If you’ve done any outdoor electrical work around the house, you’ve probably run into BX cable at some point. Cutting the casing without marring the conductors can be a problem; I tried with a hacksaw once, and all I got was a partially-sliced housing and a scarred thumb.
About $30 could have saved me some trouble. Klein’s BX cable cutter slices the housing only, avoiding damage to the internal wires thanks to a cutting wheel much like you’d find in a tubing cutter. Clamp the cable in the tool’s jaws, give the crank a few twists, and voila. Ixnay on the ousinghay, and no blood on your shirt, either.
Klein BX Cable Cutter [Plumber Surplus]
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7 Responses to Klein BX Cable Cutters
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Once the Seatek patent ran out – there were many variants of this tool sold by such folk as Greenlee, Klein and Ideal
Here is the original producer (they called theirs a roto-split) :
http://www.seatekco.com/
I haven’t had much of a problem using a hacksaw on BX, but if anyone knows of a good, compact cutter that works on Sealtite (BX with liquid tight outer sheath)…
just half twist the bx while pulling it back to hold it in one hand (creating a twisted half loop in front of you). take some good side cutters to bite underneath and just twist and wiggle it will snap clean.
I used totwist wiggle and snip more often than i would walk back to the ruck for my greenlee cutters, but i find i never get as neat a job as I do with these, so I carry them in with the wire now. I would like to see a larger pair one in a while though.
Oh and i think on the metallic sealtite, you’re stuck with the hacksaw.
Seatek makes a flex cutter that’ll cut up to 1-1/2 inch flex. For small MC cable I like the old Ideal cutters, number 45-079, that have a cutting tooth that digs under the strip of armor and cuts it. It’s a lot easier to pack around than a roto-split, and once you get used to them, there’s nothing faster. I’ve got an old Smith Pocket Armor Cutter and a pair of Klein BX cutting pliers, which are all right in a pinch, and are real easy to keep on hand too; and I bought a couple of those Triangle Armored Cable Tools on ebay which I haven’t tried to use yet. They’re pretty impressive, kind of Rube-Goldbergy pieces of machinery, but I don’t know how practical they would be. But I like petting them.
That cutting wheel isn’t at all like like a tubing cutter wheel. Well, I guess it’s round and has a hole in it, but it’s a little saw blade. You can just rock the handle back and forth and it’ll cut through the strip of armor.
I’m an electrician and deal with metal flex cable on a daily basis, and I still wouldn’t invest in this tool. Its too bulky and barely saves any time over bending the flex until there is a gap and using a good pair of cutters to cut it in half.
I have an Ideal # 45-079 cable cutter and wondered how much they are worth? Any idea ?