I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I remember
a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating holder with
a large gel filled heat shrink tube.

I couldn't find one in McMaster either, maybe I don't know the name. She's
off to the cites again today. Anybody know what to get to splice underground
romex? If you can get it at a big box store, I'll phone her. She needs the
exact name to tell mostly clueless help at these stores. Otherwise, I'll
order Monday. (I needed this yesterday already)

Karl

Karl Townsend wrote:

I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I remember
a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating holder with
a large gel filled heat shrink tube.

I couldn't find one in McMaster either, maybe I don't know the name. She's
off to the cites again today. Anybody know what to get to splice underground
romex? If you can get it at a big box store, I'll phone her. She needs the
exact name to tell mostly clueless help at these stores. Otherwise, I'll
order Monday. (I needed this yesterday already)

Karl


They make twist on, gel filled wire nuts for that kind of repair. I
recently had to use some for a well pump when someone drove a shovel
through the wire. I also used some self sealing rubber tape, and
brought the wires into the bottom of the tape, so water couldn't get in.


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I
remember a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating
holder with a large gel filled heat shrink tube.
Karl



????????? Is this it? 4 wire setscrew plastic sleeve, big ugly chunk of
shrink tube.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...4 97Q9CJ8SQgl

"Bill Marrs" wrote in message
...

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I
remember a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating
holder with a large gel filled heat shrink tube.
Karl



????????? Is this it? 4 wire setscrew plastic sleeve, big ugly chunk of
shrink tube.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...4 97Q9CJ8SQgl

Product description---

The Splice Kit UF consists of a connector-insulation assembly and a heat
shrink tube. The connector assembly contains four cylindrical set screw
connectors separated by a piece of vinyl insulation. The heat shrink tube is
a heavy-wall, adhesive-lined tube. Underground Feeder (UF)-B cables are
flat, and typically have three solid conductors without ground or two solid
conductors with a ground. They range in size from 8 AWG to 14 AWG. The most
common UF cable size is 10-14 AWG. The 3M Splice Kit UF is offered in two
versions: UF1 Standard Kit includes a 1.8" length terminal connector and an
8" length of heavy-wall, adhesive-lined heat shrink tube. UF2 Stretcher Kit
has an 11.7 inch terminal connector and a 20 inch length of heavy-wall,
adhesive-lined heat shrink tube. The Standard Kit is used in most of the
applications. The Stretcher Kit is used in situations where a 7-10 inch
section of the cable has been damaged or destroyed. It eliminates two
connectors and a short piece of cable during repair.

Karl Townsend wrote:
I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I remember
a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating holder with
a large gel filled heat shrink tube.

I couldn't find one in McMaster either, maybe I don't know the name. She's
off to the cites again today. Anybody know what to get to splice underground
romex? If you can get it at a big box store, I'll phone her. She needs the
exact name to tell mostly clueless help at these stores. Otherwise, I'll
order Monday. (I needed this yesterday already)

Karl


Send her to a real electrical supply house. Graybar or such-like,
they'll have it and know what she wants.

That's it. Now I just need to find a vendor that ships. I wish it had been
Mcmaster, they get it here pronto.

Thanks

Karl

On Sun, 17 May 2009 10:13:04 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

That's it. Now I just need to find a vendor that ships. I wish it had been
Mcmaster, they get it here pronto.



McMaster p/n 7924K11

A good hardware store will have similar kits for splicing submersible
well pump leads, but they aren't as sturdy as the 3m kits.

The sealant in the heat shrink seems similar to flexible hot melt
adhesive. In a pinch I've injected a dollop of hot melt into heavy
heat shrink over butt splices. There are several splices I made like
this in the lift pump cistern in our septic system that have survived
several years now.

--
Ned Simmons

On Sun, 17 May 2009 08:13:20 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I remember
a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating holder with
a large gel filled heat shrink tube.

I couldn't find one in McMaster either, maybe I don't know the name. She's
off to the cites again today. Anybody know what to get to splice underground
romex? If you can get it at a big box store, I'll phone her. She needs the
exact name to tell mostly clueless help at these stores. Otherwise, I'll
order Monday. (I needed this yesterday already)

Ideal makes them. 46-400 The kit in the picture shows an
extra-long one to bridge the gap where you don't have slack.

