Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NEMA plugs.

This is topic NEMA plugs. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-19-2013, 02:46 PM:

I need to buy some NEMA plugs. I've found somewhere that has all of the configurations I need in stock, but they're Danial Woodhead, a brand which I haven't heard of before. Does anybody have any experience of these? Are they equal in quality to the Hubbell and Leviton ones?

Posted by Peter Lewis (Member # 7242) on 05-21-2013, 05:28 PM:

While it depends on which series from which manufacturer you're comparing, any DW plug is great quality. You can't go wrong, they're generally TOL.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-21-2013, 09:26 PM:

You will not go wrong. I have used them since 1965. Top quality. You might check USA pricing; I suspect they are a lot higher overseas. Internet helps or I will. Louis

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-23-2013, 07:18 AM:

Peter,

what's 'TOL'? It's probably something obvious, but I've been thinking for five minutes and I can't work it out.

Louis,

I have to order them from the US. The 5-15 is available here with difficulty, they are generally special order and can take several weeks to arrive, other configurations are just about impossible to get.

I've got a Todd Systems 350 VA step-up transformer which uses a 6-15 for its output; another,larger, one will soon be joining it, probably 500 VA. The 6-15 plug which came with this, I think it's an Eagle, is really horrible, as are many of the NEMA plugs I've seen. I only buy good quality ones, but they're not cheap, something like $15 seems to be the going rate for 15 A re-wireable ones.

I also have a 60 Hz. inverter which can put put 120, 208, 240 and 277 V single phase. It can in theory also do 347 V, but I'm never likely to need that. It can also do three phase at all of the usual Voltages. I use 277 quite often to run American discharge lamps for which only 60 Hz. gear is available. Many of them are quite different to European ones. European High Pressure Sodium (SON) lamps run on a higher Voltage but lower current than US ones for example.

I haven't connected up the three phase yet, but there are six duplex receptacles (5-15, 6-15 and 7-15, plus the locking versions of each) for the single phase. The receptacles are all Leviton industrial or commercial grade. They get connected and disconnected frequently.

Getting things from the US can be problematical, I often get quoted a fixed rate box for postage, which often means a postage cost several times the cost of a small item. There's also 20% VAT to pay when it arrives, and the Post Office charge £8 for collecting the tax. UK Customs can also take ages to clear an item.

I took the chance of buying a Daniel Woodhead NEMA 7-15 plug from Ebay; it arrived yesterday and I have to say that I think it's at least as good as the Hubbell and Leviton ones.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-23-2013, 08:46 AM:

quote: Stephen Furley
There's also 20% VAT to pay when it arrives, and the Post Office charge £8 for collecting the tax. UK Customs can also take ages to clear an item.

And they've also got a lot more proactive about catching items and collecting the tax in recent months.

Until around a year ago, if the item was small enough that it didn't 'look' to be worth over £15 (the threshold item cost for mail order from outside the European Union on which they'll collect VAT), it would be let through 99% of the time. But in the last year, I've had two such items caught and charged for, one of which was a .0030 stylus for playing pre-1910 78s on a Shure M78 cartridge, costing £18 from China via Ebay. I ended up paying 76p in VAT, plus the £8 charge. The other was a 25mm lens for an Eiki 16mm projector from the US, on which the tax bill was £32.

For Brits visiting the US, it's worth noting that you're allowed to bring up to £240-worth of stuff back with you personally without having to pay any duty on it (it's worth keeping the receipts in case you're asked to show them at the airport on your return - this has happened to me once). I've imported four region A Bluray players for friends and colleagues that way so far, which worked out at a fraction of the cost of buying multi-region ones here. In retrospect, I'm kicking myself, and should have brought the Eiki lens back that way, too ... but you live and learn.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-23-2013, 11:11 AM:

In your case, you could just have stuff shipped to your girl in California, right? Then bring is back in your suitcase.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-23-2013, 11:21 AM:

quote: Stephen Furley
what's 'TOL'?

"Top Of the Line" (USA sales lingo for very high quality)

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-24-2013, 05:42 AM:

quote: Louis Bornwasser
In your case, you could just have stuff shipped to your girl in California, right? Then bring is back in your suitcase.

I have done that with lots of stuff, but needed these two things more quickly than that way allowed.

I do get the impression that the British customs are now far more likely to intercept mail order stuff from outside the EU and charge the tax on it than they once were. It's not hard to see why: when a gadget on Ebay costs double from an EU-based seller what it does straight from the factory in China, more and more people must be buying straight from the factory and the government is now losing a lot of tax. I guess that a few years ago, when only a few geeks did this, the amount of money involved was too little for the government to worry about, but not now.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-24-2013, 08:56 AM:

I once had a Simplex mag penthouse delivered to the Loew's Jersey, and picked it up from the lobby while I was over there. Must be about eight years ago now.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-24-2013, 04:25 PM:

That must have made for an interesting conversation with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs when you got back!

A few years ago I bought a trombone in the US on behalf of a relative. The cost of it was over the duty free allowance, but he only wanted to avoid the shipping cost - he was quite happy to pay the VAT. When I got back to Teesside Airport (a tiny regional airport in north-east England that only has two or three flights a day) at about 11pm one night after a long delay, I went through the goods to declare corridor, only to find it deserted, with a phone to pick up if no-one was there. I did so, and it just rang for ages. Eventually I went back into the baggage claim area and asked the only member of airport staff to be seen how to find the customs person. There was no customs person, she told me - he'd gone home hours ago, and please could I get out of the airport, so that she could lock the place up and do likewise.

So that was £50 or so in VAT that Her Majesty just had to do without! [Smile]

And it seems that if you wish to smuggle a suitcase full of class A drugs into the country, that airport is clearly the place to do it...