|
General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
|
Thread Tools |
31st Aug 2020, 8:27 pm | #21 |
Hexode
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Featherstone, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 386
|
Re: Bodges
One of our dealers came in to collect some spare parts and a repair.
Whilst he was having a cup of coffee, he recounted a recent story of a customer bringing in a Panasonic vacuum cleaner for repair. On examination, said cleaner had a 13A SOCKET on the end of its mains lead. This was queried with the owner who smiled and said he had brought the extension lead with him just in case; and produced a long mains lead with a 13A plug at each end. Despite the dealer explaining the danger; the owner could not understand what the fuss was about his lethal extension cable. |
31st Aug 2020, 8:45 pm | #22 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 2,473
|
Re: Bodges
Ah the old "widow maker" lead, some people just don't get it at all, even when fully explained, you can try to make stuff idiot proof and then nature just evolves a better idiot. , as the saying goes a little knowledge can be dangerous.
__________________
I don't suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it. |
31st Aug 2020, 8:51 pm | #23 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 8,177
|
Re: Bodges
Hi Folks, another take on the widow maker lead.
My father in law's next door neighbour was a mean old curmudgeon, whose solution to getting power down his long garden was lengths of both cable and flex with a 13A plug on each end (all bought cheaply on the market or scrounged from the tip). They were coupled together with 3 way 13A adaptors with the pins mm above the grass. All this while the grandchildren we out there playing! Ed |
31st Aug 2020, 9:05 pm | #24 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,809
|
Re: Bodges
I've seen those 'male/female' inline mains cable joiners fitted incorrectly such that the male plug was connected to the mains and the female socket to the appliance..
__________________
A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
31st Aug 2020, 9:41 pm | #25 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Manchester, UK.
Posts: 1,873
|
Re: Bodges
Our youth club (middle 1980s) had a rather nice home-made disco mixer-amp which was dragged out of a cupboard every week. It had a mains connector which looked like an IEC thing, but the pins were on the flex and the female half was panel-mounting on the amp. Despite it having preceded me there by a decade or so, I think I was the only one to plug myself in with it
|
31st Aug 2020, 9:45 pm | #26 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,806
|
Re: Bodges
The part in an earlier post about dodgy wiring in the garden where children were playing reminds me of the experience of a friend.
Not too far from here are some woods which once were a coal mine, but had been turned into a country park with trails through them and some roller-coaster tracks over what had been railway embankments. One of the ways into the woods from a local road was over a grassed area where once some cottages had stood. My friend was riding a highland pony (Effectively a large horse with short legs for low gearing for steep hills ) across this grassed access area when the pony leaped into the air, straight up, not the normal motion of a jumping horse. The poor beast landed on the ground, dead. There was no obvious cause, it was assumed to be some form of fit or heart attack, but it was a young, healthy animal. Investigation found out it was electrocution, and that live bare wires had been left in the ground when the cottages had been flattened and grassed over. Children had been playing there for several years. Other horses had been ridden through as well, but it was the combination of wet weather and hooves in just the wrong places. It was only luck that meant none of the kids had been hurt. Maybe their reluctance to play on the ground when it's wet saved them? So bodges, and just plain getting it wrong can be deadly at some indefinite time in the future and in a place where there seems to be nothing more risky than a mown lawn. THe electricity board took responsibility and the owner was paid the value of the animal, but that doesn't compensate the loss of a pet and friend. Currents in the ground are dangerous. Everyone's heard the advice to never shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm. There are two reasons. The first one is that you can be hurt by flying shrapmen as water explodes into steam in the wood of a tree taking a direct hit. The second one is that the current spreads out through the ground radially spreading in three dimensions under the tree. If you are stood nearby, your feet may be in places at different potential and given imperfectly insulating footwear, you can get a shock from current up one leg and down the other. Hence the further advice to keep your feet together. THis current can be large enough to be fatal, but if you are touching the ground as well, then you open up a path through the heart and the risks are far worse. Cattle hooves are not insulated, and, as a quadruped, however the cow stands, lateral current in the ground will create current through the heart. Cattle like to shelter under trees in rain. It is not unusual to find a lightning-struck tree with a circle of dead cattle around it. THis can be a major disaster for a farmer. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
31st Aug 2020, 9:53 pm | #27 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
|
Re: Bodges
The mention of "widow-maker" type leads puts me in mind of one of my vintage "electro-medical" devices, of foreign manufacture, which has (as manufactured) a (mains-live) male connector to which to connect its output device, as well as an exposed metal screw-head connected to the other end of the mains. Needless to say, I keep it for display-only purposes, have disabled its mains input and plastered it with the red PAT labels that prohibit it from mains connection. It would require a major redesign to render it safe to use.
__________________
Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) Last edited by Dave Moll; 31st Aug 2020 at 9:53 pm. Reason: clarification of reference |
31st Aug 2020, 10:01 pm | #28 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 899
|
Re: Bodges
i have seen my fair share of horror stories over the years but the one that still gives me the shivers involved my own family .My daughter is 42 years old now but one night some 40 years ago i went into the kitchen to find her sitting on the floor with the end of the kettle flex in her mouth the other end of course being plugged in and switched on .I quickly switched of and pulled the plug without saying a word .the next day i cut that cable down to around 8 inches long just enough to connect to the kettle
|
31st Aug 2020, 11:45 pm | #29 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,942
|
Re: Bodges
OK - my father-in-law (now deceased) used to be the Fire Safety Officer in the Fire Service when I was first going out with my wife-to-be in the early 70's.
