Hi,
I had an electrician upgrade the wiring in our home. The home is 3
floors. on the 2nd and 3rd floors are wiring for smoke detectors in the
ceiling. Both of these are a junction box fixture. Neither of these
boxes had power. After banging my head against the wall hours, i
finally learned that the 12/3 wires from the 2nd floor connects
directly to the 3rd floor box. the 2nd floor box also has a second
12/3 cable entering that box and i imaging that is intended for the
power. the problem is there is no power and i can't figure out where
that wire runs to.

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i
can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the
problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I
don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why
this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case
for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction
boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?

Also, a side question, anyone know of a device with a mini camera that
one can use to look in cieling passages..kind of like a snake with a
camera?

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i
can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the
problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I
don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why
this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case
for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction
boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?

If it's a "New Work" box that's intended to be put in place BEFORE the
drywall/plaster is put down then it's likely held in place by nails which go
outside the box via a bracket cast into the box (if it's plastic) or welded
to the box (metal) box.

MAYBE a "Saws All" can be slipped into the hole along the outside edge of
the box and used to cut off the nails.

It's pretty easy to repair drywall. You might just want to make some
inspection holes and see what you can see.

Also, a side question, anyone know of a device with a mini camera that
one can use to look in cieling passages..kind of like a snake with a
camera?

farseer spake thus:

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i
can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the
problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I
don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why
this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case
for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction
boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?

Are the boxes plastic or metal? Some metal boxes have mounting "ears"
that can't be seen from the inside; plastic boxes may have a nail
attachment that likewise can't be seen from inside.

Seems unlikely you're going to be able to find out where a cable goes
anyhow even if you do manage to get the boxes out, which would take a
lot of effort and create a hell of a mess. Have you tried asking the
electrician?


--
Just as McDonald's is where you go when you're hungry but don't really
care about the quality of your food, Wikipedia is where you go when
you're curious but don't really care about the quality of your knowledge.

- Matthew White's WikiWatch (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm)

These are metal boxes. Looking athe box, i do see these slots on the
inside that might be considered 'ears'. How does one remove a box such
as this?

I would ask the electrician, but i had to fire him and now he is
unwilling to help.

Worst case, i can just cap that fire and splice the other one into a
power source...but i really don't want to do that.


On Dec 16, 12:19 am, David Nebenzahl wrote:
farseer spake thus:

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i
can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the
problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I
don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why
this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case
for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction
boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?Are the boxes plastic or metal? Some metal boxes have mounting "ears"
that can't be seen from the inside; plastic boxes may have a nail
attachment that likewise can't be seen from inside.

Seems unlikely you're going to be able to find out where a cable goes
anyhow even if you do manage to get the boxes out, which would take a
lot of effort and create a hell of a mess. Have you tried asking the
electrician?

--
Just as McDonald's is where you go when you're hungry but don't really
care about the quality of your food, Wikipedia is where you go when
you're curious but don't really care about the quality of your knowledge.

- Matthew White's WikiWatch (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm)

Typically, smoke detectors will be interconnected, so your three wire cable
should go from one unit to another. If the units work on two floors but not
on the third, I would be opening up smokes on the second floor and looking
for a cable that hasn't been connected, yet



"farseer" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,
I had an electrician upgrade the wiring in our home. The home is 3
floors. on the 2nd and 3rd floors are wiring for smoke detectors in the
ceiling. Both of these are a junction box fixture. Neither of these
boxes had power. After banging my head against the wall hours, i
finally learned that the 12/3 wires from the 2nd floor connects
directly to the 3rd floor box. the 2nd floor box also has a second
12/3 cable entering that box and i imaging that is intended for the
power. the problem is there is no power and i can't figure out where
that wire runs to.

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i
can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the
problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I
don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why
this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case
for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction
boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?

Also, a side question, anyone know of a device with a mini camera that
one can use to look in cieling passages..kind of like a snake with a
camera?

i ended up riping out a floor piece from the floor above (3rd floor)
and using a stick and mirror, this helped me follow the wire to a
closet. I did also see that the junction box was welded on to a metal
bracket that was in turn screwed into one of the studs/beams/joust (i
forget what the proper term is)

On Dec 16, 7:00 am, "RBM" rbm2(remove wrote:
Typically, smoke detectors will be interconnected, so your three wire cable
should go from one unit to another. If the units work on two floors but not
on the third, I would be opening up smokes on the second floor and looking
for a cable that hasn't been connected, yet

"farseer" wrote in oglegroups.com...



Hi,
I had an electrician upgrade the wiring in our home. The home is 3
floors. on the 2nd and 3rd floors are wiring for smoke detectors in the
ceiling. Both of these are a junction box fixture. Neither of these
boxes had power. After banging my head against the wall hours, i
finally learned that the 12/3 wires from the 2nd floor connects
directly to the 3rd floor box. the 2nd floor box also has a second
12/3 cable entering that box and i imaging that is intended for the
power. the problem is there is no power and i can't figure out where
that wire runs to.

SO, what i want to do is remove the 2nd floor junction box to see if i
can get a glimpse at where the cable might be heading towards. the
problem is, i can't for the life of me budge that junction box. I
don't see any screws holding it in place, so i can't figure out why
this box is so secure up there. the same thing seems to be the case
for the 3rnd floor box. Anyone have an idea of how these junction
boxes can be removed or pushed out of the way?

Also, a side question, anyone know of a device with a mini camera that
one can use to look in cieling passages..kind of like a snake with a
camera?- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -