Romex: two whites and a black

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JES2727 said:
I recently encountered some romex with two whites & one black, but no ground. I had never seen it before. Upon closer inspection I realized that it was not an obscure product line but rather some hack getting inventive. Apparently he did not have any 3-wire on the van, so he made his own!! He stripped a piece of white wire and carefully slid the insulation over the ground wire.
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At least he insulated it. :roll:

Why did they do that at the ceiling box too? Smoke detector?
 
peter d said:
Why did they do that at the ceiling box too? Smoke detector?
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The travellers passed through the ceiling box from each 3-way switch. This was in a basement renovation, done by one of those "we do it all" types, without permits. They sure saved alot of money on the initial install, but paid me a pretty penny to make it right a couple of years later when the inspectors got involved.
 
I came across the same situation once. The white got hit with a staple so they made the ground the white, with the neat little sleeve over each end and made the white the ground by stripping it back all the way to the jacket.
Gene

Edit - After looking at the pic again I have to wonder what they stripped the jacket with. Nice nicks in the insulation.
_____________________________
Remember - Speed Kills and its not always you.
 
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I happened to be stripping the sheath a 12-3 in a switch box one day and found white tape on the white wire. Upon removing the tape, the insulation had a clean break all the way around it. I'm guessing a manufacturing error.
 
Years ago, we discovered a bare splice in the middle of a 500' spool of #12 THWN during a gas-station pump pull.
 
brandon2177k said:
I happened to be stripping the sheath a 12-3 in a switch box one day and found white tape on the white wire. Upon removing the tape, the insulation had a clean break all the way around it. I'm guessing a manufacturing error.
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I've seen that a few times. It's normally been thin heat shrink, though. I think they butt weld the copper when the machine needs reloaded, and they keep on going. This is one of the questions sticking in the back of my mind if I ever get to talk to a wire rep.
 
mdshunk said:
I've seen that a few times. It's normally been thin heat shrink, though. I think they butt weld the copper when the machine needs reloaded, and they keep on going. This is one of the questions sticking in the back of my mind if I ever get to talk to a wire rep.
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Yeah, my boss told me about some romex he got where he found some butt splices in it. Not sure how he found it but I'm guessing it looked like a snake that just ate a big rat.
 
peter d said:
Yeah, my boss told me about some romex he got where he found some butt splices in it. Not sure how he found it but I'm guessing it looked like a snake that just ate a big rat.
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The one's I've found over the years have been while I was skinning it out at a box. Maybe a total of 3 or 4, ever. I have heard people bring it up on the 'net from time to time that a place in the wire felt thick, so they cut it open to find them. I've never found any like that, myself.
 
mdshunk said:
I have heard people bring it up on the 'net from time to time that a place in the wire felt thick, so they cut it open to find them. I've never found any like that, myself.
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I've found 2 or 3 like that over the years.
 
I hate it when you are pulling 5 or 6 - #12's for a home run or something and halfway through a 200' pull you look down and the insulation is split right down the middle comming directly off the roll. those are the spools you take back to the supply house and toss through the window!!! or another one that gets tossed through the window is the spool that is cross threaded on the spool and cant be spun off. it just keeps being interlaced.
 
tyha said:
or another one that gets tossed through the window is the spool that is cross threaded on the spool and cant be spun off. it just keeps being interlaced.
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You can usually fix that if you take the spool off of the rack.
 
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