I've seen them at Home Despot before, YMMV as they like to change
vendors every few years and they're doing it again...

http://www.idealindustries.com/produ...nk_splices.jsp

And the heat shrink overwrap tube isn't gel lined, it has hot-melt
glue coating the inside to make the seal - that trick is older than
the direct bury splice kits. And it works well if you clean the cable
sheath well before application.

Wouldn't use one myself, though - if I was rolling up on the
problem, the first choice solution would be the silicone filled direct
bury wire nuts and a 9" round underground HDPE handhole with a safety
locking screw on the lid to keep the kiddies out - the exact same
thing that the Power Utility uses on their underground splices, except
marked generic "ELECTRIC"with a standard hex-bolt instead of "EDISON"
with the Penta-head lockbolt.

Both the waterproof direct-bury wirenuts and the handholes are
available at the Despot too - marked ELECTRIC but not locking. Or
they can order them.

http://www.idealindustries.com/produ...er_db_plus.jsp

And if it's near a busy road or on a farm where tractors roam (not
just riding mowers), I go get the polymer concrete version with the
polymer concrete or steel traffic rated lid.

WARNING: DO NOT USE the handholes from the Sprinkler aisle marked
"Irrigation Control Valve" - some dummy will try to tap in, and that
ain't 24V Class III Current Limited wiring down there...

Eventually you are going to have to find the splice again because it
will be a problem. The handhole will be a lot easier to find than
digging around going "I know it's around here somewhere..." and
breaking the wire in another spot 5 feet away.

(If nothing else, plant a post or make some sort of a marker over/
next to the splice. You will need it later.)

When you give up finding the breaks, and trench and put in PVC
conduit for the run, you can save that Handhole for the tee splice
where the circuit for the garage branches off from the circuit to the
front gates.

Lawnmowers and errant trailers being backed up by novices go right
over handholes, but they break Bell Boxes where they stick up above
ground.

Oh, and if you might want an intercom or CCTV camera at the gate,
drop a second conduit in the nice open trench. The pipe now is a lot
cheaper than doing it again later.

-- Bruce --

That's it. Now I just need to find a vendor that ships. I wish it had been
Mcmaster, they get it here pronto.



McMaster p/n 7924K11

Thanks, Ned. We spent a long time thumbing through and couldn't find it.
McMaster is my fav. vendor for this sort of item. I'll order it tommorrow
afternoon, it will be here Tuesday morning.

Karl

On Sun, 17 May 2009 08:13:20 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

I sent the wife on a snipe hunt yesterday. She came home with the wrong
thing.

I need to splice underground romex 12-3 with ground. Four wires. I
remember a kit that had four brass tubes with set screws in a insulating
holder with a large gel filled heat shrink tube.

I couldn't find one in McMaster either, maybe I don't know the name.
She's off to the cites again today. Anybody know what to get to splice
underground romex? If you can get it at a big box store, I'll phone her.
She needs the exact name to tell mostly clueless help at these stores.
Otherwise, I'll order Monday. (I needed this yesterday already)

See http://www.electric-supplier.com/prod/etcon/sk830_w206152.php
and http://www.engproducts.com/OurProducts/products.asp?
CatID=3&SecID=7&SubSecID=31&ProdID=135 where it looks like
"UF Cable Splice Kit" or "UF Direct Burial Splice Kit" would be
ok search terms to find kits like the Epco UFC2B or Etcon SK830
These don't include a separate gel package; the heat shrink tube
apparently has a layer of adhesive on the inside, since the
directions say adhesive should be visible at each end of the
tubing, if properly installed.

--
jiw

Wouldn't use one myself, though - if I was rolling up on the
problem, the first choice solution would be the silicone filled direct
bury wire nuts and a 9" round underground HDPE handhole with a safety
locking screw on the lid to keep the kiddies out - the exact same
thing that the Power Utility uses on their underground splices, except
marked generic "ELECTRIC"with a standard hex-bolt instead of "EDISON"
with the Penta-head lockbolt.

