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I have a question... I want to ask this before i toss these things.. I was recently on a site and one of the electricians was on my rear from the start.. I pulled out my modified extension cords and he totally tore me a new one, told me I'd burn the whole place down if I plug'd in my contraptions.. I just want to hear from you guys what you think.. Was this guy just being a a$$ to me or what.. I took some Heavy Duty SJOOW Power Cable I got from a local hardware store.. it was 10AWG, 104 x 30 ga. Construction Current Rating of 30Amps .. took a double gang box, put two outlets in there pigtail'd it to a wire nut where it connected to the stranded wire. I used electrical tape around each outlet and even around the wire nut.. That guy tore open my little boxes and tore them apart and told me to get them off his site and go buy a real extension cord.. Was he in the right to destroy those cords? Where the a fire hazard?

Thanks for the input
nichols

His site his rules.

Actually no offense, hes an electrician, not the general contractor.. What does he have a say in what power cords I use? All i wanted to know if it actually is against NEC code to do that ?!?!

sounds like OSHA assured grounding program

The company I work for will send one of us around the job to check cords and if they look bad they tell us to cut them up, I will not cut them, but I ask them to get it off the site.

I do not know what gives us the right to do this but nobody gets too upset if the cords bad.

What kind of 2 gang box, I think it would have to be a threaded hub box with proper strain relief. I would have asked you to remove the cord in a nice way.

Where I work we never make cords, we always buy cords with our company name embossed on the cord right along with the normal info.

This makes it easy to bag people trying to take them, but the least little damage and we send them back to the shop and they are thrown out.

We also keep plenty of GFI 3 way pigtails in the gang box.

On the jobs we work the GC usally has a safety officer and this prevents him from bugging us.

And if there is an OSHA inspection it looks good.

For us it is cost effective, no fines.



[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 01-14-2003).]

nichols...what type of box (metal or a weatherproof box and cover.did it have a gfci receptacle in it.if wp was the connector and plug wp too. i see nothing wrong with the heavyduty cord.

iwire...where did you buy your ext cords with your co name on it.

I call the warehouse and ask for more, sorry I do not know, I will ask the purchasing guy if you are interested.

I know we buy them in large lots, as we have cases of them at the warehouse.

"The Rules" only offer one way to be safe. There are an infinate number of ways to be safe and still be outside of the rules.

I don't know if your extension cords were safe for what you were doing or not, probably safer than half the wiring found in houses in America.

My issue is with a guy who thinks he can damage my stuff because he doesn't like it. I am certain that he wouldn't have had much luck tearing apart my stuff.

Those homemade cords you describe utilize a box that is not being used per its listing. It was designed to be permanently installed to a structure. This is why it is an OSHA violation to use them as I understand it. Was it dangerous? Probably not. Did he have a right to do that to your stuff? I doubt it.

IWIRE, my company has been doing that with cords for a long time too. Isn’t it great to see the look on there face when you take it back! I took one back a few years ago from a drywaller that had been carrying it around for a couple of years! (according to him) He was so mad I thought he was going to blow a gasket. Not much to say about it when you show them your company name on it!
Nick

Yeah it is fun, Nick

We also barter them for stuff from other trades, so many times they have had it for a while.

I thought I read a recent post on this forum or the NEC forum which provided an OSHA link that stated the electrical contractor is required to inspect the cordsets of all the trades at the jobsite on a daily basis or install GFCI protection. Was there GFCI protection? Still, I don't agree with the guy being a jerk.