Wander Plugs.

[Joe]

I finally got on and made a couple of wander plugs the other day.

Firstly I turned a couple of bits of ¼" brass down and then split it with a junior hacksaw. I also drilled a hole in the other end to solder the wire into.

   

I then turned some oak covers, stained them with shoe polish and meths and stuck the brass bits in with a small amount of hot-melt glue. This can easily be re-melted should the need arise.

   

Not perfect by any means but they do the job and are one up on match-sticks.

- Joe

[Refugee]

I got some NOS ones in a chest of drawers i acquired a few years ago.
Hardly any red or black. The wires connect with a screw.

[AlanBeckett]

I must have a go at that.
Well done.

Alan

[Radio Fixer]

They work Joe and that's the main thing. Hard to come by now days and often the screw thread is messed up.

I am expecting Colin to come up with an ingenious method of getting perfectly straight slots.

Gary

[AlanBeckett]

Slitting Saw, Arbor, Lathe.
Get on with it :-)

Alan

[Joe]

I did think about mounting my 'Dremal' in the tool post with a cutting disc in but I don't think they are any thinner than the junior hacksaw blade. I also wasn't sure how well they'd cut non-ferrous metal.

I certainly plan on making more so will experiment further.

What I really want is ⅛" half-round stock so no splitting would be needed.

- Joe

[kevin.Hoyland]

Hello Joe.
A good job and its basic enginering at its best.
Kev.

[pwdrive]

Hi Joe, 3/32 brass half round is a common stock size for modeling, not sure if that would be ok as I don't have a wander socket to measure.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

What would be nice would be to have a hardened steel tube, that is a snug fit, that is slipped over and has a slot cut into it for the hacksaw to follow. But how to make that?

I think you will always need the slit as sockets seem to vary and being able to ease the pins out was one of the features of wander plugs. But in the brass you are using do the prongs break off if levered?

Nice mini project Joe.

Gary

[pwdrive]

Hi Gary, can't remember what they were originally made of, chrome plated brass? you could open them up to take up the slack but I remember they would snap if overdone, you could make a simple jig to cut the slot with hacksaw, two lengths of steel or aluminium plate say 150 mm by 50 mm, clamp them together and drill a hole through them near each end for some bolts to clamp them together, bolt them together mark a center line in the middle (top to bottom)
all the way round, file a shallow V groove on both faces down the center line just deep enough to locate and hold the stock, undo bolts, reverse the plates, insert stock and and bolt up again and mark a center line on what is now the outside faces, clamp the bottom half of the jig in a vice and carfully saw down the center line down to say 25 mm, you now have the first wander plug stock and a jig to slit as many as you like, from then on grease the jig slots.

Edit: The jig might have other uses.

Lawrence.