On 2013-06-15 12:39, karl shah-jenner wrote: > I would make up a box with a lead passing through a grommet on one side > and a wall plug on the other side, with an edison socket (we use bayonet > mount globes in Oz) mounted either inside or out and wire it internally, > that way it's just a few parts. part sources I couldn't suggest, I tend > to save junk and salvage bits as needed.. but actually, thinking about > it - if you had an a cheap or old table lamp or such, you can get the > socket and a plug from that, then you just need a female socket like a > wall plug froma hardware store. see below for mangled description for > wiring this* Doing this in the US, I'd get a square box, mount a basement ceiling fixture on the open side, and have cords coming in and out via the cable clamps, with plug on one, socket on the other. These parts are easily available at any Menards, Home Depot, Lowes, or decent neighborhood hardware store. > Also you won't need a heavy extension, by way of example we use 240 > volts here and our smallest, cheapest extension cables are 10 amps, for > 2400 watts maximum. But presume I set up such a cable with the > intention of using only up to a 100W globe, the maximum current I would > use would be 0.4 amps so the wiring really only need be rated to that > (I'd still give myself an overhead, but clearly 10 amp is excessive). > now if I only put a 20 watt pilot globe in my lamp box, I'd be limiting > the current to a mere 0.08 amps! Good point! > this can help with calcs: > http://www.supercircuits.com/resources/tools/volts-watts-amps-converter > > > * > actually dear readers, unless you're familiar and experienced with mains > power PLEASE do not fiddle about with this unless you know what you're > doing or are happy with being zapped. I rarely get zapped but I'm one > of those people that doesn't drop dead when I get a belt, just burns and > some charring. Not everyone is as badly wired as me and normal folk are > not supposed to survive electrocution. Probably good advice. Not that I followed it; I learned about this stuff by rewiring my first house, back in the late 1970s. Passed on the first inspection, and hadn't burned down as of when it was cleared to build a parking ramp for the medical center :-). > I'm not sure if you guys always have earth wires in your AC leads, we do > for most things and I tend to like keeping them for obvious reasons! > Presuming you do, just make sure the earth is intact on the plug to the > body of the box (connect it to any metal chassis or part of the box that > fingers may touch) and then out to the wall plug on the other side of > the box New stuff yes, but I had ungrounded wiring and outlets in all four houses (current house was built 1916, and there's still a little active knob-and-tube wiring in it). When I was being assistant camera operator for a friend's no-budget feature project (we were shooting 16mm neg with an Arri, Nagra sound recorder, etc., so pretty good equipment) we did tie-ins to the main box at our indoor locations (everything was on location, no sound stages at that kind of non-budget). THAT was a little exciting; well, we never had *actual* excitement, but clamping onto the main bus inside the breaker box, between the main 100 amp breaker and the individual 15 or 20 amp breakers for each circuit, still raises a bit of adrenaline in me even if nothing goes the slightest bit wrong. (None of us were familiar enough with tie-ins to get careless; we always used the heavy rubber gloves, were careful what we stood on or could touch, and had a second person with a dry 2x4 to try to pry us off the box if absolutely necessary. Of course, being that careful, it went smoothly every time.) -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@xxxxxxxx; http://dd-b.net/ Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/ Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/ Dragaera: http://dragaera.info
