I just interested to know where people are sourcing their cotton covered 3 core flex from? Most of the offerings on eBay are just rubbish. They’re either stiff as a board, got no copper in them or have very thin insulation. I doubt that any are compliant? There was a supplier of a good quality rubber type a few years back, but they no longer exist.

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

I've been cutting the cords off old cloths irons. Good quality, still flexible. Nobody fixes these irons, they are thrown away, the more modern ones have brighter colours but still good.

Thanks BBTV. I have done the same but I need a supply of old irons. lol. I’ll have to check out the rubbish transfer station next time I’m out there. They seem to segregate the electronic waste these days.

Power cords.
About 30 years ago I used to nip into K-Mart and buy a dozen or so "toaster and iron" cords for my projects or production.
They then "modernised" K-Mart, deleted anything usefull, filled the place full of crappy Chinese junk and we stopped buying there.
I did have a look about 15 years ago, searched the Kitchen department for cords, asked a vacant looking teenager, got a vacant look so never went back
The "toaster/iron" cords were FLEXIBLE cotton covered about 1.5mm affairs with a three pin plug on one end and a flat 2 pin + earth line socket on the other end.
The power cords you buy now will stand up by them selves in the corner and no doubt would attract a magnet.
I tried a couple of these on projects, never again.
Like you other guys, I keep my eye out for discarded items like toasters, microwaves but due to the lack of council clean ups and copper lead rats that supply source is about gone.
Bit of a problem.
Fred.

The good thing about ratting steam irons is that the cord is 2m rather than 1.5m. They are quite suitable for coloured radios. But yes, hard to get. My Chinese-made Sunbeam is coming up to ten years old now and still going. Maybe there is some credibility to the "Engineered in Australia" yarn.

If you look about some of the lighting places have some. I have bought some moulded plug ones off of Steve. A lot of other "suicide cables" I get from Middy's. Salvage is good, but make sure its not damaged.

Thanks for all the input guys. It would be nice to even find normal PVC “flexible” appliance leads that didn’t stand up by themselves.

Kmart have got some ANKO Steam Irons at the moment for $7.50ea. Perhaps I’ll buy x10 of these and throw the irons in the bin. How wasteful…

Dave, that is the best possible use for these sub $10 appliances. A relative of mine once bought a jaffle iron for $8.00 from Big W and it cooked one sandwich before blowing up. Crap like this should not be allowed in the country and the design was obviously not subject to any mandatory testing by local authorities. Once I convinced the relative to go and buy a jaffle iron with the Breville brand on it she was contented and still has the same appliance years later. Whilst still made in China, the bottom line is that Breville invented these things and know what they are doing.

Yes, I agree with that Brad. It makes you wonder how they do it, with mark up, tax and freight. They’re probably made for under $1-.

I recently installed some new data switches at work. They came with nice black cotton cables. They got redirected of course !
I suspect they are PVC underneath, but the price was right

Some shoestrings off sneakers might be wide enough to slip a modern power cord into.

I was lucky enough a few year back to eyeball one of Jaycar's sales people & did put the question to him as to why would I buy his rigid flexi cables whe I could buy flexible one at Middys?

The infinity cables saga has to be a lesson in how expensive leaving out expensive plasticisers & such can be. I would not be surprised if that sent the supplier to the wall. No way that stuff ever complied with any specs etc. I suspect that something like that is happening with leads.

That can be stopped by introducing a spec where it bends 90degrees in a certain length /curve in time X.

Found this; https://www.fatshackvintage.com.au/collections/textile-cloth-cords Never dealt with them.

Re shoestrings

There is braided cotton sleeves available from UK (at least there was last year) which could be used to recover cables. Rather expensive with mail.
So bought some white braided cotton covered rope from Spotlight (local haberdashery, party supplies and much else) and winkled the braided covering off that to recover the cable to the 6T5 indicator in my STC 830. A LOT of troubled to do this so I haven't yet repeated the exercise for the cable to the speaker which is probably twice as long. Then dyed it black.
Once you have the sleeve though it is easy to collapse it and slip it over the cable you want to cover.
Spotlight had a synthetic fibre sleeve that didn't quite look the part.
Looked around at various boot and shoe lace but didn't find anything to suit.

Greetings all,
Three-core brown cotton covered mains cable that is both pliable and certified compliant is available from the HRSA in both VIC and SA. The VIC branch also sells similar multi-core cable for re-wiring battery sets. Membership of the Association is only $50 per year which gives access to their “valve bank” store too. Go to: www.hrsa.org.au (VIC) or www.HRSASA.asn.au (for SA)

Membership of the Association is only $50 per year which gives access to their “valve bank” store too

Plus 4 issues of Radio Waves per year which is worth far more than the $60 membership fee.