Gluing plastic junction box

hawkinsrgk · Oct 1, 2016

Got it hooked up today. Acrylic glue in the end was what worked. I tried zip ties, pvc cement and epoxy which didn't work

hawkinsrgk · Oct 1, 2016

Joey waid · Oct 1, 2016

hawkinsrgk said:

Looks good

hawkinsrgk · Oct 1, 2016

Thank you and thanks for the help. Most likely I will make a controller out of it once I learn a little more about it

eleet · Oct 10, 2016

Really cool idea!

hawkinsrgk · Oct 10, 2016

eleet said:
Really cool idea!

Thank you. Really like the way it turned out

mcarroll · Oct 12, 2016

Flip the plugs aroud at the top (end with the screen closest) so wall-warts and their cables will not hang over the plugs below.

2¢

Dang - where did I come into the thread!? LOL

mcarroll · Oct 12, 2016

Way cool!

hawkinsrgk · Oct 12, 2016

mcarroll said:
Way cool!

Thank you. Its basically just a powerstrip with a amp meter. I can glance at the meter and automatically know whats running.

mcarroll · Oct 12, 2016

Something every power strip should have, IMO! If you don't mind saying, how much do you have wrapped up in materials?

hawkinsrgk · Oct 12, 2016

mcarroll said:
Something every power strip should have, IMO! If you don't mind saying, how much do you have wrapped up in materials?

Here is by best guess.
Junction Box - $12 Home Depot
Plugs - $8 Amazon
Amp Meter - $20 Amazon
12 gauge wire from my Dads workshop - $0 (He passed away 5 years ago so I don't think he would mind)
Oh and some plastic things where you can connect wire together easy maybe $8, but I got 100 of them in a package and only needed 6 or so. Can't remember what they were called.
Power cable - $0 Got this off one of those high dollar power strips from Home Depot that is complete garbage. It stopped working and I took it apart. Not sure I will ever buy a power strip again.

So about $48 in all. Keep in mind 12 gauge wire is pretty expensive, so if I were buying it I would probably just go with 14 gauge. The amp meter goes to 20 amps so 14 gauge would have been fine.

mcarroll · Oct 12, 2016

Why do all the similar amp meters I'm seeing on A'zon only go up to 100v?

Paul B · Oct 12, 2016

Now I see what you were trying to do. If you ever wanted to make that a lot easier you could have cut out most of the side of the box and installed a 4 gang duplex receptacle cover and installed the outlets in that.
They would have been straight and very easy to install. But yours looks very good the way it is
(Master Electrician 40 years)

mcarroll · Oct 12, 2016

I like the 4-gang idea too! Those little plug-in outlets are pretty cool though! I haven't seen those before.

hawkinsrgk · Oct 13, 2016

Paul B said:
Now I see what you were trying to do. If you ever wanted to make that a lot easier you could have cut out most of the side of the box and installed a 4 gang duplex receptacle cover and installed the outlets in that.
They would have been straight and very easy to install. But yours looks very good the way it is
(Master Electrician 40 years)

Guess Lucy has some splainin to do.

I almost scrapped the plugs to do what you are talking about.

My initial idea was to take the power strip that I took apart and replace the plugs and then add the amp meter to it. Here is a pic of it.

So on the end where the switch was I was going to cut that out bigger and put the amp meter there. The plug did fit into the case from the plug side but the problem was the power strip case was not deep enough. I needed about .25 of an inch more to clear the tabs for the outlets. I thought about trying to bend the metal tabs on the back of the plugs, but they were flimsy and I thought they could break. So I had to come up with something else. It was difficult to cut small squares in the junction box and would have been much easier as you said if I would have cut larger holes.

So to sum it up if I were to have bought regular plugs it would have been easier in every aspect of the project.

Wouldn't have to cut as many holes and the holes that I did cut would have been easier.
Less difficult wiring. Since a common plug has one ground to two plugs.
Plugs could have bolted in instead of being glued. Much quicker and easier to do.

I already bought the plugs so I went with what I had and also didn't want to waste them.

Thanks
Randy