Canare TS100U Cable Stripper

I rarely write reviews (and if I do, it's usually a bad review on some product that turned out to be garbage), but this Canare coax stripper tool impressed me so much that I HAD to tell people who are looking to make their own coax cables about it! First off, I know, it's _expensive_ - I got mine for $99 and that was the _cheapest_ price anywhere - but, believe me, if you want to strip coax the right way, the easy way, and the fastest way, look no further - THIS is the stripping tool you want! I've tried a few of those cheap, gray, $10 rotary two-part strippers that you find all over the place - and even after perfectly adjusting the blades to the correct position for RG58 coax stripping, they all were the same - you'd only _sometimes_ get a good strip, and the other times, it'd be shoddy (forcing you to start over and waste a couple inches of cable). Also, most of the time those cheap strippers would end up doing diagonal cuts around my cable instead of perfectly perpendicular cuts - but I think this might _not_ be the fault of the stripper, but rather that it's difficult to hold my smooth RG58 cable jacket perfectly still with my left hand while rotating the tool around with my right hand (the tool tends to grip and rotate the cable a bit while cutting it). And that's another point where this Canare stripper shines - it has a built in cable gripper/stabilizer that you're supposed to hold in your left hand while your right hand does the rotation action - you're not supposed to touch the cable at all, just let the tool do the work! (Otherwise you might interfere with the tool's stabilizer bar, and then the tool can't hold the cable perfectly perpendicular to the blades.) I've NEVER got a diagonal cut from the Canare stripper! They've all been PERFECTLY perpendicular cross-sectional cuts!! And the blades are super sharp - I've NEVER had a strip leave any semi-cut debris that I've had to cut away manually (with those cheap rotary strippers, I'd get some loose debris about 1 in every 3 strips - I mean, com'on!). I've owned this tool for about three weeks before writing this review and have made over a dozen RG58 cables with this stripper. And I've done over 50 to 100 strips so far with it - I was being a total perfectionist when setting up the RG58 preset blade positions, I simply wanted to set the preset absolutely PERFECTLY and never have to worry about it again (that took about 40 test strips to get things absolutely spot on PERFECT).This Canare tool has five presets, one for each cable type that you may need to strip. Those cheap strippers have four presets, but those presets are determined by that plastic insert center piece, and since you can't change the dimensions of that center piece - you're stuck with the cable types that the plastic insert was designed for. With the Canare's five presets, this is NOT the case - each preset can be individually adjusted for whatever cable types you want! So whether you bought the Canare TS100U or TS100E stripper (which are the _exact_ _same_ tool, just the presets come set differently from the factory), if your version of the tool doesn't have the preset for the cable type you need, you can simply change one of the presets to fit your cable type - that's what I did, since mine was the TS100U which come with Japanese cable presets, not the USA "RG" cable type presets. They even give you five sets of blank stickers so you can write your own cable types on them and replace the factory stickers (located on the cable type selection knob). The Canare instruction manual has very good directions on how to adjust the preset screws and how much to adjust them based on the dimensions of the cable type you need.This Canare tool also does a three-part strip, not just a two-part like most of the cheap strippers do. "Three-part" means there's a cut for the outer cable jacket down to the shielding, a cut for the shielding down to the dielectric, and a cut from the dielectric down to the center conductor. A "two-part" is a cut of the outer jacket down to the shielding and a cut from the shielding down to the center conductor. For thinner coax cables (I'd say from RG58 thickness to anything thinner), you _need_ to have a three-part strip, or else you risk shorting out the cable. This is because once you put the center pin on the center conductor and crimp it, you'll notice the width of the base of the pin is about the same width as the dielectric, and what's wrapper around the dielectric? The foil, which is electrically connected to the shielding, which is electrically connected to ground. So, in other words, the center pin comes dangerously to touching the foil, and if it does, that makes it a straight short to ground. I've tried making a RG58 cable with just a two part strip, and the result was that if I bended that cable close to the connector head it shorted immediately, but wouldn't short if the cable was straight. If you have cable that has a really thick dielectric, then the pin won't be in danger of touching the foil and you can get away with a two-part strip. And, remember, if you actually need a two-part cut instead of a three-part, you can always change a three-part cut into a two-part if you make the second and third blades cut to the exact same depth (you'll just end up with more of the center conductor exposed than normal, but that's OK since you can always cut off the extra amount).This tool also comes with a special 1/2 millimeter ruler/measuring guide to help you set the preset adjustment screws to the correct heights if you want to make your own preset(s). Also comes with a set of replacement blades, but I haven't opened that part of the box yet, so I don't know if these are a replacement for the stripping blades, or the "cable release" blade, or both.The are only two slightly negative things I can say about this tool:1) The process of adjusting the blades to form a new cable preset is tedious, but WORTH IT in the end! Plus, no other coax stripper tool has an easier way to adjust their blades either, so I guess this is a mute point.2) Once you're done rotating the tool about 10 times to finish a strip, there's a yellow top-cover release button that you have to push before taking your cable out (this backs off the blades and cable catch away from your cable) - well, I wish the instructions would say, keep some thumb pressure on the top cover while you push this release button, cuz if you don't, the cover will fly open with an unexpected amount of force potentially hitting some of your fingers or causing you to drop the tool if you don't have it firmly gripped by your left hand (but the instructions DO tell you to have the tool firmly gripped in your left hand before doing this).

I've used this tool and it's family many years. It is set up for Canare Coax broadcast connectors.This model is set up for use with Belden HD-SDI 6Ghz 1855 cable and Canare HHD connector. Easy to use. Not inexpensive but is a pro tool. Caution is advised as internal mechanism contains sharp cutting elements. This tool preps the cable to accept the Canare HHD coax fitting and must be used with the Canare HHD crimp tool to finish the connector. It can be adjusted for other cables in the remaining presets.

If you're installing Canare crimp connectors, this is the stripper you need. The Canare crimps have a non-standard strip length that regular coax strippers can't be adjusted for. This stripper has 5 preset blade positions for various cables, including Belden 1855A, 1505A, and 1694A, as well as Canare L-2.5CHD and L-4.5CHD. It can be adjusted quite a bit for other cables, too. In my case I was stripping L-3.3CUHD.The stripper also includes an allen key for adjusting the blades, a spare blade, and several stickers to put over top of the preset labels in case you need to adjust a position for a different diameter.