Through our experience, rather than education, we all come up with interesting time savers and "tricks" that we either develop through necessity or stumble upon by ourselves (or learn through an "old-timer".

What is your favorite trick that you'd like to enlighten the rest of us with?

Use the EMT bender as a vise to hold the EMT while you hack-saw. Insert the end of the pipe into the hole at the bender end, lie the pieces on the ground, push with your knee on the bender handle, and hack the pipe.
Sure beats using the inside of your knee for a vise.

Use the exhaust of your truck to soften PVC.

Use NEMA 1 enclosures inside concrete walls by taping the conduit ends and stuffing with newspaper.

Terminate stranded wire under a screw by twistng counter-clockwise prior to tightening the screw. Or, leaving a 3/4 inch tag of insulation on the stripped end.

Bend 1/2 inch EMT, 30 degrees at a bite, on your knee by using the notch between your lower leg and the knee-cap.

Not my trick, but interesting nonetheless. I had a Priest that I worked with that could strip 14g or smaller with his teeth. I bet his dentist loves him. Even better? Teeth are dull on the side, so it's hard to nick the wire.

My trick is to do the least amount of work possible. I'm saving myself for after work

Haveing tried all things to cut emt without getting all cut up with a hacksaw I bought my own cordless tool set and put a fine tooth metal cutting blade on the circular saw. Its much easyier,faster, and no knuckle busting. The old waysof doing things are gone. They can also take the sazsall to cut emt and stick it . Try the circular saw with the metal blade. Myboss saw me do this and he said why didnt he think of this. Oh well, im only 12 years older than him.

When fishing a wall or ceiling cavity sometimes a piece or two of 1/2 PVC conduit has enough flex to be bent and shoved in the opening yet is rigid enough to move straight up or down a wall cavity or across a ceiling without getting bunged up like a fish tape does, and can push past insulation ( If you really must go through an insulated cavity) and debris if some exists... Used it in a 1 floor balloon frame house many times, fished from the basement to the attic and never had to cut a single hole

A.D

I have a piece of a vinyl sewing tape measure taped to the handle of my bender near the head.

It's convenient for calculating little offsets.

I wire backwards. I also have just about zero waste. Allow me to explain:

Let's say I'm wiring a receptacle circuit run. I've installed my boxes and drilled my holes; let's say I'm going overhead, and let's start with the last box.

I run the NM from the previous box, through the holes, to the last box, leaving a bit of slack at each turn. (I haven't cut the wire from the roll yet.) I'll strip and hook the wire, put it into the box, and staple.

I staple my way from here back towards the next-to-last box, adjusting the length as I go, until I get to the top-plate hole. I now cut the wire to suit this box, strip and hook the wires (except the ground) and let it just hang for now.

Now, I take the roll the the next box and feed it through the holes to the box I just cut and stripped at. I strip and hook the wires (except the ground again) and twist the two grounds gently together.

I cut one ground short (for the greenie), and then poke all four insulated wires and the 1-1/2 ground wires into the box through one KO. Now I staple both wires up the stud, and then staple my way toward the roll again.

Notice the only waste I have is the half of ground I trim. I never just run all the wire segments and cut them. If one is a hair too short, it becomes pigtail stock (unless I can use it somewhere else).

If one is too long, the excess might or might not be suitable for pigtails. I prefer leaving the wire I'm working on attached to the roll as long as I can, not cut it off as soon as I can.

The same method works for, say, a group of recessed lights. If I'm going to work on the last can, I feed the wire toward it from the previous box, not away from it so I have to cut the wire to get an end.

If I did that, I'd have two unlanded ends which haven't been stapled, and I might have either too much slack or not enough, both of which are wasteful. The best part: it's faster, too.

To me, a foot-long hunk of wire is more valuable while it's still part of the roll than after it's been cut off. Let the carpet guys be the one who try to sell remnants.

[This message has been edited by Larry Fine (edited 08-12-2006).]

