I'm going to rewire an old, old 35mm projector, a Picturol Model Q - one of these: .
It was wired with a two-core flex, but since the body is metal I wonder whether it would be better to rewire it with three, earthing the metal body.
The flex connects directly to the terminals of the lamp socket; if the live connection were to work loose I could imagine it making contact with the body of the projector.
Daniele
Can?t see why it would be a bad idea (other than robbing you of some of the ?fun? of using old electrical equipment. ;-)
How about some nice three core fabric covered flex?
Tim
D.M. Procida explained :
That's an oldie.
The main body metalwork needs to be earthed. Exceptions will be if it is marked as double-insulated - a symbol of a square within a square, which that will not be.
On Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:38:07 GMT, Harry Bloomfield coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...
Vintage "Class 0" appliances were commonplace. I think the OP is wise to convert it to "Class 1"
I have a photographic enlarger, bought in 1961 that is the same.
My enlarger which I used until I left home in the 1980s had been my dad's when he was a lad, so probably dated from the 1950s. That had two-core red (live) and black (neutral) cable, sheathed in an outer rubber coating with fabric over it. The in-line switch was torpedo-shaped, with a slide bar at right-angles which moved a fairly crude contact between terminals in the live wire (*); the in and out neutrals within the switch were twisted together and soldered.
I tended to leave it switched on permanently at the torpedo switch and switched on/off the mains socket that powered the enlarger. The socket block was designed for Photoflood photographic lights and each socket had a three-position toggle switch, with centre off, then one side was normal mains but the side of the switch added a diode into the live so as to half-wave rectify the mains for reduced power to lessen the thermal shock on a cold bulb.
With all that liquid around (developer, wash, fixer for paper) I really should have replaced that cable with modern three-core cable to earth the metal parts of the enlarger, and fitted a proper double-pole, fast-acting switch.
It's amazing that I didn't get more problems with dust on the negatives leaving white specks on the prints, since my darkroom was up in the loft and there was dust and glass wool insulation fibres around. There wasn't enough headroom to put the enlarger on a table so I kneeled on a bit of rubber underfelt on the floorboards with the enlarger on the floor next to me and the dev/wash/fix trays next to me and the safelight fastened to one the rafters above my head. It all sounds very primitive.
(*) It wasn't exactly a fast, clean changeover from off to on, and if I was a bit slow sliding the switch there was a bit of arcing - that's why I switched the socket instead
In message , D.M. Procida writes
Absolutely. A common situation with old (pre war) toy train transformers/controllers, and most pass PAT when fitted with a three core cable. They were built to last. Interestingly, many have an earth terminal on the casing, which I assume was for those who actually used an earthed supply. Most were two core to a bayonet plug back then, to go in a lamp socket. We were still using those plugs in the 50s for various things.
NY formulated on Wednesday :
My own dark room, in the late 50's early 60's, was - a homemade table,
4'x 6' with hardboard top in the loft for my train set. I turned the table upright, so it sat on its 4' side against a corner. I then filled in the open top and side with scrounged card board pinned on. For the enlarger, I wired up a mechanical seconds timer, picked up in a surplus shop.I also set up some a pair of photoflood lamps, so that I could connect them in series or parallel, dim/bright. I was hopeless at the photography side, but enjoyed the tech side, the printing and developing.
I only managed to once use my photoflood lights, by persuading one of my sisters female friends to pose (innocently) for a photo, whom I had a bit of a crush for.
Graeme formulated on Wednesday :
We were posh, my train set had a 5amp 2 pin plug, that then plugged into a 5amp 2pin to BC lampholder adaptor lol
Does the mains lead need replacing, other than the lack of earth? If not I'd run a separate earth wire along & round the existing mains lead. That way the original lead is retained and you get the safety upside of an earth.
If it's to sell in a shop it will require a lead that's both double insualted and earthed.
Someone suggested a cloth lead, rather out of character I think.
If there's nothing wrong with the wiring on it, just fitting an RCD plug is another option. It gives you maybe 99% of the safety benefit of earthing.
NT
Until about 1958 (can't remember exactly!) my toy trains didn't have a transformer - they had a rotary converter. We were on DC mains.
