Any electricians out there?

[Dan208]

I've got a question for anyone that knows anything about home wiring. We live in a house that was built around 1950. It has a separate oven and stove, with the oven being a cabinet unit (not sure exactly what they are called). Recently the oven went ka-put, although the broiler still works. We are planning on remodeling the kitchen, but it will be a few years. We need an oven, so we were planning on taking the oven and cabinet out and replacing it with a new oven/stove (we would have two stoves for a while). I got to looking at the wiring, and the stove and oven that we have are hard wired separately to the breaker box. The breaker, however, is two switches that are connected together by a metal "bridge" type piece. What I need to know is two things. One: can the metal piece be removed so I can switch off the breaker that goes to the oven? Two: if not, can I can the wires for the oven with something like wire nuts so I can remove the oven and cabinet? I will be hiring someone to come and put in an outlet for a new oven/stove, but I'd really like to remove the existing oven and cabinet myself to save some money.

Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question, but I'm really not the handiest person in the world. You all are gonna get sick of my questions pretty soon. :D Thanks.

Dan

[citcop]

That breaker with the bridge is what's known a double breaker. The stove and the oven both have single phase 220 volts going to them (each of the breakers supplies 110v). Do not remove the bridge between the breakers they dont control the stove/oven independantly. Openning one of the breakers will still have 110 volts going to both. You will need to check the wiring when you remove the old units as wiring from the days your house was built tends to have insulation that is getting brittle and may not be a large enough guage for the new unit you will be installing. You may not know exactly what you have going on back there untill you remove the old unit. Be sure to mopen the breaker and get yourself a multi meter to check for voltage before touching any wires. Once you see what you have, you can make a determination as to what needs to be capped and so forth. Remember, on a 220 volt system that if you only have 2 wires, they are both hot. Make sure you open any circuit you plan on handling and check with a meter before touching it.