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Old 30th Jul 2021, 5:33 pm   #1
em536716
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Default Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I’ve been collecting old switches and sockets for sometime now to use in my workshop.

Does anyone else collect old electrical items too? Do you use them?

I’ve currently restored two old pendant lights but have no idea where to put them!
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Old 30th Jul 2021, 5:59 pm   #2
The Philpott
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

A fellow forum member sent me 3 bakelite toggle/dolly switches (with nice wooden mounts) The feel of them is very good, 2 of them will find a use somewhere as they require a screwdriver to open them, so are deemed safe by the regulations. The naughty one can find a low voltage use somewhere. I have a boxed NOS 'little briton' switch which is a miniature version of the above. A quid off a stall!

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Old 30th Jul 2021, 6:13 pm   #3
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I’ve got a few of those bayonet plugs (Goldstone brand) that were popular about 50 years or more ago. They were used to draw mains power from a light pendant or standard lamp in the days when there were few AC wall outlets.
I have them purely for sentimental value, and find them an amusing reminder of electrical practices when I was a kid.
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Old 30th Jul 2021, 6:17 pm   #4
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

There have been numerous threads on old electrical fitting and people who collect them.

Just as an example:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=71683

Always worth using the search feature.

Cheers

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Old 30th Jul 2021, 7:02 pm   #5
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I do have a fascination with old electrical fixtures - though my interest is more in the area of 'industrial' - the big metal-cased fuseboxes/switches etc made by Bill, MEM, Sanders - and a while back on this forum I wrote-up the restoration of a 1960s-era "Lexor Dis-Board" (a metal-cased precursor of the now-ubiquitous multi-way 13A trailing outlet-strips) - see https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=130467

One of the outdoor power sockets at my current QTH is this metal-clad waterproof 13A beastie made by Lewden. I really should make up a replacement for the long-lost 'bath-plug chain' cover retainer.
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Old 31st Jul 2021, 5:37 pm   #6
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobaltblue View Post
There have been numerous threads on old electrical fitting and people who collect them.

Just as an example:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=71683

Always worth using the search feature.

Cheers

Mike T
Yes, but, most of the pre existing threads are locked thereby encouraging the starting of a new thread covering the same ground.

In the case of threads with an ongoing general interest it would in my view be far preferable to leave such threads open either forever, or for at least a couple of years.

In the case of a thread about a particular repair to a vintage radio set or other equipment, then I see the merit of closure after the repair has been completed and follow up remarks made.

However threads like;

"vintage electric lamps"
"obsolete fluorescent light fittings"
"mains voltage standardisation"
"direct current mains"

Are of ongoing relevance and should in my view remain open.

And badly off topic remarks about say modern equipment, or motor cars, or the merits of PAT testing, should be deleted in preference to locking the thread.
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Old 31st Jul 2021, 5:53 pm   #7
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

Threads auto close after a period (180 days) if no new posts are made.
Threads can often be re opened by request use the red triangle sign to report post.

Threads sometimes need to be closed because they have wandered too far off the original topic.

Hope that helps.

Some of the more savy forum members often ask for dormant threads to be re-opened.


Cheers

Mike T
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Last edited by Cobaltblue; 31st Jul 2021 at 8:27 pm. Reason: Added auto-closure period
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Old 4th Aug 2021, 8:12 pm   #8
Tom williams
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I collect vintage mains plugs, sockets, and have several in regular use.

Tom
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Old 4th Aug 2021, 9:23 pm   #9
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

There is a facebook group may be of interest? https://m.facebook.com/groups/716156...FG7&__tn__=C-R
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Old 4th Aug 2021, 9:42 pm   #10
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I think that up in the loft I still have the circa 1938 switches, then over 40 years old, that I removed when I rewired our house. Most of the springs were tired. They were recessed types mounted in wooden boxes recessed into the plaster, and had been shimmed with carboard shims (mostly old fag packets) to align them with the plaster surface for attaching the front plates.. Interestingly, the width of the wooden boxes is the same as the distance between the fixing screws of modern switches snd single sockets, so for the one switch I did not relocate because it was in the tiled wall of the WC (the switches were originally positioned far too high) I was able to fit a modern switch using woodscrews that nicely engaged the wood of the box. Interestingly I have a (late 1950's /1960's ?) MK switch in brown Bakelite that came with both a pair of brown 4BA machine screws and a pair of No6 brown raised countersunk woodscrews, so I wonder if the pre-war wooden boxes were made to a standard size that determined the size of the present metal boxes.

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Old 4th Aug 2021, 10:35 pm   #11
barrymagrec
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I helped my Dad rewire a house in 1962. The new Ivory MK lighting switches were supplied with 4BA raised countersunk screws for modern metal boxes and matching woodscrews for the old wooden boxes.
Our house (built circa 1935) has the same wooden boxes.
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Old 5th Aug 2021, 8:16 am   #12
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

Quote:
The new Ivory MK lighting switches were supplied with 4BA raised countersunk screws
I think they where 5BA.
 
Old 9th Aug 2021, 1:29 pm   #13
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

They were 4BA
When they went metric, the metric 3.5 screws would fit 4BA metal boxes but the 4BA screws would not fit the 3.5 metal boxes . The surface boxes with 4BA threads would only accept 4BA screws. Andy
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 6:02 pm   #14
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I have a decent collection of 5 and 15 amp plugs and a few sockets and adaptors they are used on my test and experimenting bench for safety the whole bench is fused at 7 amp and also I have a 10 mA rcd socket so if I get it wrong it's not so bad
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Old 10th Aug 2021, 10:55 am   #15
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

I used to collect them - when I was about 10! The neighbouring village had a 'tip' where a demolition company dumped the remains of demolished houses from the slum clearances which were going on in the potteries. Lots of paint and plaster-covered dolly switches and round pin sockets to put in the saddlebag of my bike.
I suppose if I did that now I'd need a high viz jacket and a formal risk assessment. In those days it was a case of just dodging the tipper lorries!
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Old 10th Aug 2021, 11:17 am   #16
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Default Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

Re. post #9 This is the "full size version"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/716156685782212
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Old 10th Aug 2021, 12:22 pm   #17
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Smile Re: Does anyone else love collecting old dolly switches, 3 and 2 pin sockets?

Hi,
Not so much 'collect' as 'accumulate'. I've had a fascination for plugs & sockets since my childhood. (I wonder what Freud would make of it?)
When we moved here to France, a big box of 'Bakelitery' came with us.
I've used some 15 amp fittings for the oven & water heater as I didn't have any French stuff handy when I installed them.
I use 2 amp fittings for speakers, which is more convenient than those spring things on the back of my PA equipment.
Cheers, Pete.
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