Kitchen Refurb

[PanBiker]

Doesn't warrant it's own topic but it is DIY so I will put it in here. Friday, I came down in the morning and switched our back room light on which caused a massive bang and took the main trip out along with one of the 5A lighting trips. Clearly something was amiss. I made sure the back room light was off and reset the trips, all was OK, I could smell the acrid smell of burnt cables so I got up to the light fitting and removed the lamps. It's a three arm antique looking downlighter with glass shades on each arm. I took the shades of and then had a good sniff at each leg. One was particularly smelly so probably something to do with the fault. I took the fitting down for a closer inspection.

At first I could not see how the fitting was put together. The lampholders were fastened to the arms with nuts that were spot welded after securing the arms. It was looking like it could be a one way trip to the bin. On closer inspection though I noticed that the spring loaded prongs in each BC fitting were in ceramic inserts secured by two lugs into the captive BC surround. The arms of the fitting are S shaped and the cable runs to each lampholder ran in a groove from the centre support for the fitting. There is a cap on the bottom of the fitting secured by a central decorative nut. Removing this gave access to the termination point for all the cables. All the cabling is 3A flat twin PVC sheathed. Nothing to lose so I elected to go for a complete strip down and rewire of the unit.

All three arms are wired in parallel with a single feed wire from the top of the fitting which has a direct earth to the body of the fitting. Each of the three cables from the arms were connected to the main feed by butt ended insulated crimp connectors. I chopped these off and then pulled the wires back to the lampholders, released the lugs on each ceramic insert and withdrew them from the BC fittings. IT soon became apparent what the problem was, one lead had completely vitrified and shorted out, hence the bang and flashover that blew the trips. Thankfully the leads were terminated with grub screw fixings on the rear of the ceramic inserts so all the cabling could be replaced.

I nipped over to B&Q yesterday and picked up some replacement cable, managed to get antique bronze coloured outsize sheath as well, the same as the original cable. I don't have any large insulated crimps big enough for 4 x 0.5mm cables and neither did B&Q so I got a 15A choc block connector that would do the same job. I spent last night re cabling the entire fitting. I cleaned up each of the ceramic inserts for the spring loaded prongs before refitting. I just have to get my meter now to check that its OK before putting it back up.

The fitting used to have three 60w incandescent lamps in then the fluorescent equivalents, I have now have three 12w LED's in. It runs a lot cooler now than it ever did. The bits cost me £7 and I have 4m of spare antique bronze 3A twin PVC cable spare, (they don't sell it off the reel). Not bothered, it's a lot better than £150 for a new fitting.

[Big Kev]

Top job, Ian. Household electrics are a mystery to a lot of people, few realise how straightforward and logical it is. A 3 way lighting circuit slows me down a bit and I have to refer to my old college notes to refresh the brain cells. Not sure how much things have moved on since my old 16th edition regs...

[PanBiker]

It metered out OK, ideally I could have done with a Megger to put a bit of current through it and check for leakage on the insulation. I used to have one but it's long gone. No bother it showed O/C in all the right places so it's now refitted. I took the opportunity to wash all the glass shades while they were off. It's over our pine table in the back room and with it's three 12W Warm White LED's gives the equivalent of 75W per arm so 225W in total, (I like a good light).

With reference to electrics being a mystery to some folk. Sometimes a little knowledge is a bad thing. When I was in the telly trade I once had to break the seals and pull the main 100A feed fuses on a customers installation. They had complained of a small picture on their TV and when I checked the voltage from the ring it was down at about 120v. The thyristor PSU in the set was doing the best it could on half voltage. Closer inspection revealed that the newly installed double sockets around the house and all through the kitchen were wired in 5A clear flex with no earth! Hubby had done "a right good job" according to his good lady. Not good enough to keep the lights on after I had visited. YEB fitted blanks in the feeds until they had the entire property rewired and signed off by a competent electrician.

[Stanley]

Reminds me of the time I bought my big Avo and went chasing the reason why some appliances at Bancroft wouldn't work properly on the alternator leccy. I soon found the fault! We were only making just over 300v! No wonder the appliances were protesting on single phase. I got a Sparks in to find out why and it was down to the resistances in the adjuster circuit for the Exciter. We put new ones in and cleaned the variable resistor studs, immediate cure. Blew dozens of bulbs in the shed (200w screw ins) but luckily I had bought a big bunch from the fair who got them cheap. Everything else started to work properly. The reason why it had been like that for years was that the previous engineer had 'cured' the fault by adjusting the voltmeter on the distribution board to show 400v on the circuit...

[Stanley]

How is it going Wendy?

[Wendyf]

Slow but sure! More crumbly plaster knocked off and holes bricked up. Plans drawn up and parts ordered for the electrics. A start was made yesterday on wiring the ceiling ready for LED downlighters.

