Quote:
Yeah, let's see what I can do for ya here. . . Going to write out the directions like I would for an instruction manual so if I say something here and you get that "DUH! I knew that already" sensation, just giggle and read on. . .
The first two steps is figuring out what wire goes where and labeling them then checking the fan. Doesn't matter what heat source you use, with a 'bator this big, ya need a fan to push that heat around or you're going to wind up with poached on the top and raw on the bottom.
Supplies - Gather up a pair of wire cutters, wire strippers, some wire nuts, a small styrofoam cup, electrical tape, three or four different color markers or pens (you can use different colored yarn pieces here as well), a notepad, and one of those power bars with a cutoff switch. Potential extra stuff - new household extension cord, some 3-strand electrical wire.
Take the styrofoam cup and poke the plug end through the bottom so the prongs are on the inside of the cup. (I have a small child that likes to help, if I do this, he won't plug it in and light up the Mom-Mom <experience talking>).
Follow the cord all the way up to where it first connects with the internal wiring structure. Examine the cord for any fraying, taped, or nicked areas for it's entire length. If you find anything that looks suspicious, stop and go find a long extension cord that can be used in place of this one. This time of year, you can find those really nice heavy duty green and red ones for outdoor use. They still run on standard 110 but have a heavier coating on them.
You will also have to examine the cord wire to figure out which one is neutral and which one is power. The neutral one should have a "rib" on it. Being an older cord, it may be hard to spot but you should be able to feel it. If you wind up replacing the cord, the new one will definitely have a rib on it.
After you check the cord and decide on keeping or replacing it, locate the first place it ties into the internal wiring structure. From the pictures, most of those nuts are connecting two, three, or four wires. Count the wires going into the nut and make tags using the SAME color pen and, using the twist ties, mark each wire. For example, this is nut #1, so put 1 on all the tags using a blue pen (you can also tie yarn strips of the same color to all the wires). If the cord wire going to this nut happens to be the ribbed or neutral wire, add a N to the tag for all the wires. Do this on the existing cord wire even if you are going to replace it.
WORD OF CAUTION: If you use yarn, make a chart on the paper to let you know what color goes where.
Find where the other half of the cord wire goes and, once again, tag or yarn those wires using a different color yarn or ink on the tag. On this one, I suggest using a 2 and 2N.
Go down to the fan. Follow the wires coming out of the fan (the black and white ones coming up. The one has a wirenut on it close to the fan but we'll look at it in a bit) and trace them going back towards where we did all the tagging. If I am correct, one goes to the four wire bottom red nut and the other is either a red or yellow nut. While tracing, check for nicks, twists, frays, exposed areas, and decide to keep or replace. If you decide to replace, once again, we need to find some suitable wire for that. If you have any actual electrical wire laying around for the house or something, that would be great since now we can "color code" to some degree.
Tag all the fan wires with new tags (leaving any existing ones on there from the first tagging). Tag ONLY the wire coming from the fan. Using the pen and paper method, put F or FN (to indicate that it connects to the neutral wire) on these tags.
Go back to the fan end again and trace the wires for the heating element. Examine and consider keeping or replacing while you are at it. When you get back down to the tagged sections, you are going to tag these the same way you did the fan wires, only this time put H and HN on them.
Do the same for any wires coming out of the wafer and the little light.
Double check all wires. Every one of them except for the original cord wires should have at least TWO different labels on them. If one does not have two or more tags, trace its path and mark it accordingly.
Our map is now complete. Time to tear up stuff. Let's check that fan out.
If NOT replacing any involved wires
Find the wirenut that the power side of the cord ties into. Disconnect it by unscrewing the nut. Considering the age of the wiring, you may have to cut each wire close to the nut instead (This is why we have spare wirenuts in the supply list). Clip the cord wire even with the plastic casing (this gets rid of any corroded wire). Strip approximately 1/2 inch of casing off exposing new wire. Twist the exposed wire with your fingers to gather the strands up. Find the fan power wire that went into the original wirenut. Using wire cutters, trim to the plastic casing, and then strip approximately 1/2 inch of casing off. If this is stranded wire, twist it up a bit with your fingers to join all the strands together. Put the cord wire with the fan wire and, using a wirenut, twist them together. You want to twist the nut on like threading a nut on a bolt. Do NOT twist too much or you will break the wires but you do want it tight enough so that neither wire can be pulled out of the nut.
Find the wirenut that the neutral side of the cord ties into. Repeat the separation, trimming, stripping, and joining procedure for BOTH the power neutral and the fan wires.
If replacing cord.
Carefully cut the plug-in (female) end of the extension cord off (the section that other cords go into). Using the wire cutters, snip the groove that exists between the two halves of the cord. Using your fingers, tugging firmly but not too hard, pull the two pieces of the cord apart. Find the ribbed side and make a tag that is the SAME as the one on the neutral / ribbed side of the old cord and place the tag on this side. Do the same for the other (power) side of the cord. Follow the directions above on putting the cord wires with the fan wires.
If replacing fan wire(s)
Get the household electrical wire mentioned in the supplies and cut a section that is about six inches longer than the existing wire. Strip the outer casing from the new wire, exposing the individual wires inside. Pick either of the coated wires. Place tags that are identical to the existing wire tags on this wire. Use one end to connect to the power cords, paying attention to which one you called neutral. Trace the neutral wire down to the fan and connect the new neutral wire to where the old neutral wire came out using the same wirenut connection technique used earlier. Do the same procedure for the power side. You MAY need to clip, strip, and wirenut the wires coming out of the fan.
Check twice to insure your connections are good and solid.
Plug in the power strip to an outlet you know works. Make sure the switch on the strip is in the OFF position. Take the cup off the cord plug and plug it into the strip. Flip the switch.
