Thought I'd share this w/ youse guys...

[Bill White]

By the way, that's Mississippi for all y'all...
During my reply to Ken's question about power cords, I remembered that I was supposed to share an experience w/ everyone.
I was cleaning the shop this past weekend when I noticed a darkened area on a plug in (3 into 1). Well , I had the shop heater plugged into this socket, and it seems that the plug had gotten pulled out of he socket a bit. Mr. Plug didn't like bein' half plugged so he decided to get kinda hot. In fact, hot enough to discolor the plastic body of the socket.
Several morals to this story.......
Clean the shop.
DON'T USE RECEPTICAL "EXTENDERS" THAT DON'T SCREW IN.
Every once in a while, check all plugs and power cords.

Thank goodness there was no real damage done, the recept "extender" went in the trash, and the shop was clean at the end of the day.

In case you wonder, a shop fire would have wrecked my weekend.

Bill

[Eric Gustafson]

DON'T USE RECEPTICAL "EXTENDERS" THAT DON'T SCREW IN.
Every once in a while, check all plugs and power cords.
Bill

This releated to another article about motor voltages. So I will add to your safety message. KEEP PLUG CONTACTS CLEAN! Who would even think of that, anyway. But when plug contacts get dirty, they drop voltage across the contact. Voltage times the current is power and the power idropped is the source of heat. The heat can further oxidize the contact and before you know it, it can cause enough heat for fire. This is exasperated with motor circuits, since they draw addtional current if the voltage to the motor decreases.

[Ken Garlock]

Bill, it is a good thing you found the heat problem.

A couple months ago I was measuring the width of the wall behind my drill press. The drill press is plugged in to a 20 amp 120 volt outlet immediately behind it. I got out my retractable tape measure and proceeded to extend it across the wall from one edge to the other. As I was starting to retract the tape, it happen to slide behind the drill press plug and make contact with both prongs of the plug. There was a flash of blue light and the circuit breaker did its job. My tape now have two black notches where it tangled with the plug. The plug was not loose, but rather the tape was turned such that it exposed an edge to the plug and managed to slip in between the outlet and the plug. Retracting the tape acted like a knife cut and allowed the metal tape to wedge itself down to the plug prongs. The black dust cleaned off the outlet cover plate with a rag.

[Don Abele]

Bill, it is a good thing you found the heat problem.

A couple months ago I was measuring the width of the wall behind my drill press. The drill press is plugged in to a 20 amp 120 volt outlet immediately behind it. I got out my retractable tape measure and proceeded to extend it across the wall from one edge to the other. As I was starting to retract the tape, it happen to slide behind the drill press plug and make contact with both prongs of the plug. There was a flash of blue light and the circuit breaker did its job. My tape now have two black notches where it tangled with the plug. The plug was not loose, but rather the tape was turned such that it exposed an edge to the plug and managed to slip in between the outlet and the plug. Retracting the tape acted like a knife cut and allowed the metal tape to wedge itself down to the plug prongs. The black dust cleaned off the outlet cover plate with a rag.

Ken, it's for reasons like yours that I see many outlets now installed with the ground facing up. My electrician co-worker said it used to be that with the ground on the bottom, it "supported" the plug making it less likely to wiggle out. Now, it's ground on the top to stop something from dropping in and making contact with both leads. Both ways have their merits, I still install with the ground down, but that's just out of habit.

Be well,

Doc

[Ken Garlock]

Ken, it's for reasons like yours that I see many outlets now installed with the ground facing up. My electrician co-worker said it used to be that with the ground on the bottom, it "supported" the plug making it less likely to wiggle out. Now, it's ground on the top to stop something from dropping in and making contact with both leads. Both ways have their merits, I still install with the ground down, but that's just out of habit.

Be well,

Doc

Don, that is a good idea. I will keep it in mind. Unspoken convention says that the ground pin is on the bottom. I wonder how that started.:confused: