My picture of the week

[SimonH2]

Starting on the electrics at church, and to get easy access for Ze & Zs tests I decided to remove the small bit of the cover on one of the isolators - and found this ! Not sure if the tail actually touched the terminal, but there's nothing connected to the neutral on the other side of this isolator.

The live is fully in and tight - that's how much copper the meter fitter left showing. Obviously a pretty clueless one anyway as he's fitted the "customer can open this part" on the supply side of the isolator.

 

[333rocky333]

How do you know the Live is fully in and tight ?

 

[SimonH2]

I checked, carefully

 

[scousespark]

I’m struggling to get why somebody who has a disclaimer saying he’s not a professional spark is opening up an isolator especially in a non-domestic installation.

 

[SimonH2]

In this case, it is paid work - and yes I do have appropriate insurance for it.
But in any case, not being a paid professional and having reason to open up a component for testing are not mutually exclusive.

Scope for confusion there, but one main definition of "professional" is : "Engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as an amateur." In that respect, I'm still not a professional electrician as it's not my main paid occupation (even if I am "between jobs) at the moment. That's what my sig is intended to convey.
Taking the other main definition : "Worthy of or appropriate to a professional person; competent, skilful, or assured." Well I (almost) always try and approach things in a professional manner - which has caused "friction" with managers over the years when asked to do a "quick job"

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not all amateurs are amateurish.

And not all professionals demonstrate professionalism.

 

[JohnW2]

Not all amateurs are amateurish. And not all professionals demonstrate professionalism.

Very true - and since (despite what one might think here) the majority of electrical work is undoubtedly undertaken by electricians (or 'electricians'), I would imagine that when (poor) electrical work is responsible for harm coming to people or property, in at least some cases that will be work undertaken by electricians/'electricians'.

 

[davelx]

Not all amateurs are amateurish.

And not all professionals demonstrate professionalism.

Indeed. My attitude to the activities I carry out as an amateur is to strive to ensure that the only difference between me and a professional is that I'm not being paid. In some cases I am reasonably sure that the standards I aim for exceed those of the average professional.

 

[JohnW2]

Indeed. My attitude to the activities I carry out as an amateur is to strive to ensure that the only difference between me and a professional is that I'm not being paid. In some cases I am reasonably sure that the standards I aim for exceed those of the average professional.

Quite so - and that's the main reason why (in the days when I had time, and when the bits one could see under a bonnet were recognisable!) I tried to myself do as much of the work on cars as I could!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Ah - the days when you opened the bonnet and could see the ground, and the engine only had about 3 wires running to it....

 

[JohnW2]

Ah - the days when you opened the bonnet and could see the ground, and the engine only had about 3 wires running to it....

Quite so, In my youth, I spent many happy hours taking my cars (including their engines and gearboxes) apart and putting them back together, and one didn't need much more than some mechanical common sense to understand, and do, everything. When I open the bonnet of a car today, I see nothing recognisable as an engine, just lots of black boxes connected with pipes and wires, the identity (and role) of which I have to consult a manual to ascertain. Even changing the spark plugs in my car must be quite a mission, since once cannot actually see them with all the 'boxes' in situ!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

According to the handbook for my car, even replacing headlamp bulbs is not an owner-action. And whoever does it, the N/S one requires lots of stuff under the bonnet to be removed just to get access. Some owners reckon that the easiest way to do it is to jack up the front N/S and remove the wheel, then remove the shield inside the front wing, and get at it that way.


But even in the "good old days" things weren't always straightforward. I remember my Dad had a car (Sunbeam Talbot I think) and the drivers door had dropped, so he wanted to get at the hinges to pack them. Could not work out how to access them, so he gave up and learned to lift the door whilst closing it. Later he saw a letter in Popular Mechanics, or similar, from someone with the same problem, and the answer in the magazine began "This is one of the worst jobs in the motor trade".

The car was made with the front wing skins welded on after the doors had been hung. To access the hinges you had to cut holes in the wing, do whatever to the hinges, then weld in patches, lead fill, and respray.

 

[JohnW2]

According to the handbook for my car, even replacing headlamp bulbs is not an owner-action. And whoever does it, the N/S one requires lots of stuff under the bonnet to be removed just to get access.

Yep, just like my spark plugs - I really cannot see any, without a mirror!

... But even in the "good old days" things weren't always straightforward.

That's very true, but not really on the scale of today. I used to get very annoyed by photos in service manuals of a man in an immaculate white coat gently 'tapping out' something from a sparkling new (and clean) part of the car with a tiny rubber mallet, whilst the reality (after a few years dirt and rust) involved several strong men, a sledge hammer and all sorts of improvised presses and winches!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Ah - improvising.

I rebuilt a gearbox once, and did not have the special tool to hold in place the 3 little spring loaded balls into the ring(s) (from memory) that kept things in the right places for each gear.

I found that a piston ring compressor would hold them in, and if the component which slid over was tapped smartly over the top it would push the compressor out of the way as it slid down and cover the balls before they had a chance to go ptwang into the corners of the garage.

 

[SimonH2]

I used to get very annoyed by photos in service manuals of a man in an immaculate white coat gently 'tapping out' something from a sparkling new (and clean) part of the car with a tiny rubber mallet, whilst the reality (after a few years dirt and rust) involved several strong men, a sledge hammer and all sorts of improvised presses and winches!

Ah yes, the old "it comes apart easily when it's new" problem.
Land Rover are good for that. One example is the speedo gear carrier which "just slides into" the transfer box, and according to the manual "just slides out". Not when the bit of aluminium that's been inside another bit of aluminium has been exposed to the elements for several decades it doesn't. And there's only a tiny bit actually exposed - but it does have a lip that can be used with a small pry bar to slide it out. Except that the lip breaks off - which is actually fortuitous since that leaves an "end" where (once you've removed the handbrake backplate) can be used to gently tap it round with a drift to break the stick and then it will lever out. When that's what happened last time I had to get one out - to replace the little plastic gear that when it wears out gives you (at best) an intermittent speedo.
And a mate used to work for a main dealer. He said owners would be horrified to see how their vehicles got treated in the workshop - like taking the "gas axe"* to a 60+ grand motor that's only a year old but parts are already seized in place If only manufacturers knew the value of a tin of copper grease on the assembly line - though I expect they do and don't care about the cost of not using it on the assembly line

* "gas axe" - colloquial term for an oxy-acetalyne torch, a required piece of equipment for any garage for dismantling recalcitrant parts. Often makes the difference between "well that's completely f***ed now" and "ah, got the b***ard apart".

I rebuilt a gearbox once, and did not have the special tool to hold in place the 3 little spring loaded balls into the ring(s) (from memory) that kept things in the right places for each gear.

Ah yes, the synchroniser assemblies, aka synchro hubs - where you slide the outer ring off and the parts instantly distribute themselves to all corners of the garage, never to be seen again I remember helping a mate with a mini gearbox many many years ago - he was into rallying. Fortunately he had loads of bits lying around so we could take another synchro hub apart, and another, and ... until we'd managed to keep hold of enough balls and springs to get a working set back together.

Mind you, I had that just the other day adding a pipe stat to the heating system at church. The 2" pipe is a bit bigger than the springs are designed for, so took a bit of pulling to hook on. I lost grip on one, and for a small boiler room, there seems to be no end of places for it to hide - I never did find it, and that's a nice shiny spring a few inches long.