Home Repair Electrician's Tricks Of The Trade.pdf

Electrician’s Tricks of the Trade

Use wirenut to correct threads : To correct messed up threads on all-thread, take a red wirenut

on 1/4-20 thread, screw it on tight then unscrew. The threads will now be like new. Use a blue

wirenut on 3/8-16 thread.

Amps. By Multiplication : Dividing shortcut, Hey if your like me, when you’re trying to figure

out how many amps. a piece of Equipment draws, long division is a hassle and I usually get it

wrong, but multiplying is a lot easier. Well with this shortcut you can use multiplication instead

of division to divide watts by volts.

Example: usual way to figure how many amps. in 5000 watts with a voltage of 120 volts is to

divide 5000/120=41.66 amps.

Shortcut : You multiply the watts 5000 by the reciprocal of 120 which will give you the same

answer as dividing.

The reciprocals for these voltages are 120=.008333

208=.004807

230=.004347

277=.003610

480=.002083

Shortcut Example:

watts x reciprocal=amps

5000 x .008333=41.66

5000 x .004807=24.03

5000 x .004347=21.73

5000 x .003610=18.05

5000 x .002083=10.41

By the way to get the reciprocal of a number divide 1 by the number you want the

reciprocal of the result is the reciprocal

Anti-itch Remedy For Insulation : How often do you have to work in an attack or lay in ceiling

that has insulation? Well, there is a remedy that will keep the itch a way. Take a bottle of baby

powder or corn starch and apply it to your hands, arms, neck and a face (be carefull not to get in

your eyes). The powder protects your skin from the insulation and prevents the irritation and

itching

Locating Locations In Attic With Ease : After your customer decides where they want the new

devices installed in existing drywalls, you can drill (or nail) a 1/8 hole at these locations into the

attic (or floor), push a bare #14 CU about 3 feet long into the 1/8 hole then go into the attic or

crawl space and locate where you want to drill the hole. The shinny copper wire is really visible

with flashlight in dark attics or crawlspaces.

Use a Ballon to Plug Unused Conduits : An inexpensive way to plug unused conduits is to use a

balloon and spray foam. First the balloons were blown up to fit the conduit snugly and then the

balloon was pushed about 6 inches back into the conduit and then filled with foam. The conduits

can be opened easily for future use.

90° Bends Simplified : When bending a 90° bend on a sidewall or a chicago bender and you do

not do the deduction for that size pipe. Try this... Let's say you need a 36 90° on a piece of 2 inch

conduit. Put a mark at 36 inches and then deduct the size pipe., which is 2 inches and put a mark

there. Now put the pipe into the bender and take a level and line up the back of the shoe, on the

lip (not in the shoe) with your mark and bend. You will now have a 36 90° without having to

know the deduction. This trick works with all sizes. Just make sure you put your level on the lip

of the shoe not inside the shoe.

Use Bender To Bend PVC : You can bend PVC pipe with a bender also! I have found that if you

bend it to 90 degrees you will get a 45. It seems to work out pretty close to half of the degrees you

bend it at. You will have to make 2 bends to get a 90 but it is MUCH FASTER than heating the

pipe! I haven't tried it on any pipe larger than 1 inch but I would guess that as the pipe gets

bigger, the maximum degrees that you would be able to use this method would decrease. Another

handy way is to find something that resembles the degrees you want and lay the pipe on it and let

the sun COOK it if you have time before it needs to be installed. Anything to make life easier

since we are such HARD WORKERS!

How to repair bent/kinked fish tape : Every wireman and contractor has struggled with a bent

or kinked fishtape. Often, the damaged tape is discarded, and a new one purchased. The next

time you are faced with this problem, try the following:

Drive 8 or 10 16- or 20-penny nail in a straight line into a block of wood, at least 12 long, a post

or anything that can be secured. The nail should be about 3/4 to 1 apart. Next, unwind the fish

tape completely and weave it through the nails at the reel end. Now, pull the length of the fish

tape through the nails. It may be necessary to repeat the steps two to three times until it is

bent/kink free.

Drywall Biscuits For Old Work : When we need to notch a stud or fireblock to run flex/Romex

in a wall, we use the hole saws to cut down on the mess and to make the repair easier later. Find

the center of the stud. Drill through the drywall with a 3 hole saw, and save the round biscuit for

patching later. Don't drill out the stud yet. Switch to a 1 1/2 (EMT size) hole saw and plunge drill

the stud far enough to get your flex/Romex in. Knock out the round wooden plug with a chisel.

The 3 biscuit opening should give you enough room reach in and fish your wire from stud cavity

to stud cavity. Once you get your wire in, nail a Dottie plate over the notch you have made and

glue the drywall biscuit back in.

