Electrical – Small nick on power cord from an electric alarm clock, and copper wiring exposed but intact

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I bought a vintage alarm clock and radio. It works perfectly, but it took me a day to discover that along the length of the cord, there is a small nick, which revealed a small bit of copper wire, which doesn't seem frayed at all.

The cord is unpolarized, and plugs into 120V AC without any transformer "box".

Before the nick was discovered, the clock ran perfectly for a day and a half before unplugging.

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I bought a spool of 3M Super 88 electrical tape and thinking of wrapping it up.

Would that be enough, or would it be still unsafe?

Best Answer

That cable, as is, will tend to "bite people". It also has damage that could increase resistance there causing that spot in the cable to get hot. Continued flexing will worsen the wire damage and the heating.

An electrical-tape repair will work temporarily, but I would not resell it like that.

The right way is take your time and find a gray power cord of very similar style, open up the clock and replace the cable.