Got told to stop stripping so much coax, took me 3 weeks to admit they were right

Had a senior tech ride with me in Detroit last month and he pointed out I was stripping back way too much cable before every termination. I argued about it for a solid 20 minutes because I've done it that way for 6 years and never had a call back. He just said 'you're making a weak point for no reason' and left it at that. Then I hit a job in Dearborn where the connector kept failing signal tests, and I couldn't figure out why until I remembered his words. Cut back to about 1/4 inch less stripping and it passed first try. Has anyone else gotten feedback that felt like nitpicking but turned out to be the actual fix? I'm curious how many of us are doing the same thing without knowing it.

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matthew_baker10d ago

Man, I used to think the whole 'less is more' thing was just old guys being stubborn, but after seeing it bite me in the ass, I'm a believer now. That extra quarter inch really is the difference between a clean pass and a headache.