"E Z Peaces" wrote in message
...
Robert Green wrote:

Newbies and wire nuts don't mix well, either. Stripped end of wires
too
long, too short, wrong size nut, wrong mix of wires, twist not twisted
enough. There's no end to sad tales with wire nuts in the hands of the
inexperienced. My favorite is three wires under one nut with a
virtually
untwisted center wire that pulls right out on the first tug. I am much
more
concerned with bad wire nutting than with backstabbing.

--
Bobby G.


The connection would probably have been strong if all three wires had
been virtually untwisted. When John Blomstrand filed to patent the wire
nut in 1950, that was his intent. If wires are straight and solid and
of equal gage with even ends, I suppose the threads of a wire nut should
engage every wire in a bundle of as many as six, mashing them together
with no wiggle room.

Thirty years ago it was apparently common for electricians to use wire
nuts badly, twisting wires together clockwise before twisting on the
connector clockwise, then hoping tape would hold everything in place.
I've redone many.

Me too. It's amazing how many bad ones I've come across where the twisting
was bad or they didn't even use close to the right sized wire nut. My
favorites, for 110VAC work, have little metal springs inside the nut. I
prefer them without the metal inside for low voltage wiring, especially when
I am not sure I am looking at the final configuration.

I love wire nuts even for conductors of dissimilar gages and stranded
conductors, each of which may make it trickier to use wire nuts. Nearly
40 years ago, I installed a fairing on my motorcycle, which entailed
splicing splicing the six stranded conductors of the fairing's wiring
harness to six stranded conductors on my motorcycle. I used wire nuts.
I've ridden more than 100,000 miles since then and never parked
indoors, and those connections have never needed attention.

There's no doubt they can be done well in the hands of an experienced user.
The problem is that in the hands of a beginner, they are usually not well
done, and in my experience, bad wire nutting has caused many more problems
than backstabbing. Bad nutting is also a lot harder to detect than someone
failing to get most of the wire under a screw.

Pruning shrubs five years ago, I snipped the cord of my expensive
headphones. The copper strands were too fine to solder, so I taped the
three conductors with masking tape and used a wire nut to apply pressure
and provide mechanical strength. Those phones still work fine.

Hmm, I have a similar pair in the junk drawer that's also unsolderable. I
think I might give your approach a try.

--
Bobby G.