Had a bit of sick leave and got bored. I managed to knock over a Democrat ( 5 valve ) , Philco, two AWAs and a Airzone. Michael Raanan made the correct knobs for my Airzone and a kind fellow from my Facebook group swapped a correct badge for some capacitors.

The Philco was a house fire in waiting. The knob that got to it before me decided to disconnect the earth wire from the plug to stop it from tripping the circuit breakers, instead of taking ten minutes to change the cord over. The original cord had about 6 spots showing bare wire.. The New Zealand wiring codes were different and I could not work out why I couldn't identify the earth wire with my multimeter so I opened the plug and to my horror it was disconnected.

The power plug is the first thing I check, almost always you'll find that the screws are loose.

The original cord had about 6 spots showing bare wire

Straight into the garbage can before doing anything else.

I agree Robbert the power plug and cord is always inspected first. The thing is the cord felt quite supple ( cotton covered) but looking inside the set told a different story.

I was asked to test/tag a home made extension lead at work today. I passed and the owner got a bit offended and the confected outrage didn't stop even after I advised them that I do not test/tag 2-core extension leads.

Yesterday I was asked to look at a Bain Marie that had flex damage. It was fitted with a curly cord and when looking at the cord, each 'lap' was scraped to the point that the conductors were showing. No-one in the kitchen knew how it happened but by the looks of the cord, not all the damage occurred at the same time. It was amazing how no-one received a shock off it. I am kicking myself for not taking a photo of it.

Here's an interesting and long-standing fact - most electrocutions in Australia are due to faulty, worn or misused flexible cords.

I do not test/tag 2-core extension leads

Is such a contraption even legal?

Nope. Additionally, a home made extension lead is also illegal in a commercial environment if it's not made by a licenced electrician. People can make their own for domestic use though.

Tag & Test can produce amazing moments of disbelief. Over the years I have seen some incredible things. Radio wise it is never unusual to see "cloth rubber" cables that are a series of beads & some clown has plugged it in. It is not that long ago where the 1950's wedding present started humming: At least he had the brains to realise that it was not right, & I ended up with it to sort out. It had a two wire rubber type figure eight cable (original). It was disintegrating and I was amazed that he was not killed unplugging it.

Mens Shed is also interesting. We have an OH&S group, because I play with radios that are electric, anything that goes wrong there is pointed out to me, to action & get sorted out. People will insist on donating electrical tools "in good faith" (most of the time) & some treacherous items appear. The ruling just has to be no tag no use.

This just has to be done as a result. I checked a pile of donated cables recently. Aside from shrinkage, several had faulty, or damaged plugs & sockets, several got chopped up & binned, some had an open wire, in most cases earth. The "piece de resistance" was one that just looked wrong; On inspection it had a three pin plug & socket. BUT it was a recycled two wire vacuum cleaner cable: Yep! no earth. Death trap.

Now if you think RCD's will save the world: A rude awakening. Take note: That there are circumstances where they will not trip. Transformer secondaries being the principal example. "Variacs" (Slide transformers) are an "auto transformer" Auto transformers secondaries are common to the mains, you can still get bitten if the OP is low. I deliberately ascertained with my "Variac" that below 130V a 30mA RCD did not trip.

Secondaries that are a single entity (not common to mains: viz "floating") can happily burn, short & bite, with impunity providing that they do not cause the primary current to exceed tripping current. The best example as posted recently, was a "stick" welder". The normally floating secondary decided to go to ground. Of course the metal body of the welder is mains grounded. So the earth wire was fused, dramatically. This to the power point, but I have seen that fuse a line to the fuse box.

As there was no detectable earth leakage on the primary (cable fused), nor an overload the RCD would not trip (and didn't) NB primary was good. That could have easily caused an ignition.

Photos sent. Will locate the speaker and power cord as well.

Forgot: Many of those cables were wired inverted. I.e Neutral & Active appeared, or started on say correct terminals on the plug and the opposite on the socket, & vise versa. Only one had been cooked (high resistance). Not all dodgy cables were DIY repair.

This is why the foot was put down.

Beads are a bit unusual on flexible cords but I have seen a few insulated that way. Beads are more often found inside appliances, particularly where heat is involved. Stoves, welders and kilns to name a few.

The strange thing was that the cotton covered power cable felt very flexible and gave no indication of problems from touch. But when I stripped it back yep it basically was falling apart in my hands.

cotton covered power cable

But rubber insulated wire?

I have sent photos.

Photos uploaded to Posts 1 and 14. A photo of the Airzone should be sent again as this one is missing some info.