What are the legalities of attaching a plug to an electrical lead?

[FenceFurniture]

Thank God that we have different jurisdictions with different laws and regulations. Otherwise we, in Victoria, would be inflicted by the many restrictive regulations and laws that apply in the other states. Many a times I read of requirements that are applicable in NSW or Qld that don't apply here.


Peter.

Yes Peter, there are good and bad in every jurisdiction - no one state has all the good or all the bad. Qld e.g. has the best petrol prices (of the eastern states anyway) but probably the worst environmental record as a whole, particularly in the 70s and 80s. They are even considering putting a coal loader near the Barrier Reef . Currently NSW appears to be the corruption champs from the previous administration.

[rustynail]

Brett! Settle! This is not the end of the world. You have a nice new machine and the ability to do things you couldn't do before. For what its worth, every industrial machine I have ever bought has come with a short bit of lead and no plug. I now expect it. Even second hand machine suppliers cut the plug off before delivery. I guess the only reason your machine had the short bit of cable was to show type and orientation.
Merry Christmas mate. Keep smiling.

[A Duke]

Funny enough all my cheap & dicey tools have come with the longest leads (GMC etc.)
Just some thing I had noticed..
Regards

[doug3030]

Yebbut don't all the machines from Carbatec et al come with plugs? I've never read that they don't. Gawd save us - even CT supply their Chinese/Taiwanese machines with more than ½ metre of power lead....."

When I bought my 21" bandsaw from Carbatec it came with a long thick power lead AND NO PLUG. So I bought a 15 amp plug and fitted it. I can see why you are a bit annoyed about such a short lead though. As you said the cost of fitting a decent length of lead at the manufacturing stage is negligible and its easier to shorten it than lengthen it.

To the best of my knowledge, you dont need any qualification to LEGALLY work on anything that is not plugged in. However that does not mean that just anyone SHOULD do it.

Like many here I have done it often, as recently as last weekend, and since I start my 39-day holiday today (not gloating or anything ) I bet I do several more over the next few weeks.

If you know what you are doing, and exercise common sense it should all be good. An example I can cite for how not to do it was something I found at a house I once rented where the power lead connecting an external power point to an external hot water system with a power lead made out of the lead cut off an appliance joined to a power lead with the plug end cut off by twisting the wires and wrapping with sticky tape. The "joint" was dragging on the ground in a drain. Thats what I mean about common sense.

Cheers

Doug

[DavidG]

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[Mobyturns]

[QUOTE=FenceFurniture;1728361]Hmmm.
Unbelievable that a $5600 machine comes without .....
(all 20 amp, so not cheap)
QUOTE]

Is it such a straightforward job? I don't know anything about your setup or situation but a $5600 seems to be an industrial capacity and not a hobbyists machine & seems to be a little outside the straight forward if it requires 20A plugs..

What power is it?
What current will it draw on startup, under load?
Do the circuits in your shed have the capacity for the load & any combined ancillary load? i.e. dust extraction.

Make sure you set yourself up safely so you can get many years of enjoyment from it rather than have one shocking experience.

[FenceFurniture]

It's rated as 3000w, 230 volts (so 13A), but also states 19.8A, so that would be the startup draw. Yes I have two 20A circuits installed - one is dedicated to the thicky, and the other for everything else.

The thread on it is here.

[Handyjack]

Is it possible the short lead is provided so it can be wired first to an emergency stop on the floor?
As has been mentioned many machines are hard wired.

[FenceFurniture]

They don't seem to know. All the other machines in the brand have some sort of decent length.

[Pac man]

So you wouldn't "plug" the brand or supplier?

[FenceFurniture]

So you wouldn't "plug" the brand or supplier?

Ha bloody ha. Actually, I would, with caveat - it's a great machine, just be aware.

[Christos]

..... (others mileage my vary, & I ain't no sparky, & get proper qualified electrical tradesman etc etc etc no doubt the Mods will add such to this thread header soon enough).

Done.

[Chris Parks]

Having just bought a Felder slider I can say that every single person who does the install themselves has issues which most take in their stride and get on with it. The overall problem came to a head when Felder decided to get serious in the North American market and the Yanks started complaining about the instructions or lack of them. What you receive is a book that is fairly forgettable and for every custom specification a sheet of drawings is included which are not instructions and by any stretch cannot be called instructions. To pacify the Yanks Felder produced some Youtube videos on the slider but it still has large black holes in it depending on the model.


Why is it so? Apparently it is very unusual in Europe for a machine not to be installed by the factory and they don't need instructions. As for the electrical connection I have now seen three totally different problems on recently delivered machines. Felder will deliver and install and commission any machine bought from them and leave that option to each customer. The fact that I chose to not take up the offer was my choice but i do expect a machine to have adequate docs and the electrical connection to be compliant to the market it is delivered into. It was pointed out to me more than once that the electrical connection was to be done by an electrician and I was always aware of that.

[FenceFurniture]

Felder will deliver and install and commission any machine bought from them and leave that option to each customer. .......It was pointed out to me more than once that the electrical connection was to be done by an electrician and I was always aware of that.

Interesting Chris. He was busily telling me that they were not allowed to fit plugs (and ipso facto longer leads). He didn't have much to say when I asked him how they handle warranty repairs of an electrical nature.

So do they send a Sparky out to do the install? I think not. Just a matter of saying whatever is convenient at the time.

[Chris Parks]

I never went into the details as they did not concern me. Mine had a very short lead and a Euro DIN plug on it as they run the machine as part of QC. Maybe it just missed getting the plug removed but I know of another delivered with the Euro plug. Mine was three phase and required 10 metres of lead and a plug I already had. They had to get right back into the machine connector box to connect, $110 for the sparky.