Electrical Tagging

There doesnt have to be obvious physical damage to a cord to cause troubles.

Was having probs with the comp cutting in & out intermittantly, no it wasnt once it built up sufficient pressure.

Wiggled the plug, thought the issue was there. Replaced the plug, still had probs. Checked the lead, looks ok physically.

Felt the lead, ahh getting real warm. Maybe the motor is RS. Literally a couple of secs after that a flash came out of the lead, about half way along. Produded a nice pin prick in the lead and some charcoal. I let the smoke out. Switched off at mains immediately. Yep the conductors in the lead had broken internally and arced.

2 schools of thought, either simply fatigue of the lead over time or my favourite, being run over. Never a good idea to let vehicles etc.. run over mains leads, can stuff them internally. I'm just lucky I wasnt holding on the dodgy part of the lead when it blew.:o

One of the funniest things I ever saw as an apprentice in my class having a soldering iron go off like a rocket while it was in his hand.....
The cable looked just fine.... the insulation inside had failed and the 2 wires contacted.

he was soldering away on a soldering excercise.... he lifted the iron and moved in for a closer look and BANG.....ARRRK SPARK the iron went off like a skyrocket rigt next to his ear............I saw the whole thing....... we all thaught it was hillarious....... he didn't....... fortunately it was 50V supply.

cheers

:oo: speaking with daughter about hr work and tagging electric motors for pumps they are charged $100 a tag, equipment in the workshop the same. Has to be redone every 12 months.

Some cash cow $$$$$$

Funny u should say that Soundman----- "One of the funniest things I ever saw as an apprentice in my class having a soldering iron go off like a rocket while it was in his hand.....
The cable looked just fine.... the insulation inside had failed and the 2 wires contacted."


When I was about 14 I was putting together one of those Dick Smith kits with my oh so good $6 soldering iron, (Chinese of course) 240 volt job had it facing cord downwards. Well it arced out didnt it. There was a flash, the power dipped briefly, still remember the old man shouting out, " what the hell are u doing out there?"

There was slight burn marks between my pants legs, wearing jeans probably saved me from a burn. Remember feeling a bit of a tingle, so guess I was lucky. :o
Now days I have a decent iron. Wont even discuss the incident with the Neutral terminal and the metal screwdriver on a power supply a couple of years later. Insulated screw drivers form a vital part of my tool kit these days.

$100 for simple test & tag is quite a bit steep but I can understand such a high fee for high rish items like submersable pumps or the like.

Typical tests & tag could cost between $5 per item which is real cheap to minimum service call $80 ish.

If you are doing the full monty on an item including filling in log books and issuing certificates of test $10 in volume would be reasonable.
Afterall the tag costs arround $1 alone.

don't forget if the item has a removable power cord that has to be seperately inspected, tagged and logged. :~

I have a seperate log book just for my appliance cords.

cheers

As an A grade electrician I am often called on to do a bit of testing and tagging. A couple of years ago I was doing a job in an institution where the residents personal electrical appliances had to be tested and tagged before being used by them in their rooms. I discovered an electric shaver that had its cord lengthened by half a metre because the owner could not see himself in the bathroom mirror. A bit of a stretch. Simple remedy. Strip the sheathing, twist the cables together, a bit of tape, and away you go. I cut the cord off and disposed of it.

I am no longer supprised by peoples lack of respect for electricity.

I remember the father of a young lady I was frendly with at one tome producing an extension cord that consisted of a length of 7.5 amp fig 8 and two plugs.

He looked at me as if I was stupid when I told him how dangerious and illigal it was......he was a KIWI......& their electrical laws are suposed to be so wonderfull....they allow you to make your own extension cord.


Then there are the ancient double addaptors that swap active and neutral on one of the outlets.

How about trailers wired with 240V 3 pin plugs.

It just goes on and on.

cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soundman

I am no longer supprised by peoples lack of respect for electricity.

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The wiring in my grandma's place in Italy still has the same wires installed round 1925. The circuits consist of 2 individual cloth covered wires twisted around a nail, occasionally they both would short on the nail and blow a fuse. One of my uncles would come around and cover the shorted wire with a bit of duct tape and replace the fuse. The place was a fire trap and because it was heritage listed it had to be restored according to certain rules which my grandmother could not afford. Anyway grandma died in 2001 and it now sits empty but with the electricity disconnected.

