Im stumped please help

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Phatboy

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I am renovating my kitchen, and I need to use a 4 gang switch box. It will control:

1. 3 6in can lights
2. two main overhead lights
3. one outside porch light
4. one run of above cabinet rope lights

Now I have no problem wiring one switch or an outlet, and have even sucessfully wired up a 2 gang box, but this is above my head. There is one supply line(10/2). Four switches that only have one set of connections, a neutral, load, ground. There are no terminals for tailing off to another switch. Four lines going out to said lighting.

I know all the grounds have to get connected. There will be 9 total, so Im thinking one bundle of 4 wires and one of 5 connected with a pigtail. After that Im lost. Please help, and a diagram if you know of one would be wonderfull.:eek:
 
I have to honestly say, if something like this is that far over your head you may want to have someone come in and help you.

There are NO "stock" diagrams. Someone would have to draw it for you unless it happened to be done already and is posted somewhere on the web.
This is not that hard, but putting it into words can be.

Basically all the grounds go together with a tail to each switch.
All the neutrals OF RELATED CIRCUITS are spliced together.
All the hot feeds OF RELATED CIRCUITS are spliced together with a tail to the top screw of each single pole switch.
Each of the four switch legs goes to the bottom of it's own switch.

Questions:
1) WHY do you have a 10/2 in this box?????
2) WHY do you have NINE grounds????
3) What do you mean by the switches having "a neutral, load, ground"???? Switches DO NOT switch the neutral.
 
Well Im guessin Im talkin out of my ***. I really dont know all the terminology. I will have my brother(electrician)over to help me, I was just trying to get a better understanding.

The 10/2 is what was already there and is only for supply. I will be using something smaller like 14/2 from the switches to the fixtures.

I figured 9 grounds like this.

1 from the main
4 on the switches
4 from the wires from the fixtures.

Refer to above for #3 question.
 
Connect all neutrals together.

Pigtail 4 wires onto the supply hot, connect one to each switch.

For the ground, I would connect all of the ground wires together with one pigtail then connect 4 pigtails to that wire (you'll have 2 bundles with 5 wires in a bundle under each single wire nut that way). Attach one grounded pigtail to each switch.

Attach the hot from each fixture to the proper switch.

Not a big deal.
 
Thanks SquareEye, that helps alot. I get whats going on now. I just couldnt picture it in my head. Progress in my other thread very soon.:cool:
 
They should make switches with 2 push in connecters to make pigtailing easier.
 
I don't think the advantage would be worth it. In a daisy chained circuit, if one device gets damaged, wears out or fails for whatever reason.. All of the devices from that point can be affected. With pigtails, one device can fail and the rest are still as they were.
 
We have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of pigtailing. See that post and decide for yourself. Also, I believe we all agreed at some point, that stab-ins were taboo.

If you've sucessfully wired up a double gang then you should be able to do a 4 gang, just duplicate what you've done and tie all that together following the existing wiring pattern.
 
A word of advice.... make sure that 10-2 is not on a 30amp breaker. You might want to check in panel and make sure the other end is tailed down to a 14guage on breaker. Other than that, you're in one of the simplest 4gang's, and i'm sure you'll come out fine. As long as you turn the power off first:D
 
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