Electric candelabra plug question

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

I'm working on a candelabra for this up coming Halloween. Here's the first stage of it,



I have 5 120V AC electric candles from JoAnn fabrics. I don't want 5 plugs to plug into an outlet. So my question is, does anyone know how to take all 5 of these cords and put them into one plug, safely?

[TK421]

Just get a junction box. Run all 5 wires into the box, attach to lead plate, and run a single plug wire out.

[TK421]

A junction box, or harness box, is the safest way to go because it will seal in the individual wires, secure them all to a central set, and allow for one wall plug to come out.

The cheap way to do it is to just use some electrical twist connectors and put all 5 leads, plus the wall cord lead, together and twist. Do that for both the positive and neutral, and you've got a plug. It's not as contained or safe as a junction box, but it's really cheap.

I suggest you go to Radio Shack (or similar store) and see what they have for connectors. You might also be able to get a harness plug. This would allow you to put each hot wire into a specific socket, then join the sockets for the plug end. In this senario, you have the added bonus of being able to remove the plug-in cord, but keep the candelabra wiring intact. This might help for storage.

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

Haunt on! Thanks a million. So even just splicing the wires, keeping the hot with the hot and the neutral with the neutral, and securing them with a wire nut would work too if I was going cheap cheap?

[Andybev01]

Nice work Mr. PG!

Send a pic when you get it lit!

[TK421]

Yes, just using a wire nut will work, but you should really be careful and secure the wires. You don't want a swinging plug-in to make the wires loose. If you're going to use the wire nut method, please wrap the whole connection in e-tape. That will grant an added level of stability to the connection.

[Pumpkin_Man]

You can wire up all the bulb sockets up in parelell, PROVIDED the following 2 conditions ar met.

1. Each bulb MUST BE a 120 v ac bulb.

2. The wiring, plug and electrical outlet to be used MUST be ablt to handle the load. That's usualy not a problem as those candlabra bulbs are usualy only a few watts each, but it's allways a good idea to check.

Mike

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

Here's what it looks like so far.

I'm in the painting process right now. When I get the plaster on, I'll post another!

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

here it is all nice and painted up! looks pretty awesome to me! now it's time for the wax!


I'm going to be using plaster of paris for this part, any recomendations? Just mix and drip on?

[Mr.PumpkinGrin]

So I tried the plaster technique for the wax. It started off really nice, dripping down the sides, but it was too wet to try and get to drip off the sides. As the plaster hardened, of course, it just started looking more like a rock.... So I pulled it all off and am back to wax. I'd love to use it, but storing it is tough and wax breaks real easily. Any ideas on what I can use instead of wax and plaster, or is there an easier plaster technique for a dripping wax technique?

[TK421]

Mr.PG, I answered you on (another site).

Let me know how the paint/hair dryer works out.

[litemareb4xmas]

Cool idea, how about hot glue dripping down, kinda the color of candles???
I'd solder all your connections and you should have no problems ever.

[Pumpkin_Man]

It looks like you did pretty good. I would try to hide those wores and wiring caps, however as it does detract from the beauty of your candlabra.

If push comes to shove, you can remove all the wires, and all the electrical sockets, and use real candles instead.

Mike