Can we talk about how new guys keep stripping coax ends

I was on a job last Tuesday over in Oakwood, swapping out a bad drop for an older couple. The last guy who worked on it must have been fresh out of training because every single compression fitting was either loose or over-crimped. I pulled three ends off before I even got to the splitter. Back when I started in the early 2000s, my old foreman made me practice on scrap cable for two weeks before I touched a live line. Now it feels like these crews rush through and never check their work with a simple tug test. I spent an extra 45 minutes redoing a 30 minute job just because of bad prep. Has anyone else noticed more stripped connectors coming back from newer techs?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony_jenkins611mo ago

Tug test doesn't check the center conductor though, that's a different issue.

nancy8241mo ago

Wait, is the tug test just checking if it'll yank out of my hand and hit the floor, not if the signal's dead? Oh great, so I've been confidently yanking on cables for years thinking I'm a tech genius, but really all I'm doing is proving I can pull on a cord without breaking it. That's like checking if my car starts by kicking the tire then declaring it roadworthy. I probably have a drawer full of "perfectly tugged" cables that are secretly dead inside, like my motivation on a Monday morning.