virtual crazy gang, part II

[Engine Serang]

There are two things I give a wide berth to (Years of bitter experience) , one is BBQ's and the other is tumblers of "Fruit Punch".
The first will give you the bokes and the sh1ts and the other the bokes, the sh1ts and the famous 36 hour hangover.
I still go to half a dozen family BBQ's every summer, it would terribly bad form not to support Aunt Mavis or Aunt Arlene's annual highlight.
I blame The Merch for my weakness, such is life.

[billyboy]

bit of a blow coming this way. Hope it changes course. Boat swung out and Sea Boots at the ready here.

[billyboy]

Good Grief!.. Who ordered this new hawser!
Cut outs get it stowed down aft at the double. chop chop now!

[Malcolm G]

I went to the stores on an RN ship and asked if they had any string..
Reply was “String!? We don’t have STRING in the Royal Navy!”.
I said: “You want to get some, it’s good stuff.”

There are members of SH who wont get that…

[Dave McGouldrick]

Originally Posted by billyboy

Good Grief!.. Who ordered this new hawser!
Cut outs get it stowed down aft at the double. chop chop now!

But it was only 3 euros a metre FOB

[Engine Serang]

Small stuff in Texaco.

[YM-Mundrabilla]

We should be able to unpick and unwind it to make something useful like fuse wire or light globe filaments, but it might take a while, of course.

[YM-Mundrabilla]

Originally Posted by Malcolm G

I went to the stores on an RN ship and asked if they had any string..
Reply was “String!? We don’t have STRING in the Royal Navy!”.
I said: “You want to get some, it’s good stuff.”

There are members of SH who wont get that…

Am I alone?

[Malcolm G]

Originally Posted by YM-Mundrabilla

Am I alone?

It’s not called string, any small cordage down to string is referred to as ‘small stuff’.

[170 Driver]

Originally Posted by YM-Mundrabilla

We should be able to unpick and unwind it to make something useful like fuse wire or light globe filaments, but it might take a while, of course.

Or...leave it as it is and use it as fusewire.
It`ll never need replacing.

[Varley]

I know I was small stuff in Texaco. I just got to be bigger.

And, to paraphrase the BBA's Prime tenet. That of the Leckies might be "If the current is big enough the fuse WILL blow" - just as long as the Gennys stay connected for enough time (else the lights go out, big-time).

So keep your hawser-picking hands to yourself as it's difficult to judge a decent measure in the dark without spilling any.

[tweediekiwi]

Surely the other wiring would burn out before the fuse blew? I used to do lighting at the local AmDram and I overloaded what was supposed to be a 20A circuit. Sadly, the electrician had put an 80A fuse in and it burnt out the new wiring that I'd just run! I had a very fast and sweaty time running about in the ceiling with a fire extinguisher putting burning cobwebs and tar paper off the roofing. So, I don't do lighting down there any more and the electrician left town too.

[Engine Serang]

Well done, you put the Drama into AmDram. It would, naturally, have been better if you had burnt the theatre to the ground. In future be aware of such opportunities to advance ones career.

[Varley]

An urban supply (in principle, underground cables) may have (has usually) grown by extending the distance of a consumer from its substation often by splicing-on more of the same. It can (does) occur that the impedance at the newly more distant end is too high for the substation to deliver sufficient current to lift the substation protection should a distant fault occur. Then, indeed, the cable will burn out instead.

As explained to me by interesting network engineer after just such had happened to me (a line to neutral fault putting 400 V or so across some of the domestic kit, including two of the utility's meters, none of which worked terribly well afterwards). Fault was within a metre or so of the utility fuses but on the incoming side of them. One line conductor eventually found open and a few metres of new cable spliced in to replace damaged. Quite fun following the process (although rather dark and cold interim), modern technology - reflectometer - put fault possibly at edge of lawn or McDonald's car park with appropriate excavations made to confirm (so closing McDonald's car park, what a shame!).

Ancient linesman maintained that fault most likely in 'turk's head' termination casting from which individual tails exit to fuses/meters. And so it was.

