Bob's DIY

[Bob Arctor]

I've wanted to start a project in my house for some time. There is some exposed wiring and a receptacle in my basement that has been bothering me since I moved into this place, and I'm going to run it in EMT (pipe). The receptacle is also not sitting at regulation height according to the electrical code where I live, so I'm going to extend the receptacle down to 12" off the floor to center. To accomplish this I'll need to splice in a longer piece of wire, which will require a junction box. I'll put the receptacle itself in a commercial grade box that is designed to be exposed.

The lumex (NMD90) cable comes out of the ceiling, so I want to attach the junction box to the ceiling at the exit point, cut off the rest of the lumex except for about 6" to work with, and from there I'll splice RW90 single conductors to reach down to the receptacle in it's new position.

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Here is the receptacle itself, installed in a box that is meant to sit behind drywall. Actually, when I first moved in here this was just dangling from the wire itself, no attempt was even made to attach it to anything. The lack of respect people show to the wiring in their homes is astounding to me. Anyway this is it after I screwed it to the stud and stapled the lumex (the white insulated cable) up the stud.

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Here's where the lumex exits the ceiling and where I intend to install the junction box/make the splice.

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Just to give you an idea of how far off the floor this thing is, it's sitting at an appropriate height for a light switch maybe, but not a receptacle.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Well I was able to get the bulk of the work done today. After some mucking around with trying to get the octagonal junction box up, and then trying several times to find a way to bend a 1½" depth offset with less than 3" of length to work with and realizing that it was physically impossible, I decided to go with a rectangular box originally meant for the receptacle itself.

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^This way it wasn't necessary to offset the pipe before the 90º bend down. All I had to do was move the box over far enough and use the farthest knock out to put the pipe connector in. Then a simple 90º bend is all it took to get that pipe from the ceiling, down the stud to 12" off the floor I turned off the circuit while I was taking everything apart and cutting back the lumex (it turns out this plug is linked to the breaker controlling my room, which is actually a code violation, but I'd have to tear drywall down in order to find out where it was spliced in, so screw that), but it's back on now and the wires have been safely capped until it's time to splice in my longer pieces of RW90.

Tomorrow I'll have to go back to home depot and purchase another rectangular box for the receptacle. I'll also need to put a box offset at the end of the pipe. Then all that's left is hooking up the wires and my new, safe, commercial style plug will be good to go

 

[Tear of the Goddess]

Looking good!

 

[kamya]

I read the title as ****s diy T.T

Are you an electrician? I wouldn't even know if I had a setup that violated building codes.

 

[Callie]

*puts on her stereotypical female mask*
OHHHH, PRETTY (goo)

I know nothing about electric, but feel free to come do mine (I do believe the kitchen still needs replaced)

 

[Limlim]

Are you gonna throw drywall around it after?

 

[Bob Arctor]

Looking good!

Thanks

I read the title as ****s diy T.T

Are you an electrician? I wouldn't even know if I had a setup that violated building codes.

Lol "****s DIY" xD Yes Kamya I'm a 2nd year apprentice. My experience so far has been industrial and commercial installations, but they really burn basic residential code into your brain in the first year course.

*puts on her stereotypical female mask*
OHHHH, PRETTY (goo)

I know nothing about electric, but feel free to come do mine (I do believe the kitchen still needs replaced)

Thanks Jenners I think it looks pretty too. Well if you showed me pictures of what needs doing I could probably walk you through it, although that might make me liable...

Are you gonna throw drywall around it after?

No Lim, this area might have been used as a partition wall at some point, but it was turned into a shelving unit on both sides. Additionally, if I were going to put drywall up I wouldn't have bothered with running it in pipe. The whole point is to keep the wires from being exposed; to add drywall would be redundant. Also it would cover up my pretty work (cry2).

 

[Bob Arctor]

Well today's the day folks. Everything is hooked up, screwed down and ready to fire off some electrons! Yes, I am a giant nerd about this stuff...deal with it.

