Fiber Jacket Slit & Ring Tool (JIC-4377)

Ships direct from the manufacturer. Please allow up to 10 business days, though it often ships sooner.

Opening a buffer tube or a breakout cable means two cuts, a ring around the jacket and a slit along it, and the Jonard Tools JIC-4377 puts both in one handle. The slitter on top runs a hardened steel blade behind a short L-shaped guide and a blade guard, so the guide rides between the jacket and the fibers and the blade cuts only the jacket, on cables from 1/8 to 3/8 in (3.2 to 9.6 mm) in diameter. Its guide is shorter and its wedge smaller than the JIC-4366's, which is what makes it the tool for OFS Minicord EZ-Bend and similar small, tight-radius cables that the larger tool fights. The ringer on the back of the handle holds the cable in a spring steel cradle with a sliding tensioner while you rotate the tool, and its cut depth sets to 0.018 or 0.031 in to match the jacket thickness. A spare ringing blade and a spare slitting blade are in the box, and the tool is backed by Jonard's lifetime warranty.

Features

• Slit and ring in one tool. A slitter on top and a ringer on the back of the handle, for the two cuts that open a buffer tube, a breakout cable, or any jacketed fiber cable.
• Made for OFS Minicord EZ-Bend. The shorter L-shaped steel guide and smaller wedge make EZ-Bend and similar cables easier to slit than with the JIC-4366.
• Guide and guard protect the fiber. The hardened steel guide and blade guard keep the blade off the buffer tubes and fibers while the jacket is slit.
• Slits 1/8 to 3/8 in cable. Covers 3.2 to 9.6 mm diameter jacketed cable and buffer tubes.
• Two-position ring depth. The ringer sets to 0.018 or 0.031 in jacket thickness, and the sliding tensioner holds the cable so the blade cuts all the way through.
• Spare blades and a lifetime warranty. One spare ringing blade and one spare slitting blade are included; replacement packs are RB-2060/6 and RB-2878/6.

Where It Fits

It suits splicing crews opening buffer tubes and breakout cable at closures and splice trays, enterprise and campus installers prepping EZ-Bend and other bend-insensitive indoor cable at panels and enclosures, FTTH technicians working the small-diameter cable between the terminal and the premises, anyone who has the JIC-4366 for larger cable and needs the smaller-wedge version for cable it doesn't open cleanly, and a pouch or a belt kit where one tool doing both cuts saves carrying two.

Good to Know

Ring first, then slit: set the ringer's depth to the jacket thickness, 0.018 in for thin jackets and 0.031 in for thicker ones, seat the cable in the spring steel holder, slide the tensioner up to it, and rotate the tool a full turn; if the ring doesn't go all the way through, add a little tension rather than switching to the deeper setting, since the deeper cut on a thin jacket reaches the fiber. Then start the slitter at the ring, with the L-shaped guide under the jacket and against the buffer tubes, and draw the tool along the cable; the guide is what keeps the blade off the fibers, so keep it seated under the jacket for the whole length rather than lifting it. Check the cable's diameter before you start, since below 1/8 in the guide won't fit under the jacket and above 3/8 in the guard and wedge don't match the cable. Measure the jacket on an unfamiliar cable with a caliper or the ringer on a scrap before cutting into a live run. Swap a dull blade rather than pressing harder, which is when the blade wanders past the guard; the spares are in the box and the packs are listed above. Keep fingers behind the blade on the slit stroke, since the blade is exposed at the front of the guard, and close the tool when it goes back in the pouch.

Specifications

Documentation