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Kimber 4TC speaker cable used as power cord

R

ryder

pfm Member
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A friend made these many years ago when I had some excess length lying around. Yea or nay?
 
Would be interested to see the wiring so you don’t mix up neutral, live and earth. I have some short bits of this (or 8TC) I think . Adding a yellow/green shielded extra earth cable would spoil the look a bit
 
I have a mains power lead somehwere that came with a s/hand CD player I bought years ago, that looks like it is made from this stuff but it also has a large plastic sheath about 15mm in diameter that encases all the thinner internal wires. I seem to remember that it was branded Russ Andrews but I may have imagined that.
 
I also have one of the earliest Russ Andrews 4TC power cables that was unsheathed. All the terminations are soldered and secure. I assume it is safe.
 
Not a legal mains leas as Killie99 points out. If your house burns down and the insurance found them in the rubble they’d almost certainly deny the claim. Rightly too.

PS For perspective they are not something I would allow to be recommended or sold on this site. They aren’t a mains cable and are in no way suitable for that usage.
 
Do not do that! Any cable carrying mains has to be certified for it. This nonsense is potentially dangerous, illegal, will void your home insurance and open you to prosecution should something bad happen.
 
Right, let me disconnect it from the Napsc it's currently connected to. Thanks for the caution.
 
starbuck said:
I have a mains power lead somehwere that came with a s/hand CD player I bought years ago, that looks like it is made from this stuff but it also has a large plastic sheath about 15mm in diameter that encases all the thinner internal wires. I seem to remember that it was branded Russ Andrews but I may have imagined that.
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Yes, that was the brand and it met safety specs because of the double insulation. They were quite expensive.
 
ryder said:
Right, let me disconnect it from the Napsc it's currently connected to.
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You also want to put it beyond use.

There was a story in the news some years ago about an electrician who was working in a house. As part of his test kit he had a mains plug with a short cable with bared ends. In his hands this was safe but he left his tool box open and a child got hold of it, plugged it in and was killed. The electrician went to prison and will have the death of a child on his conscience for the rest of his life.
 
That's an odd bit of test kit for a spark to have @Mr Pig most of them would have proper mains testing equipment, multi meter, phase tester and alot of the time a mains plug connected to a lamp holder/ bulb with a piece of flex.
The above 'mains' cable should have an earth and an outer sheath, very easy fix if it doesn't.
 
Darren L said:
That's an odd bit of test kit for a spark to have...
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Agree, but he did. I don't know what the deal with it was, maybe just a quick temporary thing he'd knocked up, but it happened.

The point is that most of the time we do these things and nothing bad happens. Every day people use candles in the house, leave chargers plugged in next to soft furnishings and nothing happens. Talk to a fire safety officer, as I have several times and they'll tell you about all the times the unlikely happened and people died, houses burned down.
 
Fergus said:
I also have one of the earliest Russ Andrews 4TC power cables that was unsheathed. All the terminations are soldered and secure. I assume it is safe.
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It should have an insulated earth wire of a minimum of 2.5 sq/mm and an outer sheath that conforms to a certain standard, BS something or other , widely available, that's how RA makes them, other than that the insulated wire is of an adequate standard for phase and neutral.
 
Fergus said:
I also have one of the earliest Russ Andrews 4TC power cables that was unsheathed. All the terminations are soldered and secure. I assume it is safe.
Click to expand...

Just to add to the comments above. It is for good reason that 13amp leads come provided with all kit, (I think), They meet standards and regulation, in most cases. Unsheathed they are unsafe, in the sense that an essential element of protection is missing. It may not happen to you, why take the risk.
Disposing safely is another problem, which probably means removing the cable termination from tthe 13a plug and binning it. Possibly to recycling centres, it would be interesting to hear what others think
This is just my view and what I try to achieve when scrapping duff 13amp leads. Must be better ways!!!
 
No need to scrap in this case.
Remove 13 amp plug.
Remove IEC plug.
Add 2.5 sq/mm insulated earth wire (available in Homebase etc)
Add flexible outer sheath, widely available, I have a catalogue somewhere, I'll post the name of the supplier later.
Heartshrink the ends.
Re-termimate 13 amp and IEC.
Wee buns;)
 
RA used to sell his own version - he sold it as finished Yello power lead because it was encased with a yellow sheath but it used the same Kimber plaited arrangement but not made with Kimber cable.
 
For outer woven flexible sheathing and everything associated with it I'd recommend Techflex available from HYPEX Ltd, hth
 
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