Skills For "Living The Era"

[jamespowers]

I remember back in the old days, people used to put a NAIL in-place of an actual fuse. Hardly safe...

Especially when it would get hot enough to start a fire and also get the connections so hot that they would become unsoldered.:eusa_doh:

 

[Shangas]

And we all remember the "Christmas tree."

Aah yeah, I remember that. I confess to doing that. But I've since got my hands on some proper outlet-boards, so that the load is more evenly-spread.

 

[jamespowers]

Aah yeah, I remember that. I confess to doing that. But I've since got my hands on some proper outlet-boards, so that the load is more evenly-spread.

Yes, a good protected plug strip will work much better for you and the outlet. They make them so that the plug strip is your extra protection not only from the load but from a surge should it happen as well. Plug strips also look much neater.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Though you have to admit that, as hazardous as it is, the "Christmas Tree" is more vintage-looking.

 

[jamespowers]

Though you have to admit that, as hazardous as it is, the "Christmas Tree" is more vintage-looking.

As your house burns down....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Also, as a warning, wear rubber soled shoes whenever you plug something in that you are worried about it's condition. Also keep your hands off anything else to keep from completing the circuit.

Always good practice when dealing with any kind of electrical work. The rule among TV repair professionals was always to keep one hand in a pocket or behind one's back when working with high-voltage components.

 

[sheeplady]

Always good practice when dealing with any kind of electrical work. The rule among TV repair professionals was always to keep one hand in a pocket or behind one's back when working with high-voltage components.

When my husband wires into the breaker box (which always has two contact points that are live, even with the main breaker off) we both wear rubber shoes and I stand about five feet away with a long piece of wood (no metal) and my cell phone with 911 pre-dialed. If he accidentally touches the contact points, I'm supposed to hit the send button on my phone and use the piece of wood to break the circuit he's made. It sounds pretty extreme, but the electrician who put in the box recommended it because it is so easy to accidentally electrocute yourself with the two covers off the breaker box (particularly if you don't work with them regularly).

It's one of the few things I really don't care for my husband to do around the house- the other is getting up on our roof that's about 50 feet up.

 

[dnjan]

I'l glad my wife doesn't read this site. She would probably insist on equally-extreme precautions, and I would never get anything re-wired.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was working on a radio once years ago when I was really tired and had it plugged into the wall, and realized I was going to need to replace the power cord. Half asleep, I picked up a pair of diagonal cutters, and snipped the wire off the chassis while it was still plugged in. POW. The lights were out and I was on the floor.

Never do any kind of electrical work when you're tired. Most valuable lesson I ever learned.

The most dangerous work I do is changing the high-pressure xenon arc lamps in the projectors at work -- I wear leather gauntlets, a welders' mask, and a catcher's chest protector. One slip and the bulb explodes like a bomb, and you get peppered with razor sharp shards of quartz.

Never take these kinds of risks for granted. You might go 100 times without anything going wrong, but the 101st attempt could kill you.

 

[jamespowers]

I was working on a radio once years ago when I was really tired and had it plugged into the wall, and realized I was going to need to replace the power cord. Half asleep, I picked up a pair of diagonal cutters, and snipped the wire off the chassis while it was still plugged in. POW. The lights were out and I was on the floor.

Never do any kind of electrical work when you're tired. Most valuable lesson I ever learned.

Oh wow! That was a bad one there.:eeek::eusa_doh: I suppose you had an interesting hairstyle after that.

 

[sheeplady]

I'l glad my wife doesn't read this site. She would probably insist on equally-extreme precautions, and I would never get anything re-wired.

It's not that hard to wear rubber shoes when you're working with electric... it takes all of 2 minutes to put on a pair of sneakers. And if you're working on a live box with 200-400 amps it's a small price to pay to have someone with you in case you get a jolt. You should be able to put in about 5 breakers in a half an hour from opening to closing the box if you're efficient and save up your wiring work. That's not too much time to ask of someone to prevent being dead. Most people aren't wiring into their breaker box every weekend either- you could wire an entire breaker box in two full weekend days, and that's a lot of breakers- most houses don't have boxes that big unless they have a secondary box anyway (which is much much less dangerous to wire into). Wiring into a live breaker box is a totally different level of danger than putting in an outlet or laying wire.

The likelihood is very small that something bad happens, but if it happens you will die unless someone is there to help you. And heaven forbid your spouse (or child) doesn't know what to do if you do get electrocuted and s/he ends up dead too because they rush over and touch you or they aren't appropriately shoed. It's basic safety stuff that everyone should know.

