Not sure if this is the appropriate way to handle this situation or not, looking for feedback...anyway, background. In my living room there are two boxes for wall sconces. The PO's of the house had blanked them off and then hung oil lamps in their place. It is really frustrating to come home after dark and not really have any light that can easily be turned on from the front door (there is no ceiling light in the really small foyer area.) So I determined to remove the oil lamps and reinstall wall sconces. SWMBO and I have been discussing this ever since we moved in with no agreement as of yet as to what to install. (She's sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright girl; my tastes run more in a Raymond Loewy sort of direction.)Being constantly frustrated by the lack of lighting, I started looking around the house to see what I could temporarily put up there to serve as light. I found some old 1940's porcelain bathroom sconces that she'd picked up at one of those salvage places for possible use in the bathroom, cleaned them up, found them to actually be quite nice. (hey, it was either that or some porcelain lampholders that I'd removed from the basement.) Being porcelain, they also gave the added benefit that I didn't have to feel guilty about not grounding the wall boxes. I disassembled them and found that the sockets were connected to the wires by screw terminals, about the same size/shape as those found on a standard receptacle. I dug out some 14AWG THHN and rewired them. The original wire appeared to be 16 or 18 AWG stranded cloth covered wire, just wrapped around the screw terminals. The 14 wouldn't fit under the terminals neatly, but after tinning them with solder and treating them like solid wire they worked perfectly.So now I have light in my living room, which is nice and functional, but they look awful enough that perhaps now she'll get serious about picking out some permanent sconces :)Question is, are there any negative implications of tinning a stranded wire...

Geez Nate, the only thing you left out was what you had for dinner. Tinned is fine, hell, solder the wires to the terminals if you like

did I do a Bad Thing?

May 03, 2009 21 Replies

Rate this thread:

N8N 17 years ago

right, that was an expediency measure - I had the 14AWG THHN in my junk box, and it would have been required anyway for the little receptacles - I didn't have any 16 or 18 handy. The THHN is small enough in OD compared to the original cloth over rubber insulation that it's still an improvement.

nate

Vote

Stormin Mormon 17 years ago

Now, your only challenge is if your wife likes the lights.

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required