Shocking

Got a 4 way block with a 2m lead, from by box of electrical bits, to test my newly arrived bandsaw. Plugged it in and "pop", everything in the workshop went off. unplugged the extension and tried another one. Every thing OK.

When I opened up the 4 way block I found THIS.

What is worse, this is on the back.

How do they get away with putting a BS number on stuff like this?

That reminds me of when I was working. We made aircraft parts and sub assemblies and in our fitting shop we had some hydraulic test stands. The test rig for commercial aircraft used Skydrol hydraulic oil, a rather nasty phosphate ester which is non flammable. The rig had motorised pumps and hand pumps, and for some reason or other somebody took off one of the side panels to look at something. He had a fright when he saw a three phase cable running from the switch to the motor had lost all of its pvc insulation. The three conductors and neutral wire were suspended across a foot wide gap in a slow helix with no more than 1/8" between the four of them, and it still worked! The rig was rewired in sealed metal tubing right away.

Might be a fake, where did it come from Anthony? Clipsal have a leaflet...

Dave

Holy crap, that is bad. I must admit on first view from my tablet, I didn't spot the major issue. Then I thought why is the earth conductor looking like that. A closer look showed the problem. Good job the earth continuity was sound at the plug end.

The live and neutral wire fitting at the plug contacts do not look that bright either

It's was probably from an installation I removed when I was working, as the mains plug has a PAT testing label on it dated 2003.

If genuine from that date, it was made in Australia! I expect a pom did it and ran way...

BS 1363 is a dimensional standard not a quality standard.

Peter

.

... It’s the ‘uncountable noun‘ BS 

[ third definition in Collins COBUILD dictionary ]

MichaelG.

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Edit: ___ To save you searching:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bs

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 15/05/2020 22:44:31

Anthony, It sounds like you are in luck - viewing the leaflet on the link Dave posted it clearly says that (unlike other cheap items) you can send items back to Clipsal's local rep for replacement.

So now you just need to identify their local Rep. You might have to lob it over to them to ensure appropriate distancing.

Edited By John Paton 1 on 15/05/2020 23:19:22

So I assume you bent the rod to where it should be & carried on. That is what most would do. Not worth throwing away.

Steve.

Nope! Cut the cable off and fitted a single trailing socket on the end and binned the 4 way block. (I'll probably get reprimanded for that. Should have recycled it.)

Double post removed

Edited By Anthony Knights on 16/05/2020 17:19:26