I've always wondered how people retrofit/replace the old pancake light boxes that are about 3" in there is barely room in them for a single wire nut but are sometimes a pain to remove/replace due to lath in the ceiling, plaster issues, sometimes the box is just flat up against the joist or slightly embedded in the joist, etc. Basically I always end up wishing I didn't have to replace them. Is there any method that people have had any luck with?
If you don't care what it looks like, you can add an extension box to get yourself more room, but if you didn't care what it looked like, you could just rip out the box, couldn't you? Using wingless wire-nuts would help a little, if you're not already, and using the smallest nut that's legal for the job. Long term, you'll just have to get comfortable working with plaster and lathe. Sometimes, it's easier to do the work than to avoid it.
--Goedjn
You should resist the temptation to notch the joists to take a deeper box unless you want to run afoul of building codes.
Jeff
Fan/fixture boxes similar to this:
Hey, those are neat!
Thanks for teaching me something new.
Jeff
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