How To Keep Blueprints Wrinkle-Free : Cut a scrap piece of 2 or 2 1/2 pVC conduit a few

inches longer than your blueprint, make and fasten a wooden plug in one end using three screws,

and smooth the other end with sandpaper. Now you can keep your blueprints behind the seat or

in the gangbox without their getting wrinkled or torn.

Installing box supports in a double sheetrock wall: When installing a cut-in-box in double

sheetrock wall, you will find that the box supports or to short to reach inside the box like they

are intended to. So to make to box supports work correctly take a flat screwdriver or a small

chisel and beat out the back layer of sheetrock on the top and bottom of your hole. Take out as

much sheetrock that you can with out effecting the front layer. Now you can insert your box

supports and they will now be long enough to reach the inside of the box. There are a few

apprentices out there they do not know this.

Use Paper To Catch Debris : When cutting boxes in sheetrock walls of finished rooms, take a

couple sheets of paper and lay them on the floor in front of the wall you will be cutting in. This

will keep the sheetrock dust and debris off the carpet. Leave paper down until your are

completley done with your installation. Then just pick up paper slowly and discard it. This will

keep your customer very happy and make you have very little clean up.

Use Ceiling Grid Wire to Fish Walls : If you have to fish flex down insulated walls, all you need

is some metal wire(preferably ceiling grid wire). You take the wire and bend one end into a hook,

then you wrap the wire around the flex that you are pulling. These are great tools to have, no

tape or stripping needed. When you're finished you unscrew the tool and re-use. I hope this

makes someones life a little easier.

Removing 'Chico' with Ease : To remove hardened chico from a seal off to re-pull a circuit use

common household vinegar. It will soften the chico so it can be removed.

Chipboard Tongues Makes Great Snake : Found on most building sites the tongue is used to join

the flooring together most lengths are 4 meters long they are great to push up wall to snake

cables down or up they can be drilled through on the to make a hole to attach cables and can be

bent to go around corners (little trick when pushing tongue up the wall and it gets stuck spin the

tongue around and it will twist push up and it will most time go around the obstruction.

Use Tape Measure to find Circuit Color : If anyone is like me you don't always know what color

a circuit should be. If you take your tape out and look up the circuit numer it will show you. On

low voltage 1-2 is black,3-4 is red, 5-6 is blue and then it repeats. Example, for circuit number 37,

slide the tape out and on the 37 inch mark you will see it is 3ft 1in, then you know that the circuit

color is black. I hope this helps.

Using duct tape to keep boxes clean : When pre-making boxes and stubs to be installed in block

walls, employ the following method. After the first conduit stub is installed into the appropriate

mason mud box, cover the entire opening with duct tape. Then, write the height at which the

specific box is to be installed and the device that goes into that box on the face of the opening.

This makes it easier to complete the installations later and ensures that the boxes and screw holes

remain mortar free.

When it is time to pull wire, simply cut the tape in a X pattern. This allows you to enter the wires

into the box, while providing protection from paint.

Use duct tape to remove adhesive : One of the chief obstacles to a finishing touch for an

installation is the easy-peel sticker - the list features plastered to the oven door, or the cleaning

instructions on the light fixture lens. Often the paper comes off, leaving rubbery adhesive

behind, looking terrible. To save customer aggravation, firmly press a piece of duct tape onto the

stickum, and peel it off. The adhesive usually comes off with the duct tape, leaving a spotless

installation.

Necessary Tool for Clean-up : Buy a cheap 2 wide paintbrush and carry it in your tool pouch. It

comes in real handy when cleaning dust and metal shavings out of panels and boxes. That is all

well and good, but one would be well advised to use electrical tape to cover the metal used to

crimp the brushes to the handle, just in case...

Use a Cloth Bag For Photocell Test : A small dark cloth bag w/drawstring can be used to test

photocells, save your tape and time. A royal crown bag works for me.

Chipboard Tongues Makes Great Snake : Found on most building sites the tongue is used to join

the flooring together most lengths are 4 meters long they are great to push up wall to snake

cables down or up they can be drilled through on the to make a hole to attach cables and can be

bent to go around corners (little trick when pushing tongue up the wall and it gets stuck spin the

tongue around and it will twist push up and it will most time go around the obstruction.

Use coat hanger to drill : How many times have you needed to run a very small drill bit through

a wall, ceiling, or floor in order to see where to drill a hole from the other side, but your small

diameter drill bits aren't long enough? Take a wire coat hanger, and clip the straight bottom off

of it. Cut it to the desired length by cutting one end at a 45-degree angle. Take your time drilling,

and you'll find that this 'probe' will eventually drill through most building materials except

masonry. The wires used to hang drop ceilings work pretty well for this, too, as long as they're

straight, so pick up their scraps.

