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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
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6th Mar 2019, 5:15 pm | #141 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Colchester, Essex, UK.
Posts: 4,108
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Elderly Duraplug to be binned- this one is old enough for 'red/green/black' lettering to be moulded into the black part, and also shows signs of abuse- bent pins, and the usual lazy cut-out to the white part caused by the fitter failing to thread it onto the outer sleeve!
I took this one off a B&D jigsaw primarily because the blue and brown insulation was exposed, but the whole plug is just scrap. Looking at the inside note the pitch black coating of what is presumably sulphide, covering the fuse caps, the bronze hooks into which the fuse (just about) locates, (one of the many copper sulphides?) and the black deposition in the white part of the plug demarcating the ends of the fuse holder. The copper multi-core conductors had also gone black at the ends- but this might just be deposition from the silver attack. Silver sulphide is a fairly non-invasive corrosion, but as far as the fuse is concerned it appears to have eaten ALL the silver plating. Must be lots of free sulphur in this (vulcanized?) plug- the black part of which has started to distort. Check old Rubber plugs! Dave |
6th Mar 2019, 6:47 pm | #142 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,009
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The sulphur-induced black corrosion is typical of a lot of 'rubber' plugs/connectors - I've seen the same in loads of elderly Permaplugs and also in "Hercules"-brand ones [Hercules was Woolworths house-brand].
I had a chunky 15A BS546 3-pin supposedly-waterproof Duraplug inline "flex-connector" on the really-rather-long extension-lead used with my first electric lawnmower - it too suffered brass-blackening-syndrome. Thankfully this blackening is not an issue with either the MK SafetyPlugs or their nylon-topped ToughPlugs. |
7th Mar 2019, 7:24 pm | #143 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Colchester, Essex, UK.
Posts: 4,108
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Duraplugs-
Looked at another one today, and this confirmed my initial impression that as well as the loss of silver from the fuse caps, traces of metallic silver have been deposited on the top of the L,E, & N brass pins. Presumably this action would be accelerated if the plug was used with DC. Dave |
8th Mar 2019, 12:07 am | #144 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,276
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I still like MK plugs, shoot me! I've never bought one though, just cut them off old appliances and reused them.
Warming thick cables up slightly in the hand is enough to get them into the cable grips. A version of that quick-plug with equal wiring lengths was shown on tomorrows world, but using spring-clips to hold the wires in place.
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Kevin |