The Breaker Finder 5000

-
RustyRatRod

RustyRatRod

I was born on a Monday. Not last Monday.
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
110,250
Reaction score
111,824
Location
Georgia
@67Dart273 Del, you'll love this one. LOL
BREAKER FINDER 5000.jpg
 
YY1 said:
I actually built something like that when I was an electrical apprentice.

Much simpler, though- just a #10 solid wire stripped and slightly flattened on the ends and bent into a "U" shape.

Very effective, and used more than a few times.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the one shown could be simpler without the switch.
 
...and if that's a #14 cord used on a 20A circuit, it could get hot enough to burn before the breaker trips.

Short #10 won't have that issue.
 
I would claim "I could write a book" but I did HVAC service and installs, and was never a licensed electrician. I'm sure some of THOSE guys could REALLY tell stories. Even so, I've sure seen my share.

But I've done a few (temporary) shaky things myself.

Probably the worst was way back when I was temporarily rooming with a gal, and needed to do a quick weld. The range dryer was way around back, I did not have enough wire. I had some no 10 Romex that I had previously used at my old place for welder extension. Her panel was off near the front and side of the house, down an enclosed outside stairs into the basement. She was gone shopping, nobody around.

So I just pulled the main, vise grip clamped the no 10 direct to the main busses, snapped the main back on, and made the weld. So you've got 100-200A main buss bars feeding a no10 wire.

One other time I was testing an amateur radio RF amplifier, wired for 220. I had no 220 on that side of the house, but I knew that two nearby outlets were on different breakers, and so I checked them, hot terminal of one to hot of the other, and sure enough, they were on opposite phases, so 220. I just wired the amp up to the two outlets and away we go.

Nobody but me, no kids, no dogs.

NEVER assume a cold hot is cold, that a neutral is cold, or that a ground is ground.
 
YY1 said:
I actually built something like that when I was an electrical apprentice.

Much simpler, though- just a #10 solid wire stripped and slightly flattened on the ends and bent into a "U" shape.

Very effective, and used more than a few times.
Click to expand...
Oh ya, but that's the breaker finder 2000...... this is the 5000!
 
Well, first RRR that device is far to "professional" and polished for this crew... We're more the jam a screwdriver in it crowd...

Sketchy Electrical "fix" from my past.... A good buddy bought a house, a few weeks later the electrical in the living room, dining room & half the kitchen quit... He's broke... Calls me looking for help... I show up & discover there is power, but no neutral... I pull a few outlets but don't find the problem quickly... It's already 9 PM & I have to work the next day... Soooo, I struck a key in the neutral slot of a outlet & used a set of automotive jumper cables over to a water pipe.... It worked till the weekend when I discovered the real problem.... An added outlet in the garage....

It completely freaked the roommate out, She moved out.... She was a B anyway....:rofl:
 
I've been bitten by a neutral more than a few times.

I'm in the long process of installing 20A receps in my shop, arranged as one from each phase in a two gang box.
They will be spaced either one or two per 20 foot bay along the back wall.
I'm using white receps for the "black" phase and gray receps for the "red" phase.
I'm thinking about using yellow wire for the neutral of the red phase, with white tape.
If anyone knows the proper way- so I can differentiate at the recep.....
You can't "just" use the same neutral, or they're not truly "separate circuits".

...and I have a portable 240V compressor....and have considered making a 20A 240V female plug to two male 120V plugs, so I can "simply" plug that into one each of those separate phase circuits and have 240 anywhere along that 80 foot wall
 
Interestingly I have a friend who is a structured cabling installer.
I have a few of his "fiber finder 5000" devices that he's constructed over the years.
Basically- it's hard to see if a fiber optic cable has "signal", and the higher the speed, the less the light shows up.
Sometimes it's also difficult to find pairs, especially with new construction.
He takes bright LED lights, and mounts them behind the connector of your choice- (ST, SC, LC, etc) and puts that into a project case with a battery.
 
YY1 said:
I've been bitten by a neutral more than a few times.

I'm in the long process of installing 20A receps in my shop, arranged as one from each phase in a two gang box.
They will be spaced either one or two per 20 foot bay along the back wall.
I'm using white receps for the "black" phase and gray receps for the "red" phase.
I'm thinking about using yellow wire for the neutral of the red phase, with white tape.
If anyone knows the proper way- so I can differentiate at the recep.....
You can't "just" use the same neutral, or they're not truly "separate circuits".

...and I have a portable 240V compressor....and have considered making a 20A 240V female plug to two male 120V plugs, so I can "simply" plug that into one each of those separate phase circuits and have 240 anywhere along that 80 foot wall
Click to expand...
There is only one neutral, you lost me on this. The neutral, however is not 180 on 3 phase like on single phase. So on 3 phase the neutral is tied to ground as always, but it is not 190 out of phase of any of the 3 hot legs

I don't know about codes, can't you just use the correct size neutral? (upsized?)

Or?? sounds like you are using individual TH wire in conduit? Can't you just string individual neutral conductors?
 
YY1 said:
I've been bitten by a neutral more than a few times.

I'm in the long process of installing 20A receps in my shop, arranged as one from each phase in a two gang box.
They will be spaced either one or two per 20 foot bay along the back wall.
I'm using white receps for the "black" phase and gray receps for the "red" phase.
I'm thinking about using yellow wire for the neutral of the red phase, with white tape.
If anyone knows the proper way- so I can differentiate at the recep.....
You can't "just" use the same neutral, or they're not truly "separate circuits".

...and I have a portable 240V compressor....and have considered making a 20A 240V female plug to two male 120V plugs, so I can "simply" plug that into one each of those separate phase circuits and have 240 anywhere along that 80 foot wall
Click to expand...
1D0C1EA3-83EE-497B-A243-BAAB754765DF.jpeg


Avoid being bitten by the neutral by using a 2 pole breaker. This way the neutral won’t be able to bite you.
Click to expand...

For your application I’d recommend sharing the neutral, it’s less complicated.

A “Tie-Bar” will de-energize both of your 120v circuits that you plan to use temporarily as a 240v circuit.
 
That's what I was originally going to do, and that's how it's currently wired.

But I read something that said if you wanted to work on one circuit, you'd have to turn both breakers off.

Yeah, all the neutrals are eventually tied together in the panel.

(and don't come into play at all in 240)

It's been a bit since I've worked on or thought about this project.

I got 2 boxes wired up and that has been enough so far.
(WAY better than the single, shared 15A recep on the other side of the shop)

Maybe that thing I read said you couldn't draw 20A from each circuit.....

Then what you said about up-rating the neutral makes sense.
I've never heard anyone ever say that before, usually it's "de-rating" the neutral.
 
Just be aware that if you go around "hacking" temporarily using a pair of 120V outlets to get 240, and one plug comes undone, THAT MALE PLUG will have 120V live on it.
 
Using this equipment is crucial because it makes it possible to turn off the proper circuit breaker and lowers the possibility that you may accidentally turn off the wrong circuit and break sensitive appliances.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top