T4D #67 - Transforming the transformer and lab update

[SeanB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNX4ZlbHdQo

Martin in his new lab, complete with a five o clock shadow. He has been a busy bee.

[LightAges]

For a demonstration on how to connect two cables, I am sorry Martin but, this is very bad advice and a very good example on how not to splice to cables together. Any solder joint, especially for mains, should have a mechanical joint whether it is soldered or not. The wires should not have been pre-tinned and then re-flowed together. This is extremely bad practice.

The bare cooper wires should have been wrapped around each other first and then soldered. Your method is dangerous and unreliable. Follow this method and avoid problems and possible fires or injury in the future.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Master-a-perfect-inline-wire-splice-everytime/

You REALLY need to annotate your video or delete it. It really is bad practice and can burn someone's house down, yours included.

[MJLorton]

Les,

Your and the other comments have been noted and acknowledged. I believe there is great value that will follow because of the bad method I used in the video.

Again, note the warning at the start of the video and what I said during the video.

I have also annotated the video and noted in the comments that I would follow-up.

Thanks,
Martin.

[steve30]

Despite the fact that it is slightly dangerous, it still looked like decent quality soldering/heatshrinking. How does the Hakko compare to your old soldering station?

Are there many rewireable plugs in America, like we have here in England? Because using new cable and a proper plug is certainly the best way to go about these things .

[Mr Eastwood]

It's funny, reading these comments because Martin didn't splice his wires using the best practices has really made me think again about the way I should splice my own wires - which would never have happened if he hadn't of posted this video.  so many thanks all round!

[Antraciet]

I am here to learn. And i allways did it like Martin did in his video.
So it seems i was wrong too. I never had problems, fire or whatever with it, but yeach, ... 1 fire is ennough to destroy everything i have, possible including my life.
So thank you Lightages. Is important.

[SeanB]

Not the best way to join wires, especially if they will be exposed to mains and are flexed at any time. With time the solder will creep and break, though this is a lot less likely with lead free solder ( interesting aside, take 3m of solder and hang it up, you will find the lead solder will snap under it's own mass in under a day, while the lead free will take a lot longer) if this is used.

Martin definitely needs to get some US rewireable plugtops, they are common ( he could even have bought them in S Africa off the shelf) and only need a screwdriver for the 2 wire versions. I prefer the 3 pin ones though, as these at least are not swappable so the live is always a live.

Best though is to get an outlet checker from Amazon though, and check the outlets are correctly wired and gave a ground, and no swapped lines.

[SeanB]

In addition to what Martin did with the solder extractor, i finished up one I was thinking of making, all made from recycled parts.


Power supply from old cordless phone, removed gently with a hammer from the welded case it was in. 12V or so at 500mAto power the fan.


One old dead ATX supply, the type with a big 120mm fan. This was from my ISP as a dead unit, so was for free, saved from the scrap heap.


Completed with a nice coat or three of satin black paint, and a set of rubber feet stuck on what is now the bottom ( was the side) and a slug of scrap brass epoxied to it to add extra mass.

It works well, sucks well enough, and has a lot of airflow out of the sides, and is quiet. Even has the original mains filter board and capacitors on the IEC connector and the original switch, which is now actually going to be used. Only thing missing is a power on indicator, which is not needed.