"Charlie S." wrote in message
newsr1Ae.1319$zj4.278@trndny06...

SNIP




Question 1. Had to drill across two thick pieces of wood that were
separated by a 5 inch gap..... total distance of the gap and wood was
about 9 inches. Then, I tried to run the telephone wire through
afterwards. What a struggle. I pinched the end of the telephone wire to
the end of a coat hanger and tried to run it through. Couldn't get that
wire/hanger to find the second opening no matter how hard I tried.
Eventually, I had to admit I was beaten (what an ego deflator) and widened
the initial entrance hole. Then, I found the second hole easily.

Granted the original drill hole was only slightly larger than the wire,
but I should have been able to find the second hole as it was only a 5
inch gap. A friend of mine said it's normal to drill a much larger hole to
allow the wire to go through.

My question is, is there a special way to run these wires across these
types of gaps? I doubt one needs to make a much larger hole if the hanger
and wire fits through comfortably.


Standard practice in installation of telephone wiring is to drill through
walls and floors.
Use an 18" drill bit, aprox 3/8 to 1/4" to drill your hole, either with a
brace or electric drill
turn on the lights in the room on the other side of the wall and get down on
your knees and sight through the hole
in the wall.. or floor, etc. You will see the light coming through the other
side of the drill through.. push the wire
through the hole as you are sighting through the hole and you can see the
end and align the wire as you push through the wall, etc
and through the other hole. The wire will droop as it goes from one side to
the other, or insulation may be in the way.
That is why you have to sight through the holes to get the wire aligned to
get it through the two sides.



Question 2. I am running the wire along the edge of a cellar ceiling.
Both the ceiling and wall are made out of old plaster. Normally, I use
u-shaped staples and staple the wire along the edge of a floor or molding.
I doubt these staples will hold in the plaster. I have a feeling the
plaster will crack and crumble. Someone suggested using small plastic
u-shaped clamps and screwing them in. Again, I am afraid the plaster
might crack if I screw them in. Any particular size or type of screw I
should use? Or, is there something I else I should try to keep the
plaster from falling apart? (I know, I may be worrying needlessly on this
one as I haven't tested any screws out yet.)

Find another way to run the wire. do not run along the top of a plaster wall
and ceiling
It will crack and not hold. soon will come down.
The optional way to do the wire run if no other way is possible is to buy
the stick on
plastic u-channel, put that up first, run the wire through the channel then
snap on the cover.
There are some c-clips for wire runs that come with adheasive backs. They do
not hold well for the most part.



Question 3. After I splice the wire, I'll be using the small plastic
electrical caps to marry the wires together. I was thinking of trimming
the plastic coating back about 3/8" back. Is this too much or not enough
for small caps? I haven't done this in years. I don't think I have to
twist the wires together beforehand. I just put the wires, turn the cap
and the wires get twisted together when the cap is turned.

Question 4 I know you use black electrical tape afterwards. Where do you
start and end taping around these caps so it doesn't look like a hack job
when you are finished? Do you completely cover the cap so you can't see
it afterwards. I know it doesn't matter. I just want it to look somewhat
decent.

A splice like this is jack leg for telephone work.
If you have to splice into an existine telephone wire run, place a jack
where you want to make the tap
and then make your connections in the jack. You may have to place two jacks
because the existing wire after being cut
to make the connection cannot be joined back. The jack insures a secure
tight connection and also provides another location
to connect a phone and also another test point to isolate for telephone
wiring problems., which will come about because
of poorly made taps and splices which you are proposing to make in the
existing wire work.


Question 5 Learned the hard way that masonry drill bits are not good for
drilling through thick pieces of wood. Always thought if the drill bit
can go through harder stuff, it should be easier to get through wood. I
guess I was wrong. What is the rule of thumb for drill bits. Should I
have two or three different sets. One for wood, metal and masonry. I
only say this because of the difficulty I had yesterday and last year I
broke a number of the smaller bits. I think the smaller bits were
titanium tipped. I was probably using them for drilling into wood when
they broke.

You want to drill through masonary? you buy a masonary bit,, can also be
gotten in the longer lengths.
You can also get a star drill bit, but this is a whole lot of work to beat a
hole through a brick wall with one of
those.. Better off with a good masonary bit and a hammer drill..
You drill through wood? you buy a wood bit.
the two do not intermingle
CC