I do it the exact same way, Larry. At 50 cents a foot right now, the stuff is too expensive to waste! It makes me sick to see what people throw out on these job sites- my average scrap lumber is less than 12" long, and I don't have any scrap wire to speak of, aside from small bits at the end of the 14-3 rolls that are hard to find a home for.

When teaching calculations I always show an alerative way to work out but call it a "Cheet"

They always remember the "Cheet" lazy b*&^%$s

Rewired, I've found a piece of 1/2" CPVC water pipe generally works better, it's smaller and more fexible, but still has enough rigidity to fish across joists etc.

_Will

One trick for wiring old houses is to stick a small lightbulb or LED on a wire up a hole.

Will:
Thanks for the tip! I will try CPVC next time and see how that works!
A.D

I like to use 1/8" metal ball chain for fishing walls from above. I retrieve it with a 18" long flexible magnet. Both are sold at Ace. I can fish into an old box easily this way, eliminating the need to rip it out then replace it. There are 2 styles 1/8 ball chain that will stick to a magnet, one sticks way better and is stronger, the dull one I think. They are both gold colored.

Also, I always keep a roll of #12 solid green on the truck for short pipe runs. I just tape it on to the stranded conductors, strip the end bend it over then push them in. Quicker than using fish tape.

measure & make a mark on the (wood) stud to the top of a panel, then measure down to where the bottom would be, hammer a nail in at the mark and set the panel on the nail to support it while you fix it to the stud with drywall screws. Use a level to set the depth of the panel (most torpedo levels are exactly 5/8" thick- same as a sheet of drywall) For steel stud a long tek screw will give the same result as a nail in wood but it is a bit trickier.

PS I was surprised to learn that 2 guys I work with who each have 20+ years experience in the trade never once took out their tape measure to discover that a torpedo level is 5/8" thick!

Another one-handed trick I learned from watching steel stud guys-

anvil-footed vise grips

steel stud guys carry about 6 or so of these, I just carry 2 small ones on steel stud jobs and they are great for holding 2 thin stud pieces tightly together while you screw them, or for hanging those awful recessed florescent cans in a stud bay, or as a third hand to hold up panels or whatever. I have found 100 uses for them and they're really great if you are have to fabricate mounts for lights, or if you are up a tall ladder and need the light to stay in some position contrary to gravity while you switch hands and grab your drill and a tek screw

I use PVC glue when running EMT and set-screw fittings...I swab the pipe and fitttng before they go together, the glue sorta seals up the air gap and its easier to pull lines thru using as vac afterward..

I also used a small womans compact mirror and flashlight like a periscope when fishing walls for old work

and I have glued a cheap watch onto the inside of my hardhats so some people wouldn't think I was doggin it till breaktime

And here's your tip:
Stay in School

My trick? My hands cramp easily, so using a pair of wire strippers or an NM Ripper gets painfull. I take a hint from my father and use the utility knife. I haven't knicked a wire for months.

Ian A.

I haven't checked cause who would of thought, but anyway I doubt that pvc glue is listed for that use. And I am also wondering if that would interfere with the bonding of the emt pipe.

One day a few years back I was fighting to get a ko open in a flush older 4" square outlet box in the wall. It was one of those ones where the ko die process must have been good and dull because no amount of screwdriver hitting would loosen it. So then I had an inspirational flash. 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.

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.

Sixer, where do you buy the Dacron?

When cutting live overhead drops I lay a thick automotive fender protector over the bare neutral.

BigB, you should be able to buy it from a motor winding shop. I had some left over from when they closed the motor winding shop at the smelter here.

At locations where only a small number of cables need identifying, I often just use colored tape with no writing. My "system" is generally as follows:

Red = Power in
Unmarked = Power out
Black = Switch loop
Green/yellow = To light

Two separate bands can be used to further identify extra cables, e.g.

2 x black = Second switch loop
2 x green/yellow = Second light

Speaking of stripping UF, the Klein NM stripper works great, as long as you're careful to keep the stripper perpendicular to the cable.

