WIRE NUTS: Wiring just got A LOT easier! …A “D’OH!” moment for O.M.G.

By OverMachoGrande
Jul 07, 2008

EVERY DO-IT-YOURSELFER NEEDS TO READ THIS! The time and effort you will spend constructing your helmets just got a lot less…

Thank you, RosarioRose9! Your work on modifying your Lasermax 50 to an “Abominable Laser Beast” clued me in to something ultra simple that I missed… “WIRE NUTS!” lol…

After seven months and one day of hard use, my wiring -which was all done with electric tape- was starting to get a little shaky.  I wired it by rows, and sometimes those rows would dim a bit and perhaps even flicker.  I could tap or flick the connections and the same thing would occur.  Of course, I did totally expect that after a while since I always put things through tremendous abuse (electronics, women, etc...), so I knew a re-wiring was probably going to have to happen at some point.  I mean, come on... it was only ELECTRICAL TAPE! lol…

Well, thank goodness for RosarioRose9, because -as you see in his do-it-yourself post- he used wire nuts that he had in his toolbox.  When I re-wired my helmet today, I wanted to try that, too, and simply put… it made me want to slap myself in the forehead and go “D’Oh!”

Uglier?  Yes.  Better and easier??  ...An even more resounding YES!  Here’s the new rule:  USE WIRE NUTS, NOT ELECTRICAL TAPE!

Had I used wire nuts originally, I would have saved HOURS:

1. I wouldn’t have had to strip the diode wires (that was the longest part of this), I could have just twisted the caps on over the top of a group of diode wires and the connecting wire,
   

2. I wouldn’t have had to mess with all of the electrical tape,
   

3. and, more than likely, I wouldn’t have to have had to re-wire anything after seven months.
   

Simply put, this is a revolutionary change!  ...and everything else is the same.  You merely substitute a wire nut for the electrical tape in my previous instructions.  ...and still no solder or anything else necessary!  So yes, this is I feel a MUST for all of you late “Alpha Chapter” do-it-yourselfers as well as the future “Beta Chapter” members (by the way, the cut-off for “Alpha Chapter” is December 6th, 2008)… this is something that we need to use from now on because it’s vastly superior and easier than electrical tape.

Will it hold up after six or seven months??  Who the f*ck cares… it’ll take me 15 seconds to re-screw the wire nut!

You will have to experiment with different sizes depending on your needs, but I used the dark blue ones from Home Depot, which were the smallest ones that they had for sale in uniform packaging (they had a multi-pack with even smaller grey ones).  They are Buchanan Wire Connectors (WT2, 5 #20 - 3 #16 AWG 300v., Qty. 25), and found on the electrical wiring aisle. 

I got lucky I guess, because that size was pretty good… it fit:

All the wires from each of my rows to a connection wire (rows of 7 or 8 diodes),

All of the connection wires to the single wire that goes to the Adaptaplug (there were 9 total rows, so thats 10 total wires -and they were much thicker than the diode wires),

The single wires to the Adaptaplug (only two wires, although I folded the Adaptaplug bare wire end to make it “thicker” to better fit in the wire nut).

So, the size I used fit my needs, but there is too much variance with wire size and brands of wire nuts for me to definitively answer how many wires you can shove into each wire nut (plus, my wires were “used” and kinked a little bit), so don’t even ask!  Plus, I had stripped all of my diode wires previously, so it may turn out that the original length of the diode’s bare wire section may or may not fit well as far as depth is concerned into the wire nut.  The good news is that a package of 25 wire nuts was something like $1.50!  Buy a couple of sizes! lol…

Ah yes… sometimes when you have your mind focused on the “bigger picture”, it’s easy to miss some simple “smaller” things that can revolutionize the whole process!  That’s why two heads are certainly better than one.

A quick note… you can tell by the pictures that I have a little bit of electrical tape at the tip of the wires right under the wire nuts.  If you are using new diodes, this probably won’t be necessary.  The reason I did this is because I had stripped them before and they had uneven amounts of bare wire.  This was to add a little bit of insulation/shielding over the bare wire that -as a result of the unevenness- didn’t all fit up in the wire nut.  Oh, I checked… they are still safe in terms of EMF fields, and have the same 0.0 - 0.1 Gauss readings as before!

I mentioned “luck” before.  Hmmm.... I suppose that’s to be expected. “Do-it-yourselfers” are lucky in general… and when luck doesn’t come easy, we MAKE IT.

-O.M.G.