Tin Foil - makes you weep

[Ed_Dinning]

The tale of the early days of the corporation elect supply companies. When a street cable went down, fit a large enough fuse so it did not blow at the street pillar, then send the watercart round to find where the pavement was steaming.
remove large fuse, dig hole, fix cable

Ed

[Heatercathodeshort]

It was very common to discover fag paper being pushed into use as a fuse in a TV receiver. The Philips 320 comes to mind when the bridge rectifier went S/C. It used to blow the print off the back of the board but was easily repaired!

'Oh yes the fuse. He works for the GPO and knows all about tellies' was an often heard explanation.. Sometimes the on/off switch welded it's contacts together! John.

[pmmunro]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

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

Was that a cartridge fuse?

PMM

[turretslug]

Originally Posted by Ed_Dinning

The tale of the early days of the corporation elect supply companies. When a street cable went down, fit a large enough fuse so it did not blow at the street pillar, then send the watercart round to find where the pavement was steaming.
remove large fuse, dig hole, fix cable

Ed

I heard a similar procedure from someone who worked on a repair crew for one of the suppliers, this was only about 20 years ago- they had cumbersome protective gear that sounded similar to a bomb disposal suit and would quickly jam a shorting bar (known as a blockbuster) into the fuseholder, the heavy current would often blow the fault clear down the line. Apparently, one time a water-logged joint under a high street pavement exploded into steam, blasting a chunk of paving slab across the road onto the top of a metal-roof bus shelter and understandably terrifying those using it.

Colin

[joebog1]

These things are all over the net.

I think they are the units mentioned as " Audiovisual alert " fuses.

Joe

[fetteler]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

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.

Paul, you are spot on with this, there are many situations where something which is being used by a competent person simply has to have power and, for whatever reason there is not a fuse available. Been there, done it, got the tshirt!

Strictly temporary and yes, the 'nail' is much worse but also necessary sometimes... The overall proviso is, as you quite rightly say, that the person doing it really knows what they are up to.

In domestic and not special circumstances it is inexcusable of course.

Steve.

[broadgage]

Use of a live rifle round instead of a vehicle fuse is one of the few NON fatal Darwin awards.
Pick up truck, fuse box under dashboard, blown fuse replaced with a rifle round. The round fired and destroyed the "breeding equipment" of the victim. Although they survived, being unable to pass on their defective genes they are still entitled to the award.

[joebog1]

Wow!!! It must have been a "broadgage " ( US spelling ) cartridge.

Joe

[duncanlowe]

Didn't quite get to one of the 'bigger' fuses but I did see someone who had just built up a power supply. They calculated roughly the primary current and chose a fuse. At switched on it popped instantly. So rather than thinking about why, they just put a bigger one in, that also popped. Now they should have stopped there and thought, but no. Bigger again. Didn't so much pop as cease to exist as it wasn't an HRC type. Once the end caps and vapourised glass was dug out, he asked me to look. He had wired the 5v secondary to the incoming supply.

[ex seismic]

As an apprentice I was with the electricians fault finding an overhead crane which kept blowing fuses. No faults found so they put bigger and bigger fuses in until eventually the control cabinet shook with a big bang. Fault now visible, tracking across the paxolin base board. Guess who got the job of digging out all the carbon.

[Tractionist]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

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

Beats a leaky or under-rated electrolytic every time! Front runners for the annual 'Darwinian Awards' eh?

[David Simpson]

F F F = "Heffing" Farmers & Fishermen, was the expletive I used over the years, regarding the use of wire, nails or bolts, etc ! Fencing wire was the favourite of farmers, 'specially at harvest time when grain dryer motors were often going at full blast after a year of dormancy & non-maintenance. Fishermen favoured old rusty bolts & snapped-off teaspoon handles.

Regards, David

[Junk Box Nick]

Originally Posted by pmmunro

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"

I have never worked in the electronics industry but I have encountered more than a few of these “I want it all and I want it NOW!” types in other industries. I have seen some hideous lash-ups that have become permanent.

Working for one individual I was often under pressure to perform a cobble-up – minimising time and cost being the usual factors – and so cutting corners was the norm. When I raised the issues, the implications of which said person was usually aware, the answer was invariably “I don’t care!”

I had already learned that should there be comeback – though we seemed to get away with an amazing amount – the blame would, of course, be put on me. It got to the point that I would keep a written note of these conversations/instructions (they were always verbal) so that should there be some comeback/inquest down the line I could report: “I was in conversation with X at 11.40am on the 4th of Whatever, and, when I raised the issue, X responded ‘I don’t care’.” With particularly scary ones I would write comprehensive notes later in the day whilst everything was fresh in my mind.

One day my fuse blew in spectacular fashion and we went our separate ways.

[emeritus]

A friend whose house had those D&S plugs where the L pin was a screw-in fuse, showed me a turned brass pin the same size as the proper fuse that someone had made for his dad.

My first encounter with foil fag paper fuses was as a child in the 1950's with my train set. The original Hornby Dublo 12V transformer had a fuse in each terminal, and fed a speed controller that had a circuit breaker, but every time a train derailed, the fuses blew before the circuit breaker tripped, so a visiting uncle wrapped fag paper round the fuses (dad didn't smoke). I guess the problem was that we had been using some of dad's fuses intended for his radios, which would have been quick blow types. I later fitted a couple of 10A plug fuses.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by emeritus

A friend whose house had those D&S plugs where the L pin was a screw-in fuse, showed me a turned brass pin the same size as the proper fuse that someone had made for his dad.

In times-past it was quite common for garage/workshop-type electric-welders to be found fitted with either a "widowmaker" - two 13A plugs wired in parallel through one of the old-style round three-terminal junction-boxes so they could be connected to a twin 13A socket - or alternately for single 13A plug to have had its live-pin-and-fuseholder replaced by a neutral-pin scavenged from one of the inevitable 'I reversed over it' workshop-plug-casualties.

[Herald1360]

0BA bolt or a bit of 1/4" pot spindle- de rigeur for the 13A plug on a Farnell H60/60 PSU.



The loudness of the turn on "GDUNG" told you whether it would have blown a 13A fuse or not. Not too disgraceful since the ON/OFF switch on the unit was a suitable surge resistant circuit breaker.

[broadgage]

The NHS used to use, and may still use special plugs for portable X-ray machines. These plugs fit standard 13 amp sockets but incorporated no fuse.

Permitted use of an X-ray machine from any 13 amp socket. Just about acceptable IMHO because the overload was very brief, so brief in fact that a standard plug fuse MIGHT survive the overload, but not reliably.

Always a bit worrying when these plugs turn up in "Dave's dodgy disco" or used by equally dodgy catering contractors.

[m0cemdave]

I'm sure I have seen one of those. Were they red in colour?

[ChristianFletcher]

Found a 1/4 in lathe tool in place of a fuse. It was nicely ground and sharp so I will give them that!

[Craig Sawyers]

The strange thing is that UK mains plugs are the only ones on the planet to have a fuse. Not only the UK of course. Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and also the Arabian Peninsula also use them. And many other countries use them along with other standards.

It is also physically the largest and heaviest.

Anyone observing that all other mains plug standards are fuse-less will feel justified in using a length of pot shaft, or whatever in place of a regular fuse.

Craig