When pulling wire by myself, I use a large funnel into the conduit . Keeps the wires from getting all tangled up.

Sometimes, finding the top plate of a wall for a new outlet or switch, while in the attic is a pain. I push my long Klein cabinet tip screw driver through the drywall in line with the desired location. Then use a piece of scrap #12 wire into the little hole. It points me in the right direction when I look for the plate. Seal up the hole with calk.

A little dab of Vaseline on the screw threads of a light bulb reduces galling and increases bulb life.

The pipe rack on my truck has EMT 1/2" inside of 3/4" inside of 1" inside of 1 1/4" to maximize space.



[This message has been edited by Minuteman (edited 09-09-2006).]

quote"The pipe rack on my truck has EMT 1/2" inside of 3/4" inside of 1" inside of 1 1/4" to maximize space."

Hope you have an end stop welded up on the front end of your rack. During a sudden stop, you could become the next Olympic Javelin thrower if you don't.

I learned that lesson a long time ago, except it was a ground rod. Lucky for me, it was an empty intersection.

A little trick that I learned from an alarm installer for finding upper and lower wall plates and locations for outside boxes (when siding is wood/vinyl/aluminum/concrete board) is to either use a peice of a clothes hanger, or to use heavy t-bar or drop ceiling hanger wire.

Cut it at a sharp angle and put it on the end of your drill (cordless works fine) and use it as a drill bit. I've managed to drill behind baseboard trim and even hardwood floors to get the bit to give me a marker in a downstairs ceiling. Then if fishing from the attic to the basement, I'll also at the same location drill one up into the attic.

I like to use the 1/8" glow rods (similar to Greenlee push rods, but smaller) and with 1 1/4 inch holes drilled from the basement and attic, I can feed the glow rods from the attic to the basement and pull my wires down throught he inside of the finished wall.

A couple drops of caulking and everything is as good as new. And best of all, the customer is usually left trying to figure out where the wires are.

Here's a neat little trick I picked up the other day:

Need to ground an enclosure that doesn't have any threaded holes? The #10 screws that hold the clamps in a lot of metal old-work boxes are tapping screws. If you don't have a triple-tap handy, you can use the clamp-screw to tap out the hole for your ground-screw.

-John

For Romex work I always reserve the top left ko for the hot and sometimes use the bottom left. I stick to this religiously and it sure cuts id time @ make up or when I have to return a year later to modify something.

When pushing a fish tape into a live panel I screw a rigid coupling onto the connector of the pipe entering the panel, then add a flex connector and a 3 foot length of alum. flex. You can have the fish tape emerge into the panel without danger of sticking it into the feeders or other embarrassing moves. For pipe entering from below, just tie the flex to the wires coming off the breakers to keep it stable.

When fishing, my all time favorite is my "Gold Fish" by ideal. I also carry a 25 ft. steel tape on a reel, a 15 ft. piece of bare fishtape (with loops on each end),and a few scraps of #6 solid ground wire and #8 TW. Something to use occassionally is a 12' length of steel strapping with the ends annealed, rounded over and punched. Found in a lumberyard dumpster, this is the cat's meow when fishing behind steel, al. & vinyl siding when you have to go up or down. Another tool I carry is a 12' brass safety loop chain with a 4 in. piece of # 6 soldered into the eye of one end to keep it from falling through the hole. this is the first fishing tool I learned to use.

Locating where to drill: insert a 3" gold colored decking screw into the finish floor 2" proud of the plate. When you are under the floor the bright screw is easy to locate and you know exactly where the center of the wall cavity is, relative to the screw. Don't insert the screw all the way down so that you mar the floor the least. A little dab of Water Putty seals the hole.

