I got shocked yesterday - several times

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gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
K8MHZ said:
...It felt like a good stiff 120 volt shock, but I think that particular flash tube took at least 300 to fire. The amazing part is the shock was created using 2 AAA batteries as a source of power...
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That brought back memories! Some years ago I had to come up with a lighting effect for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", when Chief rips down the electrical panel. The prop was well away from any area I could run a line to the lighting panel, so I investigated the possibility of recycling the flash unit(s) from a disposable camera(s). Well, the guts of course were all kinds of exposed, but somehow I managed not to make contact with the terminals while fiddling around with it. We know Murphy can't abide something exciting NOT happening, and eventually it did. And you're right, the circuit voltage is around 300 and I found at one web site the cap stores about 5.4 Joules. Wouldn't you know, I didn't believe what had happened and had to repeat the experiment, and I'm not even from Missouri :lol:!

I did get the effect to work, but the actor and I rehearsed where he could grab the prop A LOT!
 
gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
K8MHZ said:
Thanks!

Wow, 110 posts!

I'm glad so many make light of my self inflicted pain and discomfort.
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Even better, nothing ever really dies on the web. You'll be entertaining your great-grandchildren!
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
K8MHZ said:
But I will tell you that when I was 18 I slipped while cleaning a window at a gas station just as a hot girl customer threw me a kiss, in the process taking an entire display of empty one gallon gas cans to the floor with me.

I got my pant leg stuck in the kick start of my dirt bike once and fell over right in front of a couple of the most popular girls in my high school.
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I am working outside a store front beside the door, I am up a few steps on a ladder working with an 18V Dewalt using a 1.25" hole saw on an 18" extension.

So this hot girl is trying to get in the door with her hands full, being the nice and quick guy I am I decide to help her, I grab the hole saw with one hand stretch out and hook the top of the door with the drill handle pulling the door open for her. I am cool But then the drill moves a bit, the door pulls the drill trigger and the hole saw makes at least a full revolution in my closed hand. I don't wince or say a word and let her in.

After I climb down the ladder and go get fixed up before the blood makes a big stain on the sidewalk. My palm was shredded, it took a long time to fully heal up. :(:ashamed::ashamed:
 
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J

Jhaney

Senior Member
Location
owensboro, ky
Repairing a phone in the pooring rain mid-span up a ladder of course, about the time one of my co-workers in a bucket truck stops to see if I need any help, also coincidently the same time the home owner thought he would check to see if his phone was working yet by calling it. 90 volts in the pooring rain while touching the grounded strand on the cable while someone is watching, if I wasn't strapped to the cable and the ladder I would have hit the ground. My co-worker was already on the ground laughing, and still tells this story.
 
cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
Drilling for some light boxes in a ceiling that was made of cut in half peeler logs. standing on the ladder just drilling away and the 4" hole saw hits a nail. The drill kicked back and I basically punched myself in the face and knocked myself off the ladder. After I hit the ground I realized that I didn't know where the drill was, but luckly it had gotten stuck and was still in the ceiling.

But on the other side, it was one of the best punches I've ever thrown.:happyyes:
 
hockeyoligist2

hockeyoligist2

Senior Member
Location
close to greenville sc
K8MHZ said:
As for voltage needed to shock, I have got shocked by car batteries. Not the coil, the 12 volt battery. All it takes is a hot, humid, sticky day where you lay your dirty, sweaty arm on the car somewhere there is bare metal and then put a wrench to the positive post.
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I've had that problem many times while working on generators and my coworkers think its hilarious! It doesn't shock them a bit but hits me hard.
 
J

Johnny Crab

Member
Location
south Texas
Barefoot on damp concrete

Barefoot on damp concrete

When I was about 6 and Dad was at work, I decided it was time to do some soldering. At that time, his old soldering GUN had a metal trigger but I proceeded to plug it in and pull the trigger while standing barefoot on the damp concrete floor of our garage. Hurt real good, I tasted iron in my mouth/saw stars/felt my right arm vibrating, and somehow dropped the gun to get "unstuck". :eek:

Taught me respect for electrons and made me understand why he always stood on the rubber mat when soldering.
 
Stevareno

Stevareno

Senior Member
Location
Dallas, TX
Always check the circuits you're going to be working on.

Always check the circuits you're going to be working on.

This was a lesson I learned the hard way.
Back when I was an apprentice, I was happily going along installing poke thru floor outlets in a high rise building. The floor was unoccupied at the time and all the panel breakers were off except for temp light circuits.
The next day, I continue where I left off. Being that the floor was unoccupied, I ASSuMEd that nothing would change. As I go to strip the end off the BX cable (yes, it was a long time ago), I got hung up. I couldn't open my hands to let go of the BX and I couldn't overcome the muscle contraction that was pushing my arms together. I started screaming, but I couldn't hear myself so I was afraid no one would come to help.
Luckily the outlet was located in the center of the room and I was able to use my legs and scoot myself away.

Shortly after the incident, I found out that the building personnel had gone and turned all the breakers in the panel on (I guess they didn't realize the floor was unoccupied). :roll:
To this day, I want to find that guy and give him a swift kick between his legs. :rant:
 
hornetd

hornetd

Senior Member
Location
Maryland
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician, Retired
petersonra said:
I was checking out a control panel and part of it involved injecting a 4-20mA signal into an analog input. I had my bare inner arm on the SS cabinet and was holding a lead on the signal generator to the terminal on the AIN module. The end of the signal generator lead was an alligator clip so I added an opened up paper clip so I could make contact with the AIN module terminal.

Every time I touched the lead to the AIN module terminal, I felt a tingle on my arm. At first I could not figure out what it was. Eventually I realized I was being shocked. I sustained about a half dozen shocks before I realized what it was.

I can't imagine how tiny the current was going thru my arm. It was a 24V circuit and the AIN module I think is a 50 Ohm input. Had to have been in microamps.
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Was there no insulating boot on the alligator clip?
--
Tom Horne
 
K8MHZ

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
I just did an outside residential service in the pouring rain.

I got nailed twice and the EC got bit once. The EC swears that he never touched the buss and the electricity jumped from the buss and bit him. That might be due to the fact that just before he got bit, I told him that I got nailed (once through my gloves) and to be real careful when he was poking his mits around in the panel and he didn't want to admit that he slipped and brushed the buss just like I did, but he did so after being warned.

Yes, I did laugh....it almost made up for me getting bit.

Have you ever noticed that when you get a little nip, you get mad at the panel, or wire, or whatever? No?

Maybe it's just me, but I cuss 'em right out for having the audacity to bite me while I am working.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
K8MHZ said:
Have you ever noticed that when you get a little nip, you get mad at the panel, or wire, or whatever? No?
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Usually only if it is anything but a QO panel or a CH panel. Everything else has more exposure of bus, which I hate, but you are not supposed to work on it live:angel:
 
readydave8

readydave8

re member
Location
Clarkesville, Georgia
Occupation
electrician
K8MHZ said:
Have you ever noticed that when you get a little nip, you get mad at the panel, or wire, or whatever? No?

Maybe it's just me, but I cuss 'em right out for having the audacity to bite me while I am working.
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usually my emotion is embarrassment, especially if someone else is there, double especially if the someone else is the customer.
 
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