I have an older fuse box, with fuses that screw into it. After turning off all power to the fuse box, is it okay to clean the threads inside the fuse holder and the brass piece at the end of the holder? I was going to use a little bit of sandpaer on the threads and steel wool on the brass piece. I am trying to make sure I am getting a good contact with the fuse. Thanks Patt
Hi,
Make sure the power is off with a meter but yeah, it is ok. I might recommend contact cleaner instead of sanding it but try both.
candice
This is a bad idea. It isn't necessary, and getting steel wool fragments (a conductor) or grit from sand paper (a non-conductor) in the socket might actually cause problems rather than solve them. Just leave it alone. If you actually had poor contact in the socket, there would be arcing (a fizzing sound) and scorching visible.
Be careful and test with test light or meter. The main fuse or shutoff on some of these old boxes will not shut off all of the power. You may still have power on the 220 stuff like the range and dryer even after throwing the main. BTDT. Why do you think you are not getting good contact with the fuse? Kevin
I will not touch old fuse boxes period. I have seen some really funky wiring where power was still present when the "main" was turned off. This was because the "main" could not handle to load to the water heater, so they jumped directly to a 3rd fuse box which was not controlled by the "main". To turn off power to the house, you had to turn off the main *and* pull the fuses from the 3rd box!
So don't assume that power is off. Also many of these are not grounded and the insulation on wires inside could be falling off the wires. You could get zapped by just touching the metal case.
I would suggest having the fuse box replaced with a breaker panel.
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