Pigtails with terminal forks timesaver or waster?

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LouisianaApprentice

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Forest Hill, LA, USA
If i made a bunch of pigtails with stranded thhn #12 out of scrap wire do you rhink it would be worth it? Has anyone ever done this and how well do they hold up or strength of termination. New job has only solid copper pulls in shallow boxes thought this would help with receptacles as far as neatness and ease of pushing it back in or future replacement.
 
It sounds reasonable for your situation. It certainly would be more efficient to do it at a workbench than in the field.
 
The solid wire still needs to be long enough to meet the code, so with shallow boxes, I think it might get crowded. You have the extra costs of the terminals and wirenuts to connect the stranded to solid (which is the most difficult wire nut connection).

I don't think it's worth the effort.
 
Since you're using stranded conductors IMO it's worth it. Makes installation of the devices easier with the stranded conductors and shallow boxes.
 
They used to sell in home Depot tails with c crimps already attached to a wire nut

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I've never used them
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LouisianaApprentice said:
If i made a bunch of pigtails with stranded thhn #12 out of scrap wire do you rhink it would be worth it? Has anyone ever done this and how well do they hold up or strength of termination. New job has only solid copper pulls in shallow boxes thought this would help with receptacles as far as neatness and ease of pushing it back in or future replacement.
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You are talking about pulls so are we talking shallow 1900 boxes and plaster rings for receptacles?

In my opinion pig tailing is always better than using the receptacle terminals in situations like this. With 1900 boxes it should be easy enough to fold the solid #12 back into the box with the required length.

After saying that, as an apprentice at a new job I would advise doing whatever your superiors want done. Don't try to reinvent the wheel in your first few days on a new job.
 
LarryFine said:
I have; when split-wiring receptacles, and you have two wires per terminal, or when adding a pigtail to very short wires, or almost any pigtail.
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I haven't used them, but it seems like they'd be better in a shallow box because they don't reverse the direction of the wires like in a normal wirenut splice. The parallel wires entering the wirenut don't contribute efficiently to creating a useful amount of slack. But I think you'd have to do a real comparison using the same shallow box and device to see how it really works out.
 
Maybe I'm not understanding the question correctly, are you talking about terminating stranded pigtail onto the screw terminal of the device?
 
growler said:
After saying that, as an apprentice at a new job I would advise doing whatever your superiors want done. Don't try to reinvent the wheel in your first few days on a new job.
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Quite true. Part of the education is how to read the boss and the rest of the crew- they may, or may not, be willing to listen to ideas from The New Guy until he's proved them self.
 
Something I had to teach my son: there's a big difference between being correct and being proper.
 
What I have done is make up pigtails with a crimp on fork connector, but used the non insulated crimp on, other wise you have to use the yellow crimp ons, which are for 12-10 wire, so are fairly large to work with. Plus the non insulated can use a less expensive tool to crimp, for insulated I would use ratchet tool.
 
growler said:
You are talking about pulls so are we talking shallow 1900 boxes and plaster rings for receptacles?

In my opinion pig tailing is always better than using the receptacle terminals in situations like this. With 1900 boxes it should be easy enough to fold the solid #12 back into the box with the required length.

After saying that, as an apprentice at a new job I would advise doing whatever your superiors want done. Don't try to reinvent the wheel in your first few days on a new job.
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This is a sidejob and was just curious
 
I have never on a new install double tapped a receptacle I always pigtail

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From the UL Guide Information for "Receptacles for Plugs and Attachment Plugs" (RTRT).
Terminals of the wire-binding screw, setscrew, or screw-actuated back-wired clamping types are suitable for use with both solid and stranded building wires.
Terminals of a receptacle are permitted for use with certified field-installed crimped-on wire connectors or an assembly, if so identified by the manufacturer.
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Only one model of one brand of receptacle is so identified as far as I know.
 
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I dont know every make/model of recepts, but if they make a thin recept that has clamping terminals, I would opt for these, then just fold the solid wire so it accordians as it gets pushed back. To pigtail off seems like you are taking up more room doing pigtailing (unless there's just too many wires to be capped and you need to pigtail, etc).

#12 wire? Are these all 20A recepts? Or some other reason for the #12?
 
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