Fitting a mains plug.

[Lancs Lad]

Thanks, Paul.

That means a lot coming from you.

[electrogram]

I like Legrand plugs too, I think they were the "flattest" 13 amp plugs made.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Personally I think the neutral wire should have been left a bit longer, but I've seen much, much worse, and it's not obviously dangerous.

I agree. I cut the earth and live wires to the 'correct' length as they enter directly (straight) into their pins, but leave the neutral wire longer as there's room to bend it round and back into its pin. This makes it a tad easier to fit.

[wireman]

It would be nice if more items came with instructions, the last trailing socket pair I purchased came with a nice sheet with exact dimensions for each conductor to account for the route from cable entry to terminal. Made it a lot simpler than trial and error.

Perhaps someone should make a snake ruler for such use.

[The Philpott]

-The perfect storm is high wattage, tinned conductors and ageing stripped cardboard cord grips. This is how i got a burnt finger from a plug pin.
Dave

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

Oh, this drives me to fury!

A 'plug top' is the lid that fits on top of a plug, secured by one or more screws, to stop the person plugging it in electrocuting themselves by touching the terminals inside.

How much longer must we endure having a PLUG referred to as a 'plug top'?

Well, that's what you'd think it would be, but when an industry leader and maker of these things has been calling them plugtops for many decades, then illogical though it may seem, that's the proper name. Most people including myself call them plugs or mains plugs. My reference above to plugtop was for historical reasons, this being a vintage forum and indeed as a discussion point.

[Lancs Lad]

Thanks, 'electrogram'!

Those Legrand plugs were the first I ever 'fell in love with', if that's the correct way of putting it.

It was 1978, and I was nine years old, and we went on a family holiday to St Ives, Cornwall.

We had a self-catering flat on The Wharf, and every appliance had a Legrand plug on it, etched with SWEB in black lettering.

I wanted to take one of those Legrand plugs home so much that i went to Woolworths (as it was then) and bought a replacement plug with my holiday spends!

My idea was to change the plug on something, so that I could take a SWEB Legrand plug home with me

And it worked! I took the plug off the vacuum cleaner and swapped it for the WG one from Woollies. Didn't have a screwdriver. Just used a knife out of the cutlery drawer, when everyone else was out!

Result!

Yes, dishonest, I know, but, believe me, that vacuum cleaner was a lot safer after I'd put the new plug on it. I don't know who'd fitted the previous plug, but it was obvious that he or she had absolutely no idea how to do it properly! The live and neutral wires were mixed up. So the vacuum would have been connected to Live, even after being disconnected at the footswitch by the neutral.

It's a wonder none of us died from electrocution in those flats.So many electrical faults you would not believe! I could barely sleep for worrying.

I'll tell you about the tingles I used to get from the rain-soaked 1960s MK lightswitches another time...

[FIXITNOW]

Originally Posted by emeritus

Other than for MK plugs, I now fit ferrules to the wire ends when wiring plugs. CPC now stock them at a reasonable cost, and I already had a suitable crimping tool.

Me too especially if using 0.5mm cores

[Sparks]

Another fan of Legrand plugs (especially the coloured ones) and the big square Ever Ready plugs.

Is it permissible or acceptable to tin the wires with solder for improved strength if a ferrule isn't available?

[paulsherwin]

This is generally considered bad practice, as the solder isn't completely solid and will flow under pressure from the retaining screw leading to a loose connection.

[G6Tanuki]

I like the Legrand plugs; in times-past my parents bought a new 'Electra' fridge from the old MEB electricity-board shop which - when fitted with a normal plug wouldn't go properly into its under-the-worktop nacelle without the evaporator coils hitting the top of the plug.

I fitted a Legrand slimline plug and the fridge then went-in another half inch! And no nasty buzzing when the evaporator vibrated against the top of the plug.

I've seen the Legrand plugs with various legacy Electricity Board branding [MANWEB, NORWEB, MEB, SWEB, SEEBOARD] and also with GPO and MoD ''broad arrow' markings.

Personally I always wired plugs with the same amoount of 'slack' on all three conductors, so if the cord-grip failed any mechanical strain was equally shared - making the parting of any of the conductors from their terminals less-likely, and things more likely to survive until the next inspection.