First, here's a little example of how to make a proper splice. Not much too it, just put the two wires together, give them a few twists with your lineman’s pliers (if you have any self respect at all you'll be using Kleins) in a clockwise direction, then screw on the cap (we call them marettes, but that's just a brand name, it might be different in other parts of the world) until you can't turn it anymore w/out also twisting the insulated part of the wires together. Test the splice by giving the cap a good pull. You should be able to pull on it with at least medium strength without it coming off. If it does come off, try twisting the wires together tighter before putting the cap on again.

Here’s the junction box with the cover on.

Here’s the plug in its new location roughly 12” off grade to center.

A close up of the box offset (the bend that takes the pipe away from the surface it’s mounted on and into the box).

As you can see, the multimeter is reading roughly 120 volts (it’s normal to have a variation of plus or minus a couple volts, usually it will be over), and the plug tester is indicating that the plug has been wired correctly via the double orange light. Plug testers are great little inventions as they can detect fault conditions which wouldn’t register on a mulitmeter. I think I bought this one for around $5. All in all, I’m quite pleased with the results of my labor. Now I think I’ll relax and have a beer

 

[In a lonely place]

Can't beat a bit of DIY, very satisfying.

 

[Callie]

*puts on her stereotypical female mask*
OHHHH, PRETTY (goo)

I know nothing about electric, but feel free to come do mine (I do believe the kitchen still needs replaced)

Thanks Jenners I think it looks pretty too. Well if you showed me pictures of what needs doing I could probably walk you through it, although that might make me liable...

It's all behind the wall, it just needs replaced (I think, I dunno) and you ain't walking me through that. lol

 

[ajdass1]

Holy cow, you're like some kinda electrical wiring super hero person! :O The closest I've come to doing something like this was building my computer.

 

[Bob Arctor]

^Thnx, but I'm pretty sure building a computer is a lot more complex than this. The biggest challenge I guess is making the bends correctly. I don't really know anything about electronics, just how to get power to them

 

[Bob Arctor]

I doubt this will be relevant to anyone, but I just wanted to give myself a little refresher and thought I'd make a note of it. I couldn't remember what the standard screw size/thread pitch is for mounting devices and cover plates to electrical boxes. It's just something every electrician should know off the top of their head w/out thinking, and that would be very handy to know if you need to replace some hardware.

You can buy packages of cover plate screws at just about any hardware store or home & garden center, so those aren't as important to know the size. However, most places I've checked don't have screws in the electrical section that you need to mount a device (like an outlet or a switch) to the box, and they won't be labeled for that purpose, they'll just be in the general hardware section. For those the standard is a #6-32 x 3/4" screw. The #6 is the gauge, or diameter of the screw, which is not to say that it's 6 units of measurement, it's just a number assigned to that diameter for easy referencing. The 32 is the pitch, or threads per inch of the screw, i.e. 32 threads per inch. Then of course 3/4" is the length of the screw shaft. Three quarters will do for most applications, but sometimes a longer screw or possibly a box extension needs to be used if the finish material sitting in front of the box is thicker (if the box is sitting behind tiles, for example). The most important piece of information to keep in mind though is the gauge and thread pitch so the screw will actually fit. Oh and the cover plate screws are #6-32 as well, just shorter.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Here's my new tool bag all nice and organized.
[img=400x560]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-41E5-B688-294C28627C22_zpsuismohyv.jpg[/img]

Before I got the bag I was cramming all this stuff into a toolbox and 90% of what you can see now was buried under everything else. If I needed something from the bottom I had to dig through a carefully coordinated 3D puzzle and then reassemble it to get everything to fit again. You can't see them but there's a hammer, hacksaw, channel lock pliers and a combination square in the centre pouch (which is a lot more spacious than it looks because the sides sag inward) which I had to jumble together along with the rest of this stuff. Now I can just reach in and get what I need. There's even a side pouch for papers/pencils/binders.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Here's my new tool bag all nice and organized.
[img=400x560]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-41E5-B688-294C28627C22_zpsuismohyv.jpg[/img]

Before I got the bag I was cramming all this stuff into a toolbox and 90% of what you can see now was buried under everything else. If I needed something from the bottom I had to dig through a carefully coordinated 3D puzzle and then reassemble it to get everything to fit again. You can't see them but there's a hammer, hacksaw, channel lock pliers and a combination square in the centre pouch (which is a lot more spacious than it looks because the sides sag inward) which I had to jumble together along with the rest of this stuff. Now I can just reach in and get what I need. There's even a side pouch for papers/pencils/binders.

