Is anyone else ever this dumb?

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Just looking for someone else to share one of their weaker mental moments so I dont feel so bad :D

Was doing some finish work today, had to put in four three way switches - two two-gangs, two zones of lighting, all splices already made up.
Cant get one zone to work, triple check that the connections are right, have hot coming off the common going up to the light. go up to the attic and voltage detector says nothing on the wire up there, three feet above the box. Well there was some plaster that had just been repaired so I figure the wire got hit, so I tell the drywaller I need to cut some holes. Cut a few slots, but the wire looks fine for the whole length. I then realize that I had the black traveler on the common - I thought I triple checked that? WEll I hook it up 'correctly' and confess my sin to the drywaller, He didnt seem to mind, looks like he has a whole week of patching there anyway. Flip the breaker but still no go! I pull out the switches again and I realize I have one set of travelers split between the two switches! Now that is a hard mistake to make. Finally I get it going, and decide its best to throw in the towel, so I dropped an hour of my time and went home. Even after 9 years, I guess sometimes a three way is smarter than me.
 

George Stolz

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
Occupation
Service Manager
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

Sure. Friday I went digging for a buried box where I was told it should be. I got out the wire hound, traced the switchleg back to exactly where I was told to look.

I poked, found a stud. Oops. Shimmy to one side, poke. Thought I felt the wires with my screwdriver, so I started cutting. No top of the box. No bottom of the box. I cut a small square to see what the ****'s going on. There's the romex. No box there.

I ended up finding the box. Some sneaky SOB hid it in the three-gang at the other end of the wall, that was exposed the whole time. :roll:

I re-learned the old rule: Know there's a problem before you fix it. :mad:
 

benaround

Senior Member
Location
Arizona
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

electrofelon,

If all the three ways were on the same circuit, you would have some very interesting combonations happening there--including a dimmer combo--if using incandesant lamps.

Anyway don't fret,did I say fret? we all have been in the same boat one way or the other.
 
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

Yep bout a month ago had 3ways couldnt get working. Didnt think to check all voltages on all wires. took me and senior electrician in company to realize [someone] had purposedly driven a nail through one of my wires in the attic hit all 4 wires and managed to put voltage on ground. If we would have checked all 4 wires it probaly wouldve took a few minutes

[ March 01, 2006, 12:03 AM: Message edited by: bill addiss ]
 

induster

Member
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

troubleshooting a dead short which would sometimes trip and sometimes wouldn't... I checked voltages at every outlet in circuit... baffled until the home owner says "i never knew what THIS switch did" i looked and sure enough it fed a switched outlet but where? the red switch leg was wrapped around a ground screw and the guys KID kept flipping that light switch on and off while I was trouble shooting!!! 2 hours on 1 circuit i wanted to blow my head off.
 

peteo

Senior Member
Location
Los Angeles
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

Okay, I'll put it down in black and white. Hope nobody's giving prizes or anything...

About a year ago, a neighbor bought a house further up our street as an rental. I stopped by to help, put GFIs in the kitchen, etc. One receptacle in the living room was dead, right under where a window had been replaced. "Who put the window in? Oh, HIM." So before it got dark I got down in the crawl space, to run a connection over to another receptacle, some of which are run down there. Instead of riding up into the bay, dulled a diversibit which went right outside through the stucco. Just time to find the stucco patch so it'll dry for tomorrow's color coat. Ah, good, at least no real damage...

Next day I stop by. I take one look at it and it comes to me. There, next to the porch light switch, is the switch for that outlet. Talk about dumb, at least we both laughed at ourselves.
 

George Stolz

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
Occupation
Service Manager
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

To add to Peteo's story, I've accidentally drilled outside a building at least twice. One on new work, I thought there was a cantilever (there wasn't! :)
 

rcarroll

Senior Member
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

The 1st. journeyman I worked under showed me a quick way to trip a breaker. We were in a crawl space & he took a hot wire & touched it to the cold water pipe. It blew a hole in the pipe. :D I know now how stupid that was & never repeated the act.
 
