are plastic anchors legal

Status
Not open for further replies.
There was an inspector in San Mateo, after we finished looking at what had to be looked at I'd grab my code book and he'd grab his Home Depot flash card thingy and we'd complain about the NEC together for at least a half hour. It was kind a funny cause even the GC wouldn't bother me about it while the inspector was there. :smile:
 
They used to say this about plastic and lead anchors back in the day due to the fire code and anchors melting
Click to expand...

Heh heh...... If your plastic anchors have melted, it was a serious fire and you will be replacing the system anyway.
 
they should leagalize plastic anchors. I got pulled over for a bogus traffic stop, and the cop found a baggie full of plastic anchors in my car. He was cool though and just made me dump them out on the ground and let me go. :D
 
wireguru said:
they should leagalize plastic anchors. I got pulled over for a bogus traffic stop, and the cop found a baggie full of plastic anchors in my car. He was cool though and just made me dump them out on the ground and let me go. :D
Click to expand...

Could have been worse. He could have "confiscated" them, and destroyed the evidence.....one anchor at a time.
 
wireguru said:
they should leagalize plastic anchors. I got pulled over for a bogus traffic stop, and the cop found a baggie full of plastic anchors in my car. He was cool though and just made me dump them out on the ground and let me go. :D
Click to expand...
Fight for decriminalization. Get in touch with NORPAL (the National Organization for the Reformation of Plastic Anchor Laws).
 
augie47 said:
I actually appreciate a challange with a Code reference.
1. I have been shown to be wrong, and 2. If you and I both go to our Code book, one or both of us will learn something that we can refer to later.
Click to expand...

I like that Gus. One day a young kid came at me and told me that he was doing it right, because his boss told him that's the way to do it. I told him to go get his code book and I would show him where he was mistaken. He said he didn't have one, so I asked "you're arguing with me and you don't have anything to back it up?" He said that I could get mine out of my truck, I told him I didn't have one in my truck. He said YOU! don't have one, but I should have one? Yeah, you're the one that want's to argue, I'm telling you what it says. If you want to prove me wrong, then bring me something, and don't just say because we've always done it that way.

After that he would always ask questions and bring out "his" code book so that he could see it. Turned in to a pretty good electrician.:smile: I love teaching the ones that want to learn.
 
Sorry I got a little off topic with my last response. I don't have a problem with plastic anchors, though they tend to work better in block or concrete, but ever since I found the ones you screw in (either lead or plactic) I wouldn't use anything else in drywall.
 
I don't recall the real name of these anchors if I ever knew in the first place. We always called them pig d---s. They're metal and taper down like a corkscrew and have a phillips head on the top. That's what I generally use in sheetrock when I don't have a stud. Anyone know what I'm talking about or the real name?
 
daleuger said:
I don't recall the real name of these anchors if I ever knew in the first place. We always called them pig d---s. They're metal and taper down like a corkscrew and have a phillips head on the top. That's what I generally use in sheetrock when I don't have a stud. Anyone know what I'm talking about or the real name?
Click to expand...

Those are the ones I'm talking about, but I don't know the name either.:confused:

I also found some screws like that, that came with some towel bars and such on a tract we were doing.
 
daleuger said:
I don't recall the real name of these anchors if I ever knew in the first place. We always called them pig d---s. They're metal and taper down like a corkscrew and have a phillips head on the top. That's what I generally use in sheetrock when I don't have a stud. Anyone know what I'm talking about or the real name?
Click to expand...

We call em zip-its, that was the name Rawl gave them.
 
220/221 said:
Heh heh...... If your plastic anchors have melted, it was a serious fire and you will be replacing the system anyway.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that. There is an effort underway by some folks in the high temp, plenum cable industry to discredit all zinc alloy fittings when used with EMT or RIGID conduits. They have made a nice YouTube video showing zinc fittings melting (at 720F+!!) and the cables inside exploding in fire...:roll: ( I have been told that a large chemical corporation is behind this video to get the code to accept their new, plenum rated, high-temp cable for use without conduit raceways..)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYgLVshgoTs&feature=channel

My point is that paper burns at 451F, and if your building reaches that level of heat, your electrical system is most likely toast as well. Therefore it is irrelevant that the fittings are melting at higher temperatures when compared to steel counterparts. They don't even discuss the other parts of the system that would be affected - like anchors, aluminum conduit bodies, duct seal, etc, etc..)

I am sure that if life safety and these high temperatures were a real factor, they (UL, NEC, NFPA, etc.) would have already built in a temperature resistance requirement in the related fitting or anchor specifications (like UL514A, B, & C).
 
LJSMITH1 said:
Funny you say that. There is an effort underway by some folks in the high temp, plenum cable industry to discredit all zinc alloy fittings when used with EMT or RIGID conduits. They have made a nice YouTube video showing zinc fittings melting (at 720F+!!) and the cables inside exploding in fire...:roll: ( I have been told that a large chemical corporation is behind this video to get the code to accept their new, plenum rated, high-temp cable for use without conduit raceways..)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYgLVshgoTs&feature=channel

My point is that paper burns at 451F, and if your building reaches that level of heat, your electrical system is most likely toast as well. Therefore it is irrelevant that the fittings are melting at higher temperatures when compared to steel counterparts. They don't even discuss the other parts of the system that would be affected - like anchors, aluminum conduit bodies, duct seal, etc, etc..)
Click to expand...


That video was the most absurd piece of nonsense I have ever watched. I'm guessing the wire and cable pulled out of raceways involved with fire must be pristine in the raceway sections and destroyed at the couplings only. ;)
 
rbbulldog said:
I Work in chicago and was told today by a building engineer that I could not use plastic anchors to support my pipe or boxes? Is this correct are plastic anchors illegal? I cant find anything on this. I thought there was something that specified you can not use it for overhead supports but I cant even find that. And for that matter I cant find where it says lead anchors are illegal overhead, which I know that cant be done.
Click to expand...

Remember that you are working in "his" building. Maybe he is tired of people not using them correctly.
 
peter d said:
That video was the most absurd piece of nonsense I have ever watched. I'm guessing the wire and cable pulled out of raceways involved with fire must be pristine in the raceway sections and destroyed at the couplings only. ;)
Click to expand...

Your right, I gave him one star out of five. It was lame.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top