OT: american vs european 220 (Tony Duell)

If you live in a country where switched sockets are uncommon, I would recommnend making up a mains lead witha double-pole switch (and if you like a neon indictator and fuse/breaker) in the middle of it. Use that when powering up dismantled devices on your workbench. It's a lot safer to use that switch that the one i nthe unt (which may well have live terminals that are easy to touch when flipping it) and a lot easier and kinder ot the conenctors than plugging and unplugging one of the connectors. Ouch! I am pretty sure it's a requirement over here that the 'earth' colours (green/yellow now, was green) are anot used for anything elase in installations. I almost never use green/yellow wire for anything else even inside electronic equipment. The exception would be if I have a piece of multi-core signal cable which happens ot have a green/yellow wire in it. Even then I will try to use it for protective ground if I can Until a few years ago, the phase wires in fixed installations were red, yellow and blue with black neutral. To come into line with the rest of Europe we now have black, brown, grey as the phase colours and blue as neutral. I asked 'OK, if I see a distribution board wired with blue and black wires, how do I know if it's part of the 'blue' phase of an old instation or the 'black' phase of a new one'. The answer 'Test it!'. Which actually, I would do anyway... Make sure all the sockets in your workshop are wired the same way round and lable the plugs 'top' ? I would seriously suggest looking at a 5*4 (inch) enlarger. They tend to be a lot better made than the medium format ones, and they can be used for smaller negatives. A seocnd-hand enearger is almost certainly fine. The DeVere has adjustable gib strips on the various sliding parts to take up wear. Bellows cna be bought or made. What else is there to go wrong? Depends on what you call 'cheap' :-). Good valve audio is expensive over here... -tony