resources to learn basic wiring

[happyorange]

I'm 4 months into my commercial electrician apprenticeship. I'm rocking the conduit runs and the trig, but when it comes to basic wiring, I am completely lost!
I can't figure out which wire goes where to make a proper connection for anything slightly complex. I feel like my brain just doesn't get the schematic logic.
Did anyone else struggle with this when starting out? Any great resources (books, videos) that explain the wiring logic better than my school does?

 

[TuroPaldea]

I was fine with conduit but wiring took longer for my brain to catch up. Watching basic wiring videos after work helped more than school lectures for me. Seeing someone wire it step by step made the logic stick. It gets easier once patterns repeat.

 

[PGB1]

Time will help, HappyOrange. All of a sudden everything will make sense to you!

Some Learning Tips:
If you encounter a challenging schematic, make copies of it. Then, using various colored pencils, follow the electron path for each wire shown. Use as many copies as you need to keep things clear. Maybe one copy will have 2 or 3 wires traced, another might have 2 or 10 more. Whatever keeps it uncluttered in your mind will help you learn. Then, Bam! You'll understand that seemingly impossible schematic.

Sometimes turning the schematic into a wiring diagram will help. Follow some wires on the schematic and draw them as a wiring diagram in a way that makes sense to you. Even use several sheets of paper to break it up if it helps.

Paul
PS: It was nice to read in your post that trigonometry is still being taught. I see the new people punching bend locations & angles in their phones, then downloading to the bender. No thinking required.
Some watch me working rigid or IMC the "old fashioned" way and are curious how I calculated the bends and offsets. I give them a Benfield book to study.

 

[will_fox]

Any great resources (books, videos) that explain the wiring logic better than my school does?

hi OP, these youtube channels have videos explaining the basic electrical engineering principles and concepts, try to check them out:
Electrician U, Engineering Mindset, and Sparky Channel

 

[PGB1]

Next time you're in the supply house, ask for "The Ugly Book". (Ugly's Electrical Reference) Supply houses all carry them. The book is loaded with helpful information. (I suppose by now there is a phone app version, but don't know for certain.)

Also, if you work under NFPA 70, there is the National Electrical Code Handbook published by NFPA. It has the code, but also has commentary, diagrams and explanations right alongside the pertinent code sections. The book may be a bit expensive, but can be a tax deductible expense. (Or maybe your employer will buy you one.)

Be kind of careful with You Tube videos. Some have mighty scary practices shown. I'm sure the ideas that Will_Fox posted above are very good or he wouldn't have suggested them.

Be mindful of learning on DIY type forums, too.
Recently in a DIY forum, several members blasted me when I disagreed with someone wiring a new house that a neutral is required in many switch boxes & cited the code section. The advice, agreed to by at least a dozen members, was to use the grounding conductor for a neutral when a lighting dimmer requires a neutral. Yikes!

Same group- Blasted again for trying to help someone who asked about 3-wire sub panel. I advised to run 4-wire for a single phase sub panel and not to bond neutral bar in that sub panel. I got called every kind of hack and idiot by many members. So be careful of learning on DIY forums.

Paul