While he was at work, I was horrified to see that the fabric iron lead (remember those?) had frayed though. He'd bodged it with insulating tape. The Fire*Safety*Officer... Even though I was a cocky young fella, I managed to bit back a comment when next I saw him. It could have ended a relationship then and there that has now reached 42 years of marriage. Craig |
31st Aug 2020, 11:56 pm | #30 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,942
|
Re: Bodges
The other one that sticks in my mind from 30-odd years ago, when my son was tiny. I was working in the garden, and my wife calls down that the table lamp was not working.
So I unscrewed the fitting to see if there was a broken wire (the strain relief was not ideal), or the manufacturer had tinned the leads, or something similar. So I had the whole shebang apart on the carpet, took my hands away and said "OK - turn it on". "Oh - it *is* on!". So - lesson to me - check something is switched off and unplugged first! Lesson to wife - please don't do that again! Craig |
1st Sep 2020, 2:18 am | #31 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,550
|
Re: Bodges
I found a bodged plug with a bit of wire attached in some peat based compost I acquired from a landlord for use on an allotment to neutralize clay soil.
The landlord had rented the house to a naughty farmer and was not too pleased about the broken door left in the aftermath of Derbyshire police assisting the farmer with his harvest. The power company were no less pleased about what happened to their meter. |
1st Sep 2020, 4:40 am | #32 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,806
|
Re: Bodges
I bought a Myford lathe from the estate of a model engineer who had been one of the bosses of the YEB, Yorkshire electricity board. It had a length of T&E between its 13A plug and the reverser switch. No sleeving over the bare earth wire.
I know that you mean about safety officers. The safety officer for our plant at HP drove the outrigger castor of a heavy little electric fork lift truck over his own foot while moving the machine because he thought it hadn't been left in a safe place. Some of these people seem to be there to act as a lightning rod. Nice chap, but you didn't stand too close. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
1st Sep 2020, 10:19 am | #33 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Edinburgh, UK.
Posts: 3,273
|
Re: Bodges
Many years ago I witnessed a dog lift its leg against an illuminated Keep Left sign that had a broken glass window in the side. The dog was unharmed but I suspect would not pee against Keep Left signs again.
Peter |
1st Sep 2020, 10:27 am | #34 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 719
|
Re: Bodges
Quote:
I can remember 47 years ago, an Assistant Divisional Officer (father of a rather lovely girlfriend). I was asked by his wife to do something or other, can't recall what. Anyway, I had to lift the carpet and found some transparent twin 3A lighting flex that was no longer transparent and had also been badly jointed with a chocolate block. It is too long ago to remember the fine details, but it WASN'T feeding a lamp, hence its brown and crispy coating. |
|
1st Sep 2020, 10:42 am | #35 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,310
|
Re: Bodges
Quote:
Cheers, GJ
__________________
http://www.ampregen.com |
|
1st Sep 2020, 11:33 am | #36 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,001
|
Re: Bodges
Quote:
Fortunately she was wearing rubber boots at the time so survived, but was on a liquid diet for a few weeks afterwards.
__________________
Hello IT: Have you Tried Turning It Off & On Again? |
|
1st Sep 2020, 12:37 pm | #37 | |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,806
|
Re: Bodges
Quote:
David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
|
1st Sep 2020, 1:09 pm | #38 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,809
|
Re: Bodges
Not quite a bodge, but Sam the old maintenance electrician at Thorn Automation where I worked would identify live and neutral by touching them. He had gnarly, dry old hands but not good practise nonetheless!
__________________
A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
1st Sep 2020, 1:41 pm | #39 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,956
|
Re: Bodges
I was helping a friend rebuild his kitchen about 20 years ago - before 'Part P' rules came in.
The recessed cooker switch/round-pin-15A outlet was all wired in classic rubber-covered red/black stranded T&E which was probably put there in the mid-50s when the house was built. Yet the wire which emerged from the wall low down behind the cooker was different. Yes, T&E but PVC-covered! Ripping it out revealed that the joint between the 2 different cables had been made in the back-box-that-used-to-be-where-the-flex-emerged by pushing the ends into short lengths of what looked like the copper sheathing from MICC 'Pyro' cable which had then been hammered flat and taped-up. It had then been shoved back into the back-box which had then been filled with plaster and tiled-over, I guess by whoever bodged the 1980s kitchen-replacement into place. |
1st Sep 2020, 1:42 pm | #40 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Lincolnshire, UK.
Posts: 4,990
|
Re: Bodges
Quote:
I thought it was usually something completely different that the milkman was accused of when the husband was out at work, so that makes a refreshing change! I've seen variations on most of the bodges described in this thread. I'll have to have a think about some of the good ones and post about one or two later on when I've had a think. |
|