In message , Bob Eager writes
I suppose mine had a rotary converter at one time - I called it a key :-)
Well you could say this about lots of equipment with metal bodies, but they still only have two core leads. I'm not going to go into the whole double insulated theory here though. I think in the case of a bog standard projector it might not matter either way, though the case of some things can get a small electrostatic charge on them if there is not earth, you can feel the buzz with running a very light finger along the case. The main annoyance with all projectors is that the bulbs only seem to last until you need to show some slides to someone important..... Brian
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I'd run a separate earth wire along & round the existing mains lead. That w ay the original lead is retained and you get the safety upside of an earth.
lted and earthed.
is another option. It gives you maybe 99% of the safety benefit of earthing .
It may also be an option to make it double insulated. All it requires is sl eeving plus, usually, either tying the L&N together close to where they ter minate so if one comes adrift it doesn't wander to the case, or alternative ly lining the metal lampholder with insulation. And ensure an effective cor dgrip.
NT
My Dad bought an H and M controller and read the instructions that it must be earthed which caused a bit of a dilemma as Grans house we lived had hardly any sockets and the ones that were there were two pin
5 amp. So with all the skill of a WW2 RAF aircraft mechanic he solved the issue by installing another 5 amp 2 pin socket about a foot away which was wired to a gas pipe. The controller had two 5 amp 2 pin plugs of identical make and type with one wired to L and N cores and the other to the earth core. All that differentiated the plugs was the letter M painted on one and E on the other and an E painted on the earthed socket. Normally Dad plugged it in but I suppose it was fortunate I was an early reader. Dad left soon after with the Big C and his replacement a couple of years later was absolutely horrified saying it highly dangerous, this was the Dad who I mentioned in another thread kept decades old Gelignite in an OXO tin in the shed.It's a wonder I actually survived the pair of them.
G.Harman
I bought a clockwork engine for half a crown from a school chum after we moved in with Dad 2 . No mains at the farm so could only use the electric train set in Winter when the generator was running in the hours I was up. Too expensive just to run it just for my train set and in Summer it wasn't started till after my bedtime. Not that it mattered as there outdoor activities instead. Later when mains electricity arrived it disarmed mother when she attempted to curb my sessions with "stop that now You're wasting electricity" Wind wind wind "No I'm not its the clockwork one" "don't you start getting clever with me". I expect we have all been there in some way.
G.Harman
In message , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk writes
Either the above or 'don't answer me back!'.
In message , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk writes
I lusted after a Duette, as a kid.
My poor old dad hadn't a clue how to wire a plug, which was quite fun in the days when few if any items arrived with a plug fitted. So, he bought a car battery charger to use in the garage, which only had a light socket, not a power socket. Bulb was standard bayonet, so he fitted a bayonet plug, cutting off the unnecessary third wire. Plugged in, nothing happened. Eventually tried rotating the plug which was fine until I picked up the metal bodied charger which was, of course, live.
Another time he borrowed my screwdriver to repair a door bell transformer. Dunno what he did, but there was a bang, all the lights went out and the tip of my screwdriver was never the same again.
On Thu, 02 Nov 2017 09:58:57 +0000, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...
Eye, you try and tell that to the young people of today. Will they believe you?
Mine was just a clipper,still out in the shed somewhere. I got a Duette in later years but never used it much as I gave it all up soon after as life brought other things to get on and do like career and relationships etc. I only chucked it out last year on a trip to the local waste management facility. The prices some people seem to think they will get on ebay seem very optomistic ,mine had rust streaks on it from years stored in an old farm shed so it wasn't worth the hassle of testing and flogging it.
G.Harman
I once borrowed my grandpa's electric mower to cut our grass. It had a long lead, plugged into a short lead that was hard-wired to the mower, using a flat three-pins-in-line connector like this
When the cable got tangled, I unplugged this inline connector and found that it had been wired back-to-front - with the exposed pins on the live end that was connected to the wall plug, rather then being attached to the mower (with the socket part attached to the live cable).
I'm not sure whether it had been supplied that way or whether my grandpa had wired it that way round, so I rewired it the correct way round and said nothing, so as not to embarrass grandpa - with the plug and socket fastened together, you wouldn't know that I'd modified it.
It was a bit hair-raising to realise how close I came to touching the exposed pins by accident...
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