(no subject)

[nonethefewer]

Question!

I have an AC device.  The cord snapped.  I hear tell that I can:

* Strip the insulation.
* Get some shrink tubing meow meow what and slide it on, cord-side.
* Twist the two wire ends together.
* Slide that tubing over, and use heat or summat to seal it all together.

Two questions:

1) Can I use duct tape instead?  Wrap it around the middle to keep the wires separate, then around the whole thing?
2) It's not two wires, so much as two bundles of teensy wire things.  Let's pretend I don't speak hardware, and that this extends to electrical work - what would be the easiest way to reconnect these?

Comments

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

The two bumdles of teensy wire-things are referred to generally as "stranded wire". Stranded wire is used in AC device powere cords because it is both more flexible than solid wire, and it can carry more current than solid wire without heating up too much (more surface area, dontchaknow). You can repair this wire in any number of ways, from true ghetto engineering (twist together, wrap with any available tape) to really for real proper fixing (with solder and heat shrink tubing and pretty and nice and aww).

So, maybe the easiest thing to do is to tell you that as long as the two wires are twisted together, and you have prevented the bare ends from ever ever EVER coming in contact with one another by wrapping an insulator around the ends, then you will have mended the wire.

Duct tape is acceptable, I think. Another option is a wire nut (ask at any hardware store - they're cheap) which you screw down onto the ends you have twisted together to keep them together. Then you would proceed to wrap with insulating material. Wrap each individual bundle of wire things first to ensure they are isolated from one another, then wrap the lot.

One final thing: this all gets more complicated if there is a transformer (power-pack, wall wart, etc) between the break in the wire and the wall. Then you will be dealing with DC power, and there are much differemt rules. If the power cable goes straight from the appliance to the wall then any fix mentioned above should work.

[kires.livejournal.com]

+3 Insightful

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

Success with room to spare on my Electrical Engineer roll. :-)