Any tips on wiring 3x 2.5mm cpc's into a 13a socket?

[rewireIT]

Every time i go to do this, even with correctly fitting sleeving, it seems to be a right **********")£"$$* of a job getting all three in snugly without the sleeving riding up and making it difficult to tell whether i clamped on sleeving or copper.

Any tips for not fighting with this? It just took me like 10 minutes to put the cpc's away in a socket with a spur coming off it because i couldn't be 100% i'd got all three in correctly.

 

[plugsandsparks]

Ha, i know what you mean...... Some sockets have a different type of earth connection that is a clamp type rather than a screw which just bites into the wire which just conspires to push the wire out. Cannot remember which types are best but its obvious when you look ... see if you can find a make at your wholesalers with the clamp type earth connections.
Otherwise i use long nose plier to firmly grip the wire inside the sleeving and hold pressure while
tightening the screw... but it is still hit and miss, the long nose pliers are also good for the tug test.

cheers

P&S

 

[Flanders]

Are you useing the correct size sleeving I see it so many time with 4mm sleeping flapping around on a 1.5mm cpc. Should be quite easy to get 3 x 1.5mm solid cables in one terminal

 

[Dustydazzler]

Twist all 3 cores together and don't bother with the sleeve


I'll get my coat....

 

[Pretty Mouth]

After sleeving them, and just before terminating, bend the conductors 90deg about an inch from the end. Gives you something to push against as they go into the terminal, and helps prevent the sleeving from sliding to the end.

Alternatively (and this will be unpopular), after sleeving, twist the exposed copper ends together. Not considered best practice, as messy to take apart in the future, but in reality I rarely find the need to disconnect a CPC from an accessory unless I'm making an alteration.

2.5mm2 CPCs? What cable is that BTW?

 

[Dustydazzler]

After sleeving them, and just before terminating, bend the conductors 90deg about an inch from the end. Gives you something to push against as they go into the terminal, and helps prevent the sleeving from sliding to the end.

Alternatively (and this will be unpopular), after sleeving, twist the exposed copper ends together. Not considered best practice, as messy to take apart in the future, but in reality I rarely find the need to disconnect a CPC from an accessory unless I'm making an alteration.

2.5mm2 CPCs? What cable is that BTW?

I hold my hands up , I do this quite often if its a crappy socket with a really small terminal and faced with 3 earths to terminate. I give them a wee twist at the tip only maybe 3 or 4 twists just enough so I can jam the cores in the terminal and prevents the sleeves riding up...In quite of lot of old council houses I work in I often find 4 x 2.5 cables in a single socket and sometimes I end up using a 5 port wago and just put all 4 in the Wago and one single core to the socket

 

[timhoward]

As we are confessing things we sometimes do..... if it isn't playing ball, don't try and put 3 x CPC's into the socket. Put them all into a push fit Wago and then run 1 into the socket, having bent the end around to ensure the cheap socket bites the conductor well.

If I get fed up with a badly conceived single socket I'll do this without stopping to think for too long.

 

[rewireIT]

2.5mm2 CPCs? What cable is that BTW?

As in the CPC's from 2.5mm cable

 

[pc1966]

Twist all 3 cores together and don't bother with the sleeve


come now, you can get sleeving over the twistedI'll get my coat....

Come now, you can easily get sleeving over the twisted set!

 

[nicebutdim]

As we are confessing things we sometimes do..... if it isn't playing ball, don't try and put 3 x CPC's into the socket. Put them all into a push fit Wago and then run 1 into the socket, having bent the end around to ensure the cheap socket bites the conductor well.

If I get fed up with a badly conceived single socket I'll do this without stopping to think for too long.

Or park them in the box earth terminal and bring one forward.

 

[rewireIT]

Or park them in the box earth terminal and bring one forward.

See i would do this but the little get i had today was a plasterboard back box

 

[nicebutdim]

See i would do this but the little get i had today was a plasterboard back box

I've never had to do this with a socket, but with metal switchplates I'd split between box and plate if someone had pulled an unnecessary number of earths to one point. Just putting another option out there, but I'd be inclined to get the hang of gripping CPCs inside sleeving and put them in the provided terminal, where possible - unfortunately the design of some accessories leaves much to be desired.

 

[rewireIT]

I've never had to do this with a socket, but with metal switchplates I'd split between box and plate if someone had pulled an unnecessary number of earths to one point. Just putting another option out there, but I'd be inclined to get the hang of gripping CPCs inside sleeving and put them in the provided terminal, where possible - unfortunately the design of some accessories leaves much to be desired.

In the end i had to basically do what you suggest - get a firm grip on the cpc's and hold them in with bent nose pliers. Doing the screw up was hard though, it was almost like i needed an extra hand.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Come now, you can easily get sleeving over the twisted set!

at extra expense , have you seen the price of a hank of sleeving these days

 

[DefyG]

Don't most socket plates come with 2 earth terminals these days?
I'm sure the ones we spec do.

 

[LukeD]

Don't most socket plates come with 2 earth terminals these days?
I'm sure the ones we spec do.

Thats what I am thinking

 

[pc1966]

Don't most socket plates come with 2 earth terminals these days?
I'm sure the ones we spec do.

Some do, some don't.

Also the back-box terminals are often smaller so harder to get 3 wires in to make it worth doing, let along 4 as a common point. A Wago to link them and then single to socket would be easier.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Some do, some don't.

Also the back-box terminals are often smaller so harder to get 3 wires in to make it worth doing, let along 4 as a common point

See plenty old skool sparks wrap the earths under the fixing screw rather than use the box terminal

 

[rewireIT]

Don't most socket plates come with 2 earth terminals these days?
I'm sure the ones we spec do.

MK sockets, just one entry for each wire, earths in the middle. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/uploa...dium.jpg.2847134c6b9eab17346eb6ad1c7cdd10.jpg

They're garbage.

 

[nicebutdim]

MK sockets, just one entry for each wire, earths in the middle. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/uploa...dium.jpg.2847134c6b9eab17346eb6ad1c7cdd10.jpg

They're garbage.

Their DP socket has a 2nd earth terminal.