12 hours into a panel swap before I found the neutral cheat

Working on an old Square D load center in a house built in 79. Labeling everything took forever because nothing was documented. Finally realized if I traced the neutrals by their breaker position instead of pulling apart the whole bundle, I cut my time by almost half. Had to redo a few but way faster than untwisting 30 wires. Anyone else got a weird labeling hack that shaved time off a messy job?

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grantnelson2mo ago

79... damn, that was the year I was born. I gotta say, tracing neutrals by breaker position is genius though. I've spent way too many hours untwisting those old brittle bundles, snapping wires and cussing up a storm. My hack is using a label maker with heat shrink tubes, then I just slide them right onto each neutral wire before I even start pulling anything apart.

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eva2432mo ago

It's like everything old is just waiting to break the second you touch it.

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