 

[St. Louis]

I'd never in a million years have the nerve to mess with electrical work on that level, and reading this thread has confirmed that for me, especially since I've made some monumentally silly mistakes recently. I was trying to build my own extension cord from reproduction fabric-covered electrical wire and two 1930s-era plugs. Both plugs were in excellent condition. They seemed to be dead-stock so I felt safe using them. Dope that I am they were both "male" plugs. Right, right, I should have used one male and one female, so file that under "what was I thinking?" Well, I have quite a few of the 1930s male plugs, but I've never been able to find a female one, so I thought I could make it do somehow. Imagine my surprise when I plugged in one end and gave myself a pretty sharp shock when I picked up the other. A friend of mine was watching me do this & tried to warn me, but did I listen? He just shook his head and said, "you know that was live, right?"

I found a reasonable facsimile of a 1930s female plug in the local hardware store & the resulting extension cord is actually very pretty, so now I think I'm going to make a few more. I hope others will use my stupidity as a cautionary tale. It's okay to laugh.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's perfectly fine to make mistakes like that, but you usually only make them once. I think I'll do a "how to rewire a lamp" piece here sometime soon.

 

[sheeplady]

I'd never in a million years have the nerve to mess with electrical work on that level, and reading this thread has confirmed that for me, especially since I've made some monumentally silly mistakes recently. I was trying to build my own extension cord from reproduction fabric-covered electrical wire and two 1930s-era plugs. Both plugs were in excellent condition. They seemed to be dead-stock so I felt safe using them. Dope that I am they were both "male" plugs. Right, right, I should have used one male and one female, so file that under "what was I thinking?" Well, I have quite a few of the 1930s male plugs, but I've never been able to find a female one, so I thought I could make it do somehow. Imagine my surprise when I plugged in one end and gave myself a pretty sharp shock when I picked up the other. A friend of mine was watching me do this & tried to warn me, but did I listen? He just shook his head and said, "you know that was live, right?"

I found a reasonable facsimile of a 1930s female plug in the local hardware store & the resulting extension cord is actually very pretty, so now I think I'm going to make a few more. I hope others will use my stupidity as a cautionary tale. It's okay to laugh.

Don't worry- we've all done stupid stuff. I was cleaning my last apartment to move out and was washing down the walls. (This was about 7 years ago, so I would say that it was the stupidity of youth.) I had already moved most of the furniture out of the living room area (well, kitchen, livingroom, dining room area) and had a work light, cleaning supplies, and a few other things in the apartment. I tipped over my bucket of wash water on the carpet. I did my best to mop it up (stupid carpet) but it was still really wet. I went out to work and came home at the end of the day. By then it was dark, so I plugged in my work lamp while standing on the damp carpet, without it ever occurring to me I had just tipped over a mammoth sized bucket of water that morning.

Gave myself quite a shock. This is another lesson in "don't do stuff when you're tired" as Lizzie mentioned.

 

[jamespowers]

It's perfectly fine to make mistakes like that, but you usually only make them once. I think I'll do a "how to rewire a lamp" piece here sometime soon.

Sounds good. I know I have rewired dozens of them over time. Definitely useful when you have old lamps.

 

[St. Louis]

You all probably know this already, but for those who don't -- here is a good source for cloth covered wire, reproduction plugs, porcelain tubes and the like. http://www.sundialwire.com/

I find their customer service excellent.

Though I mostly use antique plugs, since they are pretty easy to find in flea markets and tend to be in good condition.

 

[scotrace]

I've never heard of an ironing mangle before today!

 

[Zemke Fan]

I think I'll do a "how to rewire a lamp" piece here sometime soon.

How's your liability insurance??

 

[dnjan]

I was thinking about what (if anything) I could contribute. Strange, but sometimes things that one person considers second nature are archaic to another.
Like, how to drive a rear-wheel drive car in winter.
How to push-start a car.
How to use oilstones to keep your kitchen knives properly sharp.

To me, these are second-nature skills, but I have only been able to pass the last one onto my kids.

I wonder how long it will be before lighting a charcoal grill will be a forgotten skill ...

 

[tonyb]

I've never heard of an ironing mangle before today!

I never knew such a thing existed until my dear old Ma pointed one out to me a couple-three decades ago. Mangles were a common sight in most households when she was a kid, I recall her saying, but now hardly anybody has one.

Since then I've stumbled across a few here and there. I was tempted to buy one (for next to nothing) at an off-the-beaten-path charity thrift shop not so long ago, but then good sense took over and I acknowledged to myself that I really didn't have a good place to put the thing, and that I wasn't likely to give it much use anyway.