Can anyone help me find the unfindable phone jack?

June 30, 2008 4:25 AM

The phone jack of myth and legend: I'm looking for "A 4-conductor jack with Type 43A mounting bracket attached." In white, not hideous horrible old school beige.

I've been searching for this damn part for about a month now. I'm fairly certain it does not exist in this universe, but just in case one of you has some deep dark telecommunications supply knowledge, I figured I'd ask.

My apartment has old school 4 pronged phone jacks. They have been painted over, they are destroyed. I'm renovating this place by hand. There was ONE updated jack in the entire place, which is why I know this part semi-exists, but this one jack was in ivory, and for aesthetics' sake, I'd kind of like it in straight up white.

The faceplate... it's all one congruous... thing. I'm not about to stick a standard phone jack faceplate next to a horizontal power outlet plate it just would not be right. The hole's 1.406" and the wiring'll work for RJ11/14/25. I already searched granger and mcmaster and leviton and the last one's the closest I got. Except: ivory! ugh! no! white!

Am I just going to have to bite the bullet and ivory it up?

posted by Teira to home & garden (9 comments total)

This may be a dumb answer to your question, but...

...can't you just paint the ivory one white?
posted by muddgirl at 5:39 AM on June 30, 2008

(To be more explicit, use a white spray paint primer and then white spray paint. Tape over all the electrical bits first.)
posted by muddgirl at 5:42 AM on June 30, 2008

I'm being a bit of a picky perfectionist here. That's the last resort. Spray painting may help to give an even, thin coat, which would be nice, as the reason I'm replacing these in the first place (besides being horribly outdated) is seven rounds of tenants painting DIRECTLY OVER the electrical bits. Every time I think about painting them I just get this horrible shivery feeling.
posted by Teira at 5:46 AM on June 30, 2008

Would this work? Look under "Modular Jacks" and "Modular Jacks with Faceplates and Brackets." It looks like the ones with "CorroShield" come in three colors, including white.
posted by jedicus at 6:12 AM on June 30, 2008

It sounds like you have a phone jack and an outlet sharing the same two-gang box and you want a system where you can get a plate to match right? If so, why not use one of these with a decora outlet as well:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10415&minisite=10027&Filter=Y&jfn=ZG0E777A3C9BA56DCBA97ABE0071E2BD331372B78CD8AEB7E5E91B9618BE673E06F2F8DAB3C6D451807BF3C9CFAFAFFB3E34&oas=EH54KbW7zs0OBnRR91MFAw..

Apologies if I am mistaken on your needs, the 'horizontal outlet plate' has thrown me for a loop.
posted by buttercup at 7:47 AM on June 30, 2008

Sorry, that link failed. search for a leviton Type 625 Decora® Modular Wall Jack.
posted by buttercup at 7:48 AM on June 30, 2008

Every time I think about painting them I just get this horrible shivery feeling.

So have someone else paint them. Auto body shop, or maybe you can have them powdercoated. Finding out the price for this may make the horrible shivery feeling go away.
posted by yohko at 8:53 AM on June 30, 2008

Looks like jedicus has what you want. White is listed as an option, for several different round faceplates and brackets.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:56 AM on June 30, 2008

Pictures probably would've helped the question regarding the orientation of the outlets and whatnot, but I think what jedicus found may be the answer. I feel the stress melting away already!
posted by Teira at 1:28 PM on June 30, 2008