Looking good. All of my tools are in a single plastic toolbox all piled on one another. Every time I do a project I bitch and moan to myself that I need to buy a real tool bag or a tool chest.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Looking good. All of my tools are in a single plastic toolbox all piled on one another. Every time I do a project I bitch and moan to myself that I need to buy a real tool bag or a tool chest.

Yeah, believe me I bitched and moaned to myself about it for years. It wasn't until my latest job which requires a lot more speed and mobility that I finally had the motivation to do this.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Well I've finished a project that was a long time in the making, mainly due to neglect, but tonight it's finally done. Ever since I was a kid my grandparents on my mom's side have had this old lamp lying around. It's not the nicest looking thing in the world, but it has some cool antique ironwork going on. I liked it when I was a kid because it kind of looked like a medieval weapon to me . I don't remember it ever working though...until now.

My mom asked me to rewire it many moons ago. I said I'd give it a shot, even though I'd never done anything like this before. I have to say it's taken a lot more time and effort than I'd thought. I started by cleaning and polishing all the metal on it with steel wool and linseed oil. I apologize in advance for my crappy photography and picture resolution. I'm still using an iphone 3gs. Here's a pic of the base:

[img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4997-87E4-39F07F7C6FBA_zpszeqari0m.jpg[/img]

And here's the whole lamp (the cord and light sockets on it are new):

[img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4555-906A-566A9DF5FD1E_zpso9fokkjj.jpg[/img]

So yeah, I cleaned it up, then for a long time nothing happened. For some of that time I was trying to decide if I could even wire this thing with modern parts and actually make it safe. The way it was done originally wouldn't have been possible the way light sockets are made now. To make it safe I finally decided that I would have to put a junction box on it:

[img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4D71-83B8-6F8B2253EAA5_zpsgqydtwxl.jpg[/img] [img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4FBB-BBFA-7DC20B6C5796_zps7af2vgyw.jpg[/img]

Fastening the box to the underside of the base was one of the trickiest parts because the metal is all curved and wavy. It was difficult to get the screws to bite properly, plus I don't have a vice or anything so there was really no good way to hold things in place.

Most lamps don't have a 3 prong cord (aren't grounded) but I really wanted this one to be because the entire thing is metal. If the unthinkable happened and a live conductor touched the stand the whole thing could become electrified. By grounding something you're literally giving the electricity a path to the ground with less resistance than your body. The ground wires from all the switches, plugs and lights in your house lead back to the main panel where a common grounding bar is in turn connected to a larger wire which is generally buried in the earth or attached to a buried cold water pipe.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Another tricky part was actually getting the wires into the sockets. Modern sockets are made so that wires come up through the bottom of an enclosure that screws onto the lamp. There was really no way to pass the wires up through the bottom so I had to make holes in the sides. Here's a before and after of the bottom of the light socket:

[img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4F63-AF36-0D5F941D63F0_zpsnra556mj.jpg[/img] [img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4B76-AF5C-08776F3111FE_zps7ruc0s2l.jpg[/img]

To prevent the wire insulation from getting cut by the edges of the hole I wrapped some thin strips of electrical tape around it. It doesn't look really pro or anything but nobody will be able to see it. Here's some shots of wiring up the sockets:

[img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-454E-98C3-5B404735F77F_zpscuttpqsw.jpg[/img] [img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-4D8A-A36A-0D37E715DC38_zpsbphtlipp.jpg[/img]

After doing some continuity tests with a meter (making sure all the connections were good and in good order) I was ready to see the fruits of my labor. Let there be light!

[img=400x550]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums...-457A-9105-EAB49B0C785D_zps5yktlzti.jpg[/img]

My mom is going shopping for a shade this weekend, so then it will REALLY be the finished product, but for my part it's all done. It sure feels good to have this completed.

 

[ladyforsaken]

Wow. That's awesome, Bob.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Thanks, Lady F.