I have thick wires that can not be twisted into one hole of the wire connector, so can I split the wire into two section and feed them into the connector?
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2It might be helpful to state your country - this is a US centric website, and readers will assume you are in the US. But your wire colours look European. And some potential fixes (like wire nuts) are not normally used in Europe.– Jack BCommented Jul 19 at 16:56
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WHY are you doing this? The fact that one of the cables appears to be rated for high current and the other is not is highly suspicious.– Mark Morgan LloydCommented Jul 20 at 7:13
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2@MarkMorganLloyd Surely it's a lighting fixture.– BradCommented Jul 20 at 7:16
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2@MarkMorganLloyd what are you getting at? The lamp won't draw 13A and IKEA lamps are also allowed to be connected to German 16A fuses with those small cables.– DonQuiKongCommented Jul 20 at 9:17
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5This fixture looks like it's designed for permanent installation and wants to connect to one or two (for daisy-chaining) lighting cables, not a flex.– NeilCommented Jul 20 at 10:39
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6 Answers
You can instead replace the IKEA connector with another one that will accept the thick stranded wire on one end and the wire inside the box.
answered Jul 19 at 8:22
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good luck finding a connector that fits in the Ikea custom made space– TravelerCommented Jul 22 at 8:03
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1That looks like a decent sized box so a standard old shool "shugarcube" connector looks like it will fit, Commented Jul 22 at 8:17
You can use Wago 221, works with stranded and solid core, available in two sizes (normal for 0.14-4mm² and large for 0.5-6mm²), and in two different shapes:
Do not do this. The contacts are designed, tested and CE rated for one whole cable to go into one hole, using them differently to this will invalidate your insurance. For high current applications, you may have split unevenly and it can overheat; you can't do a tug test that it has clamped correctly on both sides; you can't guarantee there won't be stray strands that might cause a shock hazard.
Either get a suitable terminal block, or use a reducing ferrule on the stranded end that can then fit into the terminal you have. (Unless you're in the habit of putting ferrules on cables, getting the right terminal block will be cheaper as ferrules always seem to come in packets of 1000)
Replace the thick wire with one that has conductors of appropriate size for the connector in IKEA lamp.
Cut off 1/3 to 1/2 of the strands, twist what's left, shove it into the hole, make sure there are no loose strands outside and do the tug test.
Ignore the fearmongers, the connector will be the weakest point of the whole setup and that won't change whatever coble or ferrule you use.
You can also use wire nut (aka wire connector) with one thick wire and one or two thiner wires.
This type of Ikea connector prefers solid not stranded wires.
Found in many stores like wire nut
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To paraphrase, "add a pigtail to phase and neutral incoming wire, which splits to two smaller solid-core wires per side" ?– CriggieCommented Jul 20 at 2:09
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5@MichaelHarvey don't forget to ask for the special wire nuts for earth connections, called "ground nuts". Commented Jul 20 at 18:25