Personal DIY fails this weekend

You should always try the instructions for just that reason: to stop people saying "Have you tried following the instructions?" and then ending up feeling like a Charlie.

True, true. But I couldn't believe that electrical connections were allowed to be so flimsy!!

(I had read the instructions, I just couldn't bring myself to believe them!)

In article , larkim writes

Clever ploy, you can now defer all difficult DIY work to the missus. Well done sir :-!

Does this mean that they are now producing instructions and devices which are dumbed down equally, this is a problem as you and I know that men like to think when we do stuff, not just follow the instructions. Brian

Just had a phone call from my Dad to say that the dimmer switch I fitted in their holiday apartment kitchen does not work. This was followed by another call from my Mum who asked "shall I tell him that you have to press the dimmer switch to turn the light on or shall I just leave him in the dark?"

layroom has had only two working bulbs. And try as I might, with the suppl ied sucker and with a more advance sucker tool, I could not remove them. T ried looping a length of string around the back and pulling, and was fearfu l of pulling the fitting off the ceiling. SWMBO's patience ran out, so I t ook the fitting down and tried again with all my might. Then, just as an a fterthought, tried rotating them...doh!! Ah well, got them changed after a ll.

lb to replace one of the same which had cracked internally. Spent 30 minut es perplexed about how the cabling worked, as the diagram suggested I just insert the cables into holes, no screws or anything, and then secure with a clamp. Didn't work when on my own, then with eldest son and armed with ru bber gloves tried shoving the cables in deeper (concerned I might be making the whole body of the light live). Didn't work. Went downstairs, tried t o find similar lights on sale, convinced myself that there were missing scr ewed fittings from inside the light, determined to replace it at B&Q today. SWMBO suggested she wanted to try too, as the instructions were quite cle ar. Went through same process again, with me protesting that this clearly couldn't work. It did.

About 50 years ago I had to use a tape recorder, which came with a manual. Inside the front cover it read "When all else fails, read this manual"

I certainly would have benefitted from something other than the usual pictoral stuff. On the face of it, the absence of any images of a screwdriver at the bit where I couldn't conceive of it not needing a screwdriver probably told me all I needed to know. But a few words like "push wire into hole" and "there are no screws required" would have helped me out no end!

They do exist. I've used them.

Wago connectors....

You can get plug-in ceiling roses.

Yebbut, my surprise is that they aren't ubiquitous - installed in every new light fitting. Surely that would be safer? A USB for light fittings.

En el artículo , larkim escribió:

Were you trying to insert stranded cable? Those push-fit connectors are designed to take solid core.

Doh, yes. In my defence, the previous home owners had simply wired a pendant connection into the older fitting, and then cladded the attic ceiling to make getting at the pendant fitting nigh impossible without turning this into a bigger job than I can be bothered with.

So yes, stranded wire in there. Hey, it works. And the house hasn't burned down yet...

spring strip jobs dont make decent contact onto flex. I wouldnt do it.

NT

En el artículo , larkim escribió:

I'd be tempted to do it over, either by replacing the cable with solid core or by tinning the ends of the stranded cable with solder.

Just so SWMBO knows why - what is the potential consequence?