Both the waterproof direct-bury wirenuts and the handholes are
available at the Despot too - marked ELECTRIC but not locking. Or
they can order them.

http://www.idealindustries.com/produ...er_db_plus.jsp

And if it's near a busy road or on a farm where tractors roam (not
just riding mowers), I go get the polymer concrete version with the
polymer concrete or steel traffic rated lid.

WARNING: DO NOT USE the handholes from the Sprinkler aisle marked
"Irrigation Control Valve" - some dummy will try to tap in, and that
ain't 24V Class III Current Limited wiring down there...

Eventually you are going to have to find the splice again because it
will be a problem. The handhole will be a lot easier to find than
digging around going "I know it's around here somewhere..." and
breaking the wire in another spot 5 feet away.

(If nothing else, plant a post or make some sort of a marker over/
next to the splice. You will need it later.)

When you give up finding the breaks, and trench and put in PVC
conduit for the run, you can save that Handhole for the tee splice
where the circuit for the garage branches off from the circuit to the
front gates.

Lawnmowers and errant trailers being backed up by novices go right
over handholes, but they break Bell Boxes where they stick up above
ground.

Oh, and if you might want an intercom or CCTV camera at the gate,
drop a second conduit in the nice open trench. The pipe now is a lot
cheaper than doing it again later.

-- Bruce --

Your advice is sound. I wish I had followed it 25 years ago when building
the first time. I replaced the well underground and the barn underground
last year. Now this one. This time, I'll just do a half ass and replace the
whole run when time permits. And, I do conduit this time around.

Karl

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in
. 3.70:
They make twist on, gel filled wire nuts for that kind of repair.

They're absolutely, positively a total scam, if the soil under which
they're buried is the least bit moist.

They shouldn't be direct burried. Hence Bruce's suggestion for a handhole.
If the spot isn't naturally low and prone to flooding the splice should be
dry and fairly reliable under a handhole cover at grade.

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote:

"Michael A. Terrell" fired this volley in
m:


They make twist on, gel filled wire nuts for that kind of repair.

They're absolutely, positively a total scam, if the soil under which
they're buried is the least bit moist.

I've had to replace six "hot spot" shorts in buried lines because our
(no longer employed) electrician recommended those direct-burial wire
nuts.

They last about two years in actual service, then start to steam the
soil... at least, the leaks are easy to spot... just look for steam
rising out of the ground.

(the replacement splices are fully-flooded tube splices with silicone
sealant end caps and silicone grease filing. So far, none have failed
in over five years.) One set is directly under the edge of a roof, where the ground gets saturated, but the water doesn't get sucked up inside the solid cover.


Some of mine are ten years old, and still no problems. It's all in
doing it the right way. Even good materials can be screwed up by an
idiot. I've done some armored 10 KV industrial wiring that I wouldn't
splice in a humid room, let alone underground. It was in the power
supply of a commercial UHF TV transmitter.


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

On Sun, 17 May 2009 20:06:00 -0500, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

"Michael A. Terrell" fired this volley in
om:


They make twist on, gel filled wire nuts for that kind of repair.

They're absolutely, positively a total scam, if the soil under which
they're buried is the least bit moist.

I've had to replace six "hot spot" shorts in buried lines because our
(no longer employed) electrician recommended those direct-burial wire
nuts.

They last about two years in actual service, then start to steam the
soil... at least, the leaks are easy to spot... just look for steam
rising out of the ground.

(the replacement splices are fully-flooded tube splices with silicone
sealant end caps and silicone grease filing. So far, none have failed
in over five years.)

When they say "Direct Burial" they lie. They will fail if totally
buried and I don't care what they promise.

Put the "waterprrof" wirenuts in a handhole, or in a splice box that
you know will get wet from the pagoda light on top of the box. Make
sure the pointy end is up and the big end the wirtes go into is down,
like a diving bell, so if it does flood the inside of the wirenuts
stay dry. And they will live for many years.

If you have some handy, put a gravel bed under the handhole so you
know it has good drainage.

-- Bruce --