Does the fan work?
Yeah, let's see what I can do for ya here. . . Going to write out the directions like I would for an instruction manual so if I say something here and you get that "DUH! I knew that already" sensation, just giggle and read on. . .
The first two steps is figuring out what wire goes where and labeling them then checking the fan. Doesn't matter what heat source you use, with a 'bator this big, ya need a fan to push that heat around or you're going to wind up with poached on the top and raw on the bottom.
Supplies - Gather up a pair of wire cutters, wire strippers, some wire nuts, a small styrofoam cup, electrical tape, three or four different color markers or pens (you can use different colored yarn pieces here as well), a notepad, and one of those power bars with a cutoff switch. Potential extra stuff - new household extension cord, some 3-strand electrical wire.
Take the styrofoam cup and poke the plug end through the bottom so the prongs are on the inside of the cup. (I have a small child that likes to help, if I do this, he won't plug it in and light up the Mom-Mom <experience talking>).
Follow the cord all the way up to where it first connects with the internal wiring structure. Examine the cord for any fraying, taped, or nicked areas for it's entire length. If you find anything that looks suspicious, stop and go find a long extension cord that can be used in place of this one. This time of year, you can find those really nice heavy duty green and red ones for outdoor use. They still run on standard 110 but have a heavier coating on them.
You will also have to examine the cord wire to figure out which one is neutral and which one is power. The neutral one should have a "rib" on it. Being an older cord, it may be hard to spot but you should be able to feel it. If you wind up replacing the cord, the new one will definitely have a rib on it.
After you check the cord and decide on keeping or replacing it, locate the first place it ties into the internal wiring structure. From the pictures, most of those nuts are connecting two, three, or four wires. Count the wires going into the nut and make tags using the SAME color pen and, using the twist ties, mark each wire. For example, this is nut #1, so put 1 on all the tags using a blue pen (you can also tie yarn strips of the same color to all the wires). If the cord wire going to this nut happens to be the ribbed or neutral wire, add a N to the tag for all the wires. Do this on the existing cord wire even if you are going to replace it.
WORD OF CAUTION: If you use yarn, make a chart on the paper to let you know what color goes where.
Find where the other half of the cord wire goes and, once again, tag or yarn those wires using a different color yarn or ink on the tag. On this one, I suggest using a 2 and 2N.
Go down to the fan. Follow the wires coming out of the fan (the black and white ones coming up. The one has a wirenut on it close to the fan but we'll look at it in a bit) and trace them going back towards where we did all the tagging. If I am correct, one goes to the four wire bottom red nut and the other is either a red or yellow nut. While tracing, check for nicks, twists, frays, exposed areas, and decide to keep or replace. If you decide to replace, once again, we need to find some suitable wire for that. If you have any actual electrical wire laying around for the house or something, that would be great since now we can "color code" to some degree.
Tag all the fan wires with new tags (leaving any existing ones on there from the first tagging). Tag ONLY the wire coming from the fan. Using the pen and paper method, put F or FN (to indicate that it connects to the neutral wire) on these tags.
Go back to the fan end again and trace the wires for the heating element. Examine and consider keeping or replacing while you are at it. When you get back down to the tagged sections, you are going to tag these the same way you did the fan wires, only this time put H and HN on them.
Do the same for any wires coming out of the wafer and the little light.
Double check all wires. Every one of them except for the original cord wires should have at least TWO different labels on them. If one does not have two or more tags, trace its path and mark it accordingly.
Our map is now complete. Time to tear up stuff. Let's check that fan out.
If NOT replacing any involved wires
Find the wirenut that the power side of the cord ties into. Disconnect it by unscrewing the nut. Considering the age of the wiring, you may have to cut each wire close to the nut instead (This is why we have spare wirenuts in the supply list). Clip the cord wire even with the plastic casing (this gets rid of any corroded wire). Strip approximately 1/2 inch of casing off exposing new wire. Twist the exposed wire with your fingers to gather the strands up. Find the fan power wire that went into the original wirenut. Using wire cutters, trim to the plastic casing, and then strip approximately 1/2 inch of casing off. If this is stranded wire, twist it up a bit with your fingers to join all the strands together. Put the cord wire with the fan wire and, using a wirenut, twist them together. You want to twist the nut on like threading a nut on a bolt. Do NOT twist too much or you will break the wires but you do want it tight enough so that neither wire can be pulled out of the nut.
Find the wirenut that the neutral side of the cord ties into. Repeat the separation, trimming, stripping, and joining procedure for BOTH the power neutral and the fan wires.
If replacing cord.
Carefully cut the plug-in (female) end of the extension cord off (the section that other cords go into). Using the wire cutters, snip the groove that exists between the two halves of the cord. Using your fingers, tugging firmly but not too hard, pull the two pieces of the cord apart. Find the ribbed side and make a tag that is the SAME as the one on the neutral / ribbed side of the old cord and place the tag on this side. Do the same for the other (power) side of the cord. Follow the directions above on putting the cord wires with the fan wires.
If replacing fan wire(s)
Get the household electrical wire mentioned in the supplies and cut a section that is about six inches longer than the existing wire. Strip the outer casing from the new wire, exposing the individual wires inside. Pick either of the coated wires. Place tags that are identical to the existing wire tags on this wire. Use one end to connect to the power cords, paying attention to which one you called neutral. Trace the neutral wire down to the fan and connect the new neutral wire to where the old neutral wire came out using the same wirenut connection technique used earlier. Do the same procedure for the power side. You MAY need to clip, strip, and wirenut the wires coming out of the fan.
Check twice to insure your connections are good and solid.
Plug in the power strip to an outlet you know works. Make sure the switch on the strip is in the OFF position. Take the cup off the cord plug and plug it into the strip. Flip the switch.
