Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

WTF????

 

Well, I did kind of need things to light up and actually work...

 

Awww...

❤️❤️❤️

 

Man... ain't you the picky one!

 

Having to unscrew fuses to turn off the lights got old.

 

Home in my Youth!

The main service went to the milk house. For the important electric .

A 60 amp sub panel was in the house.

 

Looks like that's not the only thing that got old!

 

Had one of those in my old house down South. It as wired in such a way removing the fuses did nothing. They had a sub fuse panel tied into the main wires with 10ga wire

 

That is some real aunty-kew wiring!!!!

 

Yes indeed water in the Milk house and the barn.

The important areas.

 

Depends how she blows

 

I was gonna make a comment about that post, but this is the wrong place for what I was gonna post

 

Not a 3pointer but a gimme all the same.

 

That one wasn't my actual panel - sure could be a cousin though.

The main panel is a 200 amp which fed one of those old "main & range" panels which fed another identical one.

The main wasn't trouble free either, it was a Federal Pacific "Stab-Lock" panel, mention that to any electrician and watch his expression.



FP ended up in a class action lawsuit due to falsification of UL testing data for many years. It isn't uncommon for a 15 amp FP breaker to pass 30+ amps and not trip, the tandem breakers can jam and be mechanically unable to trip.
Most breakers have failure rate of something like .0X%, the FPE breakers the rate is something like 25-30%.

Unfortunately FP panels were quite "economical" and used in uncounted thousands of remodels, tract homes, manufactured housing, even 70's motor homes, etc. -- dangerous junk when brand new.

The "Stab-Lock" design was another part of the issue, it relied on a spring action to hold the breaker in the buss bar - springs get wimpy when heated - loose connections make heat - you just found an exponentially expanding problem.

Sometimes the breakers on these panels will fall out when you remove the dead front.



If you have one of these dangerous clunkers in your house replace it. The distinctive orange handles are an across the room give away.

 

The problem (as always) is the customer:

Electrician: This panel is dangerous and needs to be replaced.
Customer: But the breakers never trip.
E: Yes, that is the problem.
C: No, we can run 2 heaters and the breakers never trip.
E:

 

Wow, that’s kinda scary. Can you still buy screw in fuses?

This is even scarier!

 

G'morning Shane & Co

Happy Birthday @Taco critter

 

Scary indeed. We passed on a beautiful 60's built house in "old" Midland due to it having a FP panel in it. The cost of replacing the panel & rewiring the house was too much for what the seller was asking.

 

The fuses are easily available at any hardware store or even The Mart.

There are probably still millions of fuse panels in use.
They aren't necessarily unsafe by design, the problem is that they were installed when homes didn't have many electrical devices.

As people got more and more stuff the systems didn't have the needed capacity. The same problems we see with overlanding gear on a Tacoma, just not enough truck for the stuff.

The second problem is people:
1) They can unscrew a 15 amp fuse and replace it with a 30 amp.
2) They can brilliantly put a penny behind the fuse and eliminate the tripping nuisance for good -- until smoke starts coming out of the wall that is...