DIY dunces?

I do.

No it's not. It's impossible.

a) how do you know what the correct torque is and b) how does an electric screwdriver achieve this?

Perhaps you should stick to crochet?

As my career as a (software) engineer appears to have hit the buffers, I could be competiting with you soon :-)

tim

You would not like the screws on the new build I have just done then. The snagging list said "electrical screws not horizontal". My reply was "of course they are not horizontal, the back boxes are fastened to your walls"

Adam

I wish I had kept for interest sake a plugtop I found some years ago.

Istr that it had two round pins about the same size as the old 15amp and an a rectangular earth pin as fitted to 13 amp plugs, or possibly it was 2 rectangular and one round. Was a British Manufacturer and in white plastic rather than prewar style brown Bakelite.

G.Harman

dennis@home coughed up some electrons that declared:

No, after fitting, supposing you want to lift the plate later, say for inspection (as part of inspection and testing).

:(

Dave Plowman (News) coughed up some electrons that declared:

Mine's got a torque limiter (one of the reasons I got it). Bit course though and has no markings other than a rather arbitary 1-10 (ie no Nm or ft-lb).

Cheers

Tim

I bet it has a brake too, so you can do the last 1/4 turn by hand if you need to line up the slots.

The wonderful 'Fitall' plug could probably have faked them both.

dennis@home coughed up some electrons that declared:

Oddly enough, no. It was made for builders, not Michelangelo.

;->

If it had a central hollow round pin with two flat pins offset either side then I think that was the old Wylex mains plug.

Can't find a picture anywhere at the moment. Wiki has heaps of others but not that one. :-(

Tim

Not very safe then?

I had forgotten about those,my school had some on things like projectors that moved between buildings whose age and wiring varied. Did they have a fuse in them ?

G.Harman

I can picture that, but I can't remember its name. Mind you, I'm only

Never come across one of them, but where can I buy some of those bayonet plugs that fitted a light socket. I would like one or two that split into 2 outlets, one with an on off switch. Maybe Woolworths might find some in their closing down sale :-)

Dave

I had a couple of Fitall plugs, and they didn't 'fit all'! They certainly wouldn't have fitted a Wylex socket, or any of the foreign designs. They were a bit of a swine to assemble, with swivelling masks to let appropriate pins pop out, and you had to almost dismantle the whole plug to change the fuse. When I worked for the GPO, they acknowledged the use of such plugs, but insisted that they weren't to be used with loads of >3A, also the earth pin hadn't to be relied upon.

I think they were popular in the '50s for council house installations. I've no idea what the fuse ratings were. I've only ever seen them in brown or black (dark!) colours. I'm pretty certain that Woolies used to stock them on their wonderful electrical counters... as well as my favourites, the MES batten lampholders and tiny almost dolls-house size switches.

Wasn't there another 3-pin plug in which the live pin was a cartridge fuse which screwed into the plug?

Somehow I've got in my mind a cartridge fuse in the earth pin... Arghhh!

They used the same plugs as (now) standard 13a plugs. When I worked at the college in the 60s virtially every room had different types of sockets. I spent much time making adaptors and moving them to appropriate places.

D&S, alos useda t the college and for BBC technical equipment (later replaced by wallsall guage plugs with or without DPfusing.

They used to become detached. Many an unsuspecting soul would wish that they had been in the earth pin!

Indeed - but if you were concerned about accurate torque, you'd use a pukka torque screwdriver. I have one for auto gearbox repairs. Manual, of course - and pretty expensive. I'm sure you can get specialised production electric tools that do the job - but I'd doubt many would have them at home.

Yup. D&S. The BBC used to fit them to things fed off tech supplies. So you couldn't plug a hoover in. ;-)

Nasty things - sometimes you'd pull the plug out and the fuse stayed in the socket - live and poking out. The BBC sockets were unswitched... The natural reaction is to retrieve the fuse. But only the first time it happened.

Tim. There is so much potential I wouldn't care if another half dozen started up in the same town as me. They wouldn't have the marketing savvy.

If you want any advice on starting up feel free to e-mail me direct. I'd be happy to give you any info & help you want.