steel 'smart box'

[winnie]

Does there exist a metallic stud mount old work box.

The 'Smart Box' http://meproducts.net/smart has angled screw supports in one side, allowing it to be firmly attached to a wood stud without opening the wall.

The arlington 'One Box' looks similar http://www.aifittings.com/catalog/specialty-boxes/one-box-non-metallic-outlet-boxes/

Does anyone know of a steel version of these, or a similar sort of fitting that can be used with a steel gang box?

Thanks
Jon

 

[hbiss]

You could use a "cut-in" jem and place it against the stud like those. Then run some screws through the holes in the side. I believe that's what those two holes are for though I never did it that way.

-Hal

 

[al hildenbrand]

Does anyone know of a steel version of these, or a similar sort of fitting that can be used with a steel gang box?

Jon,
Well, to me, it kinda depends upon what you mean by "a steel gang box." I've never seen a metal version of either the Madison or Arlington stud mount old work boxes. Note the large plastic hump in the side-wall for the head of the mounting screws. . . The existing lines of gangable wall boxes are just too narrow to allow the screw heads and a full bodied device like a GFCI or an AFCI to slide in, in my opinion.

For the bracket mounted versions of the plain gangable wall box, there are three or four types of fastened-to-the-stud mounting brackets that are part of the mounting box side-wall. So, this and the catalog listing the adding of additional gangs for additional devices, says that the overall field assembly of multiple gangs is evaluated to pass along the occupant created torques from a receptacle device on the far end of the gangs from the bracket.

The real limitation is the number of cubic inches. Gangable steel wall boxes are small.

As for Hal's (hbiss) suggestion, in some of the hairier residential rewire situations I've been in, I have drilled mounting holes and chiseled high point pockets in the studs and screwed down the sidewall. If a screw or nail is bonded by simply mounting the brackets, then a metal screw in a sidewall hole is similarly bonded. Drilling the hole permits placement of screw heads to avoid contact with device terminal screws.

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

You could try using a nongangable metal mud box.
They have flat sides and are very durable.
May not meet the intended use criteria but it should work.
Use a Madison bar on the opposite side of the box if ut pulls out beyond the finished edge.