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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
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14th Oct 2016, 9:09 pm | #1 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
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Lexor "Dis-Board"
At a car-boot-sale recently I bought - for £1 - a "Lexor Dis-Board". This is a 1970s? metal-cased 4-way 13-amp-outlet strip (the sort of thing you now get as a moulded-plastic thing).
I'm guessing 1970s - it came with a horribly perished red/black/green colour-coded rubber cable as its input and the four 13A sockets are "BICC" brand - the type with the securing screws at 12-O'clock and 6 O'clock, rather than the modern types that have the fixings at 3 and 9 O'clock. I bought it initially because it had a good-condition 1960s-style MK 13A plug on the input cable; now I'm planning to restore the whole thing. The input cable's clearly toast - my plan is to replace it with a heavy-duty moulded 16A plug/lead - I've got loads of these - C19/C20-to-"Commando"-plug cables as supplied with Cisco 6500-series routers - and I'll need to strip and repaint the metal casing. But it should make an 'interesting' alternative to the cheap plastic distribution-strips we generally use... A bit about "Lexor Dis-boards" here: http://forum.historiccoventry.co.uk/...ow_cats=&var1= and also http://www.forum.historiccoventry.co...cats=all&var1= Seems that "Lexor" were an interesting company! |
14th Oct 2016, 9:36 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,190
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
My late father used to refer to adhesive insulating tape as 'Lexor tape' Whether it has any connection with that company I don't know.
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14th Oct 2016, 10:11 pm | #3 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: North Herts. UK.
Posts: 549
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
I have a couple of Lexor boards in daily use. They are from the 1970s, I think. Good quality items.
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15th Oct 2016, 10:23 am | #4 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: West London, UK.
Posts: 665
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
Hi G6, how about some photos of yours please.
Regards - Mike |
15th Oct 2016, 10:13 pm | #5 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: North Herts. UK.
Posts: 549
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
Here's a "full-size" 4-place board for comparison. The non-switched sockets are original, but I retro-fitted a couple of switched ones many years ago. These are the usual pattern with fixings at 3 and 9 o'clock, but the base unit can accept sockets with top-and-bottom fixings as well.
The original sockets are Tenby brand. |
15th Oct 2016, 11:08 pm | #6 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 88
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
I have also had a few Lexor boards of the plastic moulded flavour. This design was eventually bought out by a manufacturer for RS, and were available with RS branding on until about 10 years or so ago.
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16th Oct 2016, 8:36 am | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,527
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
Interesting label- typed by someone using a capital I instead of lower case l on a machine with no one key.
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16th Oct 2016, 10:55 am | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Frajou, l'Isle en Dodon, Haute Garonne, France.(Previously: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK.)
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
Hi,
This thread reminds me of the hours I spent making a four gang dis-board from a length of steel electrical trunking and four very early MK metalclad switched sockets with their steel plates removed, a neon indicator, fuse and switch. I took me age to file the holes to the correct shape and make the sloping sides. This was years before multi socket 'strips' were available to the public. I'd planned to make it a six gang unit, but got fed up with all the filing! I had it for years and used it a lot, until I lent it to my son for his band, and never saw it again. Cheers, Pete
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17th Oct 2016, 1:22 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
Here are some photos of my Dis-Board as dismantled: the one BICC 13A socket I've worked on cleaning-up has come up rather nicely after a toothbrush-and-Ciillit-Bang treatment!
The "mans on" neon [fitted at the end next to the cable-gland] had gone black and its restoration is the subject of a separate thread. Peeled off the label using a thin knife, after heating it a bit with a hairdryer to soften the adhesive. The metal case is rather pitted and rusty - my plan is to pickle it in Caustic Soda to shift the paint and rust, then after a quick rubdown give it the etch-primer treatment. Do I finish it with silver-grey Hammerite, or should I do it black-crackle to fit in with the rest of the stuff in my shack? One thing I note is that - despite being well-made in most respects, the fastenings of the sockets to the metal case are distinctly naff. Small "spire nuts" are used - but the thickness of these would have led to the sockets sitting slightly proud of the case - so the areas round the spire-nuts have been crudely bent inwards to give some clearance. |
17th Oct 2016, 6:58 pm | #10 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Shropshire, UK.
Posts: 3,051
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
Odd about the nuts - ordinary self- tappers would have been neater, and probably cheaper.
Is there a seperate earth connection to the case, or does it rely on the socket fixings? FWIW, I think you should re-finish it in Hammerite for authenticity. Crackle black might look a bit too 'professional' for this job. |
17th Oct 2016, 7:06 pm | #11 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
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Re: Lexor "Dis-Board"
I have a suspicion that the need for the bending of the case was discovered late on, possibly when a change was made to the supplier of the sockets. The BICC sockets have the bushes where the mounting-screws fit protruding slightly from the rear face of the plastic whereas on most sockets they sit recessed into the rear face by a smidgin so spire-nuts would have worked OK on those sockets without the bending.
The holes in the case are bigger than the screw through-bushes in the sockets, so self-tappers wouldn't have worked. They probably had a load of cases already drilled with large holes when they discovered the new sockets sat proud. There's no direct connection to the metal case except via the screws. The incoming mains-lead [old rubber one now discarded] was wired direct to the red/black/green interlinking cables between the sockets and connection to the case left to luck, just as was done with metal back-boxes for domestic 13A sockets in the 60s. I may well put a wire in to positively earth the case, mimicing the way the back-boxes for 13A sockets now come with a separate earth-terminal rather than trusting just to the screws. I think you're right about the colour. Silver-grey Hammerite would be closest to the original colour - though a part of me wondered about the silver-blue Hammerite that was also popular in the 1960s? |
1st May 2017, 6:12 pm | #12 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
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Lexor "Dis-boards".
Resumption of https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=130467
I've finally put it back together: the metal case was 'pickled' in saturated NaOH to remove the old paint, then scrubbed with wire-wool in the rustier places. I then sprayed it with a "zinc-heavy" primer from Screwfix followed by a couple of coats of Plasti-Kote "Hunter green" satin, this being the nearest I can conveniently get to "NATO Green". The mains input cable was repurposed from one of the ubiquitous 16-amp-rated ones which come bundled with the Cisco routers I was fitting in telco sites a few years back. |
1st May 2017, 6:18 pm | #13 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
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Re: Lexor "Dis-boards".
Photos.
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