Re: Wiring doors in cold weather

["Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

>
>
> Hey G:
>
> How cold are we talkin' here??  In Edmonton (where I got my start in the
> trade), we were doing pre-wires and retro's in -30 degrees (celsius).
> You don't know "cold" until you've had to put your boxes of wire next to
> a propane heater (on a pre-wire) for about 30 minutes just so it would
> be pliable enough to pull *out* ouf the box (otherwise the insulation
> would be so stiff it wouldn't uncoil).  You learn to pull *from* the
> control *to* the point and you have to do it fast.


Not to get into a How cold WAS it? war but you reminded me of something
that happened to me quite a number of years ago while doing a pre-wire
in the winter.

I was pulling four wire through holes I'd drilled through the beams in
a house. It was COLD. I had to pull about 30 or so feet so I threaded
four of the quads  through about 6 or 8 beams. I started to walk away
from the boxes and they all came up off the floor. So I laid a a couple
of  2X8's across the four boxes. I got at the other end of the wire,
thew it over my shoulder and started pulling as I walked away. As I'm
walking and not looking at the wire behind me, I hear this sort of
sprinkling of something on the floor. I turned around and saw a bunch
of  multicolored chips on the floor. Same color as the wire. Looking
up, I see that as the wire is dragging over the edge of the first hole,
the jackets of the quads are cracking and the little pieces are falling
away from the conductors as it drags through the holes.
I don't know what the temperature was, but THAT's cold!