"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , Ron
writes:
On 31/01/2012 15:58, David Looser wrote:
wrote in message
...
On 31/01/2012 15:29, David Looser wrote:
wrote


Far more common to find the existing blown fuse wrapped in aluminium
foil.


Well in some 2000-odd PAT tests I've never met that one, how often have
you
come across it?

David.


I used to see it a couple or three times a year back when I repaired group
gear, often on HT fuses in valve amplifiers, and back when 20mm fuses
started to become common in equipment, but not common in toolboxes.
[]
I think David was specifically talking about the BS1362 fuses found in
BS1363 plugs. The special (and varied) fuses in the HT amp.s and similar
are less likely to match anything to hand (i. e. another appliance's
plug).
--

Indeed I was. My comments were in the context of Jerry's assertion that
screws, bolts, metal rod etc. are commonly found instead of fuses in BS1361
plugs. As you say equipment fuses are far more varied in terms of size,
rating and rupture characteristic. They also tend to be a lot more expensive
than the readily available BS1362 fuse.

BTW did anyone here ever come across the alternative design for a UK fused
plug? I only met one once, it had round pins and looked fairly similar to
the old 15A plug, but the live pin *was* the fuse. The fuse had a threaded
stud on one end and simply screwed into the face of the plug to form the
live pin. I guess it was a different designer's take on the same design
brief that lead to the BS1361 plug. At least if we had gone with that
design it would have been much harder to bypass the fuse!

David.