DIY A/C power cord plugs

[tom1356]

With all the DIY power cords being made now, how come nobody makes their own a/c plugs?
I was making a 16 ga. solid silver power cord for my SACD player when it occurred to me I could do better than a commercially available plug by fashioning the wire itself into the prongs. Any reason why I shouldn't do this?

[faustian bargin]

pretty neat. (it's not too big to sit next to another plug in a duplex, is it?)

you might consider concaving the sides, just to provide a little extra grip.

by the way, what's that cloth wire covering? i have an old tube radio for which i'd like to replace the dinky plastic zipcord; something like that cloth stuff would look fabb-o.

/andrew

[tom1356]

It will fit just fine in half of a duplex outlet.
The cloth is from vintage Western Electric 16 ga. wire.
You can try ebay to for some of this.
I'll try concaving the sides.
Good idea.
Thanks

[Peter Daniel]

You seem to have interesting ideas. Any plans for a rack system?

[tom1356]

Peter,
Funny you should mention racks. I have been looking at equipment sitting on sand boxes on the floor for far to long.
I've been thinking I would make something low enough to put my 41" TV on but with two shelves underneath for video equipment and a matching rack for audio equipment.
As always WAF is the utmost requirement. So I'm thinking American black Cherry frame in a triangle shape simmilar to the Naim.
Any other ideas?

[Peter Daniel]

I like Naim stand very much too. I've built once industrial equipment rack, but still didn't have a chance to test it.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...2389#post52389

[Coulomb]

Originally posted by tom1356
With all the DIY power cords being made now, how come nobody makes their own a/c plugs?
I was making a 16 ga. solid silver power cord for my SACD player when it occurred to me I could do better than a commercially available plug by fashioning the wire itself into the prongs. Any reason why I shouldn't do this?

Do you mean other than not being IEC, UL or CUL approved, no nothing at all! :-)


Anthony

[pinkmouse]

Originally posted by tom1356
With all the DIY power cords being made now, how come nobody makes their own a/c plugs?

Coulomb may be correct in his intimations, it is quite possible that a household insurance company would not pay out if such a device failed and caused a fire...

But they do look dead cool!

[faustian bargin]

Originally posted by pinkmouse


Coulomb may be correct in his intimations, it is quite possible that a household insurance company would not pay out if such a device failed and caused a fire...

....

I'm sure they wouldn't. But is such a failure likely to happen? Indeed all DIY electrical/electronic work is normally done without UL approval, so any catastrophic failure is probably going to be tough luck, insurance-wise. I doubt that's going to stop any of us from doin' our thing though.

If you're a licensed engineer or contractor you can get local building department permits for building electrical work. But getting UL approval on a product is a different ball of wax. Not sure how to do it, but I'm guessing it's not easy.

[nikonfanatic]

Originally posted by faustian bargin



<SNIP>But getting UL approval on a product is a different ball of wax. Not sure how to do it, but I'm guessing it's not easy.

And it is not very cheap either especially when you consider the multiple units the regulatory bodies will want for destructive testing!!!