wiring a plug

[The Gaffa]

OOps looks like this oldie's stirred up a nest of snakes here. And before anyone asks My Dad also taught me.

 

 

Ok so if I'd thrown in the one about the American & Japanese colours would anyone have got it?

 

 

Heres the answer:

 

The following are the colours that are used as standard on 3 pin mains plugs:

 

 

Pin Connection USA / Japan EUROPE /UK

 

Live Black Brown

 

Neutral White Blue

 

Earth Green Green / Yellow

[Ynot]

The challenge is to describe to me, in a PM, PRECISELY how you would go about wiring up a basic 13A plug. Don't post here for now - let's have independent work, guys... :)

Progress report - slow start, but we have two entries thus far.

I won't comment just yet, but let's have some more, guys! :)

Even if you're not sure - tell me what YOU think...!

[Harvey_51]

Taught Myself :) ..... with a wiring diagram ** laughs out loud **

 

Now I can make my own extension leads :)

[tom_the_LD]

The challenge is to describe to me, in a PM, PRECISELY how you would go about wiring up a basic 13A plug. Don't post here for now - let's have independent work, guys... :)

Progress report - slow start, but we have two entries thus far.

I won't comment just yet, but let's have some more, guys! :)

Even if you're not sure - tell me what YOU think...!

When are we likely to know the results? Tomorrow/Saturday?

[charl.ie]

Taught Myself :) ..... with a wiring diagram ** laughs out loud **

 

Now I can make my own extension leads :)

 

Ditto there. Why else do they make the little diagram if not to show you how it's done?

[roryfm]

Please also see THIS rant!

 

Jim

 

A little of topic, but

 

Jim,

In reply to your other rant, I am now less than a month from away from completing my 4 yrs Masters in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and not _ONCE_ has anything remarkably as practical as wiring a plug been discussed. In fact in the first 3 years we weren't allowed anywhere near mains power for insurance reasons, (which made the project of designing and making a 230Vac to ±12Vdc and 5Vdc power supply a rather pointless exercise.)

 

Now in my fourth year group project had I suggested building something running on three phase no-one would have objected. Obviously through my 5 years freelancing in theatres means I know about 3ph, but some of my contemporaries didn't even know what a Ceeform was, and were confused by the concept of a 16A plug, and it scares me more than a little!

 

roryfm

 

PS On topic, learnt plug wiring age <10 by my Dad, helped make up all the extensions in my school's perf. space aged 11 (checked by staff each time) and now reckon I can manage it.

[Johnno]

I work in a school science department and wiring plugs has just been dropped from our course. I think it's no longer on the syllabus, but don't quote me.

 

I say good riddance because we had only really, really, really crappy wire strippers and the teachers weren't interested anyway. I loaned one teacher my £2.99 best strippers for a class of six children and they were returned broken. Stuff that!

 

After the classes were done I got to dismantle all the plugs so I got to see some shocking :) sights. In one that sticks in my mind the pupil had stripped about three inches of insulation from each wire and then wired it. God knows whether he was taking the p*ss or whether he thought that was how you do it, and God knows what the teacher said about it as few teachers could wire a plug well anyway, and some (mostly female) didn't know how to before having to teach it. Science teachers are not all technically aware people.

 

It used to worry me too that there was nothing to stop pupils from inserting the plug into the bench sockets, which were live, other than the chewing gum and bits of Biros that clog up most of the socket holes. The teacher's computer runs off the same circuit, so kill it for safety and the teacher can't do any admin. They don't like that. I tried bending a few plug pins but that stopped them from being taken out of the plug body.

 

Nowadays most electrical goods seem to have moulded on plugs. EC regs presumably. So no need to wire plugs, although 1.8m is invariably the wrong length of flex for every application and it's always too stiff to lie neatly. Not like the good old days when you had to wire everything electrical yourself. For the benefit of younger BRers that was because there were four different socket types in use in British houses (2A, 5A, 15A all round pin, and 13A eventually), plus adapters that let you plug several things simultaneously into your light fixtures which I think must have been banned now as you never see them anywhere. Ahhh, the good old days....

