E Z Peaces wrote:
Tony wrote:
Bob Villa wrote:


And you could tin the ends of stranded for termination.

By doing so you take away flexibility of the stranded wire so right at
your connection it is more likely to fail. As much as I hate crimped
on wire connectors and always believed soldered was better than
connectors, where there is a lot of vibration they do last much longer
than soldered on wires. Can someone check with NASA?

Suppose I wanted to replace an 18-gage lamp cord. If it had 19 strands
of 30-gage, like much automotive wire, it would probably screw down to
the socket pretty well. But 18-gage lamp cord may have 41 strands of
34-gage. Twelve-gage zip cord could be worse; it might have 65 strands.

It can be hard to get wire with a lot of strands to stay under a screw.
What would be wrong with tinning? Within the lamp, strain and
vibration shouldn't be problems.

If there isn't a vibration or strain problem, then there is no problem
that I see.


If instead of a screw terminal, I wanted to use a wire nut on zip cord
with a lot of strands, I might try tinning if I had trouble. I wonder
if that would violate the NEC. (Some wire nuts will screw down far
enough to clamp the insulated part of a cord.)

If I am joining zip cord, or stranded wire in a light fixture to 14
solid, I just strip the stranded wire longer than the solid wire and
twist it around the solid wire first, then add the wire nut. It's
always worked _great_ for me. I do make sure there is more of the
stranded wire toward the end of the solid, it's just how I found it to
work the best. Maybe it's not code if I strip the stranded wire longer
than the strip gauge? I don't know. I do know that it works very well
code or no code. Give it a try and you won't have to worry about tinning.