Blows a breaker, what the heck??

[Mark Needham]

"Turn the lights off and try powering it in the pitch dark while you look for a flash. "

If the breaker trips before you see a flash, put in a bigger breaker, until you get that flash. When the smoke comes out, grab it with a vacuum cleaner, and blow it up some ones bum.

Something bright and momentous, yellow or white, blue is good also.
Just something going through my mind at the moment. Love it, Hey!

 

[Blackjackjacques]

OK guys I bought this old 50's dumore tom thumb tool post grinder. Put it on my lathe and plugged it in and it propped a breaker. I reset the breaker took it off the lathe, plugged it in and it ran just fine. Every time I put it on the lathe and plug it in it blows the breaker. As long as I plug it in and don;t touch metal it runs just fine.........but if I touch it to metal it blows the breaker. Anyone have a solution or know what is wrong.

You don't say what breaker keeps popping - is it the lathe breaker or some other breaker? However, I will ask a stupid question: Is the lathe fed from a GFCI breaker by any chance?

 

[RJSakowski]

What I've always found odd is that the wall receptacles, while they didn't have a ground hole, did generally have the neutral slot wider than the hot. It would have been easy to provide the cords with matching plugs, but they chose not to.

Most of the newer two conductor plugs have one wider prong. However, the neutral side of the line should never be belied upon for grounding. Those tools and appliances which have a two prong plug are usually double insulated.

 

[CluelessNewB]

What I've always found odd is that the wall receptacles, while they didn't have a ground hole, did generally have the neutral slot wider than the hot. It would have been easy to provide the cords with matching plugs, but they chose not to.

Unpolarized receptacles were still fairly common in houses in the US built before the early 1960s. Many appliances had unpolarized plugs much later than that and some stuff like cheap Christmas lights from China still do. I suspect the reason 2 wire unpolarized plugs survived so long was because of the old houses. Personally I would never trust that a two prong polarized plug is wired correctly. Actually I will take that one step further, I never trust that any old machine is wired correctly! If the cord is worn, dry, crumbly or 2 wire it gets replaced with a new 3 wire cord. If there is no provision for grounding, the frame gets grounded.

 

[turnitupper]

"Turn the lights off and try powering it in the pitch dark while you look for a flash. "

If the breaker trips before you see a flash, put in a bigger breaker, until you get that flash. When the smoke comes out, grab it with a vacuum cleaner, and blow it up some ones bum.

Something bright and momentous, yellow or white, blue is good also.
Just something going through my mind at the moment. Love it, Hey!

Was it THAT hot in Rocky on Tuesday, Mark?
John.

 

[Hawkeye]

Thanks, Rich. That makes perfect sense.

 

[BldrBill]

Bought a new portable vacuum cleaner which has a 35 ft long "California compatible" cord. Since they took the lead out of the plastic cord covers, extension cords are hard as a rock. Decided to buy a cord plug and receptacle so I can interrupt the cord, making it easier to coil over my hand and elbow, plus I’ll have a stand-alone extension cord if I need something in a pinch. The cheap pair I bought at the hardware store is polarized, as is the original plug on the vacuum. I’ll bet when most homeowners wire one of these up, or even wire up a new three prong plug, about 50% get the hot lead switched over to the neutral side. Double insulated appliances are a much better idea....

 

[Mark Needham]

Low I sulation resistance

Was it THAT hot in Rocky on Tuesday, Mark?
John.

Hot, 'aint the word. 38C, with bloody high humidity. But, Yeah, I don't suffer fools, when it comes to electricity. But Darwin usually sorts 'em out.