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I do the same thing. works good on phone lines unless there live. I don't think the dentist notices.

macmikeman,

I'm 99% positive its not listed for the use,
but we checked it out and the stuff seemed to evaporate or dry to a very thin film....regardless , grounds get pulled .

We came up with the idea working on a couple of Home Depots...and since they supply the material, pull boxes for the >500' runs of 3" were not included

"......I drove a self tapping screw into it and used the head of the self tapping screw to grab with my linemans pliars, and pulled inwards and got the ko loose. I put the idea out on another code site and sure enough about 3 months ago another poster repeated the idea and then claimed it as his."

That could have been me having never even seen your original post. I have been doing that since days long before the internet was a common thing.

To get the oily grime off my hands from cutting and threading conduit, I use pull lube first. Then wash with regular soap after.

Came up with this one today:
Had to find a box buried by the drywallers in a wood framed structure, without causing major damage... Used a continuity tester and a coathanger... Just hook one end of your cont. tester to a known ground and the other end to the coathanger ( scrape the varnish off the coathanger first!). Using the coathanger as a " probe" in the wall , when you touch the side of the metal box, your cont. tester will let you know.. This really only works if its a metal box and wood frame construction, and if you are able to tell by "touch" if you are touching a metal box or some other grounded metal in the wall...

A.D

A.D

Great tips everybody!

Here's one, that you may or may not be aware of, that might be of particular use when roughing-in multi-ganged switch boxes (I have a designer/architect that is fond of 4, 5, and even 6-ganged centralized switch bays).

Before drywall and paint, use a flag of White PVC electrical tape and a sharpie a to identify eacvh lead. Write down an abbreviated description, like "PWR IN", "PWR OUT", KIT CANS (kitchen cans), etc.

The reason for PVC tape is that paint and drywall mud will usually scrape right off, and the sharpie will pretty much hold no matter what.

If this isn't enough protection (For sloppy drywallers and painters), a bit of 2" wide blue masking tape over the boxes can easily be removed during finish work.

Thanks for your input, and please feel free to add to this thread. I'm sure we can all learn a little bit from this.

Thanks

Zapster, your post reminded me that I use a Sharpie, too, except that I identify each cable by writing inside the box itself. I write on the box bottom for cables entering from below, and on the box back for cables entering from above.

I = feed In
O = feed Out
3 = travelers
L = Load out

Since I make all connections and strip and hook device wires during rough, there's little chance of mixing them up, but I do it anyway. Plus, the only tool I need at trim is my electric screwdriver, and the freshly-painted walls stay cleaner.

For 3-way's we only strip the common at the rough-in stage.

For all new homes, I keep a file with the prints and any notes that we may need to fall back on. Also, pictures of wire runs before the drywall goes up have saved us a lot of grief.

Another thing we do is always run continuous power to the door chime unit - some of the electronic chimes require power after the button is momentarily pressed.

When working in a live panel, I use a sheet of Dacron (the varnished insulation used in motor windings), fold it to fit and place it over the buss. There's no chance of a bare ground hitting any exposed buss bar.

Good tip Larry. Here's another finish saver:

When working in cabinets or other delicate finishes, I slap a couple of strips of blue masking tape below the box I'm installing devices in. This helps protect the finish from the partially wired device rubbing up against it when completing the make-up. This is especially good when wiring in pre-wired dimmers that hang.

I've developed this inside-out method for stripping UF cable (although I'm sure someone, somewhere else has developed it as well).

1) Grasp the cable with one hand, and using a sharp knife cut carefully lengthwise down the cable for 8 inches. By holding the knife at a very slight angle from parallel it is easy to separate the bare ground conductor (plus either the hot or the neutral conductor) from the other current carrying conductor. If done correctly, the bare ground will be visible for 8 inches, imbedded in the cable material.

2) Use pliers to grab the bare ground and pull it free from the plastic cable covering material. This exposes a groove for guiding the knife.

3) Lightly score the two halves down the length of the groove left from the bare ground wire. At the top end of the score make the score deeper. Don't worry about scoring the insulation of the hot or neutral, as this end section will be stripped anyway for the termination anyway.

4) Use the pliers again to grab first one then the other of the current carrying conductors, and yank them free from the carcass.

5) Cut the loose ends of the carcass and discard.

This inside-out method sure beats trying to cut each conductor free from the outside-in.