Why HD?

[don_resqcapt19]

Celtic,

if this was a mistake, then the "white" #14 must have gotten some "yellow" #12 mixed in the batch.

There is no reason why a manufacturer can't put a yellow jacket on #14. Did you look at the writing or only the color?
Don

 

[celtic]

I looked at:
- the jacket, yellow in color
- the writing on the jacket (99.99% sure) it said 12/2 NM-B
- The plastic jacket the whole roll was in stated: 12/2 NM-B
- etc

 

[Oakey]

I had an issue with HD wire in the past about 4 years ago. The wire would snap off when I put it under a breaker,turns out there was to much tin in the wire. Last time I bought wire there..

 

[growler]

This was a job I was doing in 93/94? ....and that was the last time I bought wire at HD.

Celtic I don't remember any 12/2 Romex as having a yellow jacket at this time. Southwire was still useing a white jacket for 10, 12, 14. This is why I thought you may have gotten some #14 in a 12 wrapper.

A friend of mine( normally a commercial electrician ) ran some 10/3 for a traveler on a 3-way one night and complained about how stiff it was. When I checked I noticed it was a roll of 10/3 for the dryer circuit. It was a little dark in the basement, we were tired ( he was helping me out after his regular job was over, 16 hr. days suck ) and mistakes get made. I like color coded wire better.

 

[brian john]

I seldom use HD for work but frequent them almost every week end as I am STILL building my house (16 years plus) and I am a work worker. On occasion we have used their stores for work related supplies, had a customer with a failed MCC, we were able to temp several motors from an adjacent MCC with spares with NM and #6 AWG-#3 AWG from HD, this was a Sunday afternoon late. Now I have an arrangement with the a supply house to open up for emergencies, but this HD was one mile from the site the supply house 20 miles to fast and convenient not to use.

Like all things that survive the have their use, time and place; at least for me.

 

[celtic]

Celtic I don't remember any 12/2 Romex as having a yellow jacket at this time. Southwire was still useing a white jacket for 10, 12, 14. This is why I thought you may have gotten some #14 in a 12 wrapper.

It has been awhile, and I honestly cannot recall if the brand was Southwire...but I do recall the jacket color and the labeling on the jacket, and the "feel" of the conductors.

Thinking back, it could NOT have been 10 years ~ I haven't been married for 10 years and this job happened AFTER I got married. So let's push that date to 97/98...about the time I got married.

 

[growler]

I had an issue with HD wire in the past about 4 years ago. The wire would snap off when I put it under a breaker,turns out there was to much tin in the wire. Last time I bought wire there..

There is no such thing as Home Depot wire. There is no supply house wire.
It's made by a few companies and sold by different vendors. The reason HD can sell cheaper is becasue they order in quantities that most supply houses can't start to match and they have a no-frills sales approach ( you get the wire yourself and cart it up to the self check out ).

A supply house sells service but if you don't need it, why pay for it?

I will buy a cart full of supplies at HD without talking to anyone. A swipe of the card to pay and I'm out of there without talking to anyone ( I don't care for all the BS, I'm not a people person ).

The only thing I really don't like about the Big Box stores is the fact that they let the cat out of the bag and now everyone knows what we pay for materials ( it's harder to get that 100% mark-up). So we had to raise labor cost and that's easier for the customer to see.

I wish most customers could see what their AC/heating system actually cost the contractor. Why don't they complain when they buy a ring from a jeweler that has a 400% mark-up.

 

[LarryFine]

The only thing I really don't like about the Big Box stores is the fact that they let the cat out of the bag and now everyone knows what we pay for materials.

When this comes up, I offer the customer that I will charge for labor only if they make up the materials list, supply the materials and deliver them to the job, pay us to wait if they forget something or get something wrong, etc., etc.

Our mark-up is a bargain.

 

[celtic]

T Why don't they complain when they buy a ring from a jeweler that has a 400% mark-up.

People are fascinated by small round shiny objects...it all started when you were a kid and got that first shiny coin...moved onto rings, hubcaps and "bling-bling"....and as you age will be replaced by the tin-foil ball you have amassed under the kitchen sink.

