OK to Connect Flexible Metal Cable to Plastic J-Box?
Tom Pultz
14 years ago
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brickeyee
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Prewiring a house. What cables and where to run them?
Comments (28)I work as a an electrician/teledata installer and can offer a few tips. Consider a central location to route all your cables in the entire house and use a residental media hub like the one Leviton sells it allows you to add various components based on your needs . Buy having all your cables and components in one location it allows for a convenient place to do all your switching, cross-connects and networking in one place, plus the ability to adjust for future technologies. You could add multiplexers for security, convert a future fiber optic internet connection into an Ethernet swich that coverts signal for distribution devices as needed and many others options. Cat 5e/6 cables offer a lot of flexibility, baluns are the peices that can be soldered or terminated on the ends of an cat5e/6 cable allowing it to adapt to hdmi and a wide array of other connection types. Other users who offered the advice on raceways are correct smerf tube is a good way to go be sure to get a pull string or something similar (I use 16 awg thhn electrical wire) installed before closing the walls. Best of luck. Here's link to leviton home media cabinets. Here is a link that might be useful: Inside Leviton Structured Media Enclosures...See MoreBX cable grounding..
Comments (10)I'm not an electrical contractor, just the owner of a home wired with BX cable. If I have to tie an existing BX leg to a new NM feed, I use a metal box so the sheath of the BX cable has a secure mechanical and electrical connection. Of course, the ground wire of the NM cable (from the panel) is connected to the box too. Seems to me, the result is at least as good as the original, where the BX went all the way back to the panel. I'd prefer to replace the BX entirely, but that's a big job. What would you do in this situation: You're replacing a ceiling light fixture and the old cloth and rubber insulation cracks into pieces and falls off the wire when you touch it. I see several choices: (1) Get out the electrical tape. (2) Try to find enough slack in the cable (it's BX, remember?) so that you can cut off the heat-damaged part and pull enough back into the box. (3) Cut the cable above the box and splice in a short length of NM, which you can feed into the ceiling box. The previous owner did #1, and he also cut the wires back until there was only about 2 inches left. #2 wouldn't work for me. I opted for #3, using a metal junction box in the attic, thereby tying the old BX sheath to the ground wire of the new lengh of NM cable. I'm not sure if that's really legal though....See MoreCable clamp requirements
Comments (13)I wish I could post a picture, because you are not visualizing what I have here. The back of the box is flat/plumb. The siding (lap siding, Z profile) is not. There is NO J-box inside the wall. There is a hole in the siding/wall (1/12" round) through which the wires pass, and a corresponding hole in the back of the 6x6 box. Because of the siding profile, this leaves a gap of 3/4" between the back of the box and the hole in the wall. If I do not use the short piece of conduit on the back of the box, any water that runs down the side of the house will run directly into the gaping round hole in the wall and fill the stud cavity, not to mention the hole in the box. The wires would be completely exposed for 3/4" as they pass out of the hole in the wall and into the hole in the box. So...I definately need the conduit, or SOMETHING to bridge that small gap. The conduit just seemed the easiest thing, didn't know it would change all the rules. So are you saying that if NM exits a wall and enters a PVC j-box through a hole it does not need clamping, but if it enters through a 2" piece of conduit it does? If it needs clamping even if it enters through a hole, how do you properly accomplish this since the PVC J box does not have any accomodation for clamps? I have seen no cable clamps whatsoever that are designed to be used with PVC conduit or PVC J-boxes....See MoreSpa cabling into cabinet.
Comments (17)The confusion again as I've stated several times, is that there are two requirements: 1. A maintenance disconnect visible from where you are servicing the equipment. There's no "distance" requirement on this. 2. An Emergency Switch to stop the spa motors. Has to be clearly mark, visible from the tub and accessible to the tub users, as well as not closer than 5 feet. However, residential spas are not required to have this. The original poster has not indicated that he understands the nature of the maintenance disconnect. As far as the emergency switch, if he has one properly placed or not is not particularly important. Hmm.... my post on the ground seems to have not gotten posted (I frequently forget to hit the second submit button on this blasted forum software). The issue with the ground is that, as you know, its purpose is to provide a low impedance path back to the earth ground. To accomplish this there should NOT be any current present on that conductor. This is why we maintain the equipment grounding conductor separate from the grounded current carrying conductor (neutral). Spas and pools are pretty wet areas. The fear is that the ground wire might touch something else conductive (at or close to ground potential) and start carrying current. Since we're talking about a body of water we're going to immerse humans in, we're a bit more cautious with grounds than we might when there is only a potential to casual contact. Inside a residence is usually drier and more physically secure, so they relaxed that rule to allow the cable sheath to suffice....See Morebrickeyee
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