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

25+ years ago as a first year apprentice, I was sent with one of the "Company" guys to the owners house to install some bedroom lighting and switched outlet circuits. The Journeyman did all the "important" work in the attic (making the connections, etc) and I got to cut-in the boxes and clean up after him. Well the job was to the point where he had me checking the new circuits with my Wiggy and plugging in the lamps and the huge console stereo system (the owners pride and joy). At the outlet for the stereo, I thought that the wiggy read higher than usual and when I noted this to the Journeyman (did I mention he was a "Company Man") he just said I was to stupid to read the Wiggy correctly as I was only a first year apprentice and to plug in the stereo and throw the switch. So being the good first year apprentice, I did what I was told ... the flash and the plume of smoke that came from the stereo was impressive! Needless to say the Journeyman had a lot of explaining to do and for some odd reason neither one of use ever got invited back to do any other work there! :eek:
 

Dave58er

Senior Member
Location
Dearborn, MI
As a first year apprentice I watched my journeyman install a complicated 3-way with 3 4-ways between them in a hall of a school. The school was opening monday so we worked untill about ten friday night to finish. The swiches wern't working right and as he tried to fix it journeyman after journeyman finished what they were doing and showed up to help us so we could go home. 10 wireman and after 1 1/2 hrs of tracing, retracing, opening boxes, ringing out, etc. they found the problem: brand new 3-way switch was bad. Now I always check those buggers before I put them in.
 

steved

Senior Member
Location
Oregon
Re: Is anyone else ever this dumb?

I was wiring the inverter in a motorhome one day when I was very tired from working a lot of OT. I secured a wire to the wall with an R-clamp and a self-drilling screw. A little while later I noticed liquid dripping from the coach onto the floor. Due to a recent design change, the house batteries were placed against the other side of the wall and I had driven that screw right through the side of one of the batteries.
 

wireman3736

Senior Member
Location
Vermont/Mass.
As a 2nd year apprentice some years ago I got a job working for an electrical contractor that also did refrigeration work, he took me to a job that had to have a motor replaced in a wall mounted ac unit, he said the power was off, when I started loosening one of the screws on the motor lead the other end of the screwdriver rubbed up against a refrigeration line, sparks flew and the air filled with a big cloud of freon, how the customers in that store did run. Who's the dummy here, him or me for not checking the power. I pick the later. :oops:
 

colosparker

Senior Member
First year in the electrical trade I was doing a remodel in an old house. Had to go into the crawl space to fish wires through the floor. Looked like enough light to get the job done without a flashlight. Crawling in the near dark I put hand into something wet and smelly. Pulled out my lighter to have a look see. Dead cat.
 

ramdiesel3500

Senior Member
Location
Bloomington IN
When I made up my very first panel I was so proud! I turned on the main breaker to energize the buss. Then I commenced to turn on individual circuit breakers. One particular breaker appeared to me (a newbie remember) to be bad because each time I turned it on, it would snap to the tripped position instantly like it just wouldn't "catch" in the "on" position. I decided to try resetting it a few times to, hopefully, "break-it-in" or get it to work properly. Well, on about the 5th reset, that breaker let out a big "Fffzzzzztzzztzzt" along with a cute little puff of smoke. That was the day I learned about short circuits!!!
 

Matt Harp

Member
I had to fix a DIY three way switch a few months back. After 3 hours of wire tracing and connection changing, head scratching, fluent cursing in at least 3 languages, and 1/2 pack of cigarettes; I fixed it.

The only problem is that to this day, I have no idea how I fixed it.

At least I never fell for the Megger trick.
 

davidv

Member
I hated ladder works, ever since start of my career, bout 3yrs ago a friend ask me help him rewire his old ligtings, just a two room bungalow, but I refused coz Im busy, but for a friend I agree, lay it on the bottom chord of roof truss, since he had no ceiling but I knew then that I need to put it higher if in case celings would be in place,"nah my friend like it as it is" and besides I want to get it over with fast so I got along using a high chair, the next week he got his bonus, decided he like ceilings and my wiring are getting on the way of the framings. "What was I thinking in the first place" is all I can say to myself while going through it "again" and "I end up on the ladder" now who am I helping.

DavidV
electrical supervisor, anywhere
 

dlhoule

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Matt Harp said:
I had to fix a DIY three way switch a few months back. After 3 hours of wire tracing and connection changing, head scratching, fluent cursing in at least 3 languages, and 1/2 pack of cigarettes; I fixed it.

The only problem is that to this day, I have no idea how I fixed it.

At least I never fell for the Megger trick.
:) Matt, I'm impressed. When I am in those situations, I frequently get to the point where I can't even speak, let alone 3 different languages.

And then when if finally leave, it is always "what did I miss?, I just know I'm going to have to come back again, because I don't I have a clue what I did to fix it. Maybe the wind changed direction and thats why it started working. :)
 
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