ralpha494

I forgot all about starting the glue on fire till you said it. As an apprentice 25 years ago the contractor had a 55 gallon drum cut in half with charcoal in it. I've also used a tail pipe and a weed torch.

For re-ballasting jobs with wire nuts I like using rubber fingertips on my thumb and pointer finger. About 10 cents each from the office supply store. Saved a lot of blisters and cracked skin.

BP_redbear

I didn't realize that there is a tips & tricks of the trade over on the General Discussion page, also.

Here is a website that has many useful tips. None are mine, but I see that I have already used some of them.

http://www.elec-toolbox.com/tricks/tricks.htm

You can even submit new ones on that site.

jahaiap

I always work alone so I find this really handy. When you have to fish a long or oddshaped void with fish sticks or a fish tape fish it from both ends. From the 1st direction you have a hook on whatever youre using to fish. From the 2nd direction you take about 3 feet of jet line and fold it up to make about 10 loops. Tape it to the end of whatever youre using to fish from the 2nd side. It ends up looking like a ball of jet line. Push it into the void and head back to the irst side. It makes a really big target to hit from the other side and is easily hooked and pulled to you. This works great in walls too.

If youve lost a neutral in a string of receps that someone has probably stabbed in the back.... unplug everything from the circuit. Plug in a lamp where you have a lost neutral. Go around to every receptacle on the circuit with you plug in recep tester and tweak it back and forth. If the lamp flashes when you wiggle the recep you have a loose neutral stabbed in the back at that recep.

When installing cut in recess cans take your whirly trim screw driver and spin it into the center point that you have marked for your can. Push it all the way in and turn it so the handle of the screwdriver just about rolls on the ceiling. Rotate it around to check for trusses.

James