 

 

 

Edit for tpyo

[paulears]

Who cares if it isn't on the syllabus - if it's a life skill, then it should be done. However, the real world result is that teachers nowadays only teach what they have to - few bother with anything that isn't written down.

 

I used to do this with non-technical people. We had a laugh about all the rejects - happened every time. We had a pass/merit distinction criterion. under direct supervision meant a pass, a small bit of help got a merit with distinction for anyone who did it properly on their own. Any nicks in the insulation, wrong lengths, too much or too little copper exposed, stray strands etc all meant that they didn't even get the pass. There was no requirement to do this, but the assessment criteria fitted plug fitting rather well - so that's what I did. A bit of fun, a bit of competition, some grades and a useful life skill I thought. When I left, they never did it again, using some other process for this criterion.

 

A fair number needed me or the technocian to fix before they could be tested and used - that was how we got all our 15A cables made up.

 

It used to worry me too that there was nothing to stop pupils from inserting the plug into the bench sockets

 

yes there was! The person in charge - and if you knew what was going on, and had doubts over the safety, then if somebody had been hurt (or worse) you would have had a portion of the blame too. Duty of care applies to everyone to some degree in a school/college setting.

[CPlater1]

Talking about plugs, while recently clearing a garage I found a 13A, 5A and 15A plug (all in one, with many holes to get the right one! I think dad said it was broken, so it went in the bin!

[themadhippy]

I found a 13A, 5A and 15A plug (all in one, with many holes to get the right one!

yep got a few of em kicking around somewhere.A little lever on the front to release the pins,think mine does 2A 2 pin as well.With a bit of fiddling they can even be used on them 13A security sockets were the pins are rotated 90 degrees from normal :)

Now if anyone finds a 2 way baton holder adaptor with a pull cord to select either light......................................

[MarkPAman]

It used to worry me too that there was nothing to stop pupils from inserting the plug into the bench sockets, which were live............

 

I too worry about plugs being put on leads that have nothing at the other end.

 

I usually find my pile of shuko - IEC leads is large enough for a class to use for plug wiring lessons & just cut off & bin the Shuko plug. After a visual inspection by me or the teacher, the lead can then be stuck in the PAT tester. Well made leads are then kept, less well made ones I take apart again for next time.

[Ynot]

When are we likely to know the results? Tomorrow/Saturday?

Up to 5 'entries' at the moment.

I'm pretty busy the next day or so, but will try to publish on Sunday.

[Suzette]

It's nice to know that quite a few of our "young uns" seem to have a fairly decent idea of how to wire a plug ... and hopefully have the sense to get someone to check it if they are at all any way unsure with what they have done.... now can we start on training the theatre technicians please!!

A recent job I was on... I asked the full-time theatre technician (who had been given to us as our lighting technician for that day) if he could please put a 15amp plug on an electrical practical ... an hour later - the plug was still not fitted and (what I thought was worse) he hadn't asked for help, he had just wasted an hour of his (and my recharged) time.

[p.k.roberts]

It used to worry me too that there was nothing to stop pupils from inserting the plug into the bench sockets, which were live,

 

I have some 'disastrously dangerous' demo kit for teaching purposes, and to prevent it being plugged in (when it's out of it's locked box) the end of the earth pins have been sawn off (so the shutters on a 13A socket won't open). This makes them as near idiot proof as I can manage.

[Wol]

It used to worry me too that there was nothing to stop pupils from inserting the plug into the bench sockets, which were live,

 

I'll agree in that theres not much a single teacher can do, to not only teach the class, and monitor every students' actions. Once chemistry class many years ago, one student was bored, so suck a paperclip in one of the sockets. I'm assuming that he's not completely retarded in life skills, and knows that you shouldn't stick paperclips into sockets, but there are just some kids who will play up.

 

Luckily the gas taps did have a main padlocked valve in the room!

 

I think I did have a brief encounter at school of how to wire up a plug in a physics lesson ("Mr brown lives and leaves his blue car in neutral" is one I remember!). I don't know if it was specifically in the main GCSE syllabus, but our head of science is the same guy who writes the electronics A level textbook, as well as being one of the people who write the exam questions for OCR, so he knew what he was doing... which is more than can be said about the other physics teachers I had.