[PanBiker]

Put plenty in Wendy, they virtually cost nothing to run, we love the ones we put in and plenty of light for the work surfaces.

[plaques]

And then they come up with LED wall panels. So out with the old and in with the new. That is if you have power connections set in the walls. Wall Panels.

[Stanley]

Fascinating P! I have always expected light emitting paint to eventually take over from point sources of light for general illumination..... In NY I once saw a room lit by up-lighters concealed inside sections of earthenware sewage pipes so the light reflected from the walls and ceiling and loved the effect.

[Wendyf]

I came in from the peace & quiet of the garden to find an exhausted, sweating, cursing & dusty husband. He is chiseling out holes for socket back boxes in the stone walls and had come across a block of what appears to be black granite....what on earth is that doing in the middle of a gritstone wall?

[plaques]

Did it have any names on it?

[Wendyf]

It's still underneath decent plaster....I wouldn't dare ask him to chip it off, not with all these deadly tools lying around!!

[Stanley]

Wendy, almost certainly Blue Limestone. (Tiz will tell us the right name!) Very common in this area especially in foundations because it is impervious to water. I sympathise with Col, I can remember the dull red sparks flying out from the star drill when I first met it! If I had to cut it out I would chain drill it with a sharp masonry drill before attacking it. If you do that you'll need a green stone on the grinder to sharpen the carbide tips. If Col hasn't got one and wants his masonry bits sharpening bring them down and I'll do them for him, very quick, done while you wait! Makes all the difference.

[Wendyf]

You are probably right Stanley, definitely not granite! It is very dark grey and fine grained with a distinct sparkle and has bands of quartz running through it.
More delays yesterday when the chop saw motor began throwing out sparks. Col tried to strip it down but couldn't get access to the bit he needed to get to. (I didn't grasp the details...) A smaller, less powerful one did the job though, and the new door frame is now in place.

[Tizer]

Wendy, test the stone with acid and it will fizz if it's limestone. Colin might have some of the hydrochloric acid sold in DIY shops for removing the white carbonate efflorescence that forms on stone and brick walls. Otherwise use some vinegar. Also, if you can see any fossils that will help confirm limestone (although they are not always present). It might be a dense volcanic rock such as dolerite which is found geologically in dykes and sills.

For anyone interested in the types of building stone used in different British counties the British Geological Survey (BGS) has PDF documents for download here: BGS building stone
They are not too technical and have colour pics of lots of local buildings. Enjoy!

[Stanley]

The quarry at Lothersdale had some veins of exotic rock in it.... Could have been the source or a pointer to what would be found if quarried in a delph nearer the house.

[Wendyf]

It bubbled gently in vinegar....

[Tizer]

Limestone then! Following Stanley's comment I looked up Lothersdale and found the 1972 `History of Lothersdale' as a 263-page PDF on the Web. On page 10 it states:
"The oldest rock exposed in Lothersdale is the Chatburn Limestone. This is found in two inliers at Raygill Delf and Dowshaw Delf. Although both quarries are on the axis of the main Lothersdale Anticline the dips are irregular. The folding is magnificently exposed in the modern Raygill Quarry. Both inliers are slightly domed and at their extremities dip to the north-east and south-west on the axis of the anticline. The Chatburn Limestone here is a dark grey thin-bedded limestone, showing current bedding in the form of short steep bedding planes oblique to the general stratification and some oolites. It is rather unfossiliferous, although crinoid ossicles are common in places. The dark colour is caused by the inclusion of carbonaceous matter and clay. Together with the chert (a form of silica) and pyrites (iron sulphide) these suggest that the deposition was in a stagnant reducing environment."

Of course, the Chatburn limestone is exposed elsewhere so there could be numerous sources. The presence of pyrite could account for `sparkles' in the rock. Chert could make it a harder rock than pure limestone. The PDF can be downloaded here:
LINK

The British Geological Survey (BGS) describes the Chatburn limestone as: "Well-bedded, mostly grey to dark grey packstone limestones with chert lenses and subordinate partings or thin beds of shaly calcareous mudstone and siltstone" and gives its limits as: "Widespread across the Craven Basin from the Whitewell area [SD64] in the west to the Skipton/Broughton area [SD95] in the east, where it includes the Haw Bank Limestone (q.v.)." The Reference Section is: "Exposure in the Chatburn Bypass road cutting (A59), east side, immediately east of Chatburn village, Lancashire." LINK

There is much more here: LINK

[Wendyf]

The Lothersdale Fault comes through my field.....

[Tizer]

Look for the nearest big hole, it might have been where your rock was dug out!

[Wendyf]

Sorted! Thanks Tiz.

[Marilyn]

When Plaques said "does it have any names on it?", I imagined someone had reinforced your walls with old granite headstones, flogged from the Cemetery!!

[Wendyf]

[Moh]

That was my thought too Maz!!

[Tizer]

I thought he meant `does it have Blackpool written through it'!