Re:World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan...
by analog31 on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @12:14AM
(#20209727)
With the grounding pin absent, even a small amount of leakage can result in the enclosure of the tool being anywhere between mains and ground potential. I'm neither an electrician nor an engineer, but I suspect that the newer "double insulated" standard is a worthwhile improvement.
Re:World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan...
by bigiain on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:00AM
(#20209912)
Either (or both of) roper grounding or a residual current detector would have made that day of mine a lot less exciting. I'm still happy using metal-cased mains powered devices, but I'm somewhat more careful about checking those two things before I hang on to them tightly these days...
I will admit that my drill has had the grounding pin cut out of it's once-3-pronged plug.
Apparently it was common for contractors to cut it out as many of the houses they were working in didn't have grounding sockets.
I've only used it a couple of times, after checking it over mechanically inside, so I'm not too worried about it.
The beautiful thing about old power tools however is that replacing the power cord is as easy removing 4 easily accessed screws in the outer cover, removing the cover, then removing 3 further easily accessed screws that connect the plug to the electrical system of the drill.
Which as you remind us, I should probably do sooner than later.
Thanks for the story, and thankfully you still have an arm to type with!