How to Wire a Snap Switch
- 1). Remove the outer plastic jacket from the Romex cable. Slit the jacket with the razor knife, starting 3/8 of an inch from where it enters the box. Be careful not to damage the insulation on the individual wires. Cut the freed jacket from the cable ends.
- 2). Adjust the cutting depth of the wire strippers using a scrap piece of wire of the same size. Loosen the adjustment screw slightly and apply enough force to the strippers to cut through the insulation without cutting into the copper. Tighten the adjustment screw and test the strippers on the scrap wire. Check to make sure the strippers aren't biting into the copper.
- 3). Strip 3/4 of an inch of insulation from the ends of the insulated wires in the switch boxes.
- 4). Splice the white wires in each switch box together. To make the splices, hold the stripped ends side by side and twist the wires tightly together clockwise using the electrician's pliers. Complete the splices by screwing on wire nuts.
- 5). Cut 6- to 8-inch pieces of bare copper wire and make three-way splices with the two bare copper wires in each switch box. Make these splices the same way as the white neutral wires.
- 6). Make loops in the free ends of all the conductors in each switch box, using the needle-nose pliers. The opening should be large enough to slip around a terminal screw.
- 7). Attach a single-pole switch by connecting one of the black wires to each of the brass screws. Place the loops clockwise around the screws and tighten the screws down on the wires. Connect the bare ground wire to the green screw in the same way.
- 8). Connect three-way switches by connecting the black wire bring electricity into the first switch box to the black screw on the first switch. Connect the black wire carrying power to the light to the black screw on the second switch. The two traveler wires connecting the two three-way switches are connected to the two brass screws on the two switches. It doesn't matter which traveler wire connects to which brass screw. Connect the bare ground wire to the green screws.
- 9). Connect one or more four-way switches by inserting them in the traveler wires between two three-way switches. It doesn't matter which traveler wire connects to which screw as long as each set of travelers wires connects to the brass screws on the same end of the switch. One set of traveler wires connects to the bottom set of screws, and the other set connects to the top set of screws.