Thermocouple Plug
Description
Have some thermocouple wire but no plug? This thermocouple plug allows you to make a half decent replacement for the parts you buy. It does not have a wider negative leg so if the reading goes down when you warm the end up, switch the plug around. This plug makes use of a standard car blade ["Mini Fuse"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuse_(automotive)) which has slightly short legs but otherwise fits perfectly in my TC meter, in fact the fuse's blade thickness is more than the plugs the meter came with so it fits more snugly. First trick is to blow the fuse, I just picked the little bridge out with a piece of wire so that the two legs are no longer shorted out. Second trick is to solder the TC wires to the exposed ends of the fuse (this is the contach usually used for in circuit testing of a fuse). The fuse part will accept solder without difficulty but depending on what type of thermocouple wire you have you may not be able to solder to it. In this case you have to get creative: * crimp a ferrule on and cut most of it off because it will be too long or * twist the TC wire around a solid copper wire, fold the wire over to "crimp: the joint mechanically and add solder to hold it together, now and solder that to the fuse. I have used a small piece of a through hole resistor's leg that was cut off. * Use one of the pins from a molex type connector that you extract from the connector, these usually get wires crimped onto them. Fold your TC wire over once or twice and crimp it instead. Cut off the excess. * you get the idea, find something small and solderable to crimp onto the TC wire Print the front and back of the housing Position the blown fuse and drill a hole through the middle for the screw, stay below 3mm 1/8th" or the screw will short the two blades and your thermocouple will only measure room temperature. #6 screw might be OK but as you can see I used a self tapping screw with 3mm OD Assemble as in the pics, use the strain relief because the solder joint is fragile. Too tight, too small? I have included step files for you to modify. I suggest some grips to help pull it out, some strain relief for the fire, a hex recess for a nut, markings for polarity, names where it is measuring.
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