Newbie: Punch down block 66 vs 110, how do these work?

Please be kind in your replies, remember I am new to all of this, as you once were too.

My home has a punch down box in it installed by the phone company. It is much smaller than those I see called 66 or 110. The box has four rows and six columns. I can see that all the connections on this punch box block have been used up. I want to add some extensions and wish to replace this punch down box with a larger capacity one.

Now my understand how this 4 x 6 punch down block works is that each row shares the same wire connection to any of the terminals(?), usually connected from the other ends, but I guess it doesn't matter. I don't know if this is a 66 or 110 style punch down box, although I don't know if this matters.

I have looked for larger punch down boxes, but all I can find in the stores is either the 66 or 110. The 66 made by Leviton is "66 Block, Split M, Clips Included". This one has four terminals across and 50 rows. I'm confused, how can I use this to take advantage of adding many extensions in the home for lines 1 and 2? I see this has clips included, but I don't understand how these work. How does this work? Can you connect the 2 wires for line 1 to the first two of the four going across, and the 2nd line for the next two, and then be able to add as many as 49 extensions to this?

I have looked online and some books and have not been able to have this explained clearly to me. I would greatly appreciate it if someone would enlighten me here. Thanks!

Edward

Reply to
eastcoastguyz
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I assume you have a varient of this punchdown block.. (The Suttle A66B63 if the page ref doesn't work).

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Except only 2 pair usable instead of 3 pair usable.

This is a 66 style block. The 66 or 110 is mostly the type of pin, and the punch down tool blade you'll use. There's specific models of 66 blocks that are very standard parts. 110 is a bit more freeform, and is popular due to their use in datacomm connections. (I actually prefer 110 for voice, but I'm in a minority around telco cabling circles. Maybe its all the times I've brushed past uncoverd 66-blocks and got zapped.. ) You see alot of 110 in structured wiring cabinets now too.

Yep you've got it, the incoming pair gets split across the first and second rows. The home-runs will get punched down going across in order. All the pins of the row are tied together. If you have two lines coming into the house, then your first line will be on the first two rows. The second line will be on the third and forth rows.

There's alot more out there than the home-centers carry..

The 66 block you've found works different. It expects that you terminate both your incoming and home-run lines seperately, and then jumper them all together with more wires. You would have to daisy-chain your line down the block connecting your pairs together.

If you go online, with some of the other options there, you may find more to your liking. Ie. the ETCON DD1C works much the same way as your 4x6 block, each incoming line pair gets attached to the vertical runs down. Your homerun stations come in and get punched down on the appropriate line. You get twelve here, although you can bridge together two rows and get alot more density.

If you want to learn how to wire the 66-block you saw, here's a good webpage that explains how to daisy-chain it.

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He also has a scheme for daisy-chaining 110, although I do it different.

Reply to
Doug McIntyre

Thanks for your helpful reply!

If I wanted to go this route, just cause these blocks are easier to find locally, how do I jumper the 66 blocks to create more lines for extensions for line 1 and 2? I got the impression you can't connect more than one wire to a terminal in a punch down box. How do you include a jumper wire across all those terminals while still able to use it for each extension so both wires fit on a single terminal?

Here is the 66 block: Column: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... etc Row 1: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc Row 2: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc Row 3: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc Row 4: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc

I used a Continuity Tester and sure enough, Row 1/Column 1 only lights up when connected to Row 2/Column 1. It doesn't light up on Rows 3 or

4, neither of the other Columns too while connected to Row 1/Column 1.

So if I want Row 1 to be connected so that all of row one (well, to be practical the first 10 terminals) I need to jump those first 10 terminals together. Still puzzled how to do the jumper without them getting in the way of those extensions I want to connect it. I looked for a photo online of this and can't find an example. Would I take an entire piece of phone wire and simply push it towards to bottom to be out of the way? Or would this jumper have to be striped before I did this?

Thanks again for your help and patience here.

