tubs and shower stalls

[NightTrain]

Dude, you NEVER cut the red wire. That's ALWAYS fire n smoke alarms.

You don't know who got their ass chewed. Praise in public, criticize in private. Unless he's a dumb boot LT, that officer's not going to chew anyone's ass in front of you. And he ain't going to be looking for airmen. They're following orders. He's going to look for their boss. Nor is he going to yell at you. The airmen were relaying orders they were told and you were doing what you were told. Sounds like a good officer. Rare.

Back to laughing at you ... red wire running free in a ceiling or wall is ALWAYS fire alarm. Do YOU have red cable? No. I have red wire but it's always in conduit. Let me guess ... 2 pair (redundant, I know) 18 gauge, sheathed. I would have been teasing your ass for the rest of the year at least.
s a

Yep, there was red Belden cable back in the day, both Cat3 and Cat5e. Belden was harder to terminate because of the bonded pairs, but it was very high quality. They had some of that in the mix for ordinary data runs, along with every other color... there was no rhyme or reason to it, just whatever the contractor decided to put in over the years. If I had not seen red ethernet prior, I wouldn't have cut it. It's funny now, but it sure as hell wasn't at the time!

[Gunny]

Yep, there was red Belden cable back in the day, both Cat3 and Cat5e. Belden was harder to terminate because of the bonded pairs, but it was very high quality. They had some of that in the mix for ordinary data runs, along with every other color... there was no rhyme or reason to it, just whatever the contractor decided to put in over the years. If I had not seen red ethernet prior, I wouldn't have cut it. It's funny now, but it sure as hell wasn't at the time!

That one's easy. Here's the "rhyme n reason": "SSgt, we're moving across the hall. You need to run cable for all these computers." I was a grunt. What do you think I knew about running coax? The Marine Corps doesn't have a problem with what you aren't qualified to do.

Now, here's a "war story" for you. We had to remodel the Burger King on Lackland AFB. Can you spell "fiasco"? Apparently, on military bases, the NEC rules don't apply. I opened up the main and every color in the spectrum of wire was all over the inside that panel. My jaw dropped. Literally. I was like just get one of those bombers over here and we'll start over.

Add to that, the HMFIC was an Air Force MSgt. He found out I was a retired Gunny. My boss got SO butt hurt over the fact that once he found out I was a retired Gunny he (the MSgt) wouldn't talk to anyone else. So I was taking incoming from both sides.

[NightTrain]

Yeah, I've seen some of the disasters from people that don't know the color code. I've spent many weeks fixing those rat's nests, tracing out circuits with my tone & amp.

I don't think most of the military really cares if it's the correct color code or not, just as long as the boss has dial tone and his computer works when it's their own people doing it. My work was always above reproach and I never had any do-overs as a Journeyman, but I did go back to fix later additions to the network that were improper and had slowed the network down to a crawl. Servers & routers are finicky like that.

[Gunny]

Yeah, I've seen some of the disasters from people that don't know the color code. I've spent many weeks fixing those rat's nests, tracing out circuits with my tone & amp.

I don't think most of the military really cares if it's the correct color code or not, just as long as the boss has dial tone and his computer works when it's their own people doing it. My work was always above reproach and I never had any do-overs as a Journeyman, but I did go back to fix later additions to the network that were improper and had slowed the network down to a crawl. Servers & routers are finicky like that.

Thing is, there is no color code for low voltage. That bit me on the ass for quite awhile. In my job, green is the ground, period. In low voltage, it's just another wire. That green wire jacked me up more than once.

The only thing I don't like about fixing MY work is I don't do shit wrong, nor half-ass. If I have to take it apart it's gonna suck.

I HATE fixing other people's work. THAT is how you get hurt in my trade. Going behind a kid who's listening to his MP3 and doesn't give a damn. Takes no pride in his work. Just doing time until 3:30. THAT will get you knocked flat on your ass. That's when it ain't funny anymore. I've witnessed more than one ass kicking for it too.

[NightTrain]

Thing is, there is no color code for low voltage. That bit me on the ass for quite awhile. In my job, green is the ground, period. In low voltage, it's just another wire. That green wire jacked me up more than once.

The only thing I don't like about fixing MY work is I don't do shit wrong, nor half-ass. If I have to take it apart it's gonna suck.

I HATE fixing other people's work. THAT is how you get hurt in my trade. Going behind a kid who's listening to his MP3 and doesn't give a damn. Takes no pride in his work. Just doing time until 3:30. THAT will get you knocked flat on your ass. That's when it ain't funny anymore. I've witnessed more than one ass kicking for it too.

As far as power, yep... no official color code that I'm aware of. We try to push the customer to sign off on Red = Hot, Black = Return and Green = Ground. I always attach labels on them, too, that way there's no way (!) someone can get confused.

What screws people up is the -48VDC that most telecom equipment runs on these days. They'll overthink things and hook that stuff up backwards, and that gets mighty expensive and exciting. If your equipment is -48, then your negative is Hot. I try to always refer to it as Hot or Return, never in Positive or Negative so people don't get confused. And it never hurts to check it with the ol' Voltometer.

[Gunny]

As far as power, yep... no official color code that I'm aware of. We try to push the customer to sign off on Red = Hot, Black = Return and Green = Ground. I always attach labels on them, too, that way there's no way (!) someone can get confused.

What screws people up is the -48VDC that most telecom equipment runs on these days. They'll overthink things and hook that stuff up backwards, and that gets mighty expensive and exciting. If your equipment is -48, then your negative is Hot. I try to always refer to it as Hot or Return, never in Positive or Negative so people don't get confused. And it never hurts to check it with the ol' Voltometer.

You use black for your return? We are we required to use white or grey for the neutral (return). That and the ground are the only colors specified by the NEC. People don't understand what a "return" is. Why do you think they train US to do this junk?

[NightTrain]

Yeah, black going to the return. At least that way, it makes sense to us at a glance and we do it uniformly, since there is no code for this stuff. I should clarify that the green is usually equipment & rack ground.

I know you guys have a your own code, but I never mess with AC of any kind. If there is AC work, I'll have the boss send a sparky along with me to do his thing.

[Gunny]

Yeah, black going to the return. At least that way, it makes sense to us at a glance and we do it uniformly, since there is no code for this stuff. I should clarify that the green is usually equipment & rack ground.

I know you guys have a your own code, but I never mess with AC of any kind. If there is AC work, I'll have the boss send a sparky along with me to do his thing.

You do houses for one thing. Single phase panels. Should be black and red for phase A and phase b, respectively. And DON'T ask me to explain why a 2 phase panel is single phase. Three phase, which is what I do, is A black B red and C blue. They are not prescribed colors though. The NEC only prescribes the neutral and ground. But, go to an electrical parts house and try to find other colors. Not around here. Except if you have a high leg. If you have a high leg transformer the high leg is always orange. Kind of out-moded though.