ECN Forum
Posted By: electure Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/05/04 11:44 PM
Quote
I received a call to a turn of the century home which was experiancing partial power loss... I arrived and asked the home owner the normal questions.. She told me her kitched power was sporadic... when I was getting ready to head to the panel, she states that "The pennies in the fuse box may need replaced!" =O I find the fuse box & low & behold.... old pennies behind 30A fuses (I don't think I've ever come across a lower rated Edison base fuse in a panel that I didn't install myself!) Anyways.... a crispy burned K&T splice was located in the attic above the only receptacle in the kitchen (which was behind the stove).... Which had a 6-way "Gem" tap plugged in, with a power strip also... connected appliances were.. washing machine, gas dryer, microwave, toaster, Mr. Coffee, stove igniter, refridgerator & a portable dishwasher!... Enclosed are pics of the 30A 120V fuse box which was finally laid to rest in my garage, along with the 6 way which was pretty close to going from dangerous to catastrophic! (Nope, the 3 prong wasn't grounded btw).

-Randy (Lostazhell)


[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]
Posted By: Admin Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/06/04 03:31 AM
Quote
Randy: That is a great picture & story! Here is a similar situation, but not quite as old as the fuse box you encountered. I was rewiring a small hobby farm last summer and came across this lovely surprise. You can see the right socket bank was missing from the panel, exposing a live bus bar to anyone who opened the panel. Notice the mouse nest in the lower-right corner. But best yet, what you can’t see in my picture, is that all the unused K/O’s that were removed had corn cobs stuff in their place!!

Ian Forkash, a.k.a., Electric-Ian
[Linked Image]
Posted By: Bjarney Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/06/04 03:56 AM
“ALL-N-3”—what a jewel. That box was certainly ‘cutting-edge power central’ a century ago. The externally-operable knife switch was likely a high-grade feature at that time.

Utilities were far more trusting then, for the a-base meter could have been bypassed easily... although the box may have been intended to be sealed in normal operation.
Posted By: SvenNYC Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/06/04 04:41 AM
Lostazhell said:
Quote
"The pennies in the fuse box may need replaced!"

You're KIDDING! She actually said that to you??? [Linked Image]

P.S. She should have bought the brown 6-way tap instead of the white one. That way the scorching wouldn't have been so noticeable...

Randy did you also knock four cents off her bill. What was the year stamped on the coins? [Linked Image]
Posted By: Lostazhell Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/06/04 07:55 AM
LoL Ian... The Corn-Cob KO Seals are one I definitely haven't come across.. (yet) [Linked Image] About a week ago I found a mouses' nest in a subpanel that was missing a 1" KO... The little $*^#!@$ chewed insulation off 3 wires in there too! [Linked Image] but escaped alive...

Sven.. She DID in fact tell me that! [Linked Image] the short story behind that she told me was that growing up, anytime the lights would flicker or something would go out, her father would change the pennies in the fuse box & all would work again! LoL about the 4¢ in the panel.. If I remember right, I think one was from the 20's. the rest were from the 60's.. (probably the last time they were "replaced!") The LAST thing that house needed was that 6 way! That house went from 3 circuits to 14 circuits after we rewired it & changed the service to 200A 240V.. The homeowner didn't know what to do with herself actually having outlets above her kitchen counter & not plugging her hairdryer into an extension cord running from a ceiling keyless fixture in her bathroom.. (a whole new story! [Linked Image] ) I actually have a couple other cool things from this house... Some old push button switches dated to 1903 on the back, funky receptacles... This place was a treasure trove! [Linked Image]

-Randy
Posted By: pauluk Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/06/04 09:12 AM
People don't seem to realize that just because a power strip has 6 outlets that doesn't mean you can plug anything with a matching plug into all six and not have problems.

