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thin wire rant

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dogboy

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i was asked to run a new phone/modem through a wall or two wire so we don't have a telephone extension taped to the floor running from one room to another

 

pretty reasonable request, and a chance to cross something off the honey do list

 

easy enough to run the wire- 4 holes, a new cable stapler, and a couple of hours later and you would have to stand on a step ladder to see any external wire (stapled to the top of a doorframe) to see any evidence of it

 

it was a different story when i was trying to make up the connections

 

24 ga. wire is as brittle as the hair on an old redhead who goes to the beauty parlor too often!

 

couldn't find 22 ga. anywhere- i was ready to rip it out and run new wires

 

and it is cat. 3, not the 5a recommended for data cables-it is for a DSL set-up

 

the 5a only comes in multi-strand fat blue cables that would have been way too big

 

tried wrapping it around the terminal, which usually works fine, sharing it with the cover wires fitted with a u-shaped spade connector- it breaks every time

 

got some u-shaped connectors, a new stripper and a new crimper- went through over a dozen connectors to make up 4 fittings that didn't break the wire off while i was putting them in place- i did double the wire over since they don't even make connectors for 24 ga.- just down to 22

 

had to redo it like 3 times before the stupid thing finally carried a signal

 

ended up with a junction box that you just feed the unstripped wire into and tighten up a couple of screws- even that was a huge pain

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View PostIf the bare Wire was breaking at the Insulation, you were nicking the Copper when Stripping it.

 

 

yeah- i figured that out

 

had to go get a better quality stripper than the one i had, which wouldn't work at all

 

so i was using a sharp pocket knife, but i'm a bit too clumsy to pull that one off

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View Postwire was probably designed to be used with a punch down block/jack that doesn't require any stripping of the cable.

 

 

you are probably right-

 

but even the punch down block i ended up using was a pain in the butt

 

i finally got it done, and the phones all work fine

 

our modem was dead, so verizon sent us a new one

 

powered by USB port on the computer instead of a wall socket

 

my wife tried to set it up and got a warning on the computer screen saying that a USB device was using too much current and would be disabled

 

like a snake trying to swallow its tail, i guess

 

i will look for an AC 12 volt power pack in lieu of the USB cable- that should solve the problem

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I did some 110vac wiring in my parents home which is about 50 years old. They wanted another outlet about 5 feet from an existing outlet. I figured no problem. It was an easy job. So I get some #14 wire and go to parallel the existing outlet that was on a #14 circuit and attach the new outlet. I noticed that the old #14 wire is thicker than the new #14. That made me nervous so I put in #12 instead. They were the same thickness. Not sure if that was a good idea but the thought of new #14 being thin bugged me. I measured it with a caliper and compared it to the #14 in my home. They were the same. When I moved into my house I used the dedicated circuit to the garage to run a 30gallon compressor. Yet the instructions state that it would run OK fine on a 15 amp circuit. That circuit couldn't handle the startup current so I ran a dedicated #12 wire for the compressor using a 15 amp circuit breaker. It ran fine on that but not on the #14 wire. What's the deal with Romex these days? It seems whimpy and dangerous to me. Is that the same with a lot of wire these days. If Homey's is selling wire that can't cut the mustard then it shouldn't be sold to home DIY'ers. They're asking for trouble.

CT

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View PostDogboy if you are having problems with your dsl pm me your number.

 

View Posti might have to- we tried again last night and it quit (a few times) during the last step of the verizon set-up utility

 

we have lift-off

 

thank god for tech support- no way i would have figured it out by myself

 

let's hope i won't have to do that a gain for a few more years-

 

at which point i will be farther behind the technology 8 ball than i am now, i'm sure

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