Edward

Reply to
DavidAlanRoth

Thanks for your helpful reply! If I wanted to go this route, just cause these blocks are easier to find locally, how do I jumper the 66 blocks to create more lines for extensions for line 1 and 2? I got the impression you can't connect more than one wire to a terminal in a punch down box. How do you include a jumper wire across all those terminals while still able to use it for each extension so both wires fit on a single terminal? Here is the 66 block: Column: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... etc Row 1: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc Row 2: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc Row 3: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc Row 4: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ... etc I used a Continuity Tester and sure enough, Row 1/Column 1 only lights up when connected to Row 2/Column 1. It doesn't light up on Rows 3 or

4, neither of the other Columns too while connected to Row 1/Column
  1. So if I want Row 1 to be connected so that all of row one (well, to be practical the first 10 terminals) I need to jump those first 10 terminals together. Still puzzled how to do the jumper without them getting in the way of those extensions I want to connect it. I looked for a photo online of this and can't find an example. Would I take an entire piece of phone wire and simply push it towards to bottom to be out of the way? Or would this jumper have to be striped before I did this? Thanks again for your help and patience here.

Edward

Reply to
eastcoastguyz

[snip of lots of details]

As a newbie you might want to skip all the lacing and just get one of these. I've used them a few times and like them.

Lots of folks sell these. This site was just the first with a picture big enough you could see what it was.

David

Reply to
DLR

eastcoastguyz wrote: (snip)

Two ways. If there are more than two terminals in a row, you can go from one row to another unused row as an expansion row.

Also, while only one wire can go into each terminal, that wire can have two ends. Most punch down tools have one end that will cut the wire off, and one that won't. You can then chain down multiple rows for the same line.

-- glen

Reply to
glen herrmannsfeldt

First off, you have the 66-block sideways. It goes vertical. There are 4 columns, 50 rows (25 pair). As you said, you don't put more than one wire on a pin.

The M-style has all 4 pins of a row connected. Typically, you have your inputs on the left, the outputs on the right. The M-style doesn't need bridge clips for this old style. So, your incoming phone line probably goes on row 1 & 2 (ie. the first pair) on the very left column. Then you hook in all your homeruns on the right on the last column, all the way down the right. If you are using typical cat3/cat5 4-pair cable, you end up with each home-run taking up 4-pairs on the right, so you can fit 6 home-runs on this style 66-block.

Then you daisy chain it, like in the second web page link I included.

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Ie. you use your punch down blade that does NOT have the cutting edge on it. You have a pair of wire that starts up on rows 1&2 (pair 1) then it loops onto pairs 5, 9, 13, 17, 21. Then to hook up a 2nd line, you'd take another pair of wire, and loop it down on pairs 2, 6, 10,

14, 18 & 22.

This is exactly what the picture shows on the weblink for the 66-blocks. (except he's not using an M-style 66-block).

Or, go with the home-service block I pointed out on the first post, and subsequent posters also mentioned, which is alot easier for people to figure out how to use, and how to change things if needed. Unless you've done this before, its going to take you *hours* to figure out the 66-block. The ETCON block in the picture is very straightforward and easy.

If you insist on learning the 66-block, it'll take you *hours* to get it working. This is from experience with doing hands on training with techies that are computer tech guys. Seems easier to me to start with to get the one recomended to you and go the easy route.

Reply to
Doug McIntyre

Thanks so much. This has been a real education for me! I think to make things easier for me and considering this is my first time out with this sort of thing, I'm going to go with your recommendation to install the 66 Style Block A66B63 ( 6 x 6). This would make it easier to increase capacity replacing the 4 x 6 presently installed. (If I need to go past this some day I will replacing it with the large 4- line version for residential that was suggested. Who knows, might be running fiber optic in the house by then! :-) )

I have learned a few other things which I wish to pass on to other newbies:

- Some people who work in Home Depot are not phone experts even though they sell a huge punch down blocks.

- Some people who work in electronic supply shops are not phone experts and are annoyed by your questions.

- Some people who sell blades for punch down tools and are out of stock on punch down tools tell you to just use the blades by hand at $25.50 a pop.

- Some people who work for the phone company don't want to install anything unless its on a work order.

- Some people who write books on wiring ignore any information about punch down blocks, but have super nice photos of wires in their books.

Give all this, it is still better to post to this newsgroup and get the wonderful help I have gotten, thanks!

Edward

Reply to
eastcoastguyz

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