Donald Farrell
10-24-2013, 05:45 PM
Just to level set this tale of woe, I must tell all of you that we have been living in this home for 5 years now. It is a circia 1970's ranch complete with Aluminium wiring and a split bus ITE panelboard.
On a previous journey into the electrical wiring in the garage had discovered a receptacle for a welder had been tapped onto the electrical dryer receptacle. That led to a discovery that the dryer breaker had blown apart and fused one leg constant hot regardless of the handle setting.
Well the adventure continued this weekend. I went to move some junk and noticed a handy-box had been mounted to the side of one of the attic joists. I also noticed that the knock outs for the box had not been replaced and the conductor was fed through open holes.
No big deal, scoot up to Home Depot and pick up two external clamps, fix it in a jiff.
NOT SO! Turns out that the box was mounted to the joist with one partially sunk wood screw and was just left hanging there. The receptacle was a copper only recep, which had the neutral clip melted open and the neutral conductor chared for about 1/2 an inch.
The feed for this handy box originated in a ceiling box along with five other cables. Four of which were aluminium, the other, copper of course. That was all fine because, there were no wire nuts, just burnt tape and melted insulation.
Moral of the story, the next time I need something in the garage, I'm sending my 5 yr. old nephew out to get it. That way I can't find anything wrong to ruin my weekend!
:) :)
On a previous journey into the electrical wiring in the garage had discovered a receptacle for a welder had been tapped onto the electrical dryer receptacle. That led to a discovery that the dryer breaker had blown apart and fused one leg constant hot regardless of the handle setting.
Well the adventure continued this weekend. I went to move some junk and noticed a handy-box had been mounted to the side of one of the attic joists. I also noticed that the knock outs for the box had not been replaced and the conductor was fed through open holes.
No big deal, scoot up to Home Depot and pick up two external clamps, fix it in a jiff.
NOT SO! Turns out that the box was mounted to the joist with one partially sunk wood screw and was just left hanging there. The receptacle was a copper only recep, which had the neutral clip melted open and the neutral conductor chared for about 1/2 an inch.
The feed for this handy box originated in a ceiling box along with five other cables. Four of which were aluminium, the other, copper of course. That was all fine because, there were no wire nuts, just burnt tape and melted insulation.
Moral of the story, the next time I need something in the garage, I'm sending my 5 yr. old nephew out to get it. That way I can't find anything wrong to ruin my weekend!
:) :)