I used to work on the remedial jobs for an electrical contractor that did work for the local council
So I have seen plenty of bodged jobs.
Highlights include:
A bloke who had installed a light in his loft using only a single core and earth cable, connecting the earth to the neutral, then wondered why the power tripped off when he went in the loft after he'd had his fuse box changed
Another tenant who my colleage used to work in the pit with, who swears he didn't do it, but had 3 sockets in his living room that were wired in blasting wire, of the sort that was used in the mines

And let's not forget the method of clearing faults at the place I currently work. There are a lot of sodium lights where I work and every now and then the insulation in their (up to 40 year old) ballasts will break down and create a short circuit, thus plunging a large area into darkness as the fuse blows. Rather than testing the circuit to find the fault, the usual method involves The Doctor. The Doctor is a 63 amp fuse, which doesn't blow because the wiring is in such poor condition. It is inserted into the fuseboard for about 20 seconds, to allow plenty of current to flow through the delicate wiring of the ballast and blow the fault clear. Then it's just a case of inserting a new 10 amp fuse and finding the light that doesn't come back on.
( parttimedogfish is a Born-Again Reincarnationist, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 14:20, 6 replies)

The last one
That's pretty clever, I like that method.
( SteamedCleaner, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 14:25, closed)

it's quick, certainly
But it requires there to be less than 63 amps of fault current, and the user to remember to take the fuse back out, or else you'll come back the next day and if the fault hasn't cleared all the insulation will have melted and be hanging off the cable like grubby orange icicles
( parttimedogfish is a Born-Again Reincarnationist, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 14:35, closed)

Tsk
Now you're just being picky.
( SteamedCleaner, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 15:04, closed)

I like orange icicles
but they always came in a multipack with the horrible lime ones.
( brown-wings Made with three kinds of butter, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 15:13, closed)

I was going to say I didn't think there was too much wrong with that last one
in a controlled environment with someone keeping an eye on things.
That wasuntil you mentioned how long it takes to burn it out!
( thistle, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 22:09, closed)

I once fixed a portable x-ray machine the same way. Replaced a 2.5 amp fuse with a 25 amp fuse, and blew up a circuit board. Hey, those little dots are hard to see!
(danalan Pretty good, for an amateur., Fri 11 Mar 2011, 2:56, closed)