Locating: I did a house for a computer network admin. type and the drywallers hid a bunch of boxes. The client brought a tone generator, amplifier and detector from work and we found the hidden boxes in minutes. They are more better than my new $ 300 Amprobe Pasar.

quote"When pushing a fish tape into a live panel I screw a rigid coupling onto the connector of the pipe entering the panel, then add a flex connector and a 3 foot length of alum. flex"

Now I bet you don't want to hear a lecture from me about fishing in live panels so I won't do it, but at least change out using aluminum flex to using smurf tube if you are going to do it since smurf tube is non conductive.

After a day of the "Raindrops won't stop falling, GfIs keep tripping, blues"
I am reminded of a trick I learned too late.
When you make up a wet location box arrange the wirenuts so they point up and as high up in the box as possible.
"Raintight" ain't and they all seem to collect some water over time. If it collects in the wirenut you have problems.

I also like Dow-Corning 111 silicone grease to seal up the threaded plugs and covers. It is safe on all plastics and has a good dielectric rating. It is similar (same?) to spark plug boot grease.
It also protects aluminum so you can get those plugs back out without galling out the threads after they have been in the weather a while.

For installing stress cones on 15kv uni-shield cable:
For those of you that have worked with uni-shield, you know it has the shield wires under the outer insulation that run parallel along the length of the cable. The stress cone kits require you to strip that outer insulation back for a specific length for the stress cone. I always mark that measurement with a regular hose clamp lightly tightened on the cable. I then lightly score the outer insulation at the edge of the clamp, use my heat gun to heat the cable, and soften the insulation. Then I take my linemans pliers and grab each shield wire and pull it back toward the clamp. It cuts right through the insulation. Then I peel the sections of insulation back like peeling a banana, and it pulls off at the score mark I made next to the hose clamp.

a guy 35 years in the business showed me this one. situation: old work, high end residential...artwork and persian rugs everywhere...need to cut in an old work box??? just take a paper grocery bag, open it, and use blue painter's tape to tape the bag's upper edge to the wall just under the location your box is going. go slow and easy,and everything will fall into the bag. roll it up nice and neat.

The bag trick reminded me of a similar one:

When drilling into a ceiling, use a paper drink cup! Cut it down to size to allow the bit to penetrate the thickness of the ceiling after poking it through the bottom of the cup.

If you're careful you can drill several holes with the same cup.

I like the bag and the cup trick. Always looking for a way to keep the jobsite clean. Good work gentlemen!

I do this when I'm installing wedge anchors. The most common sizes that I use are 1/4" and 3/8". I'll decide how much of the anchor's threads that I want sticking out above the concrete, and I'll take a threaded rod coupling and screw it that far on the anchor. After I drill the hole, I'll pound the anchor in until the rod coupling hits the floor (or wall). It keeps you from messing up the anchor threads when you're driving it, too.

I use a crimp link just a little bigger diameter that the drill bit and the correct length for the drill to just get through.
If in soft material (ceiling) I add a washer to increase the surface area.

To twist short runs of low voltage wires neatly i use the battery drill on one end and the vice on the other, with a litlle tension a very nice twisted wire can be made.

Naturally don't overtwist it of course.

Always use some vaseline on new cables to be drawn in when the old ones are pulled out, in a rewire.
Makes the job just a little bit easier

"Always use some vaseline on new cables to be drawn in when the old ones are pulled out, in a rewire.
Makes the job just a little bit easier"

Good idea, but in Canada we can't put anything non-approved on the wires which may react with the insulation. Wire pulling lube will do the same job.

Dont use a coat hanger to locate, use a piece of Lawnmower Throttle Cable wire. It's tempered so just cut it at an angle and it is a drill. I've gone through a 12" wood timber with it and found it with ease. Also you can cut it at any length so if going into an insulated space just cut it longer.

Heres a good one I learned off another website a long time ago: If you use split bolts or splice blocks to tie in a service and you get them back to re use, wrap them in a piece of plastic or saran wrap before taping them up. Makes them very easy to unwrap for re use. I just use my sandwich wrappers from lunch.

