As I stated in your other thread, read the manufacturer's specs. That said, most yellow wire nuts would work.

 

The manufacturer's specs don't say what will work, it only says the minimum and maximum, something like "min 2 18AWG and max 2 10AWG".

 

If the #12 is between 2#18 and 2#10 you are good.

 

In the end, what you're looking for is a tight, secure, fitting. You should not be able to pull the nut off with a reasonable tug straight out. I think it was somewhere in this forum where I read someone say, "It's a nut. It should hold tight like a nut."

 

no, don't use it, even if the manufacture specs allow for it. I can't tell you how many I have had fall off in my hand in the last month or two when I open boxes where somebody used a red wire nut to cap off a single #12 wire.

 

That's very good to know; thank you very much.

I'm going to get an assortment pack of wire nuts from home depot that will include blue, orange, yellow, and red wire nuts. I'll use orange ones for capping wires.

Does anyone know who manufactures the wire nuts that home depot sells under their own brand ("Commercial Electric")?

 

Easy 3 step process to figure out if the nut fits.

1. Attempt to screw the wirenut onto the wire(s)
2. If it does not fit, check to see if the wirenut is too big or 2 small & adjust accordingly.
3. If it does fit, then you have the correct size wirenut.

Not a hard process. If the nut will screw down & hold securely, then it fits. That said, most red color ones I have, do not usually hold a single 12G wire well. But, try & see.

 

Use a brand name wire nut. Even good ones are not expensive . Ideal, Buchanan and 3M are good.

 

"It's a nut. It should hold tight like a nut.'

How come this 10-24 galvanized hex nut does not stay on my 8-32 brass machine bolt and hold the bracket to the sheet metal?

If the wire end happens not to have the last 1/2 inch stripped of insulation then a slightly oversized wire nut may screw sufficiently tightly over the insulation of the single wire end prior to curling up the latter to stuff into the box unused.

If the wire nut keeps on spinning suggesting stripped threads then it is not good enough.

Do not snip off unused wire ends except from old or knob & tube wiring that is being decommissioned.

 

How come this 10-24 galvanized hex nut does not stay on my 8-32 brass machine bolt and hold the bracket to the sheet metal?

Obviously because you pulled your bracket too hard. You're supposed to put that together and then handle the whole thing very gingerly so it doesn't fall apart.

 

Ive found stripping the wire and using red Ideals usually works.

 

Today I got the wire connectors and replaced the red wire nuts with orange ones. Then ran out and used blue for the few #14 wires left.
I stripped the few wires that were not stripped so that the wire nut would screw on the metal and not the insulation.

These Buchanan Wire-Twist connectors aren't really good for capping single wires because if you keep twisting, the spring screws through the top. Here's the thread

Is there any way to set a thread to resolved on this forum or do I just leave it alone?

 

Today I got the wire connectors and replaced the red wire nuts with orange ones. Then ran out and used blue for the few #14 wires left.

This is what I do. Cap #12 with orange and #14 with blue. I dunno if it's code but it works a lot better, has a lot stronger bite, than using yellow to cap #12 and orange to cap #14.

Yellow to cap #12 and orange to cap #14 works a little better if you do not strip the insulation off the end of the conductor, but now your nut is biting into insulation and not copper and I don't think that's very secure.