Gallery, Projects and General > How to's

How To Wire a Plug

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Darren:
Never heard of that one Bernd?

I doubt it's true as solder is soft. But what could happen is the strands break where the solder ends. But this is only if the cable is wiggled backwards and forwards. As it's held by the plug clamp this is not likely to happen.

If you don't solder or put a crimp on the wire the fastening screw breaks some of the fines wires as you tighten it. Not only reducing the amperage rating of the wire but you might also get some loose strands of wire floating about.

The real point of putting the post up was to highlight how the earth wire should be treated. That's the important bit.. :thumbup:

Earth is the most important wire in any circuit..... :zap:

John Hill:
Darren, I was taught to strip twice the required length and to double it back so that there was twice the thickness in the clampy bit.

Too right about the earth, the same guy taught me exactly what you described and for the same reasons.

Darren:
Hi John,

I was taught the same when I was an apprentice. One day I had a warning from an inspector on one job so I stopped doing it.

Another inspection much later I had another warning for not doing it.. :doh:

I don't think it really matters just so long as the wire is properly clamped... :scratch:

John Rudd:
I also was told not to solder the wires.....Clamping down with the screw is fine but the soft soldered wire is likely to 'creep' and over time can work loose causing loss of contact..

I've never done this in practise so cant comment on the validity of what I was told...

Darren,waddyathink?

bogstandard:
Darren,

Many years ago when I worked for a computer peripherals manufacturer, we had a directive from the people on high to check every 240 volt 3 pin mains plugtop in the factory. The company had just been bought out from it's American parent company, and was now under UK engineering control, instead of American engineers being on the shop floor.

As you can imagine, over 1,000 employees, and any personal equipment they brought into the factory had to be checked as well, from tape players to hair curling tongues.

It took two of us, full time, over a month to sweep the whole factory clean. Separate every plugtop and cable, cut all the wires to correct length, so that if the cable was yanked, first to go was live, then neutral and finally the earth. Solder them up (or crimp, if we had any), reassemble, check continuity, and stick a safe to use sticker on it.

You wouldn't believe some of the plug wiring we found, especially as the American engineers never did manage to pick up our electrical safety regs. Luckily, the other maintenance guys did the machinery installations, and they were onto a loser before they even started. Most of them were nervous wrecks by the time they finished, purely because of some of the things they found. A lot of the main cable connections were made by twisting the bare ends together, and then putting a little twisty on cap over it, these joints were everywhere.

I think I could still wire a mains plug up correctly, in the dark, doing it behind my back, while fast asleep.

John

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