Rewiring in an "empty" and a plea for your spare Wagos

[pirate]

Nobody wants a full rewire in an occupied property, but here is an opportunity...and for those who love to extend cables to fix a new installation, this is your best chance ever!

Ferries delayed again after cabling blunder

Hundreds of electrical wires installed on a ferry at Ferguson shipyard are found to be too short.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[snowhead]

2 Days and it'll be done Guv and I'll get me best team onto it.

Delboy, get Rodney we're on to a big payout here.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I think this highlights the case that a cable is better being 10M too long than 1M too short

 

[SparkySy]

Indeed the old adage, "better to be looking at it than for it" springs to mind!

 

[brianmoooore]

HappyHippyDad wasn't involved in this by any chance?​

 

[littlespark]

It wasn’t the cables that were too short…. Somebody built the boat too long.

 

[Rockingit]

Indeed the old adage, "better to be looking at it than for it" springs to mind!

….I had that mercilessly drummed into me by my old chief and I’ve probably thanked him every day since!

 

[cliffed]

Seen so many cables too short, the old gaffer used to go mad with cables too long.
No one touches on that subject now, always leave longer

 

[HappyHippyDad]

HappyHippyDad wasn't involved in this by any chance?​

Cheeky fxxxxx! Fair point though!

My 37m error cost me £196 which I took on the chin. Imagine what these guys are out of pocket by!

 

[Rockingit]

Seen so many cables too short, the old gaffer used to go mad with cables too long.
No one touches on that subject now, always leave longer

It IS a fine balance, I'll agree. But a new-build where there's half a drum's worth of 'slack' hanging out of every single back box is a sure fire to make my red mist descend, too. Apart from the principle of the wastage it's also throwing away your profit. I did it with a lad I had on site years ago, went around after the first fix he'd done and snipped back to 'sensible' lengths, gathered up all the waste and made a pile, made him measure it all and do the maths, told him that would have been the Friday beers I'd have bought him.

 

[Lister1987]

Cables are fine guv, you didn't didn't tell us it was in metric/imperial

 

[Rockingit]

Cables are fine guv, you didn't didn't tell us it was in metric/imperial

I can't now remember exactly what it was but even fairly recently there was some massive space related cockup and upon investigation it turned out that half the American engineers has calculated using imperial, the other half metric and no-one had realised

 

[brianmoooore]

That was the Hubble telescope.

 

[pc1966]

The Hubble mirror was out be a tiny amount, so it had a monocle fitted.

Hubble's Mirror Flaw - NASA Science

Launched on April 24, 1990, NASA’s flagship Great Observatory has far surpassed its original mission goals. Hubble has more than doubled its 15-year life expectancy and significantly expanded our understanding of the universe while simultaneously unveiling new mysteries that prompt further...

www.nasa.gov

The big screw up with imperial/metric was the reason the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost:

How NASA Lost a Spacecraft From a Metric Math Mistake | SimScale

How NASA lost a spacecraft due to a mistake with metric units and unit conversion. Learn about the Mars Climate Orbiter incident.

www.simscale.com

But you can also see what are possibly the most expensive set of 24 bolts in history:

Earth Science Missions Anomaly Report: GOES/POES Program/POES Project: 6 Sep 2003

EARTH SCIENCE MISSIONS ANOMALY REPORT TO: GSFC: 100/A. Diaz, 100/W. Townsend, 100/ 400/D Perkins, NASA HQ: Y/G. Asrar, Y/M. Luther, Q/B O’Connor FROM: GSFC/POES Project/480/K. Halterman DATE: September 6, 2003 […]

www.spaceref.com

 

[brianmoooore]

So what units do these Yanks actually work in? I know it's inches, but is it inches, 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000 etc., which is effectively the metric system, but with a different reference length, or do they actually use yards, feet, inches, 1/4, 1/8, etc.
If it's the latter, it's no wonder mistakes occur.

