Sometime around 1994 I bought a vacuum-forming machine, the “Hobby Vac System 2.” It worked well, but as time went by my need for it faded, and it got stuffed out of sight. Recently I decided to haul it out of mothballs, as I’ve a few projects that would benefit from vacuum forming. It’s dusty as hell, but seems to be in good shape. But there’s one problem: the power cord. I can’t find the damn thing. Last time I can defintely recall seeing it was a dozen years and two moves ago.
So I packed it up and took it to the local electrician/appliance store, to see what they can tell me… which was “not much” and “good luck.” A search for “Hobby Vac System 2” turns up precisely zip. The plug seems to be a standard sort of appliance plug, perhaps from some sort of grill or cooker or something. It had, as memory serves, a single long central prong, plus the two side sockets as would fit the socket in the photos below. Does this look familiar to anyone? Anyone know where I might be able to procure a replacement?
13 Responses to “Electrical problems”
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Looks like what I used to see on coffee makers. Should be able to dummy up a replacement using brass stock, a drill, grinder, circuit board stock, tin snips, and a soldering iron.
Oh *hell* *no.* Mechanical stuff I’ve no problem in cobbling together fixes for (I will shortly be posting photos of my camera tripod cheap-bastard fix). But electrical stuff I avoid like the plague.
Looks like a electric griddle, with the heating element exposed. Know if the cord had a thermostat built in, or a timer, for controlling the heat/duration?
Check Goodwill and other secondhand type stores, lots of electric skillets have that type of plug. Failing that you need an electrician, a working electrician, not someone behind a sales counter, just show it to him, he will probably be able to put a cord on it.
My google of “Hobby Vac System 2″ turned up this:
http://www.widgetworksunlimited.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=35&Click=2&gclid=CMuYz5-Ih6ACFaAO5Qod7kTAnA
However, having found that, I can’t get it to do anything useful. All the things to click on vacuum formers gets a “Bad Request” message.
This does appear, after a little more work:
http://mechanical-engineering.masterseek.com/id/900773272/Widgetworks-unlimited-llc.htm
… None of which really does any good.
2H9 got most of my thoughts on it, I saw a plug like that with a variac of some kind to power an electric griddle, one of the 24″ x 12″ or so type.
Jim
> Check Goodwill and other secondhand type stores
Will do. Griddles, coffeemakers, ovens, cookers, whatever.
If there’s an appliance-part outfit nearbyish (usually takes some looking to find, not a high-profile biz), taking that widget in to look for a replacement might help It sure looks like an electric-skillet connector, which just about always have a built-in heat control. Old hardware or farm-supply stores of the “rats-nest” variety are also good places to check.
Electrical is not that bad — if you are comfy with it. Mechanical engineering guys usually have a head start, as so much of the practical app. is getting the mechanical bits right, but if you’re not confident, better not to try. (Not that hard to pick up — for electronics, Horowitz and Hill’s “The Art Of Electronics” was written for non-EE tech/sci types who needed to get up to speed and is possibly the best general text available; I wore out my first copy! Home electrical, the nifty how-to’s sold at home-improvement stores are a good start).
I vote for the Goodwill excursion – the only uncommon aspect is the center pin, and I believe you can safely ignore that as it only grounds the chassis in a passing nod to a UL listing.
If a goodwill plug doesn’t have the correct spacing between the pins you can hacksaw the plug down the middle lengthwise and insert the pins separately, then used JB weld to build a structure around it, or just leave them that way and be careful not to put much strain on the cord when in use.
…Remember, in an electric skillet plug, the center “pin” houses the temperature probe in addition to being the ground connection.
[…] followup to this. A visit to the local thrift-dump scored three crappy old cookers. Of the three, one had a cord […]
I used to manufacture these machines many years ago. The cord was from a sunbeam electric grill, but others may work? It did have a temperature control but it was not needed. It was designed to be used at full power so any plug that connects the power wires to the terminals will work.
Call me and I’ll try to help
(248) 391-2974
> I used to manufacture these machines many years ago.
Well, it’s a good machine, when parts aren’t wandering off. As mentioned above, a replacement cord was found at a thrift store, and it works.