Telephone cables.......................the dog's breakfast!

[Slime]

Hi all.
My problem is that I have two phone cables running along the bottom of some skirting in the hall.................which was found by my new puppy who has sunk her teeth through both cables!
This morning I had no phone and no internet. I've since cut away the damaged cables and replaced with two new lengths. One of the cables had six single strand wires inside and the other had four multi strand wires in it. The new 'inserted' wire had four single strand wires within. I merely stripped the wires back and wound the two bare ends together and bound them with insulating tape, leaving me with four large black joins................not pretty.
My questions are;
should I replace my awful joins with gel crimp connectors?
Looking on the internet they appear big & bulky, are they?
Are they easy to fit?
Are they easy to put in d-line trunking?
Sorry, too many questions!
Thanks for reading this,

Slime58.

 

[pcaouolte]

You don't really need waterproof gel crimps inside. Yes they are fairly big and look horrible. You might fit them in d-line trunking if you stagger the joints along the cable.

Can you solder? A soldered joint with some heatshrink tubing in place of your insulation tape would be much better and would fit in the trunking.

Oh and relocate the puppy to the garden

 

[EightyTwo]

Another trick is to use small choc block (connector strip). Once you've twisted the ends together, shove them into one side of the choc block - you don't need to put one wire in each end. This will give you an electrical and mechanical joint as well as insulation. It also makes it easier to cram it into trunking.

 

[trowelhead]

Or you could do i properly!
http://www.telephone-wiring.co.uk/bt77a-telephone-junction-box-with-inserter-tool-185-p.asp

 

[bernardgreen]

IDC ( punch down ) connectors are NOT suitable for connecting stranded cables. The joint may appear to work when first made but is highly likely to fail soon afterwards.

 

[Slime]

Thanks for all the advice guys.
Will have a ponder over the weekend, but everything is currently still working!

Slime58.

 

[kbdiy]

Am slightly surprised that the multi-strand wires have anything to do with the telephony. Not impossible I know but not the normal type of cable I would expect to find. Worth checking if everything works with only the six-wire cable joined through. You might be able to dispense with the other.

Best solution would be a complete re-run using the proper cable as advised above. Certainly don't use the crimp connectors - they are really bulky and will never look pretty half-way along the skirting.

 

[Slime]

Am slightly surprised that the multi-strand wires have anything to do with the telephony. Not impossible I know but not the normal type of cable I would expect to find. Worth checking if everything works with only the six-wire cable joined through. You might be able to dispense with the other.

Best solution would be a complete re-run using the proper cable as advised above. Certainly don't use the crimp connectors - they are really bulky and will never look pretty half-way along the skirting.

Hi there.
I was also a bit surprised to find multi strand wire. That was the grey cable, the other single strand wires were in a white cable.
I repaired the white cable first and the problems were still present. I only overcame the problem after repairing both wires, albeit in a very 'Heath Robinson' manner!
FWIW both cables are coming from the same BT point in the hall!

Slime58.

 

[kbdiy]

Someone has been playing around in the past then. The stranded cable would never have been used by BT or any other provider for that matter.

Without knowing what is serving what it's hard to give much more advice but I would prefer to see a complete rewire just to tidy everything up.

 

[drgl]

Or you could do i properly!
http://www.telephone-wiring.co.uk/bt77a-telephone-junction-box-with-inserter-tool-185-p.asp[/QUOTE]
In which case you'd be wanting one of these rather than IDC for stranded wire!!
http://www.bttorj45.com/bt77b.html