Thanks for the clear-up Bill.

You're right, it is risky giving advice over the net for something like this.

The ideal thing would be for someone who wants to "play electrician" ( [Linked Image] ) to spring for a copy of the NEC and related how-to books and study them, get catalogs (preferably ones with lots of pictures) and to visit one of those big orange stores and examine the materials and understand how they get put together.

Also, what goes where, and when.

It's not hard to do, but it does take some expenditure of time. But even if you're not planning on doing the work yourself, you know what to watch out for when you're discussing things with the professional you hired, and also so you can notice when some unscrupulous person ripped you off by doing shoddy and dangerous work.

You're able to speak the language, in a way.

I've always been a firm believer in DIY, but you should know your limitations.

For instance I will not work with gas pipe, rip out and rebuild a boiler or do anything electrical that's beyond replacing an existing cable in the wall or a device in a box. I will not tamper with a meter or do hot panel work. I would question any non-electrician who intends to relocate a meter or panel. I would not be comfortable rewiring my aunt's entire apartment for instance because there are issues aplenty with that place, up to and including replacing the existing fuse box!

Swapping a circuit breaker on a deactivated panel with an excact replacement is one thing and soemthing I might be able to do. But what do you do when you run across a Stablock panel or messes like what are frequently shown here where sometimes even complete replacement of the entire fuse box is needed? I guess the answer is obvious! [Linked Image]

I frequent this board (and now also Joe's new board) because I don't want to be one of those who are guilty of nailing 16 AWG zipcord on the wall, plugging one end into an existing outlet and hooking up a bakelite surface mount receptacle at the other end and thinking it's a masterpiece of electrical craftsmanship.

Thanks for tolerating me, guys. [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 03-29-2003).]