electrical delays

I'm learning ....so slowly sometimes, but it's all good.

Today I was hoping to fix up the start of the electrical situation. Just wanted to stop having to have a chord running through the open doors. So, I basically want similar to a mini extension cord built into the wall of the structure.

I went to Amesbury Industrial (my new best friends!) and talked to Scott about my options. He loaded me up with all the pieces and we talked in depth about how to put it all together.

Once I had the steps in my head I went off to try to execute it...thinking, of course, this shouldn't take too long. Boy was I wrong!

All the necessary pieces...check.

It was really fun seeing how everything worked and getting an understanding by physically doing it myself. I knew I needed to strip down the wire into its components (black - hot, white - neutral and copper - ground) and be careful not to strip the sheathing off too much since we don't want hot wires exposed anywhere behind the scenes. I also knew that I needed to match up the silver with the white, the bronze/gold with the black and the green gets the copper ground. Ok, now for the execution...a whole different story! 

I had the plan but boy it was my dexterity and the order in my operations lacking! 

 

Wow, it's so simple when everything is disassembled.
I had no idea these things could come out!

wired up correctly

I wired it up correctly without the housing...but then had to figure out how to integrate it with the housing. After a few iterations I finally got the wires straightened out and pulled through the housing.

wires through housing take 1

Wires through housing take 2

trying to pull them all the way down is proving difficult.

I had the hardest time getting the wires to straighten out once they were in their housing. I also had an issue with putting the main round housing securely inside the square lid the would mount on the external unit. Geez, something so simple has turned out to be trickier than I imagined!

I clearly didn't have enough time to install it tonight (I am heading out to ski this weekend up in Vermont...hey, gotta balance this work out with some relaxation and play!) so I will try to work on it this weekend/during the week and see if I can't get it "wired" by next weekend so I really can install it and get on with my other long list of  things to do!