 

[peter d]

. The wire would snap off when I put it under a breaker,turns out there was to much tin in the wire.

That's totally impossible. Copper electrical wire does not contain any tin. It must be nearly 100% pure copper or the conductivity is drastically reduced.

Although it pains me to do this, here is some info from copper.org.

http://www.copper.org/education/c-facts/c-electrical.html

 

[Oakey]

That's totally impossible. Copper electrical wire does not contain any tin. It must be nearly 100% pure copper or the conductivity is drastically reduced.

It just what I was told and it could be BS , my apologies. I never checked it out. I believed it at the time because of its silver tint and it's rigidity twisting the wires together caused it to sever, guess I was misinformed. Or maybe it was the beer......

 

[peter d]

It just what I was told and it could be BS , my apologies. I never checked it out. I believed it at the time because of its silver tint and it's rigidity twisting the wires together caused it to sever, guess I was misinformed. Or maybe it was the beer......

I've experienced something similar - I have used some solid THHN that was like steel. It probably has something to do with the drawing and annealing process.

 

[mdshunk]

Historically, the price of the job is 30% materials and 70% labor. I'm not sure it makes much economic sense to run all over chasing down a nickel, particularly when material is marked up anyhow.

 

[emahler]

Historically, the price of the job is 30% materials and 70% labor. I'm not sure it makes much economic sense to run all over chasing down a nickel, particularly when material is marked up anyhow.

md, i gotta agree with you. like I said, a trip to the supply house costs me a min of $140. it better save me more than that.

 

[mdshunk]

md, i gotta agree with you. like I said, a trip to the supply house costs me a min of $140. it better save me more than that.

I never figured my cost to run to a big box store, but my gut tells it's close to your number.

Naturally, if you're on a service call, and you need something that's not on the truck, you go to the closest place, where ever that might be. I'll gladly pay twice as much for some fittings at a local hardware store to save having to drive 15 minutes extra.

I think we get too wrapped up in nickel-dime material costs, when we should be more focused on ways to save or more efficiently use the more expensive labor.

 

[bradleyelectric]

Historically, the price of the job is 30% materials and 70% labor. I'm not sure it makes much economic sense to run all over chasing down a nickel, particularly when material is marked up anyhow.

Historically labor is usually close to basic material costs and gear and fixtures are on top of that in my commercial bids of any size. A lot of times material is much less than 30% on my small residential stuff.

 

[mthead]

RE; tin coated copper--wire type DLO-[diesel locomotive cable also used in similar makeup as marine power cable.--it's a fine stranded tin coated copper wire that at first glance you might think was aluminum.It has a heavier insulation and jacket .Its flexibility is making it popular in other applications than what it was named for --the problem with it breaking at its termination point comes when it is not used with the lugs listed for it--too much torque under the wrong termination and the fine strands will break..

Interesting HD/supply house story--[Only happened 1 weekend]When the wire prices spiked last fall'06 a supply house in the area here sent their truck to 2 nieghborhood HD's on a saturday morning,bought up pallets of wire[all that the stores had on hand] and then?

 

[hillbilly]

I spend quite a bit of time placing new copper in old houses.
In the old houses, the copper is soft and really flexible.
The new solid wire is stiff and hard to bend and twist.
I've wondered myself if there's something "fishy" going on with the making of new copper wire.
There's definitely something different in the process....might be the annealing or drawing or something else like adding (cheaper) alloys, I don't know.
I just wish that it was softer and more flexible, like it used to be.
steve

 

[bkludecke]

I just wish that it was softer and more flexible, like it used to be.
steve[/QUOTE]
I just wish my hands and fingers were as tough and hard as they used to be

 

[aja21]

RE;
Interesting HD/supply house story--[Only happened 1 weekend]When the wire prices spiked last fall'06 a supply house in the area here sent their truck to 2 nieghborhood HD's on a saturday morning,bought up pallets of wire[all that the stores had on hand] and then?

Can't verify but heard from "a good source" that this happened here too. Not far from you at all ptonsparky.