Erich Vinson is a tech from Colorado and one of the most entertaining people I interact with online. He wrote this quick tech tip on stripping back the outer jacket properly on control wires, and it happens to also be something I preach. Thanks, Erich.

In the first picture (above), you can see what happens when you try to use a pair of wire strippers to remove the jacket. It damaged the wire underneath. Instead, use the pull string when you strip the jacket off of a low voltage (control) cable.

Use your strippers to remove about three inches of the jacket (or cut into the end as I show above – Bryan), and use the pull string to peel away the jacket, as shown in the GIF below.

Then, cut off the wires just below where you used your strippers.

The result will be low volt wires with no damaged insulation and no hard-to-find low voltage short circuits.

—Erich