I knew a guy who did a similar thing. He wrapped the tape, sticky side up, for a few turns and then twisted it and finished wrapping. Same deal, when you unwind the tape it comes off the sticky side up part clean. It is a bit of a dexterity trick to keep it going until you get it sticky side down.

Big B & G: The way I learned to handle that possibility is to wrap the Kearney with aluminum foil, several thicknesses, then do the tape thing.

The recently marketed connector blocks that are pre-insulated are obsoleting us old guys who carefully wrap with half a roll of rubber tape, then the pvc. I really like those insulation piercing taps but they are getting hard to find.

I agree there are some real nice looking splicing devices out there these days.

"The recently marketed connector blocks that are pre-insulated are obsoleting us old guys"

hey, who you callin old??? oh yeah I guess I am.

I first noticed I was old when I started looking at older women then realized they were my age.

I was working on my cable today and I used another one. If you do a lot of fishing QuadShield coax in the wall try to score some cable drop from the cable company guys. This stuff has a hard wire messenger molded in the jacket. Uauslly it is a PITA but if you are trying to "shoot" a wire down a skinny wall that stiff wire in there really helps. The best stuff is the stuff they pull down off a pole (it's free) but it is also straight since the coil memory from the box is gone. I have a few hundred feet in my shed loosely coiled in a ~4' loop. You can shoot it straight for the 6'- 8' in a wall cavity.

Almost Fried, some of your suggestions would get some fired...

Aluminum foil on a kearny is dissimlar metal contact. And a screw in a finish floor is a back-charge from the GC, or just plain un nessesary damage, sub-floor I do it all the time too, but not finish. And if nessesary to fish with a panel live - try a fiberglass fish and pull into the panel.

Over the years I have learned some interesting ways to work alone nobody on site pulling wire, and this is one way for pulling in pipe on short light runs: Take some nylon fish line, or building string and pull it through first, then take it back with you to where you are fishing from, so now you have both ends. Then attach your well lubed smooth head to the string where you are pulling from, then pull the string from where you are pulling to until you have some high tension. (the string stretches...) As you push the wire in, the tension will let off, you just give it more. You would be surprised at how far you can do this from.... You can even do it walls too. Just beware of sharp edges ar the box you are pulling to. You can also use any number of things as pulleys just make sure they are metal so the string doesnt burn through. Toll box handles, paint can handles, a staple on the wall or the floor or cieling, furnature legs, ladders if it needs to go up, etc. It just has to be heavy enough not to move when you apply tension to the string. For example pulling through pipe in a slab floor from the other side of the room. Pulled into an outlet box by having the string go up over the rung of a ladder, then down on to the floor through the handles of a saw-all and drill case, then over to me. Put tension on the string, feed wire in, put tension on the string, feed wire in, etc. When your done with string just ball it up and toss it, the stuff is cheap.

One more string item for setting cans or boxes in a line: Set the farthes two away from eachother first, then place the string under high tension on simular edges of each. Like the top of the boxes, or sides of the cans. Then you can set all the rest right to that same simular edge that to string is on for the first two. If the string is tight, it will only deflect and 1/8" over 100', thats better than most lasers for acurracy...

Hang cans with carpenters "quick-grips" clamps, then screw them in. Saves fumbing around with a can sitting on your head while you try to screw it at the same time. (For metal framing or those cans with no nail-ups)

One more quick one, lock cans in place by putting a self tapper right through the brackets and into the can frame. Helps if you clamp the whole bracket and can with vise grips while putting the screw in. But that thing aint moving after that.

Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids!!

Quote:If the string is tight, it will only deflect and 1/8" over 100', thats better than most lasers for acurracy...

I've always thought that lazers were 100% acurrate?

Here is another one I just saw yesterday. Usually when I need to space a device out to fush it with the wall (when the opening is cut too big) I will make little springs by curling some scrap wire around the end of my needle nose. Late yesterday on a service call I pulled a receptacle and the previous electrician had used a bit of small diameter rubber hose (like automotive fuel line) and just cut off the proper length and slid it over the screw.

