I'd have to see that to know what you're talking about, LOL. What I do is I scrape a square of plastic off with the iron, then use these needle holders(the tips) to scrape the remaining bits of plastic off. I then clamp the wire onto the metal strip, apply the hot iron to the exposed wire that is touching the flexwatt metal strip, and then apply the solder as it heats up. Takes about 15 seconds.