> Having decided that the mixer was indeed broken, I decided to salvage
> what I could (ie the power cord.)  So I unplugged it, grabbed the nice
> chefs knife from the knife block, and slice through the cord near the
> mixer body.   Too bad the cord I had unplugged was to the food
> processor.  Left an impressive notch in the knife blade, made a nice
> flash, didn't blow the beaker...

Bracing the bare metal of the (nice largish chrome vanadium) screwdriver on
the edge of the earthed chassis O slid it forward until the tip contacted
the tag-strip lug to which the incoming phase lead was connected*. The
subsequent arc welded the screwdriver tip to the tag and the arc then formed
between screwdriver body and the chassis edge. When enough metal had been
arc eroded from the screwdriver side the arc stopped. The screwdriver was
left welded to the tag and floating at 240 V mains potential.  It
subsequently served me well fro many years, with a nice chunk missing part
way up the blade as a reminder.


        EM

* Then, and to this day, I have no idea why I did what I did as the outcome
should have been obvious.

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