Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

[nicebutdim]

Just delightful knowing that aircraft maintenance can be as slipshod as all other maintenance.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Not electrical but not sure how somebody managed this with a giant placard above it…



View attachment 110144

Even the placard is wrong the bolt head should be at the top and the stud below as both control cables run above the clamp.

 

[mainline]

Went to some industrial units to look at wiring in a portable toilet block and Static caravan, then went and looked at getting a supply for them.

I think I'll pass on this one

 

[ipf]

Don't know about portable loos but that looks like a real sh** **le

 

[mainline]

Don't know about portable loos but that looks like a real sh** **le

I told him it's dangerous.

 

[Simon47]

And this one from not to long ago where the main cable from the engine generator had been run on finger tight on phase A so it got so hot it melted out the lug

Years ago I used to own a share of a Piper Warrior (160hp, 4cyl single engine). We had problems with the alternator tripping off - assumed to be the over-voltage trip* operating. After months of "we'll try ..." from the so called engineers, I called them up and said "I'm coming down, I'm going to strip, clean, and reassemble all the connections in the battery and charging circuit"** - note, not a "can I" but an "I am". Of course, they started with all the "we'll have to check your work" (I said "fine"), etc., etc. reasons why I shouldn't. When I arrived, they said "can you take it for a test flight, we think we've found the problem" - I did, and they had.
I was 'kin livid, and had it been down to me I'd have made quite a stink about it. There was a bad crimp on the alternator field connection - when it was high resistance, the regulator would crank up the field voltage to compensate, then when it went low resistance, it would cause a higher than needed field current which would trip the over-voltage protection before the regulator could turn the field down. It had been crimped with a pair of pliers, or one of those plier type crimping tools - cut connector in half, found flat oval cross section rather than squeezed down to a gas tight connection. The tell-tale was about an inch of the white insulation was grey. And for good measure, one of the mechanics innocently commented that he'd noticed that when replacing the alternator during one of their previous "we'll try ..." steps.
I don't know how much it cost us in parts and labour - for one bad crimp that one of their own engineers had noticed some time before this came to a head.

* Typically on these small aircraft, there is both a voltage regulator that controls the field current to maintain a constant battery/bus voltage, and an over-voltage trip that cuts the alternator field if the voltage goes above a certain threshold (to prevent a disconnected battery from frying all the electronics). Sometimes they are separate units, more typically both functions in one module.
Also, unlike cars, the alternator is not self-exiting - it's field comes from the battery/DC bus via a switch and an external regulator.

** I'd been asking friends and been advised that a common reason for this problem was a bad connection that caused intermittent connection, and hence intermittent alternator issues.

 

[LewisM]

Yeah I’ve heard that general aviation has a lot of DIY daves.

The planes I work on are slightly larger.

 

[Simon47]

Yeah I’ve heard that general aviation has a lot of DIY daves.

These weren't DIY Daves, these were supposedly professional "engineers" who certainly knew how to charge for their time !
It would have been nice to be allowed to do some of it DIY - we'd have made sure we did a better job.

The planes I work on are slightly larger.

Just a tad. Mind you, I've heard a few tales from that size of the business ...

 

[Mike Johnson]

And not just the Engineers, I was present when the Engineer signed over the World Aerobatic champions Pitts to the pilot, but emphasised that after the service ( he was at lunch) he had not filled the oil tank, said champion said OK no problem I will do it before I take off, he duly taxied to the end of the field and as is his wont took off and went inverted, the oil drained out as he forgot to put the cap on, give him his due, he Chandelled the Pitts landed down wind and used the momentum left to taxi onto the apron, he did not come into the club house, just got in his car and left.

 

[James]

These weren't DIY Daves, these were supposedly professional "engineers" who certainly knew how to charge for their time !
It would have been nice to be allowed to do some of it DIY - we'd have made sure we did a better job.

Just a tad. Mind you, I've heard a few tales from that size of the business ...

smaller issues are often unreported for small private aircraft, the bigger ones it is harder to hide when you put the wrong size screws in the windscreen!

 

[LewisM]

smaller issues are often unreported for small private aircraft, the bigger ones it is harder to hide when you put the wrong size screws in the windscreen!

