When your house is 83 years old, outlets are often not where you’d like them to be. So it is in the kitchen. I decided to buy a power strip to mount over the counter, so that the microwave oven and the toaster oven can be plugged in at one end, and the Keurig machine and phone charger can be plugged in at the other end. Other outlets can be used as needed for the stand mixer, the food processor, or other things. The strip would plug into one outlet, leaving the other one free for the vacuum cleaner or whatever.
The trouble is that I don’t need a six-foot cord to go from the power strip to the outlet – a distance of inches. So I’m going to unsolder the wires (I hope without removing the capacitor), cut the cord down to four inches or so, and solder it back together. Wish me luck.
Personally, I’d buy a new plug from Home Depot (probably a 90 degree or the kind you can set at any angle). Then cut off the factory one and attach the one I got.
It might not be as pretty, but it’d be safer (at least for this guy that doesn’t know how to solder. If you want, you could probably even pick up some spray paint that matches the color of the cord and spray the new plug, which will probably come in either black or yellow.
ETA, the other option would be to bundle it up, much the way it is now, and use a clip to screw it up under the cabinet. Again, not as pretty, but no mods necessary.
FTR, this is coming form someone who has never shied away from doing their own electrical work. Hell, my trunk is full of electrical tools and wire of various gauges. It just never would have dawned on my to shorten the cord on a power strip…at least not that way.
I thought of that. It would probably be easier. I was going to the hardware store for some solder and a new ring-end-thingy anyway, so I’ll see what they have.
Because there’s only one outlet on the wall, and I don’t want extension cords running around. The long strip is much cleaner. It replaces the 1-foot power strip with the extension cord running to the other end of the counter.
I ended up just putting on a new male plug. Easier than undoing the wiring, though not as elegant.
I do hope you are not planning to use them all at once, because it will be a very short use until the breaker in the strip pops, the fuse in the panel pops, or the knob and tube in the wall summons the nice gentlemen in the shiny red truck.
I would be REAL leery of anything that pulls a lot of amps, the K&T won’t take it.
Why not? I was thinking of microwaving a bunch of potatoes while I use the food processor to chop a bunch of stuff while the stand mixer is kneading some bread dough and veggies are roasting in the toaster oven, while The Missus makes a cup of coffee. Meanwhile my phone can be charging, and I may as well top off the other batteries too. That leaves some room for me to use the stick mixer to purée some soup and the hand mixer to make tollhouse cookies.
A better solution IMO is to use an outlet strip with a hardwired input. Remove the duplex receptacle, and then run MC Lite cable between the outlet strip and the box. Use a metal plate on the box. The MC Lite will enter the box through the hole in the plate. Install a cable clamp, of course.
I have that kind of rig running underneath all my over-counter cabinets. That way all the small appliances can be lined up and left plugged in. No, you can’t use them all at once. Yes, it’s convenient as all get out.
First hint of septic fun was when we had to remove the squirrel body from the pipe to the cesspool.
Since the waste pipes were positioned so as to cause brain damage in the basement, the executive decision was made to connect to the city sewer, and cut the basement floor and bury the waste pipes.
Oh it means what I wanted it to–the dammed pipes were positioned at eye level. We all left skin and blood on those pipes the six months it took to set up the upgrade. Jackhammers are FUN!!
