"New" Tools!

I recently bought a few things from a missionary that had to return to the States for health reasons.  Included was an old 1500W variable input transformer made by Acme Electric Corporation.

Our power here is typically 240v, but if it's ever on the low side (probable, once we move out to the boonies), I can dial this down to maintain the proper output voltage.

It was working okay, but the outlet was a local round-plug type.  They're unbelievably miserable and always give you a loose connection.  So I decided to change it out for a US style plug and found a bit of a mess inside:

The wiring job wasn't horrible (although not how I would've done it), but the insulation was falling off the old wiring.   Here's what it looks like now:

 I should get somebody to send me a black cover plate for that outlet. . .

You see that bit of gray 3/4" PVC in the photo above?  I added that so the wire wasn't just passing through the thin, metal wall of the case.  Someone else had wrapped the cable with tape (once with cloth tape, then later with PVC tape) to protect it from rubbing, but I thought this would do better.  It's a short piece of 1/2" PVC, sanded down a bit to fit snugly inside two pieces of 3/4"

I'm excited about this project, because now I have a transformer large enough to handle the 110v 10" Ryobi AP-10 bench planer that I bought from someone else several months ago!