Telephone wires: connecting in small space

[woger151]

I want to modify the telephone wiring in my old house. I don't want to pull new wire (would be too hard). Rather, the previous owner has a totally screwed up bunch of connections that I want to investigate and then make tidy. ("Make tidy": there's a jack in the kitchen I want to use, and I used a tone generator to figure out where it went. But I need to connect it to the "live" wires.)

The spot where the wire from the phone company comes into the house is pretty small, and the current arrangement there is just crazy. Too much stuff connected, and the connections are messy (twisted together by hand, not organized, etc). Some old telephone wire, some 8-strand stuff too.

If I had a lot of room, like in a closet, I'd say, "OK, the web implies I should clean things up with a nice 66 or 110 block thing- ee." But this is in a small space in the ceiling, the little metal panel they put in the drywall is a square about 6 or 7" on a side. And inside there's not much room---it's between the ceiling joists, the cables already in there don't have much slack (if they did I'd pull them through and put nice connectors on them and just put up a patch-panel or something).

Are there some kind of connectors that would make my life easier?

[dpb]

On 7/28/2011 9:23 AM, woger151 wrote: ...

If you're not going to get a regular punch block as the above implies, probably just go to a (set of) strip terminal blocks from RS or whereever...small and relatively easy altho will have to strip ends.

There are smaller punch blocks; I've used a Premier 2-line terminal block as a handset adapter for testing the line here (we're rural and the line gets cut by county road crews or other things on a recurring basis so it's always good to be able to go check quickly that it really is their problem) that could make a good terminal as well for a few lines. I got a few of these from a buddy who does IT for one of the oil production outfits; these are Premier branded but were packaged for Sprint Communications Products Group; I'm sure such and multitude of variations are available somewhere but I don't know just exactly where would be easiest to find...undoubtedly somebody else will have source(s).

--

[bud--]

Around here phone companies used to make splices with "maggots"

Now they use splices that look like these (top 2)

The ones I have seen were made by 3M

The space may still be a mess.

[clare]

There are little snap connectors that the phone company uses - can't remember what they call them but they are smaller than a smarty or M&M.

What I would do is pull the wires back to an accessible position and run ONE pair of wires from the service entrance to that accessible location, and connect the wires there (which is, in fact, what I did at my own house)

[clare]

Not on #22 or #28 wire. The shack carries the gizmos I used under part # 64-3080 for a pkg of 4 for $3.69 US. Being in Canada I didn't get them from the Shack - I think they just call them "telecomunication button connectors" or "uy " connectors.

[Evan]

Those crimping connectors filled with protective grease are called Scotch-locks and are made by 3M...

IDC is the way you want to make telephone connections -- anyone who suggests a wire nut is just plain crazy and doesn't know anything about communications wiring... Wire nuts work for larger line voltage conductors because the conductors themselves are mechanically twisted together first before the wire nut is applied to the connection... If you attempt to twist the small gauge communications wiring together you will end up breaking several conductors and it will eventually loosen and have static on the line from the intermittent connection...

~~ Evan

[Evan]

ROFL...

If you think a few wraps of electrical tape will create a moisture- proof connection anywhere on the same level as a Scotch-lock connector ROFL...

Electrical tape on such connections more often than not only serves to trap any moisture that penetrates inside the connection...

~~ Evan

[Metspitzer]

Buy a cordless phone with 2-handsets and use one in the kitchen.

[aemeijers]

A 50-dollar sub-par cure for a 2-dollar problem. Never seen a cordless phone yet (all my relatives have them) that has the sound quality of a real phone. They all sound like a kid's walkie-talkie to me. I don't walk around when I talk, and I have a real phone is every room. I'll never go cordless.

-- aem sends...

[N8N]