Ideas on how to blow a fuse

[mr2mk1g 10]

I'm trying to play a practical joke on a buddy and want to keep switching out a fuse on an appliance whenever he fixes it.

It's 13 amp cartridge fuse and over here in the UK that is (I'm pretty sure) the highest rated fuse you get in consumer electrics, so there's no simply switching it out into a heavy use item to blow it.

The requirements of the method are that:

1: it's SAFE - it aint going to cause danger to him, me, the appliance or risk a fire or anything like that.

2: leaves no witness markes - so when he openes up the plug there's nothing to be seen but an ordinary fuse (which just happens to have blown).

I've tried heating a fuse - it didn't blow, just got red hot and it had obviously been heated when I'd finished with it. Chucking it around will just break the barrel of the fuse. And like I said, I can't overload it in another appliance.

Any ideas?

Ideas?

[nigel99 617]

If your supplying the fuse can't you buy a few 1A fuses as well as 13Amp and get the type with the paper rating label and then swap the labels carefully?

I know that the actual rating is often printed onto the end caps as well so he may catch you out still.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[bluepill 0]

Shouldent mess with Electricity - it will kill.

Why don't you try soemthing else.

One I did on a flatmate a few years back is as follows.

If you can get access to his bedroom door this works well...

Try removing the centre bar from the handle mechanism of the bedroom door.

There is usually a bar that runs from handle to handle. Remove one of the handles, slide the bar out and then replace the handle. It all looks normal. If you leave the door a-jar and then he shuts it after entering then he is locked in. ideally you want to leave the bar in there somewhere but no screwdriver for him to remove the handles. It works well.

When we did it on my flatmate, he was "entertaining" a female guest. He went to the room, shut the door, started getting it on with the girl, pulled back the sheets on the bed and found a bag of kippers we had left there. He then tried to take them out and found himself locked out. We locked the windows too.

He was not amused.

Have fun.
BP

[bfilarsky 0]

Short a car battery through it. That will supply much more than the needed 13 amps, but it will be low voltage so you shouldn't have any danger from electrical shock. The fuse should blow instantly. If it doesn't, don't keep the load on it for much longer than one second. You don't want the battery to blow up!