0:00
Now building a solar generator involves some basic electrical skills, and I want to show you
0:06
one of the most basic here, and that's stripping wire. You're going to be dealing with two kinds of wire
0:14
There's wire itself, which just has insulation and a single conductor inside, and what would
0:23
be properly called cable, which has more than one insulated wire inside
0:29
and this is the kind of cable that you'd use to connect, say, the photovoltaic panel to the actual solar generator box with the equipment inside
0:42
And, you know, the simplest way to get the insulation off and to expose the conductors is just with a utility knife like this
0:50
So it's just a matter of whittling away the insulation. There's nothing to it really
0:56
and you just don't want to go too far and cut into the conductor
1:04
It's not likely with a stranded conductor that's this thick, but you still, you don't want to cut too much of that
1:15
And there you go. It's pretty simple. Now, one thing I should mention
1:21
you should always use stranded conductor in this project. I can get wire like this It just a solid piece of copper And that going to work but not so well with direct current Direct current much prefers stranded wire like this
1:39
because the current actually travels around the outside of each of the strands
1:44
So you're going to get more current carrying capacity from a stranded conductor like this
1:50
Now another method, and it really doesn't cost very much, and it works very well, is wire stripping
1:57
I really like this. I've had this for years. It works beautifully. You have to know the size of the conductor and
2:06
then you choose that appropriate little notch. So this would be, I'm pretty sure it's number 12
2:13
So we will we will put number 12 in here. This has got some pretty thick insulation on it
2:21
but the conductor itself is number 12. So you just squeeze down like this and then and then give it a point
2:27
and the insulation comes off. It's a little bit faster and you're not going to damage the conductor as well
2:35
One very nice thing about wire strippers like these is that they're also terrific tools for cutting small bolts and machine screws
2:45
You can just cut bolts with wire cutters or bolt cutters but it ruins the threads in the end and that's what this feature here prevents
2:56
If you can see in here the top part of these holes are threaded So you thread the bolt in that you want whatever size 1024 1032 or 832 You thread it in as long as you want the bolt to be and then when you squeeze the handles it shears off the bolt
3:17
And then when you take the bolt out, because it's threaded in, the threads get cleaned up
3:23
So your bolt is ready to accept a knot or to thread into an electrical box or some such thing
3:28
thing. These bolt holes here are the kinds of things that go with small fasteners in the
3:35
electrical world and that's why they include this on a pair of wire strippers like this
3:41
A project like this solar generator will involve cables and you're going to need to get
3:47
to the conductors to make the various connections. So stripping the wires inside of a cable
3:54
is the same process as I've already shown you. You can use a knife. or some wire strippers
4:00
But to get to those wires, you have to do a little work with a utility knife
4:05
Now, you notice how the conductors are here, and then there's some filler material all around them
4:14
You're going to need to strip back some of the outer husk of this cable, and your first step is to make a slice through it
4:22
where the tip of the knife comes through in the filler area. You don't want to hurt the insulation
4:28
on the wires So you need a flat surface to work on and you just do a little slice like this Maybe not necessarily all the way through initially because you do want to be careful with this You can go too deep And I
4:47
think of all the way through now, so let's just see not quite. There we go. So now I
4:57
can start peeling back this outer husk and I'm going to peel back more or less depending on how much I need
5:06
This might be to go into an electrical box or some kind of a connection with the wires coming through
5:13
So when I've peeled back as much as I want, I'm just going to cut off the insulation all the way around so it comes free of the wires. wires
5:27
You need a sharp utility knife for this and you do need to be careful
5:40
There we go. Now these filler strips can be trimmed away with the knife or the wire cutter
5:51
And once again it's just a matter of getting your wire strippers
5:55
choosing the right size. This is number 12. Squeezing down and popping it off. Now you're ready to make your connections
