(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

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend electrical tape and wire nuts as mightywombat mentioned above. The problem with duct tape is I don't know if it's a good insulator or not, so it might conduct some electricity. If it conducts electricity possible consequences in order of severity are tripping the circuit breaker / blowing the fuse, burning out the item, or burning down the house.

As for how to go about it, unplug the device and turn it off. On the plug side, feel the rubber around each side of the wire, one wire's rubber will be smooth all the way around, and the other will be ridged. Find the ridged wire on the appliance side too. Ridged must go to ridged - this is the grounded wire and helps prevent you from getting a shock from the device.

Around the break in each wire strip the rubber back by 1-2". Twine the wire/s on the ridged side appliance end with the wires on the ridged side plug end - you want to twine them together so their loose ends are together and make the bottom of a Y, with the top parts of the Y being the wire towards the appliance and the wire towards the plug. Poke the bottom of the Y where they were twined together into a wire nut (a plastic cap that's threaded on the inside with metal threads) and screw it down onto the wires. Repeat for the unridged side appliance end with the unridged side plug end.

Take your electrical tape and put some tape between the unridged and ridged wires so that they're not touching. Then wrap around everything so that no wire shows, so the wire nuts are held on, and so the tape is as flush as possible with the original rubber sheath and the wire nuts.

To test, find an outlet with a GFCI (that little switch/trigger thing) if available, plug fixed device in, do not touch the outlet or the spliced area, and turn the device on, running it for a minute at most. If you trip anything (GFCI, circuit breaker, fuse), turn the device off before unplugging, then reset things. If all seems to go ok, turn it off before unplugging, then carefully touch the spliced area to see if it's hot. If it's hot, wait for it to cool before doing anything further. If it's hot or if you tripped anything undo everything, and see if you can find where the problem is and redo without doing that same thing wrong.

If a fire starts (highly unlikely, but I know you like to be prepared for all possibilities) do NOT use water to put out the fire. If possible, turn off the device and unplug, then use a fire extinguisher or smother with a blanket or other large piece of fabric. If you are unable to put out the fire, or if you feel you yourself are at risk, call 911 and tell them it started as an electrical fire, and turn off the power source (circuit breaker, fuse) if you know how and doing so would not put yourself at risk.

Google search terms: splice strip wire