 

[catdog1121]

Someone is going to be looking for a new job... What I find funny is the notion of two blokes pulling in the cables and find the first one is two short.. One guy turns to the other and says "I think this is too short", other bloke says "Meh, not my job" and they carry on installing the other 899 cables regardless...

Nobody wants too much left over but always best to be too long than too short..

 

[nicebutdim]

So what units do these Yanks actually work in? I know it's inches, but is it inches, 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000 etc., which is effectively the metric system, but with a different reference length, or do they actually use yards, feet, inches, 1/4, 1/8, etc.
If it's the latter, it's no wonder mistakes occur.

Any Americans I've known have quoted measurements in the latter form.

 

[nicebutdim]

Cheeky fxxxxx! Fair point though!

My 37m error cost me £196 which I took on the chin. Imagine what these guys are out of pocket by!

I think 'these guys' are us taxpayers as I believe that yard was bought by the Scottish government.

 

[SparkySy]

Sounds about right taxpayers bailing out another f@@k up!
where is the slaps face emoji when you need it!

 

[Rockingit]

 

[HappyHippyDad]

I think 'these guys' are us taxpayers as I believe that yard was bought by the Scottish government.

Oh dear, So I'm having a dig at myself twice over

 

[nicebutdim]

Oh dear, So I'm having a dig at myself twice over

Hadn't thought of your post in that way, but good spot

 

[UNG]

The Hubble mirror was out be a tiny amount, so it had a monocle fitted.

Hubble's Mirror Flaw - NASA Science

Launched on April 24, 1990, NASA’s flagship Great Observatory has far surpassed its original mission goals. Hubble has more than doubled its 15-year life expectancy and significantly expanded our understanding of the universe while simultaneously unveiling new mysteries that prompt further...

www.nasa.gov

The big screw up with imperial/metric was the reason the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost:

How NASA Lost a Spacecraft From a Metric Math Mistake | SimScale

How NASA lost a spacecraft due to a mistake with metric units and unit conversion. Learn about the Mars Climate Orbiter incident.

www.simscale.com

But you can also see what are possibly the most expensive set of 24 bolts in history:

Earth Science Missions Anomaly Report: GOES/POES Program/POES Project: 6 Sep 2003

EARTH SCIENCE MISSIONS ANOMALY REPORT TO: GSFC: 100/A. Diaz, 100/W. Townsend, 100/ 400/D Perkins, NASA HQ: Y/G. Asrar, Y/M. Luther, Q/B O’Connor FROM: GSFC/POES Project/480/K. Halterman DATE: September 6, 2003 […]

www.spaceref.com

Reminds me of the Gimli Glider

 

[littlespark]

I found the problem….. they were using the middle tape measure…

 

[SparkySy]

I was told by my dad years ago if you measure something to cut, use the same measure to mark what you are cutting because of differences between tape measures!
I can't say much about differences in measurements, I've measured once cut twice too many times to remember them all!

 

[westward10]

HappyHippyDad wasn't involved in this by any chance?​

Got to be post of the month.

 

[brianmoooore]

Any Americans I've known have quoted measurements in the latter form.

How do you even use a calculator with measurements in that form?
In spite of being fairly ancient, I've never used imperial measurements in my entire working life, and even source tape measures that are metric only. Easy enough to get in these days of on line shopping, but before that I used to bring back a few every time I crossed the English Channel.

 

[DPG]

For anyone interested in these sort of errors I can highly recommend this book.

 

[nicebutdim]

How do you even use a calculator with measurements in that form?
In spite of being fairly ancient, I've never used imperial measurements in my entire working life, and even source tape measures that are metric only. Easy enough to get in these days of on line shopping, but before that I used to bring back a few every time I crossed the English Channel.

I don't mind using either. If a measurement works well with imperial, that's fine with me and if it works better in metric, that's also fine. What I couldn't be bothered with is fractional imperial measurements of less than 1/16" of an inch.

 

[pirate]

That'll be 2'3" and 2mm...
how much more accurate can you get?