We still learn about that at work during human factors training pretty sure every screw was either the wrong length and/or diameter

 

[Simon47]

We still learn about that at work during human factors training pretty sure every screw was either the wrong length and/or diameter

I bet it's part of the standard syllabus of "how not to do it" British Airways Flight 5390 - Wikipedia
Wikipedia also has a list of explosive decompression events - not just limited to aircraft. The 1983 diving bell/decompression suite accident is not one to read when about to sit down for a meal - or if squeamish.

In my line of work, we have similar sessions. Decompression is rarely a topic, the reverse is sometimes. There was some discussion around the office in June ... There have been others, USS Thresher being one that caused a rethink around design/safety standards.

 

[Mike Johnson]

And the HMS Thetis accident caused all HMS subs to be fitted with a Thetis clip on the torpedo tubes, as did the (I think) the HMS Truculent colliding with an oil tanker making it mandatory to have a Truculent light on the bow when surfaced.

 

[littlespark]

So the warning light, or incident is named after the vessel that an accident happened to??

What happened to the HMS What-does-this-button-do?

 

[pirate]

Just a small job, replacing a 3 gang switch that was basically worn out...brushed steel, no fly-lead to backbox, and a mix of t&e and a flex...nice switch with the coms all at the top and L1 and L2 at the bottom, rather than the staggered pattern of the new switch...it all went swimmingly (DIF!)...here is a nice touch though, the original electrician typed out a nice key to what was what...

All very neat and self-explanatory, one 15A and the rest 5A...
and a very neat board too

 

[nicebutdim]

Fitted a modern version of that bell a few days back. Lots of noise and takes up very little space.

 

[pirate]

You know that time when you take a pic of the wiring, replicate it, even though the new switch is configured differently, connect it all up...and each switch does what it's supposed to do...then you realise it's upside down, so on is up and off is down, so you rotate the switch...all is good til she says "Oh, the left one is supposed to operate the lights on the right, and the right one is supposed to do the left ones..." and i said, "the middle one does the middle string, so that's good!" She wanted it back the way it was...so I undid the outer two and swapped them over, checked they were working, and all was well. I added a fly-lead from the chrome switch to the back-box, screwed it all back and...BANG! Yup, nipped a cable with the fixing screw...a couple of seconds of sparks and glows and the fuse blew...that's the fuse number 5, lighting, 5Amp...no, it's not, all the 5A fuses, which are in 15A carriers, are fitted with 15A fusewire...still, I'm glad the faceplate was earthed. Another 5 minute job, satisfactorily completed! Spot the nice curly tails from the bottom of the box!
Never mind...
"Oh, while you are here..."
FEK, what now?
This under-cupboard light isn't working...
never seen one before, but hey...finally worked out how to take out the lamp from the holder, and it's a GX53. Oddly enough, I don't have a spare in my bag...research shows that the 2.5W 6500k version she has is impossible to source...
I';ve ordered a 4 pack of 6W warm white...she'll never notice if i replace them all at once!

 

[nicebutdim]

This under-cupboard light isn't working...
never seen one before, but hey...finally worked out how to take out the lamp from the holder, and it's a GX53. Oddly enough, I don't have a spare in my bag...research shows that the 2.5W 6500k version she has is impossible to source...
I';ve ordered a 4 pack of 6W warm white...she'll never notice if i replace them all at once!

Think I'd have aimed to replace the lot with slim link lights and amazed her with instant full illumination.

 

[nicebutdim]

Here we are. I reckon this is all any house needs.

Does the job well, cheap to buy and no integrated camera or spyware.

Underdome Door Bell | Honeywell_Friedland (D792)

 

[pirate]

I did that for my neighbour and she was delighted! Robus spear lamps, really nice. The old brown and beige fluorescent ones had melted end caps and had charred the underside of the cabinets...
12 of them replaced by 3 new ones...what a transformation!

 

[pirate]

and of no connection to any of this, I'm off to Stranraer tomorrow, via Portpatrick, for a couple of days at the Stranraer Oyster Festival...
Have a nice weekend!

 

[nicebutdim]

I did that for my neighbour and she was delighted! Robus spear lamps, really nice. The old brown and beige fluorescent ones had melted end caps and had charred the underside of the cabinets...
12 of them replaced by 3 new ones...what a transformation!

