Strip & Repair Electrical Cords

Have you ever used an electrical lawn-mower, or seen someone use it? Enough said. Cords on appliances also fray and sometimes a loose connection is the simple result of wear and tear. So somewhere along the line you may have to repair the wiring of an appliance or replace a plug that is no longer working.

Before you read any further, a note—to join a wire properly and safely, you need a little thing called a flex connector (obtainable from your friendly hardware store). We have, against our better judgement told you how to do a temporary repair using insulation tape. Use this only in case of an emergency, like when you’re already half an hour late for picking up your date and the hairdryer stops working because your per iguana chewed through the cord.

Electrical Stripping

To reconnect or repair loose or cut wires you first have to strip them — remove the plastic casing to get to the actual wires. Naturally, if you have the tools for the job (in this case wire cutters) it will be quite easy. First, get two clean-cut ends to work on — put your wire cutters to use. Place the wire cutters around the cord of the appliance about 4 cm away from the cut end. Now gently squeeze the cutters to cut through the plastic casing but not the wires inside. Rotate the cutters and pull off the plastic casing. Viola! You have successfully stripped your first wire. You can now do the same with the two or three smaller wires inside. Remove approximately one centimetre of plastic casing to expose the wire.

Unfortunately most of us are usually only armed with our utility knife or some poor, abused steak knife from the kitchen. If you are using a knife (don’t bother unless it’s a sharp one), place the cord on a cutting board. Make a 4 cm incision lengthwise down the wire, taking care to cut only through the plastic casing. Expose the inside wires by prying back the casing and then gently cut it away at the base of you incision. Repeat the process for the inside wires, bearing in mind that they are more difficult to strip without wire cutters and will require some precision on your part.

If you absolutely must, use a pair of scissors, but take great care not to cut through to the wires, Occasionally take your handkerchief and wipe the sweat beads from your forehead. Alternatively wear a sweatband when you do this.

Electrical Joining

Do not attempt to connect a two-core cord with a three-core cord. We apologise profusely if you think we’re insulting your intelligence, but it has been known to happen and we do have to cater for the lowest common denominator. You will need a flex connector to join cords properly (obtainable from your friendly hardware store). Unscrew the flex connector and open. You will be faced with three channels, separated by insulating walls. Fit the earth wire (green and yellow) to the middle channel and the neutral (blue) and positive (brown) wires to each of the other channels respectively. Tighten the collar and repeat for the other side, taking care that you connect the same wires to the same channels. Close the connector and test your workmanship.

If you don’t have a flex connector, you will have to settle for a temporary solution (only in case of an emergency — this is not particularly safe!). Connect the corresponding wires from the two ends of cable by twisting them together. Cover each wire with insulation tape around the stripped area, then cover the cord with insulation tape around the stripped area. This probably won’t hold and sooner rather than later you will have to go through all of this again. Make it sooner rather than later, and add a flex connector to your birthday wish-list.

Changing a Electrical Plug

The first thing you’re going to need is a screwdriver (or a knife if you must! Butter knives work better than steak knives). Most plugs have screws that hold them together. Check what kind of screw it is, either a star (Phillips) or a flat screw. Some appliances come with plugs attached that are ‘permanent’. If you need to change these you will have to cut the wire.

Once you’ve removed the screws (put them where you’ll find them again) and opened the plug you will be faced with three wires, each held in place with another screw. Turn these until the wires are loose and carefully remove the wires.

When you replace the plug it is very important that you connect the right colour wire with the right prong (a bit like defusing a bomb). In a plug you will always find a brown wire and a blue wire. On three-prong plugs there’s an additional green and yellow striped wire. The brown is called the life, which goes at the right prong. The blue wire is neutral and goes left. And the green and yellow striped wire is your earth that goes to the top prong.

This is of course with the exposed part that you are working on facing toward you and the actual prongs facing down. (Sorry, we’d rather be safe than sorry as we aren’t sure whether our personal-liability insurance covers us for you getting electrocuted because our instructions were unclear. If you are replacing a two-prong with a three-prong plug you will not have an earth wire. Simply attach the life and the neutral at their respective prongs. Now don’t forget to secure each wire tightly with its screw before closing up the plug again. You may even be lucky and have a clip-in plug, which would save you six screwing sessions in total.

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