Two-three years ago we bought the next-door small house as a rental property (and to have a bit of control over who our neighbors would be.) The son-in-law of the previous owner had “upgraded” many of the older two-prong electrical outlets with modern three-prong “grounded" outlets. Unfortunately, the wiring in the walls was all 2-conductor, no ground. That became an element in our price negotiation strategy! After the purchase we had the entire house rewired to modern standards. Relatively easy to do with a one-level house and access from an attic above and an unfinished basement below.
Our house in Kansas City was two adjacent log cabins built in 1837-38, remodeled in the 1880s, again in the early 1930s, again in the late 1970s not too long before we bought it. Every time someone upgraded the electrical wiring they left behind dangling bits of the predecessor wiring. We eventually did some re-wiring in parts of that house to provide grounded circuits to the areas where stereo and computer gear might be used. The ungrounded two-wire feeds were mostly 1930s with braided cloth “insulation”. Scary stuff. stan > On Apr 26, 2017, at 10:33 AM, Gonz <rgonzoma...@gmail.com> wrote: > > We had that type of wiring all over a house we lived in in Pittsburgh. > It was built in the mid 1800's and a lot of things were added after > the fact, like the wiring, plumbing, heating, etc. > > But the worst story was of a house with more "modern" wiring. My > dad's house was built in the 50's and recently he turned on the > microwave and it started to blink and finally shut down. He went to > go reset the breakers and there was smoke all over the adjacent room. > None of the breakers were tripped, but the light in the living room > would take forever to turn on. When we came to visit, I figured I > would just go replace all the breakers with new ones, but behold, it > was a Federal Pacific Electric panel and everyone on the web said "run > away|". They went broke due to faulty breakers that would stick "on" > and cause fires. We bought a new Square D panel and replaced > everything. Then we discovered that one of the wires in the attic > from the stuck breaker had basically melted down and caused a tiny > fire which was the cause of the smoke. My Dad escaped a bullet. > > > On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 8:22 AM, Mark C <pdml-m...@charter.net> wrote: >> It's amazing how much old Knob and tube is till in use. We still had about >> half our outlets and fixtures on it before rewiring this winter. The main >> runs of Knob and Tube were actually in pretty good shape, but the runs in >> the attic were buried under blown in insulation which makes them more of a >> fire hazard. >> >> The really scary stuff were the outlets and fixtures added in the 40's and >> 50's. We found several where someone just spliced household grade extension >> cord wiring to the Knob and Tube and ran it through the walls without using >> conduit. The plastic insulation on the extension cord wire was all but gone >> in a few cases - and literally there were just two semi-bare wires behind a >> wooden baseboard or wooden lathe in the wall. Fire waiting to happen. >> Apparently using extension cord wiring like this was a common practice back >> in the day. I'm glad to see all the old stuff gone or disconnected. >> >> Mark >> >> >> >> >> On 4/24/2017 4:23 PM, Gonz wrote: >>> >>> Wow, knob and tube wiring! Yikes, seriously old stuff! >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Apr 23, 2017 at 10:14 AM, Mark C <pdml-m...@charter.net> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi Rick - >>>> >>>> Does the lens do this on multiple bodies? You might want to verify that >>>> it >>>> is the lens and not the camera. My venerable Pz-1p developed the same >>>> problem with some lenses. It appears that the shaft from the body is not >>>> linking up to the lens right. It's only a couple of lenses and they work >>>> well on other bodies, but consistently falter on the Pz-1p (though like >>>> in >>>> your case, re-mounting the lens or shaking it gets things working again, >>>> for >>>> a while.) >>>> >>>> Good luck with the home renovations - we replaced all of our galvanized >>>> plumbing and Knob and tube wiring last year. Lots of dust, noise and >>>> disruption. >>>> >>>> Mark >>>> >>>> >>>> On 4/22/2017 11:27 AM, Rick Womer wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Work and house renovation complications have had me insanely busy for >>>>> the last few months, and the completely f#@ked up re-do of photo.net >>>>> has inhibited my photo posting. >>>>> >>>>> So here I am to draw on the group's collective experience: >>>>> >>>>> My beloved DA 16-45 is having autofocus problems. It often just goes >>>>> click-click-click and doesn't focus. Sometimes a bit of shaking gets >>>>> it working again for a frame or three. >>>>> >>>>> Where should I send it for repair? Precision? KEH? Somewhere else? >>>>> >>>>> Cheers, >>>>> >>>>> Rick >>>>> >>>>> http://photo.net/photos/RickW >>>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>>> PDML@pdml.net >>>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>>> follow the directions. >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. > > > > -- > -- Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding > it still. Dorothea Lange > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
