Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

Ivan, Sandy Oregon

On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 02:09:35 GMT, "Ivan Vegvary"
wrote:

Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

If you are going to reuse steel boxes like that, inspect them
carefully for things like cracked or buggered threads on the screw
ears, and toss the questionable ones. You don't want to go through
all the trouble of building the conduit system and running all the
wires, and then have the screw ear break off or strip out.

I'm all for reusing good old parts, but you have to check them over
first - before you waste an hour or more installing them, finding out
they are bad, and then removing them to replace with a good one. That
$50 of labor time wasted just negated the savings of reusing a $1 box.

And building inspectors will get very picky when they see cheesy
stuff like that - one or two knockouts, okay, but more than that and
they start checking every little detail carefully...

When they see several 8-32 box holes reamed out to 10-32 or 1/4-20
with odd screws to mount the mud-rings, that sets off alarm bells.

I've seen installations where kids came in overnight and popped
/all/ the box knockouts on a house under construction, the electrician
bought two full cartons of snap-in hole plugs in all the holes to
close them, and the inspector made him change out all the boxes before
the house would pass electrical final. There is a rule he cited
covering the situation, don't ask me to quote it.

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 02:09:35 GMT, "Ivan Vegvary"
wrote:

Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with
multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

If you are going to reuse steel boxes like that, inspect them
carefully for things like cracked or buggered threads on the screw
ears, and toss the questionable ones. You don't want to go through
all the trouble of building the conduit system and running all the
wires, and then have the screw ear break off or strip out.

I'm all for reusing good old parts, but you have to check them over
first - before you waste an hour or more installing them, finding out
they are bad, and then removing them to replace with a good one. That
$50 of labor time wasted just negated the savings of reusing a $1 box.

And building inspectors will get very picky when they see cheesy
stuff like that - one or two knockouts, okay, but more than that and
they start checking every little detail carefully...

When they see several 8-32 box holes reamed out to 10-32 or 1/4-20
with odd screws to mount the mud-rings, that sets off alarm bells.

I've seen installations where kids came in overnight and popped
/all/ the box knockouts on a house under construction, the electrician
bought two full cartons of snap-in hole plugs in all the holes to
close them, and the inspector made him change out all the boxes before
the house would pass electrical final. There is a rule he cited
covering the situation, don't ask me to quote it.


110.12

--

SVL

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 02:09:35 GMT, "Ivan Vegvary"
wrote:

Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with
multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

If you are going to reuse steel boxes like that, inspect them
carefully for things like cracked or buggered threads on the screw
ears, and toss the questionable ones. You don't want to go through
all the trouble of building the conduit system and running all the
wires, and then have the screw ear break off or strip out.

I'm all for reusing good old parts, but you have to check them over
first - before you waste an hour or more installing them, finding out
they are bad, and then removing them to replace with a good one. That
$50 of labor time wasted just negated the savings of reusing a $1 box.

And building inspectors will get very picky when they see cheesy
stuff like that - one or two knockouts, okay, but more than that and
they start checking every little detail carefully...

When they see several 8-32 box holes reamed out to 10-32 or 1/4-20
with odd screws to mount the mud-rings, that sets off alarm bells.

I've seen installations where kids came in overnight and popped
/all/ the box knockouts on a house under construction, the electrician
bought two full cartons of snap-in hole plugs in all the holes to
close them, and the inspector made him change out all the boxes before
the house would pass electrical final. There is a rule he cited
covering the situation, don't ask me to quote it.

-- Bruce --

'
I seem to recall reading that boxes must be free of rust, but that's
something that is overlooked to a great degree here in Western Washington if
so. If your building project takes as long as mine has taken, you're lucky
to have boxes that haven't rusted away. g

Harold

You dare post on rcm w/o knowing The Law?????????

Never ever ever ever never ever ever ever never never ever ever....

throw ANYTHING away.
Ever....
Re-use, OK, scavenge, OK, but never throw away....
It's the HSM law....
Even accepting money for scrap (other than burnt wire/corroded plumbing) is
questionable....
But giving ME stuff is OK....
May help me drown sooner....
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Ivan Vegvary" wrote in message
news:zzj8e.13956$Zn3.3044@trnddc02...
Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with
multiple holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed
the knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept
one hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all
it takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of
stooping lower?

Ivan, Sandy Oregon

Ivan Vegvary wrote:
Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

Probably no worse than many of us here. One of my recent projects was
building a few lathe dogs. They're made from 3/8" smooth rod, bent
around a mandrel, tail welded on, a nut brazed in the other side.
Probably no way that this was a money-saver, but it builds more skills
than buying off of ebay.


--
Gary Brady
Austin, TX
www.powdercoatoven.4t.com

Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

Ivan, Sandy Oregon


If you start washing out your used toilet paper, then I'll start to
worry about you......
Ken.

