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b Another homeowner. One day we will rule the world.
In my line of work I am often cleaning up someone else’s work as today when I decided to cover a metal junction box left exposed without a plate cover. So I run to the local yard and buy a standard generic metal cover plate. But as I am putting it on I notice the words etched into one side of the plate that read ‘under side’. Seeing that both sides are identical surfaces and the screw slots are the same I cannot figure out why the words ‘under side’ were placed on the thing. Anyone have an idea. I’m always ready to learn. Would hate to think I could place a cover plate the wrong way.
Replies
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I'd like to know this, too. Anyone???
Thanks.
Rich Beckman
*That's easy - The slots aren't the same, if you reverse the plate, they face the other way and tightening the box screws will tend to rotate the plate off, whereas doing it correctly (paying attention to 'underside') will tend to snug the plate to the screw shank.Same reason why you attach a wire to a terminal screw winding clockwise, not counterclockwise.Milkbones?Jeff
*Maybe it's like one of those gag cards you see - The ones that say:b "see other side"- On both sides of the card
*The manufacturers were getting pretty tired of their 1-800 lines constantly being clogged with people asking "duh, which way are you supposed to put it on" until they came up with the idea of the label. They still get just as many calls, but only half of them didn't see the label and want to know which way to mount the cover, the other half want to know what the label means. ;)
*The "Do not eat" text will be added in June.
*The result of a multi-million dollar lawsuit no-doubt.
*The wire around the screw is sorta interesting too. In electronics work, we always did the wire counter-clockwise so that if you pulled on the wire, you tightened the screw instead of loosening it. In electrical wiring, you are supposed to do it clockwise so that it (supposedly) doesn't push the wire away from the screw when tightened. I've played around with trying it both ways on switches, etc., with solid wire and I can't see that it really makes much difference which way it's wound. With stranded wire, I still tend to put the wire on counterclockwise but put on solid wire clockwise.
*Jeff got it right. All of the blank sizes are stamped out ot the same plate steel. Lager boxes like 4 7/8 X 7/8 only line up the srews one way. Put the plate on upsie down and as you tighten the screw it tends to push the cover toward the keyhole slot.Casey, stranded wire needs to go clockwise too. Better still is lugging a crimp on connector to stranded, or pigtail it to a piece of solid.
*I agree with the desirability of doing the crimp-on for stranded. When you say stranded should be clockwise, I trust you are talking about electrical wiring and not electronics, because every electronics program I was in said to do it so that a pull on the wire would tighten the screw. Of course, in house wiring, the wire should be secured so that it wouldn't pull on the screw. Having done a lot more electronics wiring than house wiring, however, sometimes old habits are hard to break, particularly when you can't see that it really makes any practical difference...
*I am not familiar with electronis wiring. I have wired a few houses, but never used stranded wire untill I got larger than #10 ga, wire. Most of my experience is in comercial wiring and most of that for the electric utility company I work for. we use to have some really stingent requirements that weren't covered in the NEC. We use mostly standed wire for everything. It is easier to pull, but harder to make up. We use to use uninsulated lugs and brass machine screws, washers and nut to make up motor leads. Each joint had to be covered in duct seal and then wrapped with camberic tape, friction tape and then the newer electrical tape. Try to fit all of that in a motor peckerhead or splice box and then put the cover on backwards! Man was I glad when they changed the first page of the NEC and it started applying to electric utilities outside of the power plants and substations. Life got a lot better once we didn't have to do everything like they did in the power plants.
*b Another homeowner. One day we will rule the world.Thanks for the reply Jeff, but if I flip the plate over with the words 'under side' facing me instead of into the box all is the same as before in reference to the screw slot locations. I would have to turn the plate 180 degrees upside down to mess up the slots.Oh well, I guess it is unimportant but it's one of those little things I don't like to let go of until I get the story.