The penny-trick was never used here in England as we didn't have Edison base fuses, but an old favorite for the rewireable fuse carriers was a straightened-out paper clip. A standard size clip was just the right overall length to go through the ceramic carrier and wrap around the terminals each end.
Posted By: Ever Ready Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/11/04 10:55 AM
I have seen many of the Edison type fuses in the UK, it has to be said that they were all in panels/machinery imported from Germany, I never liked that type of fuse at all and later machinery from the same manufacturer moved over to circit breakers.

I have also seen the old paper clip trick a few times and also the practice of removing a blown fuse in a UK 13A plug and covering it in silver foil before replacing it !!!!

I have removed copper wire from rewireable fuse carriers too, I can only assume that they ran out of paper clips!

Back in the late '70s I worked in shipyards for a couple of years and the electricians that worked on the temporary lighting (which was simply two 10mm singles taped together and had 500watt GES fittings twisted and taped on to the supply)used SOLID neutral links as fuses when they were looking for faults, it used to be like a firework display when the faults announced their location with a rather loud pop [Linked Image]
Posted By: mvpmaintman Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/14/04 01:04 AM
We had a roof top ac unit fry the home run one day, we found that the contractor that installed it several years ago had used 3/4" copper pipe for fuses. I geuss that the dead short made the other ones blow everytime.
Posted By: pauluk Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/14/04 11:10 AM
Quote
also the practice of removing a blown fuse in a UK 13A plug and covering it in silver foil before replacing it !!!!
Or a few strands stripped from some flex wrapped around it. [Linked Image]
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/14/04 06:02 PM
Yep! My uncle told me on Monday that a single strand is supposed to have an ampacity of exactly 10A!
Not going to try that though.
Posted By: DougW Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/16/04 03:51 PM
Quote
the practice of removing a blown fuse in a UK 13A plug and covering it in silver foil before replacing it !!!!

Seen that a few times when doing automotive electrical work in my youth!

"Hey the radio fuse blew, and we don't have another one!"

"got any gum?" <wrap wrap> "OK, It's fixed!"

Of course, that only works with the aluminized Wrigley's wrappers [Linked Image]
Posted By: Big Jim Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 04/23/04 03:29 AM
I can't vouch for this but I've seen the story a couple of times. A couple of southern gentlemen were far back in the woods doing what they do with .22 cal. rifles. It got late and was dark on the way out. As luck would have it, the fuse for the headlights blew. It was a dark and moonless forest road and they were going nowhere without lights. A frantic search revealed notning useful anywhere in the truck. It was then one of them noticed a .22 LR was the same size as the fuse. He popped it in place and off they went. The hospital report later described the accident and the gunshot wound in the driver's foot. There was a real short and the bullet got hot and discharged. The pain in his foot caused the driver to lose control and crash. (If its not true, it should be!)

[This message has been edited by Big Jim (edited 04-22-2004).]
Posted By: ComputerWizKid Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 07/12/04 11:40 PM
Actually on the show Myth busters they proverd it could happen. they took a fuse box from a simualr truck and wired it to a short circuit and it went off. because of the heat
Posted By: uksparky Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 07/13/04 12:32 AM
Quote
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
also the practice of removing a blown fuse in a UK 13A plug and covering it in silver foil before replacing it !!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Or a few strands stripped from some flex wrapped around it.

Or, indeed, a sawn-down 6" nail! [Linked Image] Just the right size; a favourite trich with engineers running oil-cooled welders...that is if they don't use the guts of two rubber Duraplugs; swap the live stirrup pin with a screw-term neutral from the other plug [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by uksparky (edited 07-12-2004).]
Posted By: Lostazhell Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 07/14/04 01:36 AM
Foil?? Flex??? Nails??? Pipe???