On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 02:09:35 GMT, "Ivan Vegvary"
wrote:

Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

Ivan, Sandy Oregon


Thats cheap. Way cool

Gunner

"The Democratic Party is the party of this popular corruption.
The heart of the Democratic Party and its activist core is
made up of government unions, government dependent professions
(teachers, social workers, civil servants); special interest and
special benefits groups (abortion rights, is a good example) that
feed off the government trough; and ethnic constituencies,
African Americans being the most prominent, who are
disproportionately invested in government jobs and
in programs that government provides.

" The Democratic Party credo is 'Take as much of the people's money as politically feasible, and use that money to buy as many of the people's votes as possible'.
Tax cuts are a threat to this Democratic agenda.
Consequently, Democrats loathe and despise them."
-Semi-reformed Leftist David Horowitz

In article ,
Ken Sterling (Ken Sterling) wrote:

Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

Ivan, Sandy Oregon


If you start washing out your used toilet paper, then I'll start to
worry about you......
Ken.


Toilet PAPER?? You pee on the corn cob to get the brown stuff off.

--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/

Actually, since new boxes are so cheap, you likely cost yourself more
time and money by trying to re-use the old ones, plus the cost of
welding wire, electricity, etc.

Then too, I like the professional appearance that new boxes contribute
to a wiring job, and I like to walk away from any job proud of what
I've done. I'm even particular about the cover plates that I use on the
boxes.

Then, that's just me.

Harry C.

Corn cob?

Nah, that's the traditional function of your left hand! :-)

Harry C.

well, I think I can "bottom that" , so to speak, but not personally - I had
a co-worker years ago who claimed that he had a friend (get the drift of
this) who discovered that in his apt he paid for heat, but not for hot
water. so he got an old car radiator and a fan and ran hot water through it
to heat his place rather than use the electric heat - of course it probably
actually cost 1,000 times as much, but to him it was "free"


"Ivan Vegvary" wrote in message
news:zzj8e.13956$Zn3.3044@trnddc02...
Sorting and straightening my shop crap. Am about to run a lot of new
circuits in conduit. Have dozens of old electrical boxes all with
multiple
holes. Sacrificed some of the ugliest (rusty) ones and removed the
knockouts. Yep, welded them into the holes of the new boxes. Kept one
hole, you need one in any case. One quick zap of the wire feed is all it
takes. Is this really cheap, or can somebody give an example of stooping
lower?

Ivan, Sandy Oregon

On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:38:06 -0700, "william_b_noble"
wrote:

well, I think I can "bottom that" , so to speak, but not personally - I had
a co-worker years ago who claimed that he had a friend (get the drift of
this) who discovered that in his apt he paid for heat, but not for hot
water. so he got an old car radiator and a fan and ran hot water through it
to heat his place rather than use the electric heat - of course it probably
actually cost 1,000 times as much, but to him it was "free"

That's not nearly as dumb (or expensive) as it sounds IF the
building has a natural gas, propane, oil or coal fired hot water
boiler. And IF the guy reroutes the water back to the cold-water line
for reheating instead of dumping it down the sink.

I've worked on a few 150-unit small apartment (studios and
1-bedroom) buildings where each unit has a big 40-gallon regular gas
domestic water heater and a heating coil in the air conditioning
handler (hall drop ceiling) for heat.

Even after figuring in a small Grundfos wet-rotor pump and a
motor-operated water valve it's still cheaper than installing a
separate wall furnace and split AC. Much cheaper than a heat pump.

Of course, the same building had to turn off the breakers to all the
AC Service Plugs on the roof, seems the tenants who had their power
cut off for non-payment were running cords down into their units...

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

In article , Bruce L. Bergman
says...

well, I think I can "bottom that" , so to speak, but not personally - I had
a co-worker years ago who claimed that he had a friend (get the drift of
this) who discovered that in his apt he paid for heat, but not for hot
water. so he got an old car radiator and a fan and ran hot water through it
to heat his place rather than use the electric heat - of course it probably
actually cost 1,000 times as much, but to him it was "free"

That's not nearly as dumb (or expensive) as it sounds IF the
building has a natural gas, propane, oil or coal fired hot water
boiler. And IF the guy reroutes the water back to the cold-water line
for reheating instead of dumping it down the sink.

That sounds like a good way to give the other residents a case
of lead poisoning from the solder in the radiator.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

In article , Bruce L. Bergman
says...

well, I think I can "bottom that" , so to speak, but not personally - I had
a co-worker years ago who claimed that he had a friend (get the drift of
this) who discovered that in his apt he paid for heat, but not for hot
water. so he got an old car radiator and a fan and ran hot water through it
to heat his place rather than use the electric heat - of course it probably
actually cost 1,000 times as much, but to him it was "free"

That's not nearly as dumb (or expensive) as it sounds IF the
building has a natural gas, propane, oil or coal fired hot water
boiler. And IF the guy reroutes the water back to the cold-water line
for reheating instead of dumping it down the sink.

That sounds like a good way to give the other residents a case
of lead poisoning from the solder in the radiator.

Jim


--
================================================= =
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
================================================= =
Jim... cold water line being the "return" of a hot water heating
system where the hot water line would be the "source".
Closed loop system...
Ken.