Can't wait to try that one.

Most lazers will shoot a beam that will spread more over distance, you end up with a beam that you need to measure to find the center of. And line lazers you will have trouble seeing the beam at 40', bright sun light - forget it. Often I set up the string with the lazer, then shut the thing off for all the ones in the middle.

[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 10-07-2006).]

Well....

It depends on how much money was spent on the lasers optics, the bearings it may spin on and the leveling system.

Most of the lasers we own have a published accuracy of 1/4" per 100' feet.

For my work a 1/4" per 100' is plenty accurate.

When serving large dia' wire on to pull ropes, 350, 500 etc. I will strip out each conductor a minimum of 1' 1/2. After I have all conductors hooked in and around the pull rope. I take three or four of the excess strands and thread them between the conductors, (one at a time).

Using the backside of my kliens, pulling tight as I wrap, creates a nice crimping effect that realy makes the 'head' full proof. For me atleast, haven't had one fail yet. (knock on wood)

Do you mean, when the box is set too far back to utilize the bendable mount tabs on devices, which were designed to be bent back against the box face edge for this very reason... right?

BigB, TCS, try these www.secura-lets.com

I also have removed the tabs with holes from the devices and used those for spacers. Not much to work with though.

I think what he refers to is using a piece of wire instead of a bunch of washers to space the device from the box.

I carry a short piece of polyethelene tubing to do this. Easy to cut, light to carry, cheap to buy. In the 'old' (before plastic pipe) days guys would use 1/8" copper tubing.

Twin City I have tried that also, I wonder if that is really what they are intended for? That method works good when you have a very uneven mounting service.

e57: "...could get some of us fired"
I would hope that anything said by anyone on this board would only be used where the job conditions were suitable for the procedure.

Of course, one should not drill a bright screw into a nicely finished floor to locate a hole from below and incur the wrath of and back charges from the gc.

Of course, Al and Bronze are dissimilar metals and over time will allow galvanic corrosion to take place. I was referring to those situations where you are going to be opening the splice in a month or a season and reuse the Kearney. If it were to be permanent, the plastic food wrap idea is an excellent, permanent underlayer. Meanwhile, the new insulated tap blocks are obsoleting the use of split bolts alltogether, so how to do this(keep the rubber tape off the Kearney) is a moot point.

My point was that the site is viewed by some that would not know the difference. i.e. the young apprentice, and on occassion home owner or other non-trade persons. Sometimes we have to be carefull about what we say, as if easilly confused it could be bad influence. IMO - all kerneys should be made to be perminent, as there are many temporary installations that end up being 50 years old...

I just dug up this old thread and I'm still amazed at how much useful information is shared here.

I hope everybody has a few minutes to go through this thread again and pick up some tid-bits. I just did, and I just did!

I do low-voltage.

Most of the stuff I see here about drilling a small piece of wire through floors and walls in order to find it on the next floor I accomplish using a toner/tracer.

Clamp the toner leads to a short piece of coat hanger or simular, leave that on the floor next to the wall where you want to drill.

On the ceiling below use the tracer to find it, measure over 6cm and you'll hit the wall cavity.

For drilling down from the attic, I mostly work on new houses.. so all the top plates for the walls are clearly visible between the drywall in the attic. Before I go up I just remember where all the electrical outlets and switches are in relation to where I want to place a wallplate. Then in the attic I look for the top plate, find the wire drops for the electrical, measure over and drill and drop a toned line down the hole. Back in the room I trace the wall for the tone, cut box hole and pull the cable through.

Whoa up there buildinghomes, many of us do not get to drill right above the outlets and switches every single time. Your method for drilling down still leaves a bit of room for error. The tracer trick is neat.

It does, but I measure over how far it should go from the outside wall and from the electrical drop. It usually ends up pretty darned close.

Like I said, new houses is 99% of my business. Old houses can be any which way in terms of construction.