Re: OT - Home Wiring


[Follow Ups] [Post Followup] [Dodge Power Wagon Forum]


Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.105] on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 14:36:43 :

In Reply to: OT - Home Wiring posted by Matt Wilson [71.170.81.169] on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 13:13:01 :

It's no big deal about the twists and nicks from the jaws. Normal practice is to lay the wires next to each other and let the twisting of the wire-nut twist the wires. Main thing is to make sure all the ends of the wires come together at the same point before putting on the nut. If one is much longer than the rest, it will stop the wirenut before it's tight. And always pull on each wire to make sure it's set.

I prefer the wire nuts that have wings, and I do the final tightening of a couple turns using heavy needle-nosed pliers put over the nut end-wise. I've seen a special "screwdriver" intended just for tightening wire nuts, but have never tried it. It seems like it would be handy in commercial work.

I've personally never seen an overheated wire nut due to a bad connection, nor a broken wire in a wire nut. The cheap little ones with no metal coil inside them, that are used to attach ceiling fixtures sometimes overheat but the fixture is already discolored from heat, and it's tricky to attach a small stranded wire securely to a large solid wire. The better electricians sometimes twist the stranded wire around the solid wire, then fold the combination over, crimp it tight, and put a wirenut over the whole thing. Makes it hard to get apart, but also makes a very secure connection. Sometimes I use crimp nuts for that sort of thing. I've also seen 1940s installations where they twisted the wires, soldered them, and then wrapped them all up in friction tape. With those, sometimes a sharp and of the wire will poke its way through the friction tape eventually and short on the box.

I think the warnings in the books against nicks are more about nicking them when using a wire stripper, dikes, or a knife to cut the insulation. Even there, on 14 guage and bigger wire, it's hard to nick them enough to cause a problem. With smaller wires, it's definitely a concern.

As for the work-hardening, the wire seems to come fairly hard these days right from the factory. They clearly don't anneal it after the finally drawing. If you take a scrap and anneal it with a torch, you'll see how much softer it gets when it's truly annealed. I know twisting and untwisting seems work-harden it a bit more, but it's already starting out pretty hard.

Maybe another thing to mention here is that this is a good reason to leave 6" or so of extra wire just outside of every junction box -- so if you bugger up the end, you can cut off an inch or two and try again.



Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Message:
Optional Link
URL:
Title:
Optional Image Link
URL:


This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com