Yeah I have heard similar stories to what BobL has posted.

Went to an open day for a place for sale in Dandenong. Did the usual look thru the house, only to discover a 240 V flouro mounted to the wall. Nuthing wrong there until I saw the figure 8 speaker wire, thin (cheap crap at that) running up the wall between the switch and the lite. The cable was held with sticky tape to the wall. In addition to this there was a break in the wire, and sticky tape was used to insulate the terminations. Of couse the wire was simply twisted together.

I promptly left the house. I had seen enough

If ya going to do a bodgy, at least do it correctly!!!

The Australian Standard for Test and Tagging is AS3760:2003 and it basicly requires all appliances that plug in be Risk Assessed and tested at certain times according to their uses and enviroment.
I have been involved in an interesting OHS Application where the items are a portable 3 Phase High Frequency Grinders, when looking at the Standard it is primally concerned with Single Phase Electrical Equipment. I brought this up with a NECA person who was involved in the Standards Committee who wrote the Standard, it became obvious that the Standard was lacking.
We still have to go a long way yet with our Standards and enforcement of Standards.
Soundman makes good sence here and he would know what I am talking about.
I ask soundman if he is familiar with the Standard AS60204.1-2005 Safety of Machinery - Electrical Equipment of Machines, and how many machines he would have seen that dont comply.

Regards,
Keith.

Thats no a standard I am familiar with, but it isn't too difficult to find items that do not comply with the more common standards.

Unfortunately there is no general oversight on electrical items sold to the public, so a great many imported items have interesting non compliances.

Oh and tell me about standards and regs that do not account for obscure or specialist applications.

If you want a real good example look at regulations conmcerning definitions of voltage clasifications then look at the voltages used in high power speaker applications.

Untill recently you caold have argued that running speaker cable was "electrician's work".....fortunaitely now it has the ststus of "LV communications cabling".. if you want to invoke that regulation.

cheers

cheers

After reading this topic I went through the garage and had a look for any dodgy power cords. I found a sus looking one, a orange ~10-15 Metre extension lead, with lots of spiral kinks running all the way through it, and I went up to consult with mum (I'm still young :) ). I knew it belonged to my late grand father, and I asked her how old it was. She said she didn't know, and I said we should throw it out. She said "There's nothing wrong with it" And I asked her how she knew that and she said "I know".

So I went back and under the light slowly looked at it metre by metre, and I easily found a few nicks in the insulation. So against her wishes I cut both ends off (cutting the male end off that goes into the wall off first of course.) and threw it in the trash.

She wasn't very happy, but oh well :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kallan

After reading this topic I went through the garage and had a look for any dodgy power cords. I found a sus looking one, a orange ~10-15 Metre extension lead, with lots of spiral kinks running all the way through it, and I went up to consult with mum (I'm still young :) ). I knew it belonged to my late grand father, and I asked her how old it was. She said she didn't know, and I said we should throw it out. She said "There's nothing wrong with it" And I asked her how she knew that and she said "I know".

So I went back and under the light slowly looked at it metre by metre, and I easily found a few nicks in the insulation. So against her wishes I cut both ends off (cutting the male end off that goes into the wall off first of course.) and threw it in the trash.

She wasn't very happy, but oh well :)

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Welcome and well done Kallan, not many young blokes about as sensible and concerned with safety as you have just shown yourself to be. There really is no reason to have dodgy extension cords in use when you can buy a brand new 25 metre one at the big green box for $20.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kallan

So I went back and under the light slowly looked at it metre by metre, and I easily found a few nicks in the insulation. So against her wishes I cut both ends off (cutting the male end off that goes into the wall off first of course.) and threw it in the trash.

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Well done, young fella. There are a few of us older guys on this forum that would like to have certain days 'over again' because we didn't follow some basic safety procedures.
I came off 2nd best with a branch going into a mulcher last weekend- didn't get the blades but the branch twisted around and took off so much bark (mine) and my annual appointment with the demitoligist is today. Is he going to be impressed? I guess I could lie and say I fell off the bike! Of course the bottom line for me is- put some
%^$#& gloves on you idiot!

Graham

late one night we were packing up from night shift when i found the lead that i was rolling up had some damage,

i thought i had better do the right thing and cut the end of it so no one else uses it.

opps

i cut the female end off with a stanley knife but the male end was still pluged in and TURNED ON.......

well i am still here but a little wiser.