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Old 8th Jun 2022, 3:51 pm   #1
keland_uk
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Default Tin Foil - makes you weep

Why would anyone do it
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Old 8th Jun 2022, 4:11 pm   #2
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Same reason I found a cut off piece of 6 inch nail in place of a fuse.

The correct one kept blowing was the answer I got from the customer.
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Old 8th Jun 2022, 4:12 pm   #3
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Quite often see similar to this in work (calibration house) including pieces of twin and earth wrapped around fuseholders. The test equipment usually belongs to “qualified” electricians too. Usual scenario is fuse blows due to a fault with the instrument so a replacement is fitted which blows again so the next step is a piece of wire or screw and then a properly blown up instrument. I despair as I’m the repair engineer and what would have been a relatively straightforward fault turns into a nightmare or worse still a BER unit…
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Old 8th Jun 2022, 4:34 pm   #4
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Possible reasons:

pressure from boss (usually non-technical) "Just get it done, I don't care how. No, you don't have time to go and get a proper fuse";

if it's blowing fuses it's probably !*#! anyway;

I'm needing a new one and the organisation can afford it;

It'll cost more in overheads to send it for repair than to get a new one;

stupidity, linked to lack of electronic sympathy (simlar to no mechanical sympathy). Can you believe that it doesn't bother some people to destroy perfectly decent equipment?

etc.

A few years ago I was asked to look at an Avometer Model 8 Mk 5 or 6 which the user found useful and had been returned from a "qualified" calibration lab. marked "Beyond Economic Repair". The problem was a faulty fuse - faulty, not blown. Result, one happy user who would never have been issued with a new analogue meter.

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Old 8th Jun 2022, 4:55 pm   #5
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Back in the last century, the school woodturning lathe kept blowing its fuse.
Chips carefully fashioned a new fuse from a length of six inch nail. We never had any more trouble after that!

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Old 8th Jun 2022, 5:45 pm   #6
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

I worked for a company (Thorn EMI) in the 1990's that made ticket machines for the underground, and had a big contract in India, cannot recall the city now.

The engineer from our works, who went over there, was horrifed to see the local electricians just jamming bare wires into sockets using matches. He managed to get hold of plugs and left them with the electricians. Next time he inspected the work, he saw the bare wires were still jammed in the sockets, but this time they were jammed in with the pins from the dismantled plugs.

I suppose some elements of being safety conscious are just Western luxuries.
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Old 8th Jun 2022, 5:45 pm   #7
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Talking Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris R View Post
Chips carefully fashioned a new fuse from a length of six inch nail. We never had any more trouble after that!

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Do you mean you were able to blackmail him! Surely not!

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Old 8th Jun 2022, 7:12 pm   #8
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Although using thin 'fag packet' foil as a fuse is obviously bad practice, it does provide some element of fusing and may be acceptable as a short term fix in an emergency by someone who knows what they're doing. Bypassing the fuse completely with a nail or length of copper wire is much worse.
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Old 8th Jun 2022, 7:40 pm   #9
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

I've even seen perfectly servicable plug fuses wrapped in foil. You would think once the fuse has been exonerated as the cause, the evidence of bodgery would be removed
(unless it's a bizarre attempt of preventative maintenance).

Mind you, I read that in the Apollo era, there was a procedure at Mission Control that involved locking down some critical circuit breakers so they could not "blow".
A whole new meaning to "Uninterrupable Power Supply.".
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Old 8th Jun 2022, 8:22 pm   #10
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Perhaps they were never changed back to conventional components because .... "the users are no longer sharing the planet with us" !!!
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 12:22 am   #11
keland_uk
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

I do remember my 1st year Physics lab practical where two of us did an experiment on fuses, you know length, diameter test to destruction.

Learning how to document lab experiments I suppose, and lab techniques.

Anyway, Colleague made a cardboard box with cellophane window so we could observe but take away effects of drafts. (Lots of Beer drunk in those days!).

Every time I was in charge of the rheostat, I forgot to turn it down to zero before he changed the wire, lots of sparks and heated (sic) expletives. When he was in charge, he ALWAYS turned it down to zero.

You would have thought at some time he'd () leave it turned up, so I learned....

memory gave me a giggle....
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 12:53 am   #12
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Something like this you mean ?

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Old 9th Jun 2022, 3:44 am   #13
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes youweep

Quote:
Originally Posted by joebog1 View Post
Something like this you mean ?

Joe
Ha! Thanks Joe, that's going up on the workshop wall as an aide memoire for when I've run out of 3amp fuse's.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 10:11 am   #14
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

I recall a halogen light fitting with about 10 individual lamps all fed from a fairly large integrated toroidal transformer. This occasionally used to blow the fitted primary fuse, 5x20mm 8A T (slow-blow) at switch on.

As the solution obviously wasn't putting in another fuse of similar type I contacted the manufacturer of the light fitting. It turned out that 8A was indeed the correct rating, BUT it shouldn't have been a T rated fuse but a TT rated (ultra-slow blow).

Any less conscientious person my well have resorted to aluminium foil or a nail. So this was a case of no fault as such but a problem caused by using a type of fuse not specified by the manufacturer. Incidentally, the specified fuse type was quite a pain to source but fitting it solved the problem.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 5:34 pm   #15
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

A mate used to use one inch nails as a fuse for his electric welder. He found they “ blew” at almost exactly 40 amps, and were remarkably consistent.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 5:54 pm   #16
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

True story, one for Nick the dentist. Sitting in the Dentist chair many years ago having some fillings the drill was intermittent, so the Dentist, who I knew, asked if the fuse could be a problem, it’s obvious he had problems before. It turned out to be as in post #1, not having any tools with me I did a simple wrapping of fuse and he carried on filling my teeth.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 6:55 pm   #17
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

A certain brand of audio amplifier used a relay-bypassed aluminium clad resistor for soft start of the toroidal transformer. It was itself protected by a small, carefully selected fuse. If the amp failed at switch on, it would blow the fuse during the soft start phase and no harm done.
I saw one with the fuse bypassed once. The amp was genuinely faulty, and the soft start resistor quickly overheated, shooting its end terminal out and into the nearest object - the windings of the mains transformer.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 7:40 pm   #18
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

A naval technician told me about a problem he had with a very high powered radar system, which blew its supply fuse every couple of weeks.

He could never find the reason, and in despair, he bypassed its fuse, leaving the distro board fusing intact. Next time the radar exploded, there was a vapourised feedthrough capacitor. After replacement and fuse reinstatement, it worked faultlessly.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 7:52 pm   #19
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

The favourite going back years was, my husbands a pit electrician when they had been in the rented tv.
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Old 9th Jun 2022, 8:50 pm   #20
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Default Re: Tin Foil - makes you weep

There are stories [possibly apocryphal] about people in the US who have fitted live ammunition-rounds into fuseholders, with less-than-life-enhancing results.
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