For Ally Pally, electrical gubbins had to be PAT tested. And it failed.
Once opened up (there are two screws under the plack cover around the sockets) the reason is plain to see. The cable insulation had broken awaywhere it enters the centre of the drum.
The rest of the cable looks fine. Scuffs, but no more broken outer insulation. While the reel needs to retire from exhibition use (I bought a replacement) I don't see why I shouldn't fix this one.
Each cable was cut where it is crimped to the brass(?) bars, and many inches taken off the end. By comparing the cables, I could cut the insualtion back to match the original.
It's important that each wire is the correct length or it won't fit back in the drum.
After this, the connections were uncrimped by forcing a small screwdriver along the wire then finishing the unbending of the connection with pliers. The freshly tinned wires were then crimped back in, and given a touch of solder for good measure.
Reassembly is the reverse of the above. It pays to take photos as you go. The plugs were very tight in the sockets until I realised that I'd put the brass(?) bars behind the metal U-shapes, not inside them as they should be, That changed, it's all good to go.
Jobs like this give me imense satisfaction. If I hadn't fixed the reel, it would go to landfill. Instead it can live again. But, is this a good idea? I don't think I'm being foolhardy, but if you aren't careful, it would be possible to produce something dangerous.
Good or bad idea?
It's what I'd do, given the sound condition of the casing. Subject to cost, I might have bought fresh length of cable to instal. Those wires are bound to be work-hardened after years of flexing.
ReplyDeleteOffer it at the next exhibition so it gets retested! And obviously take the spare...
It does show that PAT testing, however boring, is not always a waste of time!
I did the PAT testing for my local charity shop and it was surprising how many of the donated electrical items failed the test. Often a quick visual inspection was enough to fail the item, but in others it needed the test machine to find the invisible faults such as broken earth connections. The thing is, these items were brought in with the the belief that they were working OK, and they would work, but in fact were potentially lethal. It makes you wonder how many similar items we have in our own homes that don't get tested.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. There is too much waste in our society. IMO the Right to Repair movement is a good thing: https://therestartproject.org/right-to-repair/
ReplyDeleteGood idea. If you are at all sensible and proficient then these sort of repairs are perfectly safe.
ReplyDeletePhil,
ReplyDeleteI do PAT testing for a couple of charitable organisations. In my experience the 80/20 rule applies here. The majority of defects tend to be found during the Inspection part of the task with the remainder being excessive Earth Bond Resistance or low Insulation Resistance.
Many faults are repairable and I have lost count of the number of extension leads that I have had to shorten or power tool leads I have replaced due to damaged cable sheaths. I several examples I have found exposed Live conductors.
NB Not all cassette type extensions leads can be opened!
As for your example the split outer sheath where it enters the termination area is a very common fault. I would certainly consider a repair over binning the item. But I would have removed a longer piece of the flex before re-terminating it. There is damage visible to the sheath in the first few millimetres after it has exited the termination area. Guess where is is going to split next time ...
Regards,
Geoff
Geoff - Some good points there. You are right, I should have chopped the lead off a bit more. In my defence, there are a few squashed bits and replacing the cable would be the long-term solution, and still better than binning the whole lot.
ReplyDeleteInteresting talk about charity shop PAT testing. I'd not really thought about this, but now I do it makes sense that items are tested. Quite reassuring to know.
I agree - Geoff has made lots of excellent points here.
ReplyDeleteSome years back, I worked in a university civil as department, as an instrumentation technician.
Apart from fitting / wiring lots of resistance strain gauges (I enjoyed the wiring ...) - and setting up / running various lab tests - I also did lots of PAT testing.
When it came to the PAT testing - and associated work - I'd often get a good idea what to expect, long before firing up the test machine. I probably shouldn't say this but with certain colleagues - certain labs etc., most stuff would be in excellent condition. Even picking up the mains plug would tell me something - the plug and cable would be clean and feel solid. Opening the plug would reveal everything in order. This stuff would usually fly through the PAT tests.
Unfortunately, certain colleagues, labs and offices filled me with trepidation - and, unfortunately, their "gear" would rarely disappoint (assuming, of course, that it wasn't locked away somewhere with no key available).
I don't want any smokers to view this as a "dig for victory" campaign - but bits of ash on / inside housings didn't improve appliances - neither did cigarette burns on mains cables.
Another pet hate was those small Bakelite adapter cubes - slightly bigger than a standard 3 pin plug - but with sockets on most sides. You can safely assume that, if I found one of these things in use, it wouldn't be there for much longer.
Whenever I did PAT tests, I'd also turn up with a carrier bag full of new 4 way extension leads (and I was fussy about which ones I'd get).
Turning to extension reels, one of these unexpectedly failed its PAT test, on insulation resistance.
It turned out that the insulation on some adjacent turns of wire had softened / melted over time - this wasn't visible from the outside.
As this was an open reel (I actively avoid the enclosed ones), I replaced all the wire.
Since then, I've also made a point of fully unwinding extension reels every so often - to check for this sort of damage.
I still won't get (or use) enclosed extension reels - as I can't inspect them fully, I don't trust them!