Friend of a friend

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kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Very sad news today just want to remind everyone here most of us know but some don't electrical work is not a hobby.


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True not a hobby, but nothing in that article says the deceased was doing any wiring, just was electrocuted by a machine which could mean something failed in the machine and there was failed EGC and/or bonding methods or parallel grounded conductor current on frame of the machine and he got in a potential pathway.

Sadly there are people that aren't doing this as a hobby yet don't fully understand this trade and how dangerous their actions can be.
 

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
Very sad.

I once was called out to a rock crushing operation because the grizzly feeder was "making a weird electrical sounding noise". It turned out someone had wired up this 40HP vibrating screen motor using blue wire nuts. One of them was touching the inside of the peckerhead and the vibration made it wear through the plastic to where the metal spring in the wire nut was touching and arcing against the peckerhead. The thing was, they had ALSO cut off the EGC for this machine back to the generator**, so the motor frame and thus the entire machine frame was floating. It was operated via a radio box in the loader and the loader operator never needed to touch the machine while running, but if anyone had, it was a recipe for this sort of thing to happen.

**My suspicion was that when the arcing started, it was tripping the generator breaker, so they "fixed" that by cutting the EGC...
Crushing companies are notorious for cutting corners.
 

tom baker

First Chief Moderator
Staff member
I had a friend that was electrocuted and it was a mine operation, so OSHA was involved, I found out a lot digging into the case. OSHA issues Fata-Grams with summaries of deaths.
My 70 YO friend was working by himself, he was a seasoned electrician, 480 V gear, working hot to install a circuit, contacted energized equipment, and was electrocuted. Gear burnt down and had to be replaced. No fine was issue as the electrician was a sole proprietor, no one to fine
 

chris kennedy

Senior Member
Location
Miami Fla.
Occupation
60 yr old tool twisting electrician
Very sad.

I once was called out to a rock crushing operation because the grizzly feeder was "making a weird electrical sounding noise". It turned out someone had wired up this 40HP vibrating screen motor using blue wire nuts. One of them was touching the inside of the peckerhead and the vibration made it wear through the plastic to where the metal spring in the wire nut was touching and arcing against the peckerhead. The thing was, they had ALSO cut off the EGC for this machine back to the generator**, so the motor frame and thus the entire machine frame was floating. It was operated via a radio box in the loader and the loader operator never needed to touch the machine while running, but if anyone had, it was a recipe for this sort of thing to happen.

**My suspicion was that when the arcing started, it was tripping the generator breaker, so they "fixed" that by cutting the EGC...
Crushing companies are notorious for cutting corners.
On this type of equipment I pack the pecker heads with duct seal so the conductors/connectors can't flop around.
 

__dan

Senior Member
Doing a grounding survey at the clay mine remote diesel fueling station, found the line and load feeder conductors reversed at an outdoor fused disconnect (100 Amp irrc). I had the upstream remote outdoor disconnect locked off at the time (irrc) so found by visual inspection. 3 phase 480 V .. with the EGC disconnected much futher upstream ...

I brought it to the attention of the 10 year onsite electrician and he says " oh yeah, I got knocked on my azz changing those fuses" (literally).

The "load" from that disconnect went underground as #2 ish direct burial single conductor (three of them) and popped back up ~ 800 ft away as paralleled 12-2 Romex, not even UF irrc, and fed another outdoor shed that fed the 20 hp floating mine dewatering pump ....

I wrote it all up installed the contiguous frame grounding per MSHA, connected the egc and converted the feeder to 480 single phase with egc. Mine dewatering pump got moved about 1/4 mile to a spot where the four conductors were available.

Wrote up something else there and the plant manager says "that;s the whole plant".
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
On this type of equipment I pack the pecker heads with duct seal so the conductors/connectors can't flop around.
Does that hold up to the high heat you often get with motors?

I can see it drying out and crumbling, which itself may not be a problem if sealed