Polishing/Sanding machine from China

[Dieselbob]

 

 

I bought this small Polishing/Sanding  machine a few months back from what I thought was a company in the US because it was priced in Dollars $69 to be exact about £50 but it turned out to be from China. When it arrived there was no variable power supply in the box which it was supposed to have.

It wasn’t via Ebay but I had paid with PayPal, after having no joy with the company following numerous emails which they didn’t answer I phoned PayPal and spoke to a rep who told me I have to start a claim with them, I then got an answer from the company in China but still no joy they said post it back but never offered postage. I phoned PayPal again and the rep told me she would refund me the full amount while we were talking which she did. I asked what should I do with the machine and she said do with it what you wish and they would get their money from China.

I thanked her and said that was good service, she said it pays to keep a good balance in your account, I’m not sure what good is, I only had a couple of hundred in there, but it’s worth remembering, not that I think it should make a difference having money in your account.

Anyway I bought a power supply from Ebay for £8 so all is good mind you that came from China.

The Machine is really good quality and works a treat and has a 30mm wide belt, It’s a shame they have to spoil things. The company was called “O My Dealz” pity I can’t recommend them.

Cheers

Bob

 

[Kris]

I would be very wary of that plug. It looks like the unfused plugs that have been supplied with other goods from China. If it is such a plug it should not be used.

 

 

 

[steve W]

22 minutes ago, Kris said:

I would be very wary of that plug. It looks like the unfused plugs that have been supplied with other goods from China. If it is such a plug it should not be used.

 

 

 

I would echo that. One of our groups at the club ended up with one of these leads (on a psu for LEDs). Not only wasn't it fused,  but the lead had quickly broken away from the entry to the plug revealing Red/white/black cores with very thin insulation.  A Positively dangerous thing.

[PJT]

1 hour ago, steve W said:

I would be very wary of that plug. It looks like the unfused plugs that have been supplied with other goods from China. If it is such a plug it should not be used.

 

It has a half-insulated earth pin, too, which I believe from memory is outlawed and is certainly unsafe.

 

Pete T.

 

[Dieselbob]

10 hours ago, Kris said:

I would be very wary of that plug. It looks like the unfused plugs that have been supplied with other goods from China. If it is such a plug it should not be used.

 

You are quite right in what you say and it is on my list of things to change. If I was sensible I would have done it straight away, but I have been an electrician for over 50 years and it’s easy to become complacent and that’s no excuse I Know. If I was with a customer and saw that I would change it for them straight away.

In the case of the Earth pin, Its a class 2 piece of equipment (Fully Insulated) all the earth pin is doing is opening the shutters in the socket, some plug in transformers come with a completely plastic pin, on a few occasions I have had to change sockets where the pin has snapped off.

Bob

[Michael Hodgson]

4 hours ago, Dieselbob said:

 

In the case of the Earth pin, Its a class 2 piece of equipment (Fully Insulated) all the earth pin is doing is opening the shutters in the socket, some plug in transformers come with a completely plastic pin, on a few occasions I have had to change sockets where the pin has snapped off.

Bob

Yeah, I really ought to change the socket on the landing.  The infra-red night light thing that lives there still works despite its missing plastic earth pin, because the shutters are jammed open.  Trouble is you can't plug the vacuum in there, or for that matter plug the light in anywhere else.

 

14 hours ago, steve W said:

I would echo that. One of our groups at the club ended up with one of these leads (on a psu for LEDs). Not only wasn't it fused,  but the lead had quickly broken away from the entry to the plug revealing Red/white/black cores with very thin insulation.  A Positively dangerous thing.

Sounds like it's not just the plug that wants changing - if the insulation isn't adequate the whole lead wants replacing.

[steve W]

10 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Sounds like it's not just the plug that wants changing - if the insulation isn't adequate the whole lead wants replacing.

In the case of our club one, your'e absolutely right - whilst investigating the lead the cover fell off the power supply (no screws or glue) revealing a reworked unit that must have failed original QC checks. Both connectors were new, the original use was meant to be hard wired as the stub ends were still attached from where they had been snipped off. Components had also been removed and nothing in their place, it did produce 12V though. I could go on, we just binned the whole thing.

I'm not suggesting this variable one is anything like that, but the price is well below any 12V 5A psu brick (fixed output) that you would buy with a reputable UK seller and that you could claim from in the worst case. I regularly pay betwenn £15 and £30 for 60Watt brick power supplies.

[Dieselbob]

 

I suppose there are worse things than plugs without fuses.

Bob

 

[melmerby]

On 06/05/2021 at 07:44, Dieselbob said:

 

You are quite right in what you say and it is on my list of things to change. If I was sensible I would have done it straight away, but I have been an electrician for over 50 years and it’s easy to become complacent and that’s no excuse I Know. If I was with a customer and saw that I would change it for them straight away.

In the case of the Earth pin, Its a class 2 piece of equipment (Fully Insulated) all the earth pin is doing is opening the shutters in the socket, some plug in transformers come with a completely plastic pin, on a few occasions I have had to change sockets where the pin has snapped off.

Bob

But the lead is a 3 core IEC 6A/10A and as such it should have a solid earth but if the cable is Red/Black/White bin it anyway

N.B. black might be the live on that colour combination, one of the reason all colours were changed years ago

Edited May 8, 2021 by melmerby

[Dieselbob]

6 minutes ago, melmerby said:

But the lead is a 3 core IEC 6A/10A and as such it should have a solid earth but if the cable is Red/Black/White bin it anyway

N.B. black might be the live on that colour combination, one of the reason all colours were changed years ago

 

Quite right the colours did change, but unfortunately as per usual we are the only country that sticks to that code, actually Black is a live colour here now together with Grey & Brown.

