We had one of these bad boys powering my Dad’s shop when I was younger. The look on my Dad’s face when I was troubleshooting why the power to the shop went out was priceless. Communication saves lives, kids. It certainly did mine. Reasonable electrical wiring will do that in place of communication.
The idea is that the string of lights has a male end and a female end. That way you can have several daisy chained and just plug the one with the male end into the outlet. But if you plan it wrong then you may end up with the wrong end in the wrong place, in which case yeah, use an extension cord or hang the lights all over again.
Oh and it’s actually relatively safe this way… Each string of lights normally has a fuse in it, so it prevents the cords from carrying more current than they are designed for.
I’m not sure there is one, I usually just highlight that they’re one-directional, and you would technically need another nontrivial piece of hardware in the middle.
Then we figured out what their problem actually was.
Ace Hardware has Dremels, solder, epoxy, and 600 grit sandpaper, and if you stare at this sign for no less than 40 seconds an employee will saunter up and you can ask them where to find all that stuff.
I hate that we live in a world where this is a popular enough question that a sign had to be made about it.
The fuck is wrong with people? Just rehang the lights! It takes less time and effort than getting in the car and going to Ace to ask for a deathdapter!
It literally takes 10 minutes to fix. I know, cause I made that very mistake this year. Frustrated yeah, but I sucked it up and redid it and fixed it. Lot less time, effort, and stress, than getting shit together to go to Ace, begging for a deathdapter, getting frustrated, and having to come home just to fix it anyway.
The electrical ones don’t exist because it would mean you have exposed metal that is carrying current when a human touches it. However, for some odd reason you can buy it for control panels.
Eh, a couple years ago one of my brothers gifted another brother a dildo from “Santa”. I have 5 brothers, so no one knew for sure who did it. Much hilarity ensued.
I attended both a Halloween and Christmas party where the hosts had invited someone selling sex toys. Much hilarity and shenanigans ensued. They were both great parties.
People hanging Christmas lights do the whole house and when they go to plug it in, they realize they have the female end by the outlet, not the male end. “Fuck, I’m not gonna redo the entire process” the idiot thinks to himself, I’ll just get a male/male adapter.
It’s not sold because as soon as you plug in the side to the house, the other ends become live, and touching them means “big ouch”.
“That’s okay, I’ll just plug the end into the lights, and then into the house, problem solved” the idiot thinks.
Except the far end of the lights has a male adapter and that end is still live. Plus, anyone who doesn’t know about your deadly modification is in danger of hurting themselves because they don’t realize the hazard.
There are exceedingly niche applications where these cords are used, but those applications only come up for trained electricians who know how to make one of these cords, and use them responsibly. If you’re asking the minimum wage guy in the blue vest, this sign is for you.
Though many wear red, the Ace I managed for a few years had black vests. With the exception of a few large groups (like Westlake), each Ace is independently owned and part of the Ace co-op, but get to make their own choices about things like uniform, sales, and stock.
I intentionally said blue vest because while an Ace employee (in whatever color vest/apron their store chooses) would take the time to explain why you can’t have the thing you think you need, a guy in a blue vest (if you can even find one) is likely to say “oh, I guess we’re out. Maybe we can order it for you online…” before wandering off.
I used to know a hardware store that sold guns in the 80s. Guy bought one, walked down the block, robbed a bank with it, and died in ensuing police shootout. Store stopped selling guns after that.
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