Wiring And Electrical Tools For People With Weakened Hands?
- Age and arthritis have taken their toll
- I am encountering more and more problems and painful experiences while working with even small wires
- I do have a compound-cutting pair of diagonal cutting pliers and I love them.
- For tiny cutting dykes that work without squeezing too hard I am looking at Knipex and other German made flush cutters
- Any personal recommendations?
- Using standard crimper/cutter pliers to strip 18 gauge and smaller wires is difficult for me. It's not the cut, it's the pulling off of the insulation
- I need a pair of truly superior automatic strippers. Way less hand pressure needed to strip wires
- I have a drawer full of <$15.00 automatic strippers and AFAIK they are near worthless junk. I do have a heavy pair of squeeze strippers 20-10 gauge that are easy(ER) to use than the auto strip pliers but they need lots of wire length to work. I like the nose action of the auto strippers but need half or less the hand pressure to strip 16-26 gauge wire
- How weak are my hands? I need a screwdriver assist to open a pop top can. I cannot open a new jar without a tool, and it looks like I am forced to purchase an electric can opener.
I damned sure am not going to give up on the only hobby I enjoy because of weak painful hands. I even composed letters and sent them to WiHa begging them to manufacture a compound action stripper-crimper plier.
I am weary of spending precious Social Security income only to find a wire stripper is no better than any other. The latest ten dollar nose action squeeze stripper worked OK for about a month. Then the blades must have become dull. I am not mis using these tools.
Suggestions made by people who have worked with these tools and have found a clear winner would be appreciated. Knipex and WiHa are expensive w-a-y expensive but there are no alternatives. HAKKO snips are worthless. And the WiHa off-brand flush cutters actually bent their nose cutting 18-30 gauge soft copper.
THANK YOU!
