We made it to Sinaloa and the dog is camouflaged in bondo that I’ve made look like wood grain. We’re making friends—wish us luck on this new chapter.

As somebody else said, 14 will usually twist well enough on its own. Anything larger and you new should twist with lineman’s beforehand.

Electrical connection rely on a mechanical connection. Wire nuts are great at holding a mechanical connection in place but not great at being the mechanical connection. The twist is necessary for longevity of the splice.

This is all in regards to solid wire. Stranded will twist on its own typically.

Creaking of the stairs indicates that they have loosened over time, and that unusual stresses are being given. That is almost certainly why you had a failure. Fix them so they don’t create and they will be OK for another century

did not suggest a repair as that is a little more difficult to do well, however In fact a repair to the broken tread is almost certainly quite easy. There is no need or significant benefit to adding dowels and they add a significant degree of complexity, if the tread has broken as cleanly as it looks a simple glue joint is likely to hold for another 100 years or more, though you will have to make sure the tread makes full contact with the stringers and upright.

Wago, never deal with a nut again.

Really? I trim and line them up, then use the twist from the wire nut to bind them and start twisting.

Is that the standard in your area? I see how it insures nothing slips down as you twist, but I feel it would take some time (not that I’m knocking it).

Any water seepage and you have to redo the job.

I guess it depends on how long you want the job to last.

Just toss a handful of nerite or ramshorn snails in each and you're all set. Bonus points for your dinner guests being able to view fresh snail poop while they are enjoying their wine and cheese.

14 gauge wires will twist with the wire nut, any thing bigger should be twisted with lineman pliers before capping with a wire nut.

Electrician here. Here are a few examples directly from the manufactures:

https://www.idealind.com/content/dam/electrical/assets/WireTermination/WireConnectors/TwistOn/Twister/Twister%20WireConnector%20Instructions.pdf

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https://www.idealind.com/content/dam/electrical/assets/WireTermination/WireConnectors/TwistOn/WingNut/WingNut%20WireConnector%20Instructions.pdf

It does the job for you. More often than not, you will twist one wire around the other, and it becomes shorter. The wires then don't have enough width to catch the threads at the end.

If that's the case and you simply have to twist the wires... just cut the tip off.

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I got tired of messing with the wire nuts, so I just use push-in connectors now.

O, and to confirm your verbiage earlier, yes stranded is correct. Solid (where its one giant wire) or stranded (where is a lot of small wires) is how wires come

right, thanks for the tips

You could snag some frosted tall candles, clear out the wax/label and use those to hide the water quality

“Not intended to treat algae”

Yea, test tug should be good. I always do the tug and wrap with electrical tape just in case. No movement happens once you've tucked everything in already, so it should be good pending the nut stayed on when you pushed the wires back in

i twisted, put the nut tightly and then slight tug to test

the wall wires are solid and the switch's wires are - i believe the right term is - stranded, hopefully with the tug test i'm ensuring a secure connection

i twisted, put the nut tightly and then slight tug to test

the wall wires are solid and the switch's wires are - i believe the right term is - stranded, hopefully with the tug test i'm ensuring a secure connection

Some people over twist them and they break. Especially non stranded.

As an electrician, I always twist them together first and use the nut to secure them.

Wire nuts were "designed" to not need to twist the solid copper, but you get a better fit by twisting them first. Nothing will happen with you twisting them first. Just twist it until it stops, and if you want you can wrap it with electrical tape

Snails! I have freshwater snails in my huge vase like this with spider plants and they just live off the roots and reproduce every now and again. No work, I just water weekly. The glass is super clean but I do rinse out the whole thing every 2 months and then at that time add some fish food pellets and water that is off gased, but otherwise perfectly clear glass.

Another Simone Giertz fan, I see

Neodymium! Thanks!