In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news In article ,
Prof Wonmug wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:37:12 -0800, Smitty Two
wrote:

In article ,
Prof Wonmug wrote:

When I went out to string Christmas lights on the ivy growing
around
the lamp pole in the front yard, I noticed that there is a hole in
the
pole about the size of a quarter. I can see the electrical wires
through the hole.

Is there some kind of plug that I can get to plug the hole?

The pole is black. What if I just wrapped it 4-5 times with black
electrician's tape?

The pole is almost completely covered with ivy so neither the hole
nor
my patch will be visible.

If you feel like going to the trouble, take the head off the lamp and
use a piece of shrink tubing on the pole.

I thought shrink tubing was just that clear plastic stuff for
electrical connections. I didn't know it was available in larger
sizes.

Yep, you can get it pretty large. And black. Much better than
electrical
tape for this application.


Silly idea.

You've said that twice, Joe. Why do you find it silly? Shrink tubing is
better for almost any application than electrical tape, for a number of
reasons. It's neater, and it's permanent. Tape degrades, loosens, peels,
looks ugly, and leaves a gummy mess when you do take it off. Shrink
tubing has none of those drawbacks.


Unless the light fixture itself is barely larger than the diameter of the
pole on which it's mounted, he'll have two choices, both bad:

1) Find shrink tubing big enough to easily slip past the fixture. In that
case, it'll be quite a bit larger than the pole, which would make it the
wrong size. Of course, without knowing the size of the fixture vs the pole,
this is conjecture, but excellent conjecture.

2) Remove the fixture in order to install the shrink tubing.

That's why I said, "if you feel like going to the trouble, take the head
off the lamp" and use the tubing. I'd rather do that once than replace a
bunch of ugly messy tape every six months for the rest of my life. How
hard can it be to take the head off the lamp? A couple of screws and two
wires. This is a half-hour job even if you're drinking your way through
it. But anyway, the OP has it done now with the tape.


I love shrink tubing. I think it's one of the most amazing things ever
invented, second only to penicillin and twist-off beer caps. But it's not
right for this purpose.