& I thought the pennies were an insane idea!! [Linked Image] [Linked Image]

-Randy
Posted By: atwater_kent Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 07/24/04 05:36 AM
My late grandmother owned a corner grocery store, which was an early 20th century bakery originally. It had a big-ass deli cooler/showcase, a beer cooler, ice cream freezer, and a couple refrigerators. I have no clue how these things were wired up, but every once in a while, a fuse would blow. One of my aunts would have to venture down into the cellar to replace it. My grandmother always insisted she take a 30A fuse with her because they lasted longer. My aunts would argue with her, "Ma, you're gonna burn down the store!" She'd always reply, "So what? I've got insurance."
Posted By: Larry Fine Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 10/25/06 04:42 PM
"atwater_kent"

Noe, there's a name I haven't seen in a while!
Posted By: dougwells Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 10/26/06 04:19 AM
The last time i saw that name was when i was about 14 years old ripping apart a Radio that was like 40 years old. It was an atwater kent.
That was 40 years ago
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 10/26/06 11:46 AM
European Diazed fuses have little metal plates that indicate the rating of the fuse. If the fuse blows, the plate should pop off and you can tell the blown fuse by looking through the glass in the screw caps.

When the elevator in the house from another thread stopped working I had a look at the 1958 fuse panel. It had 3 fuses for the 3ph motor and two (hot and neutral) for the lighting and controls. The motor fuses still had their blue buttons (20A) so I left them and proceeded to the lighting fuses (needed a ladder for that). At the first glance I thought them to be 16A fuses because I only saw grey. A closer look revealed there weren't any buttons at all... both were "repaired" by wrapping single strands of copper wire around them resp. cracking them open, insert the wire into the porcelaine body and putting them back together. At the bottom of the box I found a big pile of wire for future patch jobs...
Posted By: Dawg Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 10/30/06 07:40 AM
Yep I've heard of the "stick a penny in the fuse slot and all is good again" trick....but my goodness people really oughta think twice about what they're doing....if the fuse box keeps blowing fuses there's an obvious reason behind this.

Yep I've also heard of the "bullet being used for a fuse" with the two southern boys....that's what happens when you're a redneck. [Linked Image] Of course I keep spare fuses in the glove box in case this ever happens.

Now for the "put chewing gum foil over the fuse to make it work again"...that I will admit (I've not tried it) that some folks at my shop have done that whenever our engine/hydraulic driven bomblifts (I work in the Air Force) blow their fuses out on the flightline....it's just a quick fix to hurry up and drive it back in the shop before it becomes stranded on the flight line in the middle of taxiing aircraft.

Randy I'm curious....was that fuse box located inside or outside of the house? Sounds like you probably re-wired the house and re-did all of the electrical work...which was a good thing...that woman oughta feel blessed her house didn't burn to the ground due to sheer stupidity...by the sounds of it I'm guessing the house she lives in has been in her family's name for a long time?

So how did they have that tap connected? Did they have a 5-15 receptacle that was ungrounded? Or did they just "cut off the ground prong"? (I've seen this done countless times and it makes me wonder if people are really at all concerned about safety)

The other thing that gets me is the one receptacle behind the stove....I can only wonder where the other 2 receptacles were located?? And having to use the light socket in the ceiling with an extension cord as a hair dryer????

I guess they wern't lying when they said "in the old days there wern't many appliances used in the home"...how big was this house anyways? Doesn't sound like it was very big at all....



[This message has been edited by Dawg (edited 10-30-2006).]
Posted By: pauluk Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 10/30/06 09:48 AM
Quote
Now for the "put chewing gum foil over the fuse to make it work again"...

I've seen that done with kitchen foil and the cartridge fuses we use in our plugs more times than I care to recall.
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 10/30/06 11:53 AM
Oh yeah... my dad did that after trying to plug his hairdryer into a UK adaptor and realizing it was originally fitted with a 2A fuse... seems solid enough to take more though.
Posted By: yaktx Re: Problem with the old Fuse Box - 11/03/06 04:48 AM
I've seen the foil trick used to get a scissor lift going again. (Foil off a cigarette pack.) Then again, that was probably the least of the safety violations I saw on that job.
© ECN Electrical Forums