"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee)
05/20/2020 at 19:35 • Filed to: Coffee, Off Topic
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"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee)
05/20/2020 at 19:35 • Filed to: Coffee, Off Topic | 6
| 21 |
As the literal dozens of you who saw
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
may remember, I bought a 70's vintage percolator. There were a few reasons, foremost being that it takes up much less space than any drip machine of similar capacity. This thing can make 11 cups and it’s smaller than a football. Another reason was
look how good it matches my kitchen! Look at it!!!
Regardless, with vintage household appliances comes vintage electrical safety standards. Look at that tiny plug. It would be super easy to accidentally slip a finger off and touch one of the blades while plugging or unplugging it. You have to unplug it a lot, but there’ll be more on that later.
Additionally, the almost fifty year old rubber cord (and they used real rubber back then, not plastic) was perished and so soft I could cut through it with my thumbnail. That’s not bueno.
Luckily that type of double-ended appliance cord is pretty universal. There are numerous retailers online or otherwise that will be happy to sell you a brand new one in any length you like for very reasonable prices. $9 and a few days later we have a cord with modern PVC insulation and a significantly safer flared plug.
But, there’s a bit more we can do to make this better. If you look closely at the controls on the percolator, you’ll see that there is no “Off”. Yes, that’s right, this is one of those dastardly always-on device s. I have a whole rant on those but I’ll spare you from it today. After the brew cycle is done this thing will stay in “keep warm” mode indefinitely. The only way to turn it off (to say, clean it out, something that needs to be done every time it’s run ) is to unplug it. Guess what? Turning a device off by unplugging it !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !
So let’s add a switch. Amazon has a huge selection of switches for the DIY electrician. $7 snagged me a two-pack of a switch with an illuminated indicator. It says it’s for lamps but it’s rated for three amps more than the perc draws so it can be used in this application.
Installation took all of five minutes. Just cut your cord where you want the switch and strip 3/4" from all wire pieces. The screw-down terminals grip tight and provide a good amount of strain relief. In this case it doesn’t matter what terminal the wires go into because both ends of the cord can be plugged in any orientation. Both wires in the cord can act as line or load. If you were dealing with a ground or polarized plug there’d be a specific way it’d need to be wired up.
And now we slap it back together and test it to make sure the house doesn’t burn down.
Success! Now we can get that sweet, sweet bean juice in a safe fashion.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
05/20/2020 at 19:54 |
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I have a rebuilt Kirby vacuum, we just got rid of a blender I think my mom had in the 70's, it died. The Kirby is a beast, and looks like a Cylon.
ranwhenparked
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
05/20/2020 at 20:03 |
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Those vacuums are built really well . The closest modern equivalents are like $450, and they have more plastic components in them than the vintage models.
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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> ranwhenparked
05/20/2020 at 20:23 |
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Yeah I was going to get a vac repaired and the owner said don’t bother with the modern crap. The Kirby is way more powerful too, he refurbed it and it came with the whole box of attachments including an upholstery foamer thing. It will fuck shit up if you aren’t careful.
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ranwhenparked
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
05/20/2020 at 20:26 |
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I could see it sucking the carpet off the pad
SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
> If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
05/20/2020 at 20:29 |
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I’m more surprised by the fact that your wall outlet doesn’t have a switch for each socket...
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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> ranwhenparked
05/20/2020 at 20:29 |
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It sucks, it really sucks. It does pull the carpet up as it goes.
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If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
> SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
05/20/2020 at 20:31 |
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Welcome to America, where our electrical system is made up and common sense does n’t matter.
phenotyp
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
05/20/2020 at 20:34 |
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Holy shit.
Stick some red LEDs on that thing, stat.
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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> phenotyp
05/20/2020 at 20:37 |
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Yeah I need a sweeping red light LED thing to put on it. The arm has that decal on it, if I ever go back to work I can make a custom overlay and it could say, by you command or something.
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SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
> If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
05/20/2020 at 20:52 |
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Here I've found that 240 volts is an excellent cure for common sense...
zipfuel
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
05/20/2020 at 21:10 |
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We had one of those growing up, it was legitimately industrial grade and hopefully
still running somewhere. My mum’s back couldn’t take hauling it up and down our three storey house after a while and it got replaced with an “as seen
on tv” ultralight Ore
k
that was always blowing belts or motors.
Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
05/20/2020 at 21:19 |
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Fun fact: the workplace death rate for electricians is much higher in 115V countries than 230V ones. Because everyone knows 230 will kill ya and treats it accordingly, whereas they tend to get casual around 120 because they think of it as not too dangerous. Which is true right up until it isn’t.
I’ve literally seen a sparky in Mexico twisting the wires on a live cable with his bare hand, one zap per twist. Different labour laws and overall attitude to safety down there, but dead is still dead.
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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
05/20/2020 at 21:20 |
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I suppose it’s a stupid question to ask if that non-earthed appliance is double insulated....
Roadkilled
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
05/20/2020 at 21:57 |
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I don’t have access to any versions of UL 1082 before the 6th Edition from 2009. It’s likely that the safety requirements from the 1960s and 1970 required double or reinforced insulation on Class II products. The question is what was used for insulation. It’s possible that the insulating materials have degraded over time. You could get arcing or a short circuit in the coffee pot. Assuming the kitchen has functional GFCIs, the shock risk should be minimized, but the arcing would be a fire risk.
This video describes how percolators actually shut off.
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SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
05/20/2020 at 22:16 |
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Our sparky works on the assumption that all electrical wiring is, in some way, broken and therefore trying to kill him . Even stuff he’s put in.
Given the amount of clearly DIY wiring we/he has pulled out of this house...it's an excellent assumption to make.
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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> zipfuel
05/20/2020 at 22:31 |
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Yeah my wife says it’s heavy but we don’t have an upstairs. There aren’t many moving parts, I think he swapped in a new motor, spinner bru sh thing, cord and switch. It’s solid aluminum for the most part. I saw a video that says it can suck the dirt down to the wood below and the other modern vacs don’t even come close.
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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> Roadkilled
05/20/2020 at 22:50 |
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Ancient and dodgy elastomer s - they’re not jus t for Jaguar fuel lines #truthinadvertising
My dad has a fan heater in his house which dates back to the 1930s. It’s a really nice home access ory - super quiet, built like a brick shithouse, and nice looking - and he love s it . Since I know me telling him whether it’s dangerous won’t make any difference, I’ve stayed way the hell away f ro m looking at what’s inside it, beyond making sure the earth is trustworthy . But I strongly suspect most of the voltage prot ection nowadays is provided by airgaps not insulation . Fortunately electricity was still relatively newfangled back then and engineers w ere smart/ne rvous enough not to trust fabric wire insulation , so I’m hoping that’s a rea son ably stable situation as lon g as you keep your paws out of the live bits.
Actually, on the su b ject of not trusting fabric insulation, we’re renovating our 1930s house at the moment and it’s been interesting to see that behind the walls there’s a network of earthed steel conduits, which is what they ran house wiring inside back then so that if when the insulation failed you got a blown fuse not a fire. Long since disused, but they didn’t remove it when they upgraded to TPE wiring.
sn4cktimes
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
05/21/2020 at 00:24 |
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We had one of those when I was a kid. Best vacuum ever.
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sn4cktimes
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
05/21/2020 at 00:29 |
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110-120V zaps are considered pretty “meh” by a lot of industry people I’ve worked around. Until it’s a 30 amp circuit. Then she’s got punch.
One of my coworkers got zapped by a 600V circuit once. He was lucky that the amperage at the time was “turned” down, shit coulda fried him.
I’ve helped a Sparky at work hook up a 1400V 300amp circuit disconnect. Turning it on requires special PPE to protect against arcing. I was in the other room when he “flicked” it on.
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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> sn4cktimes
05/21/2020 at 02:42 |
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They’re pretty meh till you’ve got a cut finger or sweaty hands. Almost all your body’s electrical resistance is in the skin - find a way to reduce skin resistance and life gets real exciting real quick.
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sn4cktimes
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
05/21/2020 at 14:00 |
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Yeah. I’ve never got zapped; but I try to be pretty cautious. I had to do a live hookup of a 110V exhaust fan for a compressor room that weirdly shared a circuit with a server room upstairs in the office that they didn’t want to turn off. I just used some insulated gloves with insulated pliers to hookup the wire-nuts. Was fine. I hooked up the ground, then the neutral, then the hot. Taped over the marettes and closed up the junction box. There’s some DC stuff at work in cabinets for equipment that I would NOT want to encourage to spark. Some of it for the equipments sake, some of it for the sake of keeping my internals on the inside.