those zip cords seem to find all kinds of scary uses for DIY'ers.. I've seen old zip extension cords with the end lobbed off doing duty for everything from dishwashers, garbage disposals, even once on a pretty beefy air compressor (drawing something around 15A if i recall right) the cheap of the cheap extension cords here which mostly seem to originate from China, and tend to find homes via "dollar stores" nationwide are probably our version of what Ragnar's Kopp ext cord is...
-Randy
