Plastic Capping

[ebee]

Though not required, there would be an argument for earthing capping, for when some twit decides to hang a picture dirrectly above a socket, in this case not only would the nail be live as it would be if there were no capping, but the capping itself, which if the wall is damp would lead to a greater area of the wall being able to give a shock.

(someone on the iee forum said they had seen this in a shower area where someone had tried to hang somekind of soap holder of something in the prescribed zones around the shower)

having the nail that the dozy twit is about to knock into a phase conducter connected to earth would be a good thing IMHO

Yep twas me.
It did cause a dangerous situation that would not have happend if plastic capping or no capping at all was used (unless of course metal capping was earthed)
I often see nails for pictures etc in the zones of protection and also see diagonals with metal capping on inviting someone to nail thru the capping - makes me cringe

 

[kendor]

when you cut your right angles did you clean the plastic burring off by scraping along with a knife blade or a bit of sandpaper? only with perfectly flat edges will you get that "perfection job" you are after if you are not too good at cutting the angles properly then a useful cheat one used to apply was to cut out the corresponding side walls of the capping and butt up at right angles making sure the cutouts aren't wider than the width of the capping. a dab of conduit glue/cement bonduit or the like makes for a proper job.

 

[TraineeSpark]

Thanks again guys 4 tips.
Andy, I agree the OSG does indeed say steel CONDUIT needs earthing, but it also says TRUNKING AND DUCTING need it too. Was assuming capping would come under the category of ducting, though as usual the regs may be vague.
Adam totally agree bout the nail/screw issue, this was my concern also. How would I go about practically earthing seperate metal lengths together and to boxes etc.
Kendor, I did indeed de-burr edges, and used the cut and butt method you suggested. In future will try cutting capping at 45 degree angles to make my right angle joins. Is that the way you guys would usually do it?
I also found that with the thinner sizes of capping, it was difficult to use a decent bending radius within the right angles. Any thoughts/comments on this please guys?
And B-A-S, you guessed it correctly. My right angles were in the 150 mm zone of wall edges. My only available entry point to conservatory was considerably below socket heights etc.
TIA chaps, any more tips would be greatly appreciated.
TS.

 

[Qedelec]

If you want to earth the capping, use crimp rings and pop rivet to the capping.

 

[TraineeSpark]

Thanks Qedelec, never thought of pop rivets.
Cheers, TS.