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I'm not a fan of the PAT testing course in isolation. We have our H&S guys go on a single day course with no electrical experience undertaking the course then become the company expert on what's safe electrically. I have a HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and 17th Edition design training from the IEE, but don’t have the authority to deem something safe and fit for purpose in the working environment.
The PAT testing should really be reserved for somebody to be able to check basic safety of a product designed by an experienced and qualified engineer, not to check something they have designed themselves.
It is possible to have something test perfectly when it’s completed, but if it is designed poorly, failure could still result in a dangerous scenario a PAT tester could not foresee. PAT testing in addition to the relevant qualifications / experience is another matter.
The big bug-bear for me is that most electronics must be CE marked to sell them. You *can* self certify, and nobody will give a stuff until something goes wrong (or someone decides to cause trouble). You can even just whack on a CE label and keep your fingers crossed.
Even to get the text of the standards that you need to comply with will cost you hundreds, if not thousands of pounds. (Things like what format the 'rating plate' needs to be, the fact that you need to supply an instruction manual and what it should contain, or that you mustn't be able to access the valves without a screwdriver, etc.. etc.. I hate to think what Trading Standards would make of cloth covered wire, or 'Vintage' paper interleaved transformers!)
If EMC testing is required, it is ridiculously expensive for 'one of a kind' or small volume stuff, but you could arguably build a case that you didn't need to test something like a valve amp.
As a lot of cheap electronics shows, the CE mark is not related to quality - if it's got a CE mark, however badly built, then you can sell it. If it hasn't got a CE mark, no matter how well built, it is an offence to 'place it on the market'.
My saving grace was that the stuff I supplied was mostly to other manufacturers for incorporation into something bigger, so I left the CE marking stuff to them!
Of course, there's also RoHS, so no leaded solder or vintage Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors I guess....
And WEEE... (no exemption for small volume manufacturers....)
Your little ray of sunshine!
The big manufacturers all seem to be into some WEEE scheme to absolve them of all responsibility (instead giving you a link to your local council website which may show somewhere within a 20 mile radius that still doesn't accept anything larger than a hairdrier... I digress), but don't know if that's an option for small operations (and I imagine expensive at the lower end). Like JPF says, longevity of guitar amps is pretty good.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein