This is a question for our Down-Under members.
I was doing a little job today for a friend of mine. (Installing a new light fitting in the bathroom)
However, she had already bought a couple of light switches that she wanted to change for the older type side-by-side 2 Gang switches, elsewhere in the house.
I know that you can get adaptor plates for the vertically orientated switches.
But, here is my question.
I'd like to go one better as far as appearance goes, instead of a white plate under the switch.
Can you still get the older configuration?.
I think I've been out of EC work long enough to forget just what works with what.
These are the plates that had the 4 screws holding it to the wall, in a "double" flushbox.
Any help I could get would be cool.
I want to do this job properly, not with a gaudy bit of plastic to cover up the holes.

Not sure i know what your chasing, but have you tried the online clipsal catalogue, pictures and all.

Spock

Trumpy,
I thought I'd have a look through the Clipsal online catalog...well that merely just ended with a complaint emailed to them...their site has become unuseable since I used it last when it had a very good interactive catalog.
(I have a real gripe with people who write their sites to work only with IE and require system resource wasting plug ins that achieve nothing). HPM is much more limited in what they have which is a shame.
Can you show us any pics?
I'm wondering if you're thinking of the old U.S pattern switches we had here in the 50's...a dual gang version of them would use a 4 screw double width switchplate. If so, I'm pretty sure they are still available from Clipsal ( I know the single gang ones are) and there is also a modern replacement switchplate (taking the modern push in mechanisms) with the screw holes in the same position.

[This message has been edited by aussie240 (edited 10-06-2005).]

Aussie,
Thanks a heap mate!.
I didn't have my camera with me at the time.
Yes, that's the one!.
I might go and pick the brains of my local Ideal Electrical man in the morning.
On your first point:
To be honest Aussie, you are preaching to the converted in my case, I've used Firefox since it was released and I aren't going back, however there are some sites around that don't allow you to use FF, which is a real nuisance, considering that my new computer I've built here uses a Linux platform and I don't have IE anymore.
I'm not shedding any tears though, this system starts a lot faster and to a degree is a lot better from a user perspective.
I wish I'd made the change sooner from XP.
Sorry to go so off-topic, but I like this system.


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 10-07-2005).]

Guys,
Finally got the switch yesterday and replaced the old one.
Here is a pic of the thing from the wholesaler:



This plate is 116 x 116mm square and has 86 x 57mm fixing centres.

I never managed to get a pic of the old one, I was in too much of a hurry.
One thing that did strike me as strange was the 2 x 2-core red cables for the switches in the box when I removed the old plate.
Haven't seen that sort of wire for a wee while.



[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 10-13-2005).]

T&E with two red cores is still available here, although probably not for very much longer.

I don't know if there will be a 2 x brown version in its place -- I haven't seen one yet.

Paul, Yes its available. and three core now coloured brown black & grey. Regards Alan

Ah, thanks Alan. I've already used the new brown/black/gray 3-core, but hadn't seen any 2xbrown yet.

Paul,
What a strange colouring.
That'll cause some confusion to someone.
However, there was a rare cable here that I haven't seen in ages, it was the old 2x Red and 1 Black, that was used to hook up 2 Phase ovens here.
You had to sleeve one of the phases yellow or blue.
The Earth would have been a single core (stranded) conduit wire.

Trumpy, Good to see you found it...that's exactly the switchplate I was trying to describe. The 1956 built building where I work is full of those and also the GPO's using the same pattern. Few of the original switches remain, but the lesser used GPO's do (some with reversed live and neutral too...separate switch allows that to happen).
I've never used IE...only Netscape or Firefox since day one of using the internet. But anyway, the Clipsal site webmaster was appreciative of my comments and will sort things out. Believe it or not, it really does help to give constructive comments to webmasters...they often have no idea that some things might not work on some browsers or resolution settings until someone tells them and they do appreciate the feedback...so, a more pictorial search should appear soon. In the mean time I've ordered the CD rom catalog...why not when it's free?

Aussie,
Good on ya mate!.
Yeah I found it,
What I failed to mention was the fact that these older type switches had thier own boxes.
Usually they'd be screwed to a dwang(nogging) on it's edge through the back of the box.
If you wanted to change it, you'd have to open the wall around the box, to take the dwang out.
You can't get a standard flushbox in there with a dwang in the way.
Great to have experience in these sorts of things though.

All part of the new scheme of things. Previously regular cables were:

2-core: red, black
3-core: red, yellow, blue
4-core: red, yellow, blue, black.

(Substitute white for yellow before 1965.)

With the the new color code the cores have just been replaced one-for-one, so:

2-core: brown, blue
3-core: brown, black, gray
4-core: brown, black, gray, blue.



There has already been one report on the IEE website of someone getting confused between the old and new colors and cross-connecting a phase and neutral on a 3-ph system.


I don't recall ever seeing anything like that here.