Even the cheap LAP ones from Screwfix seem fairly reliable. I've put a few sets in on occassions where price was a big issue for someone elderly. Not heard of a single failure to date and everyone has been pleased with the difference between old and new.

LAP certainly wouldn't be a 'go to' or recommendation, but they do seem to be okay.

 

[nicebutdim]

and of no connection to any of this, I'm off to Stranraer tomorrow, via Portpatrick, for a couple of days at the Stranraer Oyster Festival...
Have a nice weekend!

Never been to Portpatrick by road. Quickest route from here is over water.

Come to think of it, the same applies to Stranraer.

 

[7029 dave]

You know that time when you take a pic of the wiring, replicate it, even though the new switch is configured differently, connect it all up...and each switch does what it's supposed to do...then you realise it's upside down, so on is up and off is down, so you rotate the switch...all is good til she says "Oh, the left one is supposed to operate the lights on the right, and the right one is supposed to do the left ones..." and i said, "the middle one does the middle string, so that's good!" She wanted it back the way it was...so I undid the outer two and swapped them over, checked they were working, and all was well. I added a fly-lead from the chrome switch to the back-box, screwed it all back and...BANG! Yup, nipped a cable with the fixing screw...a couple of seconds of sparks and glows and the fuse blew...that's the fuse number 5, lighting, 5Amp...no, it's not, all the 5A fuses, which are in 15A carriers, are fitted with 15A fusewire...still, I'm glad the faceplate was earthed. Another 5 minute job, satisfactorily completed! Spot the nice curly tails from the bottom of the box!
Never mind...
"Oh, while you are here..."
FEK, what now?
This under-cupboard light isn't working...
never seen one before, but hey...finally worked out how to take out the lamp from the holder, and it's a GX53. Oddly enough, I don't have a spare in my bag...research shows that the 2.5W 6500k version she has is impossible to source...
I';ve ordered a 4 pack of 6W warm white...she'll never notice if i replace them all at once!

Was going to say that fuse box is nothing like the schedule draw up

 

[pirate]

Quick update on Stranraer:
Don't bother! The only good thing is that drinks in the pub are amazingly cheap, and I had brilliant, inexpensive pub grub, but otherwise not worth the drive, imho.

 

[Welchyboy1]

few pictures from my recent jobs

Plumber didnt check the other side of the wall before drilling through(had a lucky escape though) and a recent CU change that leaves alot to be desired

 

[DPG]

Can't believe he did that. He must not have even looked at the other side of the wall before drilling. Or a big misjudgement!

 

[Welchyboy1]

Can't believe he did that. He must not have even looked at the other side of the wall before drilling. Or a big misjudgement!

lol He said his apprentice measured it! He must have realised something was wrong by the depth surely! he actually asked me if i could move it all so he could still put his overflow pipe there, cheek!

 

[timhoward]

lol He said his apprentice measured it! He must have realised something was wrong by the depth surely! he actually asked me if i could move it all so he could still put his overflow pipe there, cheek!

I was drilling through the other day and measured extremely carefully to avoid a gate post and a gas pipe. The pilot hole went fine and it came out exactly where I wanted. Then I went up a size and felt the two skins, but then a bit of air and then something 'strange'. I stopped when it was clear this wasn't brick and and went to look.
The builders lad had opened the gate! But the brick I'd put there to keep it closed was now blocking the frame so the gate couldn't close and the drill was in the process of taking a nice little gouge out of the gate. Luckily this wasn't very noticeable as the gate was rotten beyond hope anyway.

 

[LewisM]

few pictures from my recent jobs

Plumber didnt check the other side of the wall before drilling through(had a lucky escape though) and a recent CU change that leaves alot to be desired

BG strikes again

 

[littlespark]

there's a picture somewhere on the internet of a drill coming through a wall, through the back of a wardrobe, through a guitar case withing the wardrobe and into the actual guitar which was in the case at the time.

or was that a dream?

 

[loz2754]

An ex colleague of mine drilled through a wall, straight into a hot water cylinder!
That's why he's an EX colleague.

 

[Simon47]

An ex colleague of mine drilled through a wall, straight into a hot water cylinder!

Got himself in hot water !

But more seriously, can any of us truly say we've never had a drilling mishap ? I certainly have some I'm not admitting to - beyond "they happened". Luckily never did anything expensive.

