candy cane light plug extension/wire splicing

[knexster]

I have candy cane lights from Walmart that line the sidewalk in front of my house. See attached photo. This year I had 4 sections of 11-12 candy canes. Next year instead of sections I want to separate the channels in a sequence of every 3rd candy cane to create a running effect if that makes sense.

My problem is that I will need to extend the cords to plug in every 3rd candy cane instead of just to the candy cane directly next to it. Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to splice the wire and add in about 2 ft of cord? I have very limited experience with cutting/splicing wire so I want to ask before I ruin my candy canes. What guage wire should I buy, what connectors, but most importantly is this even possible?

Thanks for helping a newb!

[Klayfish]

I don't think I'd bother trying to cut the wires from the candy canes.  I would either:

 

a)  Go to the dollar store and buy 6' extension cords.  Easy, quick and not expensive.

 

  Buy SPT1 wire and vampire plugs and make cords to the length you need.  If you do that, I'd suggest making them more than 2' though.  A 2' cord probably won't be very useful down the road if you decide to make changes to your display.  With limited exceptions, I tend to make all cords at least 6' in length.

???  That was supposed to be a b with a bracket, not a smily face...  Computer interpreted it differently.

[Ken Benedict]

If your candy canes are wired together from the factory, they will have a different voltage when you cut them apart. Problematic.

 

If your candy canes came as a single unit with it's own plug, then just get some cheap SPT wire or extension cords to finish the connections.

[George Simmons]

I'd make a custom length cord out of SPT1 for each channel - the cord being the length of the run of candy canes. (That would be 3 cords total for a setup as you described.) Whatever your distance is between every third candy cane, that's where I'd attach an in-line female vampire plug.

[rainyoregonchristmas]

I sequenced my Candy Canes this year using the SPT-1 and in line female vampire plugs.  I have five channels and 20 canes.  The canes were spaced 3 foot apart making the total run 60 feet.  Every fifth cane plugged into the same SPT cord.   So if math is correct, it was like every 15 feet on a given SPT cord there was a female plug.  All the cords also did not need to run the entire length of the row of candy canes  the length for Channel one was 60 feet long, Channel two was 47 ft, Channel three was 44 ft etc.  So in the end I had five separate pieces of SPT.  I zip tied them together creating one long wiring harness then laid it down the length of where the canes were going to run.  Plugged in all the candy canes, and it worked great.  

 

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=B391FEB1972280F0!251&authkey=!AM7euCh-E7P30Mc&v=3&ithint=photo%2c.jpg

[overeazy]

No I think what he is saying is that three candy canes are hooked together or they are really one string of say 60 mini lights.  He can't cut them the same as you can't take a set of 100 mini lights and make them into 4 sets of 25 because of the extra voltage.  The spacing between the canes is 20 inches and he wants to add extra wire to make the spacing say 40 inches between canes.  60 lights still hooked as one string just a longer string.  Adding a piece of wire between them is easy but I am not sure if the extra wire will add difference to the volts?  I would not think it would make a difference but I am not sure.  I would use the wire from an old set of lights or try to find wire the same gauge as the wires that the lights are on now.

[Ken Benedict]

I have candy cane lights from Walmart that line the sidewalk in front of my house. See attached photo. This year I had 4 sections of 11-12 candy canes. Next year instead of sections I want to separate the channels in a sequence of every 3rd candy cane to create a running effect if that makes sense.

My problem is that I will need to extend the cords to plug in every 3rd candy cane instead of just to the candy cane directly next to it. Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to splice the wire and add in about 2 ft of cord? I have very limited experience with cutting/splicing wire so I want to ask before I ruin my candy canes. What guage wire should I buy, what connectors, but most importantly is this even possible?

Thanks for helping a newb!

 

Did you get your questions answered or do you need more explanations?

[knexster]

Yes my questions were answered.  I am gonna get the SPT1 wire here:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Commercial-Christmas-18AWG-WIRE-0250-G/dp/B003YNYDWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389575414&sr=8-1&keywords=spt1+wire

 

and I found these for the inline female plugs:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Novelty-Lights-FS-10A-GR-SPT-2-Female-Vampire/dp/B004SHC57M/ref=pd_cp_hi_1

 

I was hoping that I could find a plug set m/f included so I can make small 3-6ft extensions that would be more versatile later down the road as opposed to having 1 run of wire with the female plugs on it.   I want the versatility just in case i move or if i change something in my display I won't be stuck with 1 cord that is specific to one thing.

[cenote]

I was hoping that I could find a plug set m/f included so I can make small 3-6ft extensions that would be more versatile later down the road as opposed to having 1 run of wire with the female plugs on it. I want the versatility just in case i move or if i change something in my display I won't be stuck with 1 cord that is specific to one thing.

Keep in mind, you can re-use the plugs and move them if need be.