As a trainee, one of the things I've tried to focus on to deepen my interest in the world of electrics, is the space for creativity. I've youtube'd this, but to no avail really. I just wondered if there are people in the community here who have examples of things they've done, whether on jobs or in their own garage / workshop, which they feel were an exercise in some degree of creativity, or which they thought were 'pretty cool' or interesting.
Having gathered a little bit of knowledge now (and feel free to shoot me down if there's problems with what I'm describing here) the first instance of my own creativity came recently when I was looking for a way to test old unwanted equipment which I've taken out of jobs, i.e. old/existing light fittings, extractor fans and the like. Since I have a lot of space to store what most sparks would probably consider to be just junk and chuck in the bin, I kinda feel that some of it might come in handy (for example if I decided to reuse a light fitting in my workshop or whatever) so if stuff still works, I tend to hang on to it.
So I wanted a way to be able to check whether some of these old fittings still work, quickly, conveniently and safely. So I've made up a little rig which consists of a surface mounted back box with a plastic switch, with a 2.5mm flex and plug on one end for putting in to a socket, which then after the switch, goes into a fused RCD unit on a surface mounted back box (with a 5 amp fuse for now, as mostly I'm checking light fittings, extractors and other low power items), and then a 2.5mm T&E coming out of that with some wagos on the end and some spare bits of wire of different sizes which I can dob in there, or just connect trailing leads from an old appliance in to. So just a very basic way to check if an appliance is working, but if for some reason it is faulty (I haven't had an instance of that yet) by my estimations, the RCD unit would trip / fuse would blow without having the inconvenience of having to go and reset the RCD/breaker on my consumer unit, and I can quickly and efficiently check whether old fittings are worth keeping or getting rid of.
I'm sure there must be examples of far more inventive creations which have been made up to serve various purposes/get around problems. I would be interested to read / see any. I've had a quick look for previous threads of this nature, but couldn't find anything. If this question has already been asked elsewhere, if someone could provide a link I'd be grateful.
Having gathered a little bit of knowledge now (and feel free to shoot me down if there's problems with what I'm describing here) the first instance of my own creativity came recently when I was looking for a way to test old unwanted equipment which I've taken out of jobs, i.e. old/existing light fittings, extractor fans and the like. Since I have a lot of space to store what most sparks would probably consider to be just junk and chuck in the bin, I kinda feel that some of it might come in handy (for example if I decided to reuse a light fitting in my workshop or whatever) so if stuff still works, I tend to hang on to it.
So I wanted a way to be able to check whether some of these old fittings still work, quickly, conveniently and safely. So I've made up a little rig which consists of a surface mounted back box with a plastic switch, with a 2.5mm flex and plug on one end for putting in to a socket, which then after the switch, goes into a fused RCD unit on a surface mounted back box (with a 5 amp fuse for now, as mostly I'm checking light fittings, extractors and other low power items), and then a 2.5mm T&E coming out of that with some wagos on the end and some spare bits of wire of different sizes which I can dob in there, or just connect trailing leads from an old appliance in to. So just a very basic way to check if an appliance is working, but if for some reason it is faulty (I haven't had an instance of that yet) by my estimations, the RCD unit would trip / fuse would blow without having the inconvenience of having to go and reset the RCD/breaker on my consumer unit, and I can quickly and efficiently check whether old fittings are worth keeping or getting rid of.
I'm sure there must be examples of far more inventive creations which have been made up to serve various purposes/get around problems. I would be interested to read / see any. I've had a quick look for previous threads of this nature, but couldn't find anything. If this question has already been asked elsewhere, if someone could provide a link I'd be grateful.
