The power point

As mentioned in the last post, I am assembling some old used parts to make the inverter more useful for our needs (without permanently damaging it as previously proposed)

Here is the assembled unit. The idea is that the plug in the background will plug into the inverter in the last post. The black box will be behind the fascia and is in place to prevent a any chance of coming in contact with the back of the power point. Considering it's completely out of the way and seldom ever live, it's unlikely someone would get electrocuted, but for $7 why risk it! 

Because the wire in even a 10AMP thick power cable is so thin, I cut the insulation back 50mm and folded the wire in thirds to make it nice and thick.

 After they were folded, I 'tinned' them with solder to make them relatively solid.

Here it is all assembled. Note the large knot in the black wire to reduce any accidental strain on the cable.
Also notice the connectors above the blue wire, these will actually be used to directly switch the 12V required for the inverter. I'm sure some electricians would frown on this, but hey. It seemed super logical to switch the inverter on/off right next to the power outlets. Considering the 12V input for the inverter is quite high amperage, it made sense to use a provided heavy duty power switch.
It feels nice to reuse stuff we just had around the place. I can't even remember where the power point came from, but it's been in the garage for years unused. And who doesn't have an old appliance which is destine for landfill  Give me the cord!

The above was actually an exercise, so I don't want to hear any comments about how the active/neutral might be the wrong way round. I used the thicker cord, but unfortunately it had a UK plug on it (so it was heading for the bin anyway) I will be redoing this when it comes time to actually install.

I stumbled across Tristan from high school today when sourcing the black box. I asked if he'd seen 'Long Way Round' to which he replied it was his favourite thing ever. It goes without saying that his eyes lit up when we mentioned we were doing the trip in reverse.

Today I made some offers on eBay and all going well I will have another exciting goodies to show you.
OK, so I don't actually expect you to be excited, but hey, it's something to write about and keep me from going insane.
Today's activities are vain attempts to keep my mind off the continuing server downtime we are experiencing at work. The frustrating thing is that we can only sit on our hands as it's certainly out of ours. I write this so that when I look back with some perspective, it may not seem like such a big deal. I can't help but wonder, that watching the sun set over green hills in Mongolia with not a care in the world may make me think the lifestyle we all accept as normal is too far from away from our grass roots. I doubt the family who is kind enough to invite us in for tea cares about downtime.... to the extent its interpretation would be vastly different.