Another small job

Yesterday Jan asked whether we had a multi socket 240V power board.  She wanted one for the pantry as she now has more appliances than sockets.  A multi socket board on the benchtop would look ugly so I suggested I install another dual wall socket instead.

You may recall it’s only in the recent past that I installed the splashbacks in the pantry and I didn’t want to attempt to remove one of them!

Eventually I suggested a location which appeared suitable.  It was just above the lower splashback and almost above an existing wall socket.   I could run a cable between the existing socket and the new location.

Here looked a good spot

I marked out the outline of the socket and then the inner portion of it which would need to be rebated into the wall.   Houses in western Australia are usually constructed of double brick walls with a cavity in between.

After marking the location I scored the outline of the rebated portion with a knife cutting the top layer of fine plaster.  Doing this would prevent the edges chipping (I Hope).  Next I drilled a matrix of holes using a masonry bit and my hammer drill.  Afterwards I realised the drill was being powered by one of my recently made batteries.  Then I used a cold chisel and hammer to knock out the rebate ensuring the hole reached the cavity between the inner and outer brick walls.   I’m not going to install a socket enclosure box in the hole so I marked out the location of the mounting holes instead

I used a punch to mark the centre of each hole and then drilled with a 6mm masonry bit.  The holes were then filled by hammering in a plastic rawl plug.  Obviously I’m getting old as I can remember the days when we had to make our rawl plugs from timber.   These plastic plugs are much easier to use.

I’ve temporary stopped here as Jan is watching the TV and I suspect it is on the same power circuit as the socket in the pantry.  Years ago I would probably have just done the connections live.   But poor eyesight, shaky hands and a number of years of additional common sense means that isn’t going to happen.