Steven Tyler article on wiring Cambridge station / run 339

Well, I see Steve has not answered, but I can tell you that a hole, punched with a small tapered awl through the insulation of multi-stranded wire, that will allow a  smaller, twisted-end multi-strand wire or solid wire (or even a smaller, multi-stranded wire that may have been "tinned" so it is solid on the end if needed) to be inserted into and out of it, which would allow the inserted wire on exit, to be wrapped around the host wire....should work for light connections such as lights.

A "T" would be formed and if no strain is on the joint, it should hold. BUT, for long term, after wrapping the bare wire end of wire two, around the insulation of wire one, I would opt for bending wire two parallel to the insulation and wrapping with tape. Or even a layer of hot glue over the joint just to maintain position and stability.

I have not memorized the article, but Steve may have been doing this for interior lights on the station and probably had success doing this - since no strain or movement on the wires was involved. I have found Steve does not fail at much. Maybe he will chime in later.

@ArmchairAndy posted:

Interesting article with lots of ideas but one especially caught my attention. He says" I used a small awl to make holes in the wires insulation and pressed the LED leads into them to connect with the wires...."

I can't quite figure out how you would maintain that connection. Maybe a spot of hot glue to hold the wire in place but not sure how that would work? And wonder about the electrical connection, don't see solder for that.

Any insight would be appreciated I have a number of applications where I would like to try the technique.

Sorry for the delay in responding -- I've been scrambling to complete some new projects for the RFC train garden, which has its open house in December!

Greg's comments are spot on. My original use of this technique was when I was trying to fabricate a chain of flashing, color changing LEDs to fit inside a flexible plastic tube, which was intended to decorate and illuminate a "Santa phone" installation for the train garden. Contemplating cutting into and soldering LEDs every couple of inches into a repurposed speaker wire to create a six foot plus chain gave me pause, so in a moment of inspiration I picked up a convenient sharp object and tried to see if it would make a suitable pair of holes in the insulation, into which I could carefully force the LED leads. In short, it worked -- a bit fiddly keeping the leads from bending, and care needs to be taken to avoid severing or damaging the conductors inside the insulation (or stabbing yourself!), but with a little practice, it goes quite quickly. Care needs to be taken to preserve polarity, so color-coded wire is a real help. So far, the inward pressure from the insulation has maintained good electrical contact between the wire and the leads, and I've had no instances (after about a hundred such insertions) where the LEDs have fallen out or lost contact with the wire conductors.

As noted, my uses have involved protected environments -- the LEDs and speaker wire are completely covered by  a plastic tube in one, and the lights in the station were all inside the structure and the wires themselves were hot-glued in place -- but I think the idea of a dab of hot glue, both to secure the LED in place on the wire and to insulate the exposed bare leads (which IME usually can't be inserted far enough into the insulation to fully cover them), is an excellent addition. BTW, I found those "excess" bare leads made it easy to bend the LED away from the wire, and direct the light to any desired angle, so for instance I was able to direct the light down onto the 'shadow box' pictures backing each door and window.

I highly commend this technique to anyone who might benefit from its use, and it certainly has earned its place in my technique 'tool kit'!

Thank you cngw and Steve. I have read your directions on making these useful T connections but have not sat down to try them as I am currently in the middle of a large project in my shop with a deadline. Will provide an update when I take a crack at it.

ACA