Did the inevitable and drilled through a wall cable yesterday ! Now need to make repairs . . .
Is there a safe method of jointing mains cables (13 amp circuit) other than using a jointing box ? Trouble is that where I have drilled is the only place that a wall bracket can be fixed so the cable has to move.
Thanks
If the joint is going to be inaccessible (i.e. buried in plaster for example) then I'd crimp the ends together using quality crimps and a decent ratchet crimping tool. Then seal each joint in some heat-shrink sleeving and finally seal the entire joint in some more heat shrink sleeving.
Cheers Clive
Exactly. It's also permissible to use soldered joints as long as they can be made mechanically sound.
What is not permitted by the wiring regulations is to use anything with screw terminals unless it is possible to access them. You would need to use something like a flush box for the terminals and blank plate cover to accommodate this method.
.andy
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Crimping is the way to go. You should use a proper ratchet crimper, though, not a cheapie 3 quid from the market jobbie.
Christian.
I've seen this mentioned many times now and never got around to asking....
Where do you get these "crimps" from (not the tool - the actual joiner thingys!)? My dad was a mechanic for many years and has some seriously decent crimpers for the red, blue and yellow connectors that are used on cars - are these the same as you would use on mains cables?
Darren
They come from electrical wholesalers among other sources and are in different colours according to cable sizes.
.andy
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Same sort of crimping tool though? Or are these the sort that appear to fold in on themselve and dig into the cable instead of just crushing it like the car ones? (if you get what I mean!)
ie. if I ever need to go this route would my dads crimpers be up to it?
Darren
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