 

[melmerby]

28 minutes ago, Dieselbob said:

 

Quite right the colours did change, but unfortunately as per usual we are the only country that sticks to that code, actually Black is a live colour here now together with Grey & Brown.

 

?

It's from the IEC, nothing to do with the UK (I'll assume you are UK) and adopted worldwide.

(Even Buddha ΛΛ above got the colours right)

Black is only on 3 phase equipment. in single phase IIRC it is not permissible.

 

Black/Red/White AFAIK used to be used in the USA with Black Live, White Neutral, Red (or sometimes Green) Earth.

 

That lead is probably illegal both for the plug and cable colours used.

So definitely bin fodder.

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by melmerby

[steve W]

Not quite  "adopted world wide", tho as you say, Budha was enlightened.  Japan for example uses Black White green for flex colrs (L,N,E respectively), Canada (and USA) appears to use Orange, Brown and Yellow for three phase and Iv'e worked on busbars that were purple yellow and green (France at one time)  To be honest there are a whole rainbow of colour schemes

https://wiraelectrical.com/wire-color-codes/

After over thirty years of  working on overseas electrical installations you become a bit cautious of any piece of wire!

[melmerby]

12 minutes ago, steve W said:

Not quite  "adopted world wide", tho as you say, Budha was enlightened.  Japan for example uses Black White green for flex colrs (L,N,E respectively), Canada (and USA) appears to use Orange, Brown and Yellow for three phase and Iv'e worked on busbars that were purple yellow and green (France at one time)  To be honest there are a whole rainbow of colour schemes

https://wiraelectrical.com/wire-color-codes/

After over thirty years of  working on overseas electrical installations you become a bit cautious of any piece of wire!

Adopted Worldwide doesn't necessarily mean implemented!You can sign up to something but not necessarily comply with it, however it is an international agreement.

 

Black-White-Green was at one time also used on US equipment, as where I worked had several US made electronic devices with that colour (should that be color?) code and had non-removable lables fitted to the leads so they wouldn't get incorrectly wired, same with the odd Black-White-Red where red was ground.

 

I've also seen Red-Blue-Yellow on a UK made device, back in the day.

At least that is close to both the former and the latter colours used in the UK

[Huw Griffiths]

23 hours ago, melmerby said:

I've also seen Red-Blue-Yellow on a UK made device, back in the day.

At least that is close to both the former and the latter colours used in the UK

 

Was this device "3 phase"?

 

The reason I'm asking is that electrical supplies in the UK are essentially 3 phase.

 

In other words, power generation and transmission involves 3 phases - a third of a cycle apart. Even when the "juice" is transformed down to the "low voltage" supplied to most customers, it still comes in these 3 phases - by now often identified as "red", "yellow" and "blue" - with a typical house being supplied from one of these phases (doesn't matter too much which).

 

In case anyone is wondering, the "neutral" black wire in domestic supplies is connected to the earth at the substation. However, this could still be far enough away for this wire to "pick something up" by induction (and proximity with the live) - so I wouldn't want to touch it!

 

 

Huw.

[PatB]

On 07/05/2021 at 06:03, steve W said:

In the case of our club one, your'e absolutely right - whilst investigating the lead the cover fell off the power supply (no screws or glue) revealing a reworked unit that must have failed original QC checks. Both connectors were new, the original use was meant to be hard wired as the stub ends were still attached from where they had been snipped off. Components had also been removed and nothing in their place, it did produce 12V though. I could go on, we just binned the whole thing.

I'm not suggesting this variable one is anything like that, but the price is well below any 12V 5A psu brick (fixed output) that you would buy with a reputable UK seller and that you could claim from in the worst case. I regularly pay betwenn £15 and £30 for 60Watt brick power supplies.

It wasn't  necessarily reworked from the form you bought it in. There are companies which specialise in "mining" PSUs from the mountains of scrap electrical goods which now exist, packaging them up as stand-alone units, and flogging them as new. 

[melmerby]

10 hours ago, Huw Griffiths said:

 

Was this device "3 phase"?

 

 

Huw.

No.

It was a (AFAIK a UK made) valve radio set, running on the normal 240v mains

 

As to the neutral wire, the resistance back to the ground at the substation should be sufficiently low that it should never be more than a few volts above ground.

 

You can have three phase at domestic premises if you so desire (but it'll cost!)

When we lived in Keswick, one of our nearby guest house owners had a three phase supply, it was so the load of several 10kW electric showers could be spread more evenly.

Effectively they had 3 separate 240v supplies, as AFAiK there were no actual 3 phase electrical items installed.

 

Not sure how the wiring would be arranged though

Edited May 11, 2021 by melmerby

[steve W]

17 hours ago, PatB said:

It wasn't  necessarily reworked from the form you bought it in. There are companies which specialise in "mining" PSUs from the mountains of scrap electrical goods which now exist, packaging them up as stand-alone units, and flogging them as new. 

Yes that was likely the case, there were 'mountains' of these on sale at the time and similar ones today,  but it certainly had work done (poorly) to fit the new case by the provision of the connectors and removal of two or three components.  Whether the two loose steel strips, one down each side that rattled around, were part of the original for some sort of shielding or added for weight to imply some sort of quality I never resolved.   Sorry no pics of the guts of the failed one, but the back cover was very pretty:

 

Of course, none of the significant marks were genuine, each had a small modification.  The unsuspecting could have been easily convinced, despite the bargain price tag at that time of under a fiver which should have raised an alarm.

Bob is probably losing his hair by now and looking for a clockwork drive for his sander!