Gah!! My fat, expensive #4 SE cable going to a subpanel… Somebody stripped the sheath a little too far back. I have tried my darnedest and cannot find enough slack to bring the sheath inside the panel.
So here's my plan. I want to use a 1" knockout to a very short nipple to a 4-11/16 square box, which will be barely an inch from the panel. I want to enter the SE cable into a knockout in the square box, and fit it down properly with a cable clamp. Then run its bared wires through the nipple into the panel proper and to the lugs.
Here's my worry. It is not legal to unsheath a cable and use its individual conductors in place of THHN wire, mainly because those individual conductors are not marked/listed as such. Would this count as that naughty thing, or would it be OK because it is shch a short hop?
Best Answer
Technically it would be a nipple and the code does allow for certain liberties in nipples such as larger fill requirements and no derating of conductors. I wouldn't call a short piece of SE "unsheathing to use as individual conductor". Also consider the alternative, which would be to splice say THWN to the SE. What would be worse? The small piece of SE extended or a splice where you have to leave accessible to maintain the splice, since splices are 80% of all electrical conductor problems.
In short it's all a matter of following code to the letter or the actual intent of the code. Personally I would just as soon reduce the number of splices over any other alternative.