Technical > Home Improvement > Electrical Refurbishing

Electrical Refurbishing

Before: Double lug neutral.

Before: Double lug ground and hot.

After: Pigtails and Gorilla Wire Nuts

After: Pigtails and Gorilla Wire Nuts

reply to sk1939
Have you smelled your electronics? A burnt transistor/capacitor or whatever chip can stink up a place too.

I thought about that, but there's nothing in the room other than a cordless phone and a clock radio.

reply to sk1939

Before: Backstabbed

Before: Box is already leaning

After: Box has fallen into the wall.

After: How it was held into place.

As for the 14AWG extension, what is it for, and how long is it? It may be code-compliant as there are at least one exception that permits this. Aside from that, I would replace the wire; rather than down-size the breaker.

Whether the old-work box will work on 1/8th inch paneling, I couldn't tell you. Is the paneling even strong enough to hold the box? Think you will have to try it.

Why is the ground wire in your octagon box extension, sticking out the way it is? It should be wrapped around a threaded grounding screw in the base box. (Given its age, that probably means tapping and adding a green grounding screw.)

Oh - and glad to see you went with a self-grounding light switch.

reply to sk1939
In pic #4, post 1, you have the wire wrapped backward on screw.
Should always be "clockwise" or it will fall off.

Wrapping ground wires around clamps is not acceptable. Use a ground screw or tang.

To hold your switchbox in, you need "Madison Straps" (AKA "Battleship" or "Two-men-in-a-boat" or "F-clips"). They are cheap and on the shelf at Lowes Depot. You'll have to lift the box, as some Jack Wagon cut the hole out too big on the top.

You need metal boxes because of the BX (unless it's romex behind the switch).
One nice thing about your BX is it includes the bonding wire (a rare find). This means the BX sheath can be used as ground.

The Gorilla Nuts are nice aren't they? They make those here in town. I recently took a little impromptu tour of the factory (I was there picking up some other stuff). Very nice people. Nice to see something made in the USA. Even better that it's made here in O'Fallon.

--
...because I care.

reply to whizkid3

reply to whizkid3

Old: Floodlight switch with switched neutrals.

Old:Inside the box

reply to nunya
Already fixed that.

I figured that, I'll add a ground clip later.

I'll take a look and see.

The switch is just romex with hot as hot and the neutral as return.

That's good to know, that's one of the things I was unsure of.

They are, my fingers are much happier now than they were with the normal plastic ones.

Edit: The last owners who had the house really kludged the electrical apparently.

reply to whizkid3
Yeah I knew that as soon as I pulled the box out of the wall. Can't ground it at all since they completely cut the ground wire at both ends, I would have to re-run it.

The blue NM is, the other I may pull out yet and replace it so I can have a functioning ground (although that is unlikely). If I don't pull it out, I'll tack it into place.

Of course I did, but it's why I check these things.

reply to sk1939
Is that romex exposed to the elements?

Yup, and that light isn't mounted on an electrical box either.

Nice.

You have your hands full.

reply to sk1939
I'm kind of fond of that outside ringer unit. Can you hook it up to your cellphone??

I doubt it, although I could hook it up to the phone probably. Right now it doesn't actually do anything unless you ring the bell by the side door (that no one uses).

reply to mattmag

reply to sk1939

The hole is too small.

Love having a Dremel.

They cut the ground all the way back, annoyingly.

Still enough wire to be functional.

Switch in place. I mangled the one end trying to break the circlets off.

Tacked into place every foot.

Putting in the GFCI.

GFCI in place.