Automated wire cutter and stripper

posted Jan 3rd 2009 2:29pm by Eliot
filed under: classic hacks, misc hacks, tool hacks

witecutter

Kit builder oomlout—we’ve featured their servo bot—needed to produce a lot of precut wires. After cutting and stripping more than their fair share, they decided to apply some heavy engineering to make things easier. They constructed a machine to do the job for them. It has three main components: a servo driven wire feeder to measure the length, a two servo wire stripper that uses an exacto blade, and finally a wire cutter made from snips and a drill motor. The machine is controlled using an Arduino. They’ve published all the plans and code to Thingiverse incase anyone else wants to build a similar machine for their own kit shop. A video of the machine is embedded below.

[via Hack a Day Flickr pool]

Comments [13]

tagged: kit, oomlout, servo, thingiverse, video, wire, wire cutter, wire stripper, youtube

13 Responses to Automated wire cutter and stripper

macegr says:

January 3, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Awesome, but slow. Maybe someone can figure out a stripper device that takes only a second instead of 10 seconds.

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dax says:

January 3, 2009 at 2:47 pm

at a previous job, an engineer requested a device that melts the insulation to strip both ends, which ensures that your stripper doesn’t nick the conductor (the damage isn’t visible until it fatigues and breaks..). That would be a great modification to this really cool machine. I suppose an x-acto blade is somewhat harmless already, but maybe not for all engineering applications..

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localroger says:

January 3, 2009 at 2:48 pm

@macegr: It doesn’t really have to go any faster than you can set the wires in a breadboard. And you could always give it a production program and let it run overnight. Those kits they sell of pre-cut and stripped wires for breadboarding are ridiculously expensive.

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macegr says:

January 3, 2009 at 2:50 pm

@localroger: I recently ran across a pack of flexible breadboard wires with square pins attached, seems like it would be even better: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/breadborad-jumper-wire-75pcs-pack-p-234.html

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Bhima says:

January 3, 2009 at 2:57 pm

Are the commercial ones that expensive? The one they have down in production goes like a million times faster anyway…

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steve says:

January 3, 2009 at 3:35 pm

I guess when all you have is a CNC Laser Cutter, everything looks like an acrylic nail…

But pretty cool, none-the-less. I wish I would have taken pictures/video of my 22 gauge pneumatic wire striper before I tried to convert it for 18 gauge wire… I thought it was pretty cool. It sort of sounded like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when running…

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Haku says:

January 3, 2009 at 6:05 pm

This sidelines me onto a thought/idea that’s been at the back of my mind for a couple of years now – has anyone built their own solder feeder?

Ideally what I’d like to buy/build is a solder feeder that you can hold in your hand like a 2nd soldering iron or pen with a button on it, or attach to any soldering iron with a foot pedal button, so you can feed solder wire onto the thing you’re soldering.

I’ve been trying to find out what’s available but most solder feeders are non-movable stations or they’re built-into the soldering iron so you can’t use your current/favourite iron.

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macegr says:

January 3, 2009 at 6:48 pm

I have an old Radio Shack solder feeder somewhere, it clipped onto the iron and pushed the solder through a little metal tube when you pressed a lever, all mechanical.

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amk says:

January 3, 2009 at 7:40 pm

it’s those little shorties that get me, you know what i’m talking about. where’s that machine?

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polymythic says:

January 4, 2009 at 8:26 am

That is a well orchestrated symphony of awesome. Very well done!

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NiñoScript says:

January 4, 2009 at 10:58 am

Gravitech has a nice selection of jumpers too.
They sell M/M, M/F and F/F jumpers.

The good thing about it, is that they give you 100 M/M for 6 US Dollars.

http://store.gravitech.us/jumper-wires-pack-mm.html

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NiñoScript says:

January 4, 2009 at 11:04 am

ohh, I forgot to comment about the machine :P

it’s really nice, i’ll try to make my own version later this year, but i intend to use stepper motors and get it to actually strip the cables (that one is only cutting the insulation, right?)

this’ll be a fun year :D

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han says:

July 1, 2009 at 7:50 pm

hey, that’s a great idea.. i’d like to build one of em solder feeders too…

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