2.5mm SWA as garage lighting

[SUNRAY]

Why was this bumped? Thought B-A-S was back for a moment!

Anyway a CK Armour slice is a perfect tool for small SWA 25mm and smaller. I used one for Two years terminating mainly 6mm and hardly ever needed to replace the blades. You have to make sure you turn it in the correct direction. The Yellow Ball fell off mine until I got my father inlaw to drill it & put a pin to stop it coming off

Is that the one with a short piece of 'hacksaw' blade, not used one myself but known lots of swearing at them. I was taught with a pipe slice and as long as it's got a sharp wheel it works well. However there always seems to be a saw available and that seems to be my go to now.

That seems to be me who's bumped this, I didn't realise it is so 'last year' and again I didn't get an old thread warning.

Except for the incorrect advice on connecting the earth. As he's done it, the integrity of the earth is dependent on the clamping pressure with a piece of plastic in the "sandwich" - and given that plastic will creep under pressure, it is "most likely" that the clamping pressure of the connections will be lost over time. Add a bit of tarnishing to the brass, and you've an unreliable earth.
Needs either two nuts on the gland (one to clamp it into the box, the second to clamp the banjo down onto the first*), or there are clamps (who's name escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure someone will remember for me) specifically for doing it in a more reliable way.
* Even this isn't reliable if not done right. There's play in the threads, so if you do the first nut up to "T A F" and then put the second nut on, as the plastic creeps, the first nut will be free to move by however much play there is in the threads - and the clamping pressure of the second nut will be relieved.
Instead, don't fully tighten the first nut, so that when you tighten the second one, it pushes the first nut down a bit harder, taking up the play in the threads - if you imagine how the nuts would be if the plastic panel weren't there, that's how you want them when the plastic is there.

This is a very common mistake and I've had to fix far too many. The second nut should be fine if done up tightenough as there will usually be enough slack against the plastic, regardless of how tight it was made.
Pirana nut.

Of course It doesn't have to be a brass gland, the cable can be done with a stuffing gland into a pastic enclosure and then either terminate the steel wires directly into terminals or fit a brass clamp ring on the armour. We seem to have got hung up on a single method.

 

[chivers67]

Yes it is the one with the small blade. It works very well if you use it correctly. I used to have to do at least four a day and it was a useful time saver.

 

[ajohn]

The mistake I saw was twisting wire before putting it in a crimp. Rest, well it's a way of doing it and am surprised he mentioned plastic but probably for plastic CU's

Didn't notice it was bumped. I wondered if he pulled all of the light plugs out when it started raining.

 

[SimonH2]

The second nut should be fine if done up tightenough as there will usually be enough slack against the plastic, regardless of how tight it was made.

Agreed. I would expect to see the banjo and flylead used in any painted enclosure - not just plastic. Bare galv should be OK, but unless you spend a lot of time ruining the paint job, you aren't going to get a good connection in a painted panel.

Pirana nut.

That's the one, I remember now

Of course It doesn't have to be a brass gland, the cable can be done with a stuffing gland into a pastic enclosure and then either terminate the steel wires directly into terminals or fit a brass clamp ring on the armour. We seem to have got hung up on a single method.

Indeed.
Far too much "that's how I was taught, so that's the only way to do it" mentality about. Of course, the flipside of that is the risk of ignoring decades of "there's a good reason we don't do it that way" experience and making all the same mistakes again.

 

[SUNRAY]

Agreed. I would expect to see the banjo and flylead used in any painted enclosure - not just plastic. Bare galv should be OK, but unless you spend a lot of time ruining the paint job, you aren't going to get a good connection in a painted panel.
Far too much "that's how I was taught, so that's the only way to do it" mentality about. Of course, the flipside of that is the risk of ignoring decades of "there's a good reason we don't do it that way" experience and making all the same mistakes again.

And again and again and again.

I was sent on a course run by Delta Cables in the days when wooden & bakelite enclosures were available and learnt a metal gland was totally the wrong device for use on soft materials.
Banjos were only fitted on metal enclosures and went on the OUTSIDE and a BRASS (or COPPER) nut and bolt to make a connexion to the metal enclosure and/or an internal or external earth wire. Banjo not required on brass or copper non painted enclosures, or could be inside. I recall there were specific arrangements for aluminium enclosures but for the life of me the details elude me.

I purchased a couple of tools at a trade fair, made to deburr a 20 & 25mm holes and wire brush the area around it in one operation but like all good tools they seem to develop legs.