I hate to think...

SUNRAY · 27 May 2021

Just popped into a workshop where I've often worked, a youngster was given 2 plugs, 2 sockets and a bit of cable and asked to make 2 extention leads.

The only reason I know this?

This was laying on the bench:

apparently the other item is on the bosses desk.

Mottie · 27 May 2021

SUNRAY said:
apparently the other item is on the bosses desk.

If my Dad was still alive, he'd use that!

Mottie said:
The worse bit of diy wiring I’ve ever seen was when we moved into a new council house with a garden in the early seventies. I was about 14 at the time. My dad went out and bought a secondhand 'home made' electric lawnmower from someone who lived in a block of flats. It was basically a cylinder push lawnmower that the bloke had mounted an electric motor on to, welded a couple of pulleys on it and connected them with a fan belt. However, the cable coming out of the motor (no switch, just connect up and go) went to a single socket outlet bolted to a piece of wood on the handle. Consequently, the extension lead had a three pin plug at either end! My dad was excitedly setting it up when he got it home and told me to plug it in indoors when I noticed that and told him it was dangerous. He told me not to be silly and touched the pins at his end and promptly got an electric shock. He still used it after that but plugged the lawnmower end of the cable in first!

Licklieder · 27 May 2021

Reminds me of what someone (a supposedly highly educated scientist / engineer, though it could have been a student being trained and under their superision) did at the lab where i used to work.

Some labs had UPS backed power supplies denoted by red faceplaces, along with the normal non-backed ones denoted by a white faceplate. Someone thought that the best way to make the whole lab UPS backed was to wire up a cable with two plugs on it and plug one end in a red face plate and the other in a white....

One way of checking that the circuit / user protection in the DB's worked.

SUNRAY · 27 May 2021

Licklieder said:
Reminds me of what someone (a supposedly highly educated scientist / engineer, though it could have been a student being trained and under their superision) did at the lab where i used to work.

Some labs had UPS backed power supplies denoted by red faceplaces, along with the normal non-backed ones denoted by a white faceplate. Someone thought that the best way to make the whole lab UPS backed was to wire up a cable with two plugs on it and plug one end in a red face plate and the other in a white....

One way of checking that the circuit / user protection in the DB's worked.

That reminds me of location with 4 permanently running 15KW UPS's (I'm assuming there is a proper name for such a device), each consisting of 200x 2volt 200Ah gel cells. Likewise the various rooms had white or coloured sockets: red yellow green and blue from the 4 UPS's.

Many of the bits of kit plugged in had 2 different internal SMP's running on 2 UPS's for reliability. Working on one with the lid off I was rather surprised to find way over 400V between the 2 llines. However a number of hours later there was roughly zero volts where the 2 supplies were working at slightly different frequencies.

davelx · 28 May 2021

SUNRAY said:
(I'm assuming there is a proper name for such a device),

Online UPS?

ericmark · 28 May 2021

I remember it being done by an electricians mate, he had a boxes of 110 volt plugs and sockets and he was in production line mind, so he did all plugs, then all sockets, but went for cup of tea and picked up wrong box.

He never lived it down.

SUNRAY · 28 May 2021

davelx said:
Online UPS?

Ta.

I doubt I'll remember it in 5 years time when I need to refer to one next though.

SUNRAY · 28 May 2021

Mottie said:
If my Dad was still alive, he'd use that!

I won't deny I've made and used one myself but dismantled it immediately after very controlled use.

john4703 · 28 May 2021

I think the correct term for a cable with a plug on both end is "A widow Maker"

JohnW2 · 28 May 2021

john4703 said:
I think the correct term for a cable with a plug on both end is "A widow Maker"

It is - or, at least, was - but that might be regarded as 'non-PC' or 'sexist', these days, because it could equally be "A Widower-Maker".

Kind Regards, John

Harry Bloomfield · 28 May 2021

JohnW2 said:
It is - or, at least, was - but that might be regarded as 'non-PC' or 'sexist', these days, because it could equally be "A Widower-Maker".

No, surely that must be the name for the female opposite number, the cable with a socket on each end above.

JohnW2 · 28 May 2021

Harry Bloomfield said:
No, surely that must be the name for the female opposite number, the cable with a socket on each end above.

I suppose that one might perceive some logic in that suggestion - but it's rather hard to see how the one to which you refer could, in itself, 'make' either a widow or a widower

Kind Regards, John

EFLImpudence · 29 May 2021

JohnW2 said:
It is - or, at least, was - but that might be regarded as 'non-PC' or 'sexist', these days, because it could equally be "A Widower-Maker".

Stop it. Don't encourage the idiots.

Harry Bloomfield · 29 May 2021

JohnW2 said:
I suppose that one might perceive some logic in that suggestion - but it's rather hard to see how the one to which you refer could, in itself, 'make' either a widow or a widower

Kind Regards, John

Someone would be bound to find a way. Design anything fool proof and along comes a bigger fool.

Careful_Bodger · 29 May 2021

SUNRAY said:
I won't deny I've made and used one myself but dismantled it immediately after very controlled use.

I wasn't so lucky!

About 40 years ago I did the school stage lighting (.....pupils back then were allowed to climb scaffolding and very tall ladders to hang lights and were also allowed - or it had become at least common practice - to maintain & modify the electrical control system, i.e. dimmers).

For one of our bigger productions (a musical, I think) - so large we had to get some 'girls' from the local convent school for relevant roles in the performance - our school hired some extra lighting equipment.

To provide additional wattage capacity the hired-in gear had two mains plugs. These were supposed to be plugged into different rings. And yes - with one plug connected the other plug was live. Very live! I found out the painful way during set up.

I think I just got on with the show with a numb thumb.

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I hate to think...

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