Unique Tips And Tricks

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marmathsen

Senior Member
Location
Seattle, Washington ...ish
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I was commenting on another thread this morning and thought it would be interesting to hear some unique Tips and Tricks you all have for our trade.

I'm thinking about stuff that you don't often see others doing. Or that garners comments from others about your unique ideas.

For instance, we often get asked about why we weigh our wire. I've collected wire weights for all our common wire types and put them in a spreadsheet. My installers all have scales and they record wire in and wire out of a job. When I'm billing I just plug it into the spreadsheet and it calculates how much were to bill for.

Rob G, Seattle
 
If the threads on a panel are stripped due to years of people taking the panel cover off and on, or over tightening the panel cover screws, I have a fix.

I put a thin wrap of Teflon tape (for plumbing) around the panel cover screw. Take my thumb nail and push the Teflon into the threads while spinning the screw with my other hand.

I then screw it in to the worn out hole on the panel with the cover off and coat around the screw and hole on the inside with JB weld.

Once it hardens, you can unscrew it, due to the Teflon tape not allowing the JB weld to adhere to the screw and the problem is fixed.

If you do one hole at a time, you can secure the cover with the other screws until it cures.

Time consuming, but if you have the time, it's a great trick

To my knowledge, I invented this trick, never seen anyone else do it

One thing I left out, best to scratch up the inside around the hole w sand paper to get a good bond
 
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An important thing with the screws, simply spray them with penetrating spray before installing and it lets them thread easy without galling and sticking.
 
When troubleshooting a circuit with a direct short circuit to either neutral or ground, it's difficult to find the fault because you can't keep the power on long enough to look, so the only other way to find the offending undesired connection is visually, box by box.

I typically use a rubber socket with a 150-watt bulb screwed into it, and wire it in series with the problem circuit at the panel. I disconnect the circuit's hot wire from the breaker terminal, connect the socket's black wire to the breaker, and wire-nut the circuit's hot wire to the socket's white wire.
leviton-lamp-accessories-124-d-a0_1000.jpg
With the high-wattage bulb in series with the circuit, the breaker will stay on because the most current that can flow is that of the bulb, so it acts as a current limiter. It also functions as an indicator, steady bright for a direct short, flickering for an arcing fault, etc., with you or a helper watching it.
 
Sberry said:
An important thing with the screws, simply spray them with penetrating spray before installing and it lets them thread easy without galling and sticking.
Click to expand...
For wood screws, keep a bar of soap handy and rub the screw on the soap before screwing it into the wood. I use unscented Ivory soap because it doesn't smell, plus I like having it in my tool bag for emergencies. If you ever get a hole in your gas tank, you can rub a bar of Ivory soap back and forth over the hole a bunch of times and it will plug it temporarily. Gas does not dissolve Ivory soap. Water does of course, so if it is raining, it doesn't last long. But once I had a rock punch a hole in my tank on a gravel road when I was in the woods in Oregon. Used the soap to plug the hole, but it was raining (Oregon), so I used a 3M insulation wrap I had to put overt the soap to keep the rain off. It worked perfectly so as per usual I left it like that for almost a year until I traded the truck in.
 
Jraef said:
For wood screws, keep a bar of soap handy and rub the screw on the soap before screwing it into the wood. I use unscented Ivory soap because it doesn't smell, plus I like having it in my tool bag for emergencies. If you ever get a hole in your gas tank, you can rub a bar of Ivory soap back and forth over the hole a bunch of times and it will plug it temporarily. Gas does not dissolve Ivory soap. Water does of course, so if it is raining, it doesn't last long. But once I had a rock punch a hole in my tank on a gravel road when I was in the woods in Oregon. Used the soap to plug the hole, but it was raining (Oregon), so I used a 3M insulation wrap I had to put overt the soap to keep the rain off. It worked perfectly so as per usual I left it like that for almost a year until I traded the truck in.
Click to expand...
When I was in high school, I worked in a hardware store, and we had small blocks of beeswax that we sold for that purpose.
 
LarryFine said:
When troubleshooting a circuit with a direct short circuit to either neutral or ground, it's difficult to find the fault because you can't keep the power on long enough to look, so the only other way to find the offending undesired connection is visually, box by box.

I typically use a rubber socket with a 150-watt bulb screwed into it, and wire it in series with the problem circuit at the panel. I disconnect the circuit's hot wire from the breaker terminal, connect the socket's black wire to the breaker, and wire-nut the circuit's hot wire to the socket's white wire.
leviton-lamp-accessories-124-d-a0_1000.jpg
With the high-wattage bulb in series with the circuit, the breaker will stay on because the most current that can flow is that of the bulb, so it acts as a current limiter. It also functions as an indicator, steady bright for a direct short, flickering for an arcing fault, etc., with you or a helper watching it.
Click to expand...
Just like the old fuse panels with the E26 base
 
Flemish Eye

Certainly not my creation, but more of a forgotten skill. You don't really need the swedged on collar, the strength is all in the weave. You can use tape to keep from getting stuck by one of the wires.

Flemish eye sling is the strongest and most efficient termination method. It is quite unfortunate that Flemish Eye Slings are not as well known as they should be, given their versatility, and their high WLL (≈ 95% of the strength of the rope).
Click to expand...

mechanical-eye-splice.jpg

I like using them because they always seem to upset some loudmouth A Whole
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
When I was in high school, I worked in a hardware store, and we had small blocks of beeswax that we sold for that purpose.
Click to expand...
Same hear, but I haven't seen beeswax in a hardware store in decades. Now they sell it as a health food or cosmetic item, so it's too expensive to screw around with...

(like what I did there?)
 
Jraef said:
Same hear, but I haven't seen beeswax in a hardware store in decades. Now they sell it as a health food or cosmetic item, so it's too expensive to screw around with...

(like what I did there?)
Click to expand...

They use it for a release agent on the plates that pass through the ovens to bake wafers for inside candy bars. It comes in bars maybe the size of a brick

I think it's cheap bought that way
 
zbang said:
How many people use old fibreglass tent poles for fishing a pull string?
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Not me, but I will next time I need to! I just came across a REALLY old tent with fiberglass poles from when I was a teenager, I was going to donate it but noticed the tent fabric has deteriorated in the heat of my garage rafters, so it was going in the trash. I'll rescue the poles now!
 
I think I remember that the proper U-bolt pattern was like the bottom drawing, with the U of the U-bolt closest to the tail as shown, with alternating attachment, but with four U-bolts, and spaced four times the cable diameter.
 
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