Locking sockets or plugs?

[Harry]

Our daughter has two sewing machines and a steam iron in a back area of a retail shop. She's problems with the owner and staff who seem to be using/fiddling with the equipment after hours - this morning the iron was still plugged in and cheerfully hot!. I've trawled but can't find anything suitable. Ideally some sort of lockable cover for the wall sockets or the plugs themselves. I can fit covers but not replace the sockets. I've left her a handful of cable ties so she can double the plugs back onto the cables overnight and then cut them off in the am but while that's cheap, obviously not too safe either. Visions of slashed cables.... Any help/ideas appreciated, apart from suggesting speaking to the stupid woman, it's her shop and yes, we've tried. It's complicated. stupidly low rent, free electric, nice little business etc.Thanks.

[Richard Conway]

Could you not replace the plugs on the appliances with an alternative type of plug - something like:

make some leads to convert between the two - your daughter could then take the conversion leads home each night.

[chrisj.doran]

These would be neater:

more readily obtainable for them to go out and buy their own. Other ideas:-

1) A big padlock (or small padlock and fat chain) that will go around the body of the plug, trapped between the pins. 2) A keyswitch in a box wired into each lead. 3) A little padlockable drawstring bag for each plug, or maybe find a purse with a ring pull zipper that would take a small padlock. 4) I think there may be sockets for outside use that have lockable flaps but allow the plug to be left in. No need to wire them up, just use them loose to corral the plugs.

It also occurs to me that there must be a child (or general) safety market for this requirement, but I'm not sure where to look.

Chris

[Andrew Gabriel]

What about making up a lockable in-line ketswitch on the leads? For the Sewing Machine, something like a motor cycle wheel padlock through the flywheel should do it ;-) Or take the needle home.

Incidentally, you can buy irons which turn off after a period of being still.

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:27:12 +0100 someone who may be Harry wrote this:-

If the owner is causing the problem then there is a limit to what you can do. I have seen lockable metal boxes which fitted over switched fused outlets, arranged with a lever so that when the cover was closed the equipment would always be switched off. A modernish version is though this doesn't, without modification, prevent things being turned on and would be dangerous if things could be left on. However, adding something like this to the sockets will presumably cause tensions, just as lockable sockets would.

Sewing machines could, depending on design, be fitted with a lock on the switch or a DOL starter fitted. These can be locked to prevent unauthorised use. For an iron that is more difficult, assuming a domestic type iron. Others have given other ideas.

[nightjar]

What you are looking for are called plug lock-out devices. They are designed to allow someone to work on a piece of electrical equipment without the risk of someone else plugging it in while they are doing so. Essentially a box that encloses the plug and is secured by a padlock.

Bignell

[Harry]

Thanks all, got the cells working at least. This afternoon I've fitted new plugs with lever out fuses, not ideal but it's quick and simple. I favour the inline switch idea, then I could run the leads to a central point and lock the lot with one turn.no modification to the existing sockets so nobody gets upset. Needs more pondering but thanks all for the contributions. And yes, you'd think there'd be a ready market for something like this.

[Peter Parry]

Make up as many short leads (about a foot) as you have appliances with a standard 13A plug on one end and one of these on the other

replace the plugs on your machines with

night simply unplug and lock away (or take home!) the short leads.

Alternatively replace the sockets with

(search on that site for k14355)

[Harry]

wotnot but not a whit of use if you don't have the right terms to search for. Sorted :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Will numpty perosn just bung in a 13A fuse to use the kit? Possibly when the plug fuse should be 3A... Probably not the case with the kit you mention but worth bearing in mind.

Free electric strikes me as a bit daft as well. People will abuse it, have the heaters flat out but not switch 'em off it gets to hot just open the window and/or doors...

[Harry]

I did say it's complicated. It's a ladies fashion/accessory shop. My girl is a dressmaker and also provides an alteration service from a back section of the unit. Sort of an inshop if you will. As part of the agreement, she, in return for a small rent, isn't charged for her electricity usage. The premise is that as she's there, more people will come in to the main shop and also buy off the peg as a result. And they do seem to. It was too good an offer to turn down as, although the work returns an income, it's very labour intensive with LONG hours and wouldn't be viable if she had to pay full whack for her own place. On the (very) odd days that she does leave before the shop closes so there's still other people there, she's always come back in the morning to find her machines have been switched on/used in her absence. It isn't safe to use this stuff without training/unsupervised and she relies on the things for her living so we'd like to prevent injury and damage, both. The fuse ruse is a temporary solution, numpties will always find a work around. I'd not be surprised to have her tell me today that a plug has been cut off and the wires jammed into a socket with lollipop sticks! I'm also thinking about making covers or hoods to put over the machines which can then be locked to the benches.

[Dave Osborne]

Also here:

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Dave Osborne saying something like:

Clicking a link, downloading a programme or even *living* are entirely at your own risk (and enjoyment)."

I like that.