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From: steve@nuchat.sccsi.com (Steve Nuchia)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: ANOTHER house wiring question (this one's basic)
Message-ID: <1991Jan18.144019.864@nuchat.sccsi.com>
Date: 18 Jan 91 14:40:19 GMT
References: <1948@umriscc.isc.umr.edu> <1991Jan16.035358.28312@nuchat.sccsi.com> <896@wells.UUCP>
Organization: South Coast Computing Services, Inc.  Houston
Lines: 24

In article <896@wells.UUCP> k3tx@wells.UUCP (Dave Heller) writes:
>And, really, most of this [damage] is traceable to the Do-It-Youself-ers
>and the lower levels of self-defined professionals.
...
>I don't like the idea of the d-i-y doing his own house wiring or 
>repairs even with cookbook in hand.  I've seen too many bad, and
>some VERY bad results.

This was an amplification to a comment I had made, but I'm not sure
I completely agree with the radical position.  A generally competent
do-it-yourselfer should be able to follow a good example safely for
the most common types of branch circuits.  The bad results I have seen
have been the result of corner-cutting -- using the wrong size wire,
passing cable through knock-outs without clamps, splicing or tapping
without benefit of box, and overloading existing circuits rather than
running a new one.  With a dose of humility and a willingness to follow
even those rules he doesn't understand the d-i-y can be safe.  The
problem is some of them don't even stop to wonder what the rules are.

-- 
Steve Nuchia	      South Coast Computing Services      (713) 964-2462
	"Could we find tools that would teach their own use,
	 we should have discovered something truly beyond price."
		Socrates, in Plato's Republic