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I took a short call today. I was told to splice a jb located in this room. Inside the box was two mc cables (black white green solid conductors) and two black nonmetallic sheathed cables each having two identical black conducters and a bare conductor all stranded. In sheathed cable which looked like uf cable,I assumed that one of the black insulated conductors would be a grounded conductor and the other would be a hot and the bare conductor would be ground.

I think I was supposed to splice all the blacks together (4 from the sheathed cable and 2 from the mc cables) and tie the two noodles from the mc cable together with the bare conductors from the nonmettalic sheathed cable. Does this make any sence? It seems to me that you would be wiring your hots in parallel in the same cable and your nuetral would have parallel paths back to the source. Well I felt stupid anyway.

Eandrew,

It sounds like you got incomplete instructions. You shouldn't feel bad about asking for more information because wires can be connected in different ways depending on the situation.

What you suggest does not sound right at all though.

Bill


[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 06-21-2002).]

Is there a nm cable on the market with only 2 black wires in it? Has a manufacturer taken 200.7 to an extreeme? This would now be a parrallel conductor too.....??

[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 06-22-2002).]

I'm really not sure what you had there, but I've seen old NM cable where the neutral had discolored and almost looked black. Sometimes in low light you can't tell the difference between them without testing them hot.

Eandrew,

To expand on things a bit:
I was thinking that it was likely that "like" cables were suposed to be spliced to each other, but there's no guarantee of that.

I haven't seen such a cable with 2 Black wires either but would guess that it would be used for 240v or a switch leg. You should not be connecting neutrals to bare conductors. And you should not be connecting both wires of a cable together either.

Don't be afraid to ask what to do.

Bill

Yes, thanks bill, you right!

This was my first short call and I felt like people were just waiting for me to make a mistake. A jw told me to splice together all the blacks, but it just did not add up to me and when I asked him he'd just raise his voice and say the same thing. Turns out I did the right thing by not doing so. I should never be afraid to ask questions. I have mostly core and shell experience in my apprenticship and just dont exhibit confindence in TI yet. They probably think i'm an idiot. Oh well, I guess that is the advantage of a two week call. We do laugh and have a good time, thats important!thanx-Erik

Ok, my terminology is a little lacking...What's a "short call?" And "TI?"

Erik, I,m like CTwireman. Could you give us some insight into the terminology. I wouldn't think you would be refering to a T1 data type line in this situation.
As far as someone thinking you are an idiot, the real idiots are the ones that refuse to ask, or the ones that make someone feel threatened to ask. Hang tough and keep laughing.

Roger

In England we can buy smaller sizes of our equivalent of NM cable with two red wires; it's intended to be used for switch drops. Could your two-black cable be something similar?

Never be afraid to ask questions. We never stop learning. Just to prove it, I have no idea what you mean by "short call" or TI either!

"T.I." is tenant improvement. Oversimplified, it is what happens when commercial rental space is occupied, and electrical and comms are requested by the tenant. It is becoming a growing part of contracting in the whole scene of things.

“Short call?” I dun'no exactly…less than 8 hrs? Like 1-6?

CT—either the state of, or current transformer—maybe both together.

Like most other things electrical—there are regional variations and local customs. Experts, please correct or add…