:o(
When my M-I-L went into a home in her mid-90's we discovered, as you say, that the contents of her house had negative value. No-one wants big brown furniture any more. The house clearance guy we commissioned said that at one time cabinet makers would take it for the veneers, but even that market has gone away now. Even her treasured piano got smashed up and thrown in a skip. And before anyone gets squeaky about that, literally no-one wanted it.
They used to have piano smashing contests to see how long it took to smash a piano into pieces small enough to pass through a car tyre. I assume this peaked when record players became popular.
I believe the Victorians made many thousands of cheap pianos, which acted as the "entertainment centre" of their day, and are no longer worth having.
Yup. Commonly wood frame, rather than cast iron. And many once good early pianos don't react well to central heating.
Yesterday I went to do a second fix. Basically the old man has rewired the house over several decades and has now ended up in a nursing home. I have completed the 2nd fix so his son can rent out the property.
I would say the crabtree switches and sockets in the unopened wrappers that I used for the 2nd fix were from the 70's. I cannot find an image of them - but curved edges, quite slim and of course in an ivory colour.
Are they the type where the rocker goes flush when off - but sticks out when on? So you can switch it off with a foot - but not on?
I rather liked that design - but more the metal versions than the plastic ones. Very popular with architects.
Well my tumble dryer's moulded on plug overheated - presumably due to low contact pressure on the fuseholder. That in turn overheated and damaged the socket. There was nothing wrong with the socket beforehand.
SteveW
The cast-iron framed piano (made in Berlin in 1936) that my father's parents passed to my parents when they married; which was then passed to my mother's parents; then back to my parents when my sister was learning to play; then to me and my wife when we got married; then back to my parents when we ran out of space with three children, has been junked. I have never played (although my wife is a good player) and that piano meant a lot to me because its history with my grandparents.
Unfortunately a piano is a rather large and cumbersome memento.
God knows how many times I had to move it from one end of a 25' room to the other, by myself, as my wife decided on a re-arrangement of the living room!
SteveW
Well the plug on our tumble-dryer melted badly. We were very lucky that it didn't cause a fire. The dryer was not a cheap one - it cost £280.
SteveW
no that was the next generation
Crikey. Very old then. I have the metal versions here, fitted in the 70s. Still like the look of them. Far better than the equivalent MK. Even more so the Crabtree grid switch system.
Why do you think that is silly?
Insulation resistance failures are frequently voltage dependant. That is why insulation resistance testers carry out their resistance tests at >=
500V
You could also argue the reverse - if the contacts in the socket were tired or dirty, they could have been the source of the heating.
+1
This is one of those cases where you can't easily say with certainty where the problem started, but the proper fix is (technically) easy as described (ignoring issues like who owns what etc).
Once an overheating problem like that has occurred, I would be reluctant to leave the socket in service.
I think you could take that as evidence that if you replace all your tired old sockets, someone on ebay will pay handsomely to take the resulting "waste" off your hands ;-)
(ISTR when I replaced an old Wyles NN style CU here, I was able to flog the old type 1 MCBs for at least as much as the cost of the new CU)
Or check the overheating has stopped with a new plug.
In this particular case (i.e. a plug tested in isolation) I would expect
*no* current flow between any of the conductors! (especially when tested at low voltage with a multimeter)(A measurable insulation resistance on a whole circuit is a different matter).
If its in your own place, perhaps[1]. But if doing a job elsewhere and you don't fancy hanging about watching a full wash cycle for the next couple of hours its no content IMHO.
[1] Even then I would swap the socket as a matter of routine - although that is influenced by the fact that I can, and I have stock of such things to hand.In message , at
10:22:23 >> >>> How often does that happen?I've left instructions with the tenant to contact the landlord. The issue arising is going to be "who pays".
In message , at
10:42:28 on Fri, 3 Nov 2017, John Rumm remarked:Even if you weren't the landlord or his appointed agent?
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.