My personal specs' for prefered stuff O' terminations / splices (S.E.T. specs
...):
Ideal Yellow (451) and Red (452) for nearly 90% of makeup.
Ideal Orange guys for Ballast kits + similar Fluorescent fixture stuff.
Also, the smaller Blue guys work great for Ballast change-outs, Back-Up Ballast kit installs, and other such redundant class work in Fluorescent fixtures.
The Ideal Tan wirenuts are really cool too!
And, of course, there are always a few situations when the need to pull out the "Big Blues" or "Big Grays" occurs.
Once again, Ideal brand has been very loyal to me for + 20 years.
Definitely a Pre-Twist person! With practice, twisting various combinations of conductor types (stranded + solid) can achieve good results (AKA - bored at home??? pull out some scrap wire, strippers and wirenuts - no longer bored!).
No tape on splices with wirenuts.
Also position the wirenut upwards, to keep things from settling inside the splice (dust, water, dog pee, etc.), like a few members mentioned.
When capping off a lead, I'll strip back Insulation to expose about 1/8" conductor, then land a wirenut.
Don't use a twisting tool - except fingers / wrist tool
(standard issue to all people ... AKA hand twist / Carpal Tunnel Syndrome aggravator).
When doing "Re-Splices" (undoing an existing splice, then reconnecting), the original exposed conductor gets trimmed down to the insulation on all conductors affected. Then they get re-stripped, pre-twisted, and finished off with a new wirenut.
The original wirenut goes in one of three places:
<OL TYPE=A>
[*] Flying away from the jobsite, preferably into a nearby busy street where it's reuse ability is squashed - due to cars smashing it,
[*] Into the jobsite dumpster,
[*] Down a wall which has both sides drywalled - via a Comm outlet P ring or a K.O. punched in the top plate / track.
</OL>
If none of these are available, then default to option Xf1.1: start a small fire, then add wirenut to fire
(joking on the Pyro - Kee option).
p.s. "Pyro - Kee" is a PYROmaniac sparKEE.
Last item - opt to tape sides of devices - such as recepts and switches.
Let's see, did anything get left out??? Guess not.
Scott35 S.E.T.
p.s. edited tare-i-bull spell-leeng.
[This message has been edited by Scott35 (edited 02-04-2003).]