Dumb question, how do you twist your wires together?

andrew79

found em

AllanJ

When I twist the wires, by the time I get a twisted splice that will stay together by itself (good mechanical connection) it is too long to fit in a wire nut.

I think those no-twist wire nuts are marvelous. I gave up on twisting of most joints and a shorter end of each conductor has to be bared and the wire nuts stay on "good". The secret is ths square cross section spring wire inside. That bites into the conductors and both improves the electrical contact (bonding) and keeps the wire nut from ever slipping off (unless untwisted).

But for more than four conductors I go back to twisting because here one conductor will be "in the middle"and not bitten into by the wire nut spring. I have to use tape around the skirt of the wire nut because the bare wire is exposed there.

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The disadvantages of crab apple trees. In summer, the apples are too sour to pick and eat. In winter the birds come and leave dropping all over the place.

Snav

I use safety-wire pliers and twist 6" to the end together.
Trying to just hold the wires and hand-twist drives me nuts - for safety-wire pliers you just clamp and pull the stop, it does the twisting for you, voila.

I also use them for making twisted wire jewelry :D They're a multi-purpose tool and I have several sizes.

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Leah Frances

AllanJ - When I am splicing 4+ wires at a time I skin them extra long so the twist is easier to make. Then I trim the splice so it fits nicely into the wirenut.

I would never wrap tape around bare wire that was exposed, just cut the splice shorter.

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If I could only remember to THINK about what I was doing before I did it.

andrew79

If you twist up a joint with those marrette's pictured above when you take the marette off you can actually see where it "threaded" itself on the wires. Best wire nut on the market....a little more costly though.

dw1256

How much do you skin off? Also, when you are twisting the wires, should the wires be twisting all the way up or just the exposed wire?

nap

here is a little way for all of you folks to determine if the wire nut is on tight enough. After you do all of your twisting, pull on each individual wire trying to pull it from the nut.

Now, once you have done that with all of your pre- twisting, try it without pre-twisting the wires and try pulling them out.



btw: when you install a wire nut properly, the wires outside of the nut will be twisted as well as the portion inside the nut will be twisted as well, even if you do not pre-twist.

FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE PACKAGE

plummen

I tape my wirenuts sometimes,i also wrap tape around my plugs and switches before installing into boxes.
Does that make me a do it yourselfer? I just started my 30th year in the trades!
And I dont twist my wires before installing wire nuts,ive seen too many nicked wires from linemans pliers over the years

nap

no but it does mean you would be the guy that got his lunchbox wrapped with 33+ and then maybe even painted with scotchkote if I had to undo your gooey mess.

if somebody can provide a justification for taping the joint, I might understand by there is no reason. It does not provide any purpose to a properly installed wire nut joint.

plummen

I picked it up when i was younger working around nasty old packing plants,those cleaning guys can get water in places you wouldnt think was physically possible!
I picked up the wrapping the plugs/switches around the same time from pulling stuff out of metal boxes all the time,got tired of bumping things when i wasnt paying attention or in a hurry. Those production guys get all pissy when you start killing their power when your making repairs when their trying to meet their quota!
Youd really love the way I stack my romex going through walls and zip tie them all together!

nap

that's nothing. Kill an office with about 20 women working in it. You would think you took all their bonus money by the way they complain.


!and nobody figure to use the proper materials such as raintight or water proof boxes and such. I know, I know. They cost so much more than the regular everyday stuff. Of course, they never figure in the downtime costs when everything gets soaked with water or how much it costs to pay off a wrongful death lawsuit.

the thing is, I have never seen a taped up wire nut that was waterproof. I don't know how many times I have pulled taped wirenuts out of ground boxes with the nuts either full of water or at least a lot of moisture in them.

plummen

ive worked around some cheap places in the past!

busman

Actually, that's not the reason the jaws don't close all the way. They are designed this way so that the cutting jaws DO close all the way before the jaws of the pliers come together. The small gap that's left in the pliers is smaller than even a #14 wire, so it doesn't affect grip on a wire.

Mark

Wildie

I have used all of the above methods of connecting wire. My preferred method is to hold all the stripped ends together in a parallel manner! Then I twist the wire nut on, twisting the wire until the insulated section has a couple of turns.

In some cases, I have run tape over the wire and wirenut to prevent it from shaking off, in an environment prone to vibration.
Tape is no good for water-proofing a connection, because the water runs in, in between the wire insulation, where they come together!
However, I have used tape by spreading the conductors and entwining the tape around each conductor, then painting the whole lot with Scotch Coat!
I've used this method, for connecting conductors for parking lot lighting, and found it to be successful. In this application, I try to turn the joint, so that water will run away from the connection, rather than into it.

nap

In reference to the tape addition for vibration: if you believe the wirenut is not adequate for the environment, I would suggest a different method of termination, not trying to make an inadequate system work.

and while the tape and scotchkote does generally provide an adequately sealed joint, how about wirenuts that are rated for wet locations?