 

[littlespark]

I keep a short bit of cable on my drill box which was caught as I drilled through a wall… just to remind me of what can happen.

It was a redundant cable, buried in plaster and not in a prescribed zone…. So no idea it was there…. But my SDS made a good twisted mess out of it.

 

[DPG]

Quite impressed that people are already checking out tomorrow's forum messages:

 

[oscar21]

Had to take over a job from someone else the other day, didn't want to but the client gives us tonnes of work and this was his own house. The other spark is no longer on the scene and I've already been to one of his jobs that had an earth fault so he just disconnected the cpc's out of the circuit to get over it.

So my first port of call was the consumer unit - BG dual RCD, 2 circuits connected down ring and up ring, sockets 2nd fixed and live and some lights 2nd fixed but not powered yet. First test was see if they were rings, neither were. After a bit of investigating, found this in the utility.

Thats why that circuits not a ring then, live ends. Onto the upstairs sockets and quickly found this.

That was after my temp fix, was the same as the utility before I touched it. 3rd cable was a spur to a socket on the floor below that wasn't working.

I also found this that was live. Not touched anything, that's how I came across it.

So apart from the various death traps the place also looked like this.

not unique to this job but why do so many sparks have to cut and patch so much plaster work after its all been done, apparently he forgot to fit loads of stuff that the client had asked for.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Usually happens the other way around, electrician finishes the second fix and client asks can you just fit another --- number of sockets in these rooms.

 

[7029 dave]

Would like to see how this copper pipe is glanded to the 20A FCU any solid earth continuity?

 

[mainline]

Would like to see how this copper pipe is glanded to the 20A FCU any solid earth continuity?

Obviously, a plumber as well as a spark

Looks rubbish.

 

[James]

Could be double insulated cable inside, if so, do you think there is a requirement for the pipe to be bonded?

 

[James]

Obviously, a plumber as well as a spark

Looks rubbish.

Not a plumber, look at the poor bends in the pipe, if there is one thing a plumber can normally do well, it is bend pipes neatly.

 

[brianmoooore]

No comment on the earthing, but if I couldn't make a better looking offset in copper tube than that, I wouldn't be putting it on public display.

 

[mainline]

Could be double insulated cable inside, if so, do you think there is a requirement for the pipe to be bonded?

It would be single isolated inside the switch.
Back box/switch would be classed as an exposed conductive part.

I wouldn't have thought it is a requirement if the cable is double insulated and the run has no sharp edges.

 

[James]

It would be single isolated inside the switch.
Back box/switch would be classed as an exposed conductive part.

But i was assuming the box was attached to the cpc.
do you think there is a need to bond the pipe, assuming the cable comes into the box double insulated?

Personally i was thinking if the flex was secured inside the back box with a cable clamp then the tube need not be bonded, if it is free to move then i think the tube should be bonded.
but I am open to peoples suggestions.

 

[7029 dave]

But i was assuming the box was attached to the cpc.
do you think there is a need to bond the pipe, assuming the cable comes into the box double insulated?

Personally i was thinking if the flex was secured inside the back box with a cable clamp then the tube need not be bonded, if it is free to move then i think the tube should be bonded.
but I am open to peoples suggestions.

I say yes no difference from a class l light fitting

 

[mainline]

No comment on the earthing, but if I couldn't make a better looking offset in copper tube than that, I wouldn't be putting it on public display.

He wanted it to have the bent with the knee look.

 

[7029 dave]

He wanted it to have the bent with the knee look.

No former used lol

 

[ipf]

Obviously, a plumber as well as a spark

Looks rubbish.

A kinky one, if it was......

 

[davesparks]

I say yes no difference from a class l light fitting

Very different from a class 1 light fitting.

It looks like there is an insulated and sheathed cable inside the pipe so there would be no need to earth it, it would be no different to a cable tray or basket in that respect.

 

[7029 dave]

Very different from a class 1 light fitting.

It looks like there is an insulated and sheathed cable inside the pipe so there would be no need to earth it, it would be no different to a cable tray or basket in that respect.

And that sheathed cable is connected to a metal clad FCU which is connected to the copper pipe so makes it an accessory point. 411.3.1.1 states this very clearly