Hello Bob

I am using email only because I am on a new computer and it does not know my PW, and so? I can’t see which comment you are responding to, but it hardly matters.

I agree with your comment Bob, that ?“ This topic has strayed a long way…”

I plead guilty to being one of the perpetuators of the hijacking

Unfortunately, there are many times that the ADD in us? goes astray, presumably for a moment but then continues and for too long!

How do we fix it? ?I think we don’t want to delete the original title because it was appropriate I think on day 1.

I suppose if I was using firefox to access the thread, I could have? left a reference ?in a reply and started a new topic with an appropriate title.

But one problem is I don’t know if it will be long-winded or not.

I think Richard mentioned difficulty is sorting things out for a ?reference

We should split the stuff about fusing, but it was originally ?reasonably related to the main topic about the pilot light ?I don’t know where we should have stopped. The Electricity comes out of the wall, thru the wires, into switch ,then the transformer and out to the socket and then the buib. ??

I suppose the “GFI”, I guess it is now mostly called “GFCI” stuff should have been ?moved to another thread/topic.

To the extent that I am guilty, please let me know how I/we should do this.

There is the separate problem of trying to use on line as well as emails, I find it hard to look at previous comments and type a reply in the online method. And ?hard to fix? upper case?? Ooops

How and where should we have split this topic?.. and I mean this as a real question.

Don VA3DRL

i probably should not be hijacking your topic, but I have many old console radio cabinets ?under restoration, so to easily move them, I build a custom wooden platform just big enough ?for each size of radio, and put small castors under.? Where this is? really needed is for heavy old highboy radios with long legs.

It also keeps the wood of the basement floor.

?just don’t lean on them

Don VA3DRL

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Nice stuff Randy!

I noticed the castors; reminds me of a costly heavy radio that came with a plywood base and small castors; presumably so it could be moved to a more comfortable position.

?My heavier boatanchors are using castors more and more.

Don VA3DRL

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HI skip

I am in Ontario, so people who set the codes here are not the same as at your QTH, but likely similar.

You have no basement??? but older ground-level floor and new upper floor I guess ?

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I believe yes technically , because it detects current that goes out on the hot wire BUT does not return on the neutral; say?? 10.02 amps out? and only 10.01 amps returning?? means .01 amps lost…maybe going thru you to ground == not good. ??On the old ones I opened up years ago, the two wires go together thru a small doughnut current transformer, and if ?everything returns the core of the ct see no NET magnetic field and does nothing more, but if some current is lost, the returning current wont be the same [wont balance the hot wire] and the CT will detect a NET ?flux and activate a mechanical trip likely using solid state circuits.

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You can buy small plug in the wall LED lights that indicate proper polarity, and I believe some have a button to test that a normal 3 wire gfi protected circuit is correct,?? but the latter needs a ground wire too .. which ?for a test could be from old copper plumbing.

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That was a long answer , yes 2-wire Can have GFI protection technically,? but your code may say otherwise, often depending on the age and situation. Here, new wiring must be 3 wire with GFI’s mandatory in SOME locations in a house, while some upgrading allows old 2 wire to be protected by a GFI, but a major house renovation might require all wiring to be three wire, and GFI’s in specific spots.

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It never hurts to put a GFI in from the safety point of view but you need to be sure that it opens the hot wire, and in old old wiring you might have to test which is the hot one.

One bad thing about my old GFI’s is that they can be tripped too easily by starting a variable speed fan motor nearby and on a different circuit.I have never investigated why. It is a 1/10 chance.

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it might need to be installed in a 3 wire system, where it goes to 2 wire, partly so you can use the test button on it.

That is about as far as I can go, as I am running on memory from 20+ years ago.

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I think I have garbled this up a bit, but I hope it helps some.

Don VA3DRL

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Sorry , i just forgot the trimmimg

Don

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