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#217027 04/05/16 03:50 PM
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 2
P
New Member
Hey guys. Hope you can help me.
I have a home that definitely has a buried junction box in the drywall. The wires are live and are feeding a chandelier and pot lights. Some load, but not a huge amount.
Its an expensive home and I don't want to start poking holes in the drywall.
Thermal gun? I spoke to a person in the field and he said it wouldn't pick it up unless there was a massive load or bad connection creating a lot of heat.
Any suggestions for electronic tracing devices?
Thanks in advance

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
You may want to check this out.....

http://www.amprobe.com/Amprobe/usen/Products/Wire-Tracers.htm

I had some success with the old model back in the day. Note that I say 'some'.

Could you drop the trims in the recess fixtures??



John
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 984
Likes: 1
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If it's a metal junction box that's buried a stud finder should have some reaction.
Generally it detects the increased density of the wood but there's a chance that it would also give some lesser indication when it encounters a metal box between studs.
Once you narrow it down you can drill a small hole and look inside the wall with a borescope to try to get the exact location.


Ghost307
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
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I had a job that was very similar to this some years back.
Not wanting to buy a proper metal detector, I made up a small oscillator that had a coil of wire on a plastic former attached to it, after some initial workshop testing, I took out to the job, long story short, it took a matter of seconds to find the offending joint.
It's pretty poor form joining stuff in a wall though, all the same.

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
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I love my tone tracer! It even works with wires inside Bergmann conduit (Orangeburg pipe with a thin outer coating of sheet metal, not earthed) in plastered brick walls. I only have a rather inexpensive one, 85 Euros. Allowed me to spot a buried splice +/- 1 cm! Some moron moved a door (and light switch) by just splicing new wires to the old cloth-covered ones and plastering over the old switch box. I found the splice, patched in a new section of flex conduit instead of the box, pulled new wires through the now complete conduit run and that was it.

Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 2
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Yes the Amp detector worked well for me

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
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lesk
Welcome to ECN from another Jersey guy....


John

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