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Old 28th Feb 2018, 2:00 pm   #1
tigger449
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Default Don't try this at home

Whilst looking for a picture to illustrate another post about hairdryers, I found this picture. I love these 'experimental' ways of adapting household appliances. What other examples of the ingenious or positively dangerous have people come across?
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 2:05 pm   #2
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

Hairdryers used to inflate air beds, with hot air!
Pop tarts in toasters.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 2:23 pm   #3
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

Vacuum cleaner used with those vacuum bags for clothing. I can't imagine the vac manufacturers approving such "misuse" with limited/stalled airflow.

Shoving power the wrong way into the National Grid from rooftop solar panels...
...no wait, that's approved of.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 2:35 pm   #4
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

Only borderline domestic I know, but what about use of an electric arc welder to thaw out frozen water pipes by passing the welding current along the pipe.

Various ways of misusing electric fires to cook snacks.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 2:41 pm   #5
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

It was quite normal at one time for people in bedsits to make toast on electric fires, using a metal toasting fork to hold the bread.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 3:10 pm   #6
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

The early toasters had completely bare elements when you opened the flap, I've got one somewhere.

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Old 28th Feb 2018, 3:21 pm   #7
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The early toasters had completely bare elements
So have the new ones, albeit down a fairly large slot. Just tried to touch the elements on mine, very easy, if it was on I would have got quite a belt as the rest of my hand was resting on the earthed case.
 
Old 28th Feb 2018, 3:26 pm   #8
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

When I was at uni, some of the halls-of-residence (those converted from being old hotels etc) had Morphy-Richards 2Kw electric convector-heaters like the one shown, in the student bedrooms.

If you turned one of these upside-down and restricted the airflow you could boil a kettle or fry eggs on them.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 3:36 pm   #9
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This went in to production, pay attention to note 1 !




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Old 28th Feb 2018, 4:01 pm   #10
tigger449
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

That's very similar to my grandparent's one, John. Theirs was black and didn't have the benefit of the handle.
I was actually referring to 'official' dodgy contraptions in my original post: things that went into production like this...
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 4:06 pm   #11
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One very early one that I have read about, was the use of an electric lamp in a wooden box in order to preserve the life of a premature infant.
An opening window was fitted to allow observation without admitting draughts, and an internal thermometer viewable through the window.

The lamp was placed at the bottom, and the baby wrapped in a blanket was on a slatted shelf about half way up.

The baby survived, and "would assuredly have perished without this ingenious invention"

Mid 1930s, in the USA IIRC.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 4:56 pm   #12
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In the 50s my parents bought from a door to door salesman a Vorwerk Vacmaster; a German vacuum cleaner that had all sorts of attachments!

It had a plug in heater unit which went on the blow side of the fan and had two square pins which mated with a socket on the cleaner to power the element; this could blow hot air into a plastic cover which you put on your head to dry yor hair or you could put the cleaner into your bed to blow hot air to warm the sheets. My parents used to do this until one night a loose end of a blanket got sucked in to the other end of the cleaner stopping the air flow! Fortunately it was caught in time so the house didn't burn down! There were also fluids and pads to put in the air fow to scent the house and many attachments for actually vacuuming. There was also a spray gun for painting!
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 5:12 pm   #13
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

Paint sprayers were quite common attachments with cylinder cleaners of the 50s and 60s. Not dangerous though, at least as far as I know.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 5:55 pm   #14
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

I've used the paint sprayer attachments a number of times in the past, with quite acceptable results, but always worried a bit about solvent-laden air being drawn in and past the commutator...
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 6:57 pm   #15
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

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Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
I've used the paint sprayer attachments a number of times in the past, with quite acceptable results, but always worried a bit about solvent-laden air being drawn in and past the commutator...
I sprayed the wing of a car with one of these and my motor bike frame. Took me ages to flat down the orange peel finish. My poor technique I think.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 7:07 pm   #16
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Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
but always worried a bit about solvent-laden air being drawn in and past the commutator...
In the early 70's in the lab at HP (Owen L?), someone had a newspaper cutting from the Western News of a chap who'd used a Hoover Constellation cleaner to try to vac some grit out of the bottom of the petrol tank of his car. It was described as 'shimmering around the garage on a sheet of flame'but the real disaster came when it collided with an open container holding the drained petrol. The descriptions have stuck in my mind for 45 years.

A constellation! of all the vacs!

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Old 28th Feb 2018, 7:27 pm   #17
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

I've heard of people turning electric irons upside down to use them as hotplates.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 7:39 pm   #18
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

One of my books of 101 good ideas (some of which actually are useful) suggests improvising a hair dryer by turning on the oven (door open) and putting an electric fan in front of it to blast the hot air at your head. Not dangerous, but hardly energy-efficient.

On the more lethal side, it is well-known you can cook a sausage by putting a contact into each end and connecting it across 110V mains. Or I guess 2 in series over here. I am even told there were some commercial cookers that worked like that, some even had interlock switches.

I once saw a travel steam iron on sale (perhaps 35 years ago) that was an electrode boiler. Two metal electrodes wired to the pins that connected to the mains lead, you filled it with water and added a little common salt.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 7:55 pm   #19
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Default Re: Don't try this at home

I use a hair dryer as a blower for a small forge. It works excellently until the sparks get caught up in the fan and it stalls, but a quick cleanup and it works again.

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Old 28th Feb 2018, 8:01 pm   #20
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When an apprentice in the 1950’s we used to toast our cheese sandwiches on an electric fire with the flat multi coil elements laid on its back. Often spluttered and caught fire as the oil/fat melted from the cheese. Bootifull.
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