 years until a newbie caught it

I've been doing residential installs for 6 years, and last month a guy fresh out of training looks at my prep work and goes, 'uh, you know the blade goes on the other side, right?' I had been using my strip tool upside down the whole time, which is why I always had to nick the dielectric with a knife to get a clean cut. It added maybe 30 seconds per drop, but on a 10 drop day that's 5 minutes, plus the occasional damaged connector that meant a redo. I checked my old crimps and sure enough, about 1 in 15 had a tiny burr that could cause signal loss. has anyone else had a basic tool habit that a rookie corrected, or am I the only one who spent years doing it wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephbailey1d ago

Did you see that video where a guy fixed his whole workflow just by flipping the blade?

jake_patel1d ago

Ha, that video's been all over my feed! I actually did the same thing with my table saw a few months ago. Night and day difference, honestly. Wish I'd figured that out years ago instead of fighting with it the whole time.