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I'm crimping a lot of small Molex connectors (i.e. Pico Blade and Pico Lock) and keep running into difficulties with not being precise enough when stripping wires resulting in either an unreliable connection or the insulation not being held properly.

I have tried a variety of stripping tools including the Molex 638170000 which works perfectly for small wire gauges but unfortunately none of them allow me to strip less than 3mm so I always need to wing it by eye or trim the wires after stripping.

What is a good method that reliably strips up to 32 AWG with a strip length as low as 1.4mm (0.55in)?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome! Shopping questions are unfortunately off topic here. 32 AWG would be on the edge for my Pressmaster, resorting to Knipex side cutters. \$\endgroup\$
    – winny
    Sep 27 at 15:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you know the insulation material? Our thermal wire stripper works well for Teflon, but makes a mess with PVC. Also, I think your unit conversion is incorrect. 1.4 mm = 0.055" (55 thou). \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Dunn
    Sep 27 at 19:20

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I use the ST-500 from johnard tools to do 28AWG for hirose that are much smaller strip length than 1mm. You can set the length and then you press the sides in, it can be difficult stripping some wires if the insulation doesn't get a clean break so rotate the tool when pressing in.

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    \$\begingroup\$ The ST-500 is only designed for 20-30 AWG (32 AWG is probably doable, but out of spec). There's the ST-450 in that range that's designed for 26-36 AWG, and would be a better choice here. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hearth
    Sep 28 at 0:33
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It might seem like overkill but if you are doing a lot of those types of terminals, a semi-automated wire stripper will more than halve your production time and virtually eliminate any rework due to improperly or incompletely stripped wires. They cost maybe $2-3k but you already spent $1200 on crimpers.

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