How to Remove Enamel From CTC Wire Without Using Chemicals?

We used to burn the enamel with a torch and wipe the burned residue off with a rag.

any recommended Supplier for the soldering bath? tks

A 25W Antex (usual disclaimer) and Multicore (usual disclaimer) work just fine here.

It is assumed that you are capable of performing a rudimentary search of sites such as: Search GlobalSpec to find a suitable soldering bath, without our help.

It depends on the type of enamel coating used...most can just be burned off with a alcohol flame and cleaned off with steel wool, and extra flux when soldering does the job...A solder pot that lyn mentioned works well...

if the enamel is urethane, = self fluxing, and the solder pot will work.

With polyimide you may get a tightly bonded char, which does not wet well. What does the wire maker suggest?

Burn till red hot with a gas torch of sorts and pour methalated spirits on the red hot section - with the torch well away from this pouring process ofcause - best to put it out completely!!! You'll need to pour till the meths start to boil and continue till the clean copper is nicely visible. With smaller guage copper wire, we use a glass vesel with meths and dip the redhot wire in there till the meths start boiling - after this boiling effect you'll have a clean copper wire - no need for any polishing - just tin soon after with the recomended solder pots as posted below.

For the occasional stripping, a solder pot will do. For production stripping see these guys. I have used this and was surprised at the results

Depending on the gauge of the wire, I sometimes use HoTweezers for 16 AWG and smaller. Larger a torch or solder pot if compatible.

An alternate, if you cannot get in with the solder pot (which is also my preferred method) is to use mechanical abrasion - scrape it with a knife blade or rub steel wool.

It is more work but will achieve the result.