Poor contact on fuse box. Seeking replacement.

DyersEve726 · Apr 18, 2023

Forgive me, for all my terminology is going to be wrong here. My home has an old fuse box that handles a small section of the house. They take the Bussmann T15 fuses. I've recently had a fuse blow in an unconventional way. The metal strip inside the fuse is still intact. Instead, it appears to have blown out through the bottom. The bottom contact pin is blackened and rough with some hard black substance spilling over onto the sides. Looking into the fuse holder, there is a screw that makes contact with that pin, and it has seen better days. I'm assuming that it is making poor electrical contact with the pin, causing resistance and heat localized to the pin. I am trying to figure out if it is possible to get a genuine replacement for this screw, but I am not certain what to even call it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
https://i.Upload the image directly to the thread.com/Tksnlw4.jpeg

James · Apr 18, 2023

Can you post a picture? The link is not working.

DyersEve726 · Apr 18, 2023

James said:
Can you post a picture? The link is not working.

I will try again in a bit. Pic showed up in the preview but is garbage in the actual post.

DyersEve726 · Apr 18, 2023

I can't get my photo to load. This is from Google. This is what the inside of the fuse socket looks like. The slotted screw in the center is blackened and rough. That's what needs replacing. I assume I just need to find the right threads and the correct screw material.

DPG · Apr 19, 2023

I'd have thought it would be advisable to replace the whole fuse holder rather than try and repair it.

Maybe Megawatt (one of our US members) can advise.

DyersEve726 · Apr 19, 2023

DPG said:
I'd have thought it would be advisable to replace the whole fuse holder rather than try and repair it.

Maybe Megawatt (one of our US members) can advise.

I absolutely would love to replace the entire fuse box with a breaker box, but it would be costly and I'm not working at the moment. It definitely makes me uneasy knowing half my upstairs is running through that thing, including large appliances like my furnace motor and refrigerator.

DPG · Apr 19, 2023

DyersEve726 said:
I absolutely would love to replace the entire fuse box with a breaker box, but it would be costly and I'm not working at the moment. It definitely makes me uneasy knowing half my upstairs is running through that thing, including large appliances like my furnace motor and refrigerator.

Sorry, I wasn't meaning replacing the whole panel. Just the fuseholder assembly.

DyersEve726 · Apr 19, 2023

DPG said:
Sorry, I wasn't meaning replacing the whole panel. Just the fuseholder assembly.

I didn't even know that was possible, haha. That would be a lovely, if possible.

DPG · Apr 19, 2023

DyersEve726 said:
I didn't even know that was possible, haha. That would be a lovely, if possible.

Same here (I'm in the UK), but we do have a few US member on here who hopefully can be more useful than me

DyersEve726 · Apr 19, 2023

DPG said:
Same here (I'm in the UK), but we do have a few US member on here who hopefully can be more useful than me

I'm pretty convinced it's a lost cause. This fuse box is God knows how old. This house was built in the 1840s and this is likely the fuse box that was installed when the house was first wired for electricity. Likelihood of finding any kind of replacement parts is almost nill. The entire downstairs is on one modern breaker box. The upstairs has this fuse box and then right next to it is a modern breaker box. They each control half the upstairs. No clue why they didn't just put in one larger breaker box while they were going to the trouble, and remove the fuse box. I'm gonna end up having to sell some stocks to replace this thing.

DPG · Apr 19, 2023

DyersEve726 said:
I'm pretty convinced it's a lost cause. This fuse box is God knows how old. This house was built in the 1840s and this is likely the fuse box that was installed when the house was first wired for electricity. Likelihood of finding any kind of replacement parts is almost nill. The entire downstairs is on one modern breaker box. The upstairs has this fuse box and then right next to it is a modern breaker box. They each control half the upstairs. No clue why they didn't just put in one larger breaker box while they were going to the trouble, and remove the fuse box. I'm gonna end up having to sell some stocks to replace this thing.

You should definitely get it checked out by an electrician. Not worth risking your safety.