Prepping a cable for a plug

[fridgefreezer]

Hi everyone, it's your favourite electrician's mate here!

When it comes to trimming the sheath on a cable and trimming the wires to length for use inside a plug, is there a faster way to do it than by hand and cutting the sheath, measuring each wire, cutting to length, leaving enough cable at the end and so on?

I mean, let's say you were a factory owner and wanted to put a plug on a cable 100 times a day, wouldn't you want a machine that you could set up so that all you had to do was shove the cable in and something inside the machine would grab hold of the sheath, then you pull it out and it would be cut exactly how you wanted it?

You might then put the three wires in and the wonder machine would do the same to them, and they would each come out at the perfect length?

Ok, so I don't need to wire a plug 100 times a day, I just wonder if there is such a machine?

 

[ebee]

Wiring 100 plugs a day for 5 days and getting each oine correct or starting again from scratch should be a module each should take on the road to declaring themselves to being an "electrician"

 

[studips]

you'd probably buy one of those plugs that is designed to have all 3 wires the same length. i have seen them, but not for a while.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I mean, let's say you were a factory owner and wanted to put a plug on a cable 100 times a day, wouldn't you want a machine that you could set up so that all you had to do was shove the cable in and something inside the machine would grab hold of the sheath, then you pull it out and it would be cut exactly how you wanted it?

No - I'd want to buy in lengths of flex with plugs already moulded onto one end by a manufacturer who produced thousands a day at a price less than it would cost me to make and test my own.

 

[bernardgreen]

I'd want to buy in lengths of flex with plugs already moulded onto one end by a manufacturer who produced thousands a day at a price less than it would cost me to make and test my own.

Which is what most manufacturers do. These are often part assembled by hand, too often low paid workers in poor quality working conditions. To mechanise the whole process requires the machine to have colour recogniton of the cores. Not impossible but cheap labour is more economical.

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[fridgefreezer]

It doesn't actually take very long to wire a plug, though, does it? Once it's stripped back properly, and that doesn't take forever. I suppose if you are doing a lot then that could be a chore.

 

[Wontdothatagain]

It doesn't actually take very long to wire a plug, though, does it?

Try it and time yourself and then post a picture. What you think is the right way is probably not to the correct standard.

The answer to your question is yes there is a machine that trims the cable. We were shown a internet vid at college. Chinese woman takes a pre cut length of flex and inserts each end into a machine with 2 holes that strips off the right length of outer flex, another woman separates the cores and puts them on a jig which cuts the cores to the correct length, another woman puts the cores into another jig which crimps on terminals, another woman loads the terminals into a machine that rivets the terminals to the plug pins, another woman loads the lot into a injection molding machine and out pops the lead.

 

[fridgefreezer]

I can't afford one woman, let alone five.

 

[fridgefreezer]

Well, here's one I made earlier, as they say...

Untitled

• fridgefreezer
• 26 Mar 2011
• 1

 

[ebee]

wellthat looks a bit naughty to me, I suggest you stripped lengths incorrectly for a start.

Phase (sorry Line) might pull out first then it's hit and miss whether all Live conductors pull out before the protective conductor

 

[fridgefreezer]

Wires are too long?
Wires are too short?
One or more is too long?
One or more is too short?
Cable gripping the wrong amount of cable sheath?

 

[MrTinker]

Line and neutral too long.
Earth too short.
If you where to pull on the cable hard enough, the line and neutral should pull out of the terminals before the earth.

 

[fridgefreezer]

ok, thanks, I'll fix this.

 

[ebee]

Don't beat yerself up too much over this.

A lot of people (including "Electricians") wire a plug incorrectly.

The Live conductors (Brown & Blue) should be just the right length to go into the terminals without any strain and the earth should be looped so as to give it enough slack to be last to pull out (that's why the inside of the plug is shaped to allow a long length inside ie around the curved bit).

You've nicely put the clamp to hold on the sheath rather than on the insulation so award yourself a point for that.