Don't fall into this trap when using SWA glands

[crb]

I have used SWA glands on outside electrical wiring in the past without any problem, but I had difficulty assembling an SWA gland today - I just could not get the back nut to start on the thread of the main body to begin the process of trapping the armoured wires under the tapered olive. After an hour of struggling, I concluded that it was the gland assembly itself that was faulty, so I decided to measure it up accurately using a micrometer and digital vernier gauge. Sure enough, my conclusion was that the gap between olive and main body in the fully-released state was just not wide enough to take all the armoured strands. To make sure, I measured another SWA gland, and during this process the penny dropped - I had sourced my stock of glands from two different suppliers and although the individual piece- parts looked interchangeable, they were not, and I had inadvertently mixed them up. Matching the correct olive to the main body cured my problem. Incidentally, a more insidious problem revealed itself in that with the opposite pairing of olive and main body the gap was too large, and although the gland assembled easily, the olive was not gripping the armoured strands properly, giving a loose fit. It reminds me of my aeronautical engineering days - just because assemblies are made to the same industry specification, it does not mean that piece parts are interchangeable.

[Lurch]

On 4 Apr 2007 01:51:20 -0700, "crb" mused:

Generally, I've concluded (after assembling thousands of SWA glands) that SWA glands are in fact, s**te.

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Lurch writes

Particularly ones marked "proteous".

The original posters issue would not have occurred if all the components of a pair of glands had been kept together in their bags.

[Huge]

Must be a slow learner. :o) I hated the things after the first half-dozen.

[Lurch]

On 6 Apr 2007 10:24:35 GMT, Huge mused:

I actually like working with SWA, of any size. It's just that the glands are s**te.