Stripping wires with my teeth until my coworker caught me

Been doing residential work for about 5 years and always stripped 12 and 14 gauge with my front teeth when I didn't have my strippers handy. Last Tuesday my foreman saw me do it on a job in Austin and just stared at me for a solid 10 seconds. Turns out I've been grinding down my enamel and risking electrical burns in my mouth this whole time. He handed me a pair of Klein auto-strippers and I haven't looked back. Anybody else learn a bad habit the hard way from some old timer or just being lazy?

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2 Comments

jade324mo ago

That's a rough way to learn. Electrician's mouth is real.

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lee.lucas4mo ago

Man that's exactly the kind of thing an old timer would tell you is fine too. @jade32 called it electrician's mouth and that's way too real lol. I did the same thing for like six months straight until I bit down too hard on a live line and got zapped right on my lip. My foreman literally laughed at me while I stood there with a numb face for ten minutes. Now I carry three pairs of strippers in my bag just so I never have to think about using my teeth again. It's wild how lazy we get when the tool is literally right there on our belt.

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