Hot take: Always trust the senior installer over the training videos?

So I’m 6 months into this cable gig, and my lead guy Jerry kept telling me to strip coax with a razor blade instead of those fancy stripping tools. I thought he was old-school and wrong, so I kept using the $15 adjustable stripper from the van. Last week I did 12 drops at a new apartment complex in Austin, and the third drop kept failing signal tests. Spent 2 hours re-terminating ends with the tool before Jerry walked over, cut it with a razor in 10 seconds, and the signal was perfect. Turns out he’s been doing this for 22 years and says the tool pinches the dielectric too much on thinner cable. Now I’m wondering how many other tips from the old-timers I should just follow without question. Has anyone else had a senior installer’s weird trick actually save your butt?

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2 Comments

the_drew1mo ago

I read somewhere that a lot of those stripping tools are actually made for a specific brand of cable, so they choke on the cheaper stuff apartments use. Jerry probably figured that out by his third year on the job and never looked back. Good lesson to watch what the old guys do even if it looks janky at first.

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logan6581mo ago

Guess I’ll stick to my trusty butter knife and pray.

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