How to repair a coiled up fish tape : Often when a tape is pulled across a connector the tape

turns into a tight coil.. To remove the coiling use a piece of EMT abd a little pulling soap or WD-

40 and the tape will lay flat on the floor like it should. Take a bender and bend the EMT into the

shape pf three or four consecutive sine waves. Push the fish tape through the EMT, sometimes

the soap or WD-40 makes this part easier. Push the tape through and pull back out

Color blueprints for easy use : When tackling a good size job, take your set of blue prints and

color code all of your circuits. Then make a legend off to side on that set of prints telling you

which color corresponds with what circuit. This helps speed up the job and makes things go

much smoother, when all the circuits are somewhat divided up in colored sections. What I usally

do on the light plan is color in all the lights that are on the same circuit. This makes it much

easier to see, because some of the drawings now a days, especially CAD drawings, it is really

hard to see where the engineer intended for the circuit to start and begin. On the power plan, I

just loop all my receptacle circuits and then color in the area of the homerun, according to what

color j-box I have it going to. This is really great for apprentices, because it will not confuse

them, and it also makes looking at the prints quicker.

Use Compact Mirror to see in wall : To find if your wire is hung up in the wall or if you need to

see it coming use a compact mirror. hold the mirror in the wall and shine a flashlight onto the

mirror. this will enable you to see up the inside of the wall.

Use conduit bender as a vise : You can use a conduit bender to hold a piece of conduit when you

cut it with a hacksaw. First lay the bender flat on the ground. Then raise the heel of the bender

head enough to slip the pipe through the hole (most one-shot benders have these holes). Slide

enough pipe out to where you are at a comfortable cutting position. Finally apply downward

pressure on the bender (this can be done with your knee or you can use your hand or both) to

keep the conduit steady during the cut. This works really well.

A continous Wire Feed for Nipples : When filling a nipple to 60% it can get crowded. Take a

length of jet line , go through the nipple and tie a knot.as the nipple fills just keep taping the

wires to the line , a continous pulling loop.

Use Cosecant For Multiplier: Many electricians know that when bending a offset on 30 degrees

you take your measurement then double it when laying it out on the conduit, but the same can be

done for any degree by using the cosecant (or the reciprocal of the sine). Here are a few below,

that have been rounded off for a much easier number to work with:

Most Common Degrees used in the field:

10 degrees: 6 x measurement

15 degrees: 4 x measurement

30 degrees: 2 x measurement

Use Copper Tubing To Set Ground Rod : I use a copper pipe or tube about the same size and

length as the ground rod with a short piece of garden hose and a female garden hose fitting

circular clamped to the end of the pipe or tube. Then attach a on / off valve ( from the hardware

store ) attached to a garden hose and let the water drill a hole into the ground. After you drill the

length of the pipe or tube into the ground, turn the water off, pull it out and easily knock the

ground rod down the wet hole and let it sit. After the dirt settles around it you have a nice tight

fit.

Crazy Bars : Cutting in old work boxs into two layers of sheetrock can be a nightmare.When

putting the madison bars in I cut them in 1/2 bend them at 90 degrees and tap them between the

two layers of sheetrock.Its easy and you don't need to buy the long madison bars.

Cutting through Fire Walls With Ease : As an Electrician sometimes you need to drill a hole in a

Fire Rated Wall! The easy way to do so is get a hole saw arbor and remove the metal bit , and

then cut a piece of 1/4'' all thread about 13'' long ,and angle cut one end of the all thread, which

would go in front of the hole saw. Install the all thread in the arbor about half way! THEN you

can change the size of your hole to drill , by simple changing the hole saw!

Using cotton string to cut PVC pipe : When cutting exposed PVC pipe conduit that is buried in a

ditch you can use a cotton string instead of a hacksaw or a hand saw. Wrap the string (such as

the kind contractors use for form lines) half-way around the conduit and see-saw the ends. The

friction will cut the PVC cleanly as quickly as a hacksaw and does not require the space. Nylon

string will not work because nylon and the PVC melt together.

Cutting Selatight With Ease : The best way to cut 1/2 to 1 sealtight i found is to take a razor

knife ,make a 360 degree score around the sealtight, then snap it.then I take a pair of tinsnips

and trim it neatly. it makes a nice cut and you dont cut your knuckles at the same time.

Use EMT to make Deep Socket : An easy way to make a deep socket for your rack is to use a

piece of 1/2 emt and put a 3/8 nut into the end of the emt. Use your hammer and hit the emt

around the nut. Take out the nut and you have a deep socket. Cut the pipe as long as needed.

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