hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
They didn’t accidentally grab a foot pound torque wrench instead of an inch pound? 180 inch lbs is only 15 foot lbs. shouldn’t be all that tight.
Polaris connector absolutely destroying aluminum wire at required torque
- Thread starter brycenesbitt
- Start date
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
That’s a thought.
busman
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern Virginia
- Occupation
- Master Electrician / Electrical Engineer
Agree. I use the Ilsco ones. Copper/Aluminum works great. Use heat shrink to insulate.
Mark
brycenesbitt
Senior Member
- Location
- United States
Bin-go. And thank you.
I watched the video taken for the City inspector at one of the jobs.
The torque wrench was set to 180 foot pounds.
No freaking wonder -- in the video the apprentice is putting all his might into trying to get to 180, it topped out at about 170 ft/lb and the last little bit was a lot of grunting.
------
That said up above someone mentioned that the Burdy clear taps have a pressure plate. Thank you!
The shredding of fine stranded conductors is an issue even if you're not using 12x the rated torque.
Here's a Burdy terminal, specifically designed to be kinder to stranded connectors according to Burdy's marketing materials:
On the Burndy clear Uni-Tap. Check out the nice video explaining all the ways they've exceed the Polaris design:
https://www.hubbell.com/burndy/en/videos/burndy-unitap-flex/v/6317550362112
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Let's get back to the "check the torque" thing... was someone really going back with a TW and trying already-tightened fasteners???? There's no way to get an accurate reading doing that unless the screw was well under torque; many previous (ahem) threads about this in the forums.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
I wondered how they were getting anything accurate with that check.
"Oh, well that was overtightened."
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
I think that if you mistake a foot lb wrench for an inch lb wrench, YOU are the accident.
curt swartz
Senior Member
- Location
- San Jose, CA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Unfortunately there are a number of inspectors in the SF bay area that insist all connections in electrical panel be re-torqued in their presence. I have argued many time that your are not supposed to re-torque connections.
I believe the former PA inspector that was book smart but had zero field experience started this.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
If you know that, purposely under torquing would have an advantage.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
X
i had an inspector in Virginia, I believe, that checked the torque on every connection I made in a 3000 amp transferswitch at 5:00 in the morning, before he would let the poco reenergize it.
Birken Vogt
Senior Member
- Location
- Grass Valley, Ca
Yes but, if then you drew the inspector that did not insist on "in his presence", then you have a whole bunch of questionable connections to remember to torque finally.
curt swartz
Senior Member
- Location
- San Jose, CA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Yes, exactly.
The torque inspection is usually at final. The panels may be energized and under load months prior to inspection. What if the GC never call for the final? I'm not going to leave connections "loose" to please in the inspector. If the inspector wants to be present when the connections are torqued they should be onsite during the equipment makeup.
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
Use a beam type wrench to put on a show for the inspector. Eat lots of garlic the day before
TwistLock
Senior Member
- Location
- California
- Occupation
- Electrician
I purposely buy the sketchy-dirt-cheap-knockoff Polaris style inline connectors from amazon exclusively for temp power connections until Utility can come out to make proper connections because they are either taken, thrown away, or if left on site / saved by Utility - stolen before I can come back.
Anyways, these fake ass connectors are supplied with ferrules, and on occasion I've found it necessary to use them (obviously they sell internationally so I think the ferrules or more Euro intended?).
Anyways, these fake ass connectors are supplied with ferrules, and on occasion I've found it necessary to use them (obviously they sell internationally so I think the ferrules or more Euro intended?).
brycenesbitt
Senior Member
- Location
- United States
True that.
In the City of Berkeley they used to just require demonstrating that you had a torque wrench with you.
Then they changed to demos. On one solar job, first inspection a lug sheared off.
On re-inspection of the new panel, same thing.
The inspector insisted the solar contractor leave all the
bolts loose at install time, then torque them in his presence.
I can't think of a more error prone method, actually.
I got involved at that point and convinced the inspector, at least for my job to have the terminal de-energized,
backed off, then torqued home in his presence. I like to think he's educated at this point about the dangers of torque demonstrations, but I can't be sure. I may send the head inspector another note on the topic and see if they've changed their ways.
(Note I'm not a big fan of the torque once approach. Stranded conductors relax. I think that you get better with the tighten, wait, torque method).
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ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
Tighten, wiggly, finish torque.
brycenesbitt
Senior Member
- Location
- United States
Anyone here do make up entire panel, "tight".
Then comprehensively wiggle, torque, mark as done w/paint?
- Location
- Wisconsin
- Occupation
- PE (Retired) - Power Systems
Standard torque values take normal building wire stranding relaxation into account.
Very fine/flexible wire stranding probably needs different values, although crimp/compression lugs usually make better connections.
Birken Vogt
Senior Member
- Location
- Grass Valley, Ca
The wiggle always gets me more rotation angle than if I had not wiggled.
The torque spec on my lug nuts are 140 ft-lbs.
How could someone get anywhere near that without holding the Polaris tap in a bench vise and destroying it?
I recently used a few Polaris connectors that I torqued to 45 in-lbs. Even that was difficult to hold the tap in one hand while gripping the torque wrench correctly in the other.
How could someone get anywhere near that without holding the Polaris tap in a bench vise and destroying it?
I recently used a few Polaris connectors that I torqued to 45 in-lbs. Even that was difficult to hold the tap in one hand while gripping the torque wrench correctly in the other.