Electricians Tips from a professional electrician

[littlespark]

Electricians Tips from a professional electrician in the UK Electrical Forum

Sometimes you need to work in an old house, and there’s a number of threads on here about how to, say, fit downlights in a lathe ceiling.....

Here’s a start... on lathe and plaster walls without making a huge mess....

Mark where you want the socket to go. Height wise, measure an existing one from either the floor or the top of the skirting.


Next, use a pad saw to find a gap between the lathes. Hit and miss jabbing with the saw until it breaks through.

I will be using a regular dry lining box, so you don’t want to be too close to a vertical joist. Use the pad saw to feel to the left and right. If you can feel a joist, just adjust your planned position.

Once you have the final position, you can draw around a regular metal back box to give your cutout size.

Using a multi tool on a fairly slow speed, you can chip away at the plaster, but not the lathe quite yet.
yet.

Now, with the multi tool on a high speed and a fine toothed wood blade, you can cut neatly through the lathe without much problem. A small wood screw screwed into the middle of the lathe and held tight in pliers will help as the lathe will want to push into the hollow wall.

Now for the biggest tip I can give. Very very important whenever you are doing anything like this;



Always remember to charge your phone fully, or it will die when you’re in the middle of trying to make a hints and tips thread???

 

[Mikegh]

Better to use a Starrett Oops arbor (CK do something similar as well)
https://www.uktoolcentre.co.uk/products/starrett-a19-oops-arbor.html?sku=944853

How does that work theres 2 different size threads

Usually when I'm widening the hole the holesaws are same thread

 

[Mikegh]

How does that work theres 2 different size threads

Usually when I'm widening the hole the holesaws are same thread

I see there it men's starting off with a small hole

I'd normally be starting at about 50mm or the standard size for a basic GU10 and tho enables you to conform the cables are there

 

[123]

I see there it men's starting off with a small hole

I'd normally be starting at about 50mm or the standard size for a basic GU10 and tho enables you to conform the cables are there

I'm not sure why you would intentionally drill a hole smaller than what you would need, but you would then use the bit you used as the pilot, and rather than having just a few mm as a lead you have as much as you want. Works on the larger and smaller arbors.

 

[ipf]

I'm not sure why you would intentionally drill a hole smaller than what you would need

With you there, just for finding the cable?...unless they're redundant fitting holes which need enlarging for new.

 

[Intoelectrics]

When stripping down a motor gear box assembly (or for any assembly with multiple parts and casings) take a dot punch, lightly dot each item with its corresponding part, (taking care to not damage any engineered surfaces) especially if there are multiple possible positions but the original position is crucial on re-assembly.

I post this because one of my less experienced team members has just stripped a gearbox assembly down to replace some worn parts. He did have the common sense to mark the parts but used a "permanent" marker pen, only to wash the marks off at the de-greasing station.

 

[Mikegh]

I'm not sure why you would intentionally drill a hole smaller than what you would need, but you would then use the bit you used as the pilot, and rather than having just a few mm as a lead you have as much as you want. Works on the larger and smaller arbors.

View attachment 88249

Thanks for the link , gonna pick one up, seen so many tools and gadgets since I registered her, I need to speak to the wife

Reason for drilling the smaller holes as I said was there's so many sizes and I didnt always know so drilled for the smallest standard GU10

Not involved in that type work these days

 

[Mikegh]

When stripping down a motor gear box assembly (or for any assembly with multiple parts and casings) take a dot punch, lightly dot each item with its corresponding part, (taking care to not damage any engineered surfaces) especially if there are multiple possible positions but the original position is crucial on re-assembly.

I post this because one of my less experienced team members has just stripped a gearbox assembly down to replace some worn parts. He did have the common sense to mark the parts but used a "permanent" marker pen, only to wash the marks off at the de-greasing station.

Good post

Shooting from the hip but how much if any of that can you do with a camera phone

Prob not much

I got into the habit of taking out the phone and taking loads of pictures when strioping stuff down and reassembling

 

[Intoelectrics]

Good post

Shooting from the hip but how much if any of that can you do with a camera phone

Prob not much

I got into the habit of taking out the phone and taking loads of pictures when strioping stuff down and reassembling

Yeah, sure with modern technology we can take snap shots that can be very useful. However, in certain circumstances you are looking for 100% reliability, digital pictures can be accidently erased.