[partial pulling-out of a current-carrying conductor from its terminal and the risk of a resulting arcing/heating event being my big worry].

The first version of the MK SafetyPlug™ made a point of equal-length conductors to the terminals being achieved without the need to cut/strip the wires to different lengths. Later versions abandoned this nicety and left you to do the equal-length-thing for yourself.

[Sideband]

Originally Posted by Sparks

Is it permissible or acceptable to tin the wires with solder for improved strength if a ferrule isn't available?

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

This is generally considered bad practice, as the solder isn't completely solid and will flow under pressure from the retaining screw leading to a loose connection.

Paul is right. Soldered 'tails' are not permitted in any of the safety standards UNLESS the terminations are spring-loaded. With screw terminals, the solder 'creeps' and can result in a loose connection after a period of time. A spring-loaded connection will compensate.

Certainly when considering just BS1363 plugs, it is NOT allowed.

[factory]

Originally Posted by vidjoman

I taught my son, daughter and granddaughter how to fit plugs when they were each about 8 years old. Son is now over 50 and ggd is 30 and about to teach her eldest daughter (8) to fit one and use the correct fuse.
So many kitchen appliances come with a very short lead and those often need to be replaced so as to reach the wall socket.
They have all thanked me for teaching them so they can get items correctly connected.

I'm under 50 and wiring a plug was still done in one of the science classes, at the school I went to in the late 1990's.

Certain kitchen appliances have short leads to prevent accidents involving children, e.g. pulling things like boiling kettles off the worktop.

David

[emeritus]

In the GEC catalogues of 1893 and 1911, the combination of a plug and socket was called a "Wall plug" , but the plug part was only referred to as a plug, not a plug top (although the concentric plugs that GEC were then supplying in addition to their 2-pin range did resemble spinning tops).

In the US, the Edwardian era, 2-pin/blade plugs of Harvey Hubbel were referred to as "caps", because Hubbel's first phenominally commercially-successful product was a two-part adaptor for the common ES lamp socket, consisting of an ES to 2-pin adaptor that could be left in the lamp socket, and a detachable 2 pin plug he called the "cap", that eliminated the inconvenient multiple twists required with a plain ES plug. Hubbel's great improvement over this known type of adaptor was the provision of detents on his plugs' pins to stop them dropping out of a pendant lamp luminaire under gravity.

I haven't come across the term "cap" being used in the UK. The rapid bayonet action of the BC plug largely avoided the need for a two-part lampholder adaptor here unless your house also had 2 pin sockets.

AFAIR the Legrand plugs were originally made by BICC.

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

No problem, you just take a pair of wire cutters and cut through the offending part of the rubber plug. We did it all the time at Thorn.

I used to hate bodgers who did that. How long does it take to take it off and do it again?

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

I worked at Crabtree for a while as PR Officer and they're officially known as plugtops.

Crabtree were wrong then weren't they. A plugtop is the cover of the plug.

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

Here it is!

Correct fuse for a table fan.

Legrand plug with unsheathed pins just because I really like those plugs!

So, now I'm in the firing line. What do you all think?

Tidy job, or not?

Go on, let me have it...

It is tidy enough and they are nice plugs, I still have some. But the fuse is to protect the cable not the fan. With that cable a larger fuse could be used. In most other countries there are no fuses in plugs and the fan would be on a 16 amp circuit.

[Lancs Lad]

Yes! Winston!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

The plugtop is the lid (or top or cover) that goes on top of the bottom half of the plug.

And, not wishing to start another argument, 'plug socket' is totally wrong, aswell. At least, it is in my opinion.

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by Malcolm G6ANZ

One of the tests for prospective employees was to wire a 13A plug. Also to fit the correct fuse for a given load. This was mainly to see how they handled tools and what their dexterity was like. The choice of fuse showed they knew power to current calculations.

See my other post. The correct is for the size of the cable not the load.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

The plugtop is the lid (or top or cover) that goes on top of the bottom half of the plug.

And, not wishing to start another argument, 'plug socket' is totally wrong, aswell. At least, it is in my opinion.

Perhaps it's time to put those worms back in their can!