Twisting the wires with linesman pliers before using a wire nut?

[romex jockey]

It seems that many of us who prefer the pretwist have been in the trade for a long time...probably many of us were taught by electricians who twisted and soldered the joints.

Yes, sadly most have passed on to the 'great job in the sky' . What did they leave us with? Well i'd refer to the American Electricians Handbook , as to OP, chpt 2, 'properties of splicing and conductors' delves into amazing detail

~RJ~

 

[Frank DuVal]

If you solder, do you use a temp controlled soldering station, or a cheap solder pencil?

Weller 8200 gun mostly.
Weller D550 if need some real heat.
I have a 500 watt iron for REALLY Heavy work!

 

[jusme123]

If you mean solder, yes, I do. Just not on NM cable. I also know how to make a Western Union splice. I have even used solder pots.

If you solder, do you use a temp controlled soldering station, or a cheap solder pencil? A real electrician knows how to use both.

FWIW, sometimes I pre-twist and sometimes I don't. It depends on the situation. The important thing is how good the connection is.

Spellcheck corrected it for me lol

 

[James L]

Spellcheck corrected it for me lol

So to be clear, you don't dress in camouflage when you solder?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Weller 8200 gun mostly.
Weller D550 if need some real heat.
I have a 500 watt iron for REALLY Heavy work!

Back when soldering was common, the typical method was a dip pot. The pot was about 1" diameter and 1 1/2 or so deep on a handle that let the pot stay upright. You would get all of the joints twisted and pointing down, then go around with the dip pot full of molten solder and push the pot up on the wires so that they were immersed in the molten solder, hold it there long enough to get the wires hot so you did not have a cold joint and then move to the next. You would come back later and tape and tuck the wires.

 

[K8MHZ]

Spellcheck corrected it for me lol

Gotta love it!!

 

[Dale lee]

Well I used to never pre twist and not once did I have a single issue maybe it’s the bear paws I have lol. Anyways I started due to the fact I work with a lot of newbies and it frustrates me to no end when you troubleshoot for any amount of time to find out a neutral came out of the wire nut. So off of principle I pre twist so there is no guesswork and so the guys behind me don’t feel like I’m a hypocrite. Also I don’t want to be the jerk that says I don’t need to but you do haha. The struggle is real

 

[Jim Tehan]

I am also old school but another old timer (my Dad) taught me that you need to have a mechanical connection before you have an electrical connection. That really means to twist the wires together before spinning on the wire nut.

 

[User Name]

Bcap used to have a picture on the back of the bag showing to twist wires, their website says recommended but not required. 15 years I always have, I can't think of any I've ever gone back to, I know I've followed behind other guys who didn't pre-twist and I had to fix. 5 seconds to save me a 1/2 hr service call to redo something and not get paid for. I'll pre-twist .

 

[retirede]

I am also old school but another old timer (my Dad) taught me that you need to have a mechanical connection before you have an electrical connection. That really means to twist the wires together before spinning on the wire nut.

How can the wire nut not make a mechanical connection?

 

[James L]

Well I used to never pre twist and not once did I have a single issue maybe it’s the bear paws I have lol. Anyways I started due to the fact I work with a lot of newbies and it frustrates me to no end when you troubleshoot for any amount of time to find out a neutral came out of the wire nut. So off of principle I pre twist so there is no guesswork and so the guys behind me don’t feel like I’m a hypocrite. Also I don’t want to be the jerk that says I don’t need to but you do haha. The struggle is real

I wouldn't change just because some other guys can't figure out how to properly use a wire nut. I would grind on them 'til they learn or quit

 

[Dale lee]

I wouldn't change just because some other guys can't figure out how to properly use a wire nut. I would grind on them 'til they learn or quit

I agree to a certain extent. Wouldn’t it be better to encourage people to want to do better and teach them, rather than beat them down...

 

[gsstaley@sbcglobal.net]

Check the box/ bag. Some manufacturers listing is based on "not" twisting the wires.

 

[James L]

I agree to a certain extent. Wouldn’t it be better to encourage people to want to do better and teach them, rather than beat them down...

I wouldn't grind them until I'd first tried to encourage them with constructive advice, tips, tutorials.

But then, if I'm troubleshooting and finding that they've been ignoring my encouraging, I'd grind them to ashes

 

[Dale lee]

Touché lol

 

[retirede]

Check the box/ bag. Some manufacturers listing is based on "not" twisting the wires.

We went down that path a couple dozen posts ago. In the end, no one could find instructions that said not to twist, only that twisting was unnecessary.

If you have some that say “not to twist” I’d like to see it because I thought sure I had seen it before as well. I’m now chalking that up to my failing memory!

 

[readydave8]

Just give each wire a tug before folding splice back into box. If your splices are not failing, don't change what you're doing.

 

[Rdcowart]

I’m a younger guy 33 years of age I prefer to do the old school twist. I’m 3rd generation and I learned from the previous two generations to twist the wires together less problems. It’s like the question wrap around the screw heads or plug wires in back of switches and outlets. Yes I take the extra time to wrap less problems.

 

[retirede]

I’m a younger guy 33 years of age I prefer to do the old school twist. I’m 3rd generation and I learned from the previous two generations to twist the wires together less problems. It’s like the question wrap around the screw heads or plug wires in back of switches and outlets. Yes I take the extra time to wrap less problems.

You really can’t compare pretwisting to backstabbing. Totally unrelated.

 

[James L]

You really can’t compare pretwisting to backstabbing. Totally unrelated.

The only real difference is that you can't really damage a twisted connection from the front of a wirenut, but you can damage a plug-in connection from the front of a receptacle