Overload rather than short circuit is different. Proper electricity does not usually use fuses to protect kit or its local wiring from overloads, that being the duty of some sort of protection relay. Fuses serve to disconnect a carbonised theatre from the mains so as to allow a continuing supply to the neighbours - even if that includes a McDonalds - which would be lost until said carbonised theatre had been otherwise disconnected from it.

[Malcolm G]

I also, many years since, was the lecky and lighting for an AmDram.
The premises mainly used were operated by a different group who had their own electrician. His name was Hayes but I think the spelling should have been Haze from the blue haze which often arose from his work.
A couple of occasions spring to mind:
I was working atop a ladder on some of (his) spotlights when I discovered that he had a different interpretation of line, neutral, earth which did not seem to fit with what I had been taught. I subsequently found that he considered a single pole domestic tumbler switch suitable to isolate a 500watt lamp.
Another occasion was when the hall was used for an art exhibition and he had set up an impressive range of lights all around the room - wired with twin twisted flex. I suggested that maybe they would not need to turn the radiators on.
A couple of times each year our AmDram would use a proper profesional theatre - That felt so much safer with an actual paid lecky to call upon and work with.
Even then sometimes I might ask "Is this 'dip' (deck socket) hot?" and get the reply "Well it shouldn't be." - Not really a definitive response...

[tweediekiwi]

Yes Amdram tales. I spent 11 years of evenings and weekends (when on-call for work) down there as my wife, two daughters and six grand-kids went through the acting phase, and, do you know, I hated most of that time. Theatre people are so false, all 'dahling boy' and boozy breath everywhere. That last show I did was Joseph and The Technicolour Dreamcoat and was the 'hottest' stage they had done there - 64 x 2000W lights and I'm surprised the audience leave blind! Now I stick to watercolour painting, trout-fishing, crossword puzzles - no ladders and less chance of burning the place down. We would have been buggered if the extinguisher didn't work.

[Malcolm G]

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
Possibly without realising, you are still acting..

[tweediekiwi]

Ha ha! People say that no matter where or when the see me, no matter the occasion, I'm always just me - no airs and graces - no acting - just plain Doug. I've never acted in anything. Put me on a stage with a light on me and I'll try to disappear through the cracks in the floorboards!

[Engine Serang]

Well Dougie you've been acting up since you came onboard, and now you're trying to be ever so 'umble. I think you're a Prima Donna and my advice to you is to leave the Airs and Graces to the Noble Lord, the Duke of Mona. Don't be influenced by shipmates like MG, sound advice.

[Malcolm G]

The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd!

[Malcolm G]

Here's one I built earlier...

[Engine Serang]

Varley is looking under the stairs for his AVO meter. The IOM Power and Light Company have sent round a taxi to bring him to Douglas to install cable trays along Main Street. Two days of gainful work.

[tweediekiwi]

Talking of prima donna, did you hear the one about the ballerina who ate so much she had to wear a three-three?
I wonder where that wiring is eh? It certainly doesn't look like none of my installations. Start clearing one fault in there and cause 20 new ones. Good luck with your Avometer.

[billyboy]

could do with a Gentleman of Mr Varleys calibre out here. Masses of wires everywhere. goodness knows how they trace a fault out here. 2 110 volt cables to make a 220volt supply. everything is on 2 wires. our ref/freezer washing machine ect I have had to make my own earth wire. and I have earthed the 2 showers.
Hate electrickery, nasty stuff, dangerous. I have bought 6 AVR's in order to cope with unstable supply.

[Varley]

Acting, arcing. Close.

Dangerous things assumptions. I had assumed the US (and by implication the Philippines) used line to line for it's cooker/power supply and line to neutral for lighting and outlets. Sir W prompted me to check. I see that is provided by by 'split phase' 220 leading on from Edison's DC, three wire concept. I guess that makes the capital cost of their distribution network substantially higher than the UK's.

Anyway we have a yellow snow warning. I suppose the schools closed to avoid the pupils getting an eyeful of it. Cats don't do that sort of things.