Recent content by scott45

I think I'm beginning to agree that I may have bit off more than I should have here. I've done plenty of electrical work indoors but only to the extent that simple circuits were run or fixed. I've not ever installed a sub panel, buried anything in a trench or spliced together large wire...

Haven't bought it yet but was going to do bare copper. Seems like it would be a better ground to have it exposed to the earth for the entire run but there's probably some reg against that... :sad:

I did screw things up at first but now I've got direct burial in there and I've run it through the conduit I had leftover, just so it got used. I'm planning to just drop the copper ground wire into the trench next the conduit unless someone on here tells that is also against the rules. Per...

One more wire to run down through that silly trench then... ah well. At least I can just drop it in the hole and connect up the ends. The #6 is 6/3 with ground - should be exactly what I need.

Thanks for all the input everyone. Sounds like little tiny box is out due to being way out of code and having the possibility of burning down my house. So I get a larger PVC box that's big enough to bring all my wires in through one hole, splice them, fold them around a bit and bring the...

This is a detached garage so there's no ground wire between it and the house and is also why there's only three wires coming to the house. The sub panel in the garage has a piece of #4 copper running to a ground rod. Pattenp - The attached hastily drawn sketch on the post-it note is how I...

Clean the aluminum with what? A tiny nick can cause the end to fall off? Seriously? What sort of device strips wire without putting the tiniest of nicks in it? Why do I need to have x number of inches worth of cable folded into this box? This is really heavy gauge wire and my vision of me...

I've got stranded 4ga aluminum wire (2 hots and a neutral) coming into my house from a sub panel in the garage and, because I'm short on wire, I need to connect this wire to some stranded 6ga copper NM-B I've got. I picked up the pictured hardware from HD and want to confirm I won't be asking...

I appreciate the input Aceman but my labor is free and I can count on exactly two fingers the number of times I've hired a contractor and DIDN'T say to myself afterwards, "I could have done that better AND cheaper." Once was the roof on this garage project and the other was when I hired a local...

It's 6/3 which is rated for 55A... I'm putting it to a 50A breaker in my main panel so I should be fine. Glad to hear it has been done before and that I'm not the only guy to find himself a tad short at the end of a run. :)

Let's say I find myself 2 feet short with the aluminum feeder and don't have enough to get to my main panel in the house. I've got a funny feeling but haven't confirmed it yet. Funny, because I cut off almost 3 feet in the garage after thinking I had plenty on the other end. Since I've got...

Here's what the cable says: Southwire (UL) AWG 4AL TYPE USE-2 60 MILS XLP Insulation 600V It's 3 4ga aluminum wires loosely twisted together.

I talked to the inspector himself and he told me to cover up the trench after I dropped the cable in so sounds like he's not too worried about how deep my wire is. Right near the garage where all those bends are there's a big 'ole piece of rock that's about 8" below current grade and my pickaxe...

PRH44 - I like hearing the panel I have is fine, but I'm bringing in two hots, a neutral and a ground, there's only three lugs in the panel and I understand I cannot connect the neutral and ground together in a subpanel. If I connect one wire per lug then do I just need to go buy a little...

Good information here guys, thanks very much! I just got off the horn with the local electrical supply store here and was convinced that some #4 6/3 with ground direct burial aluminum cable would work just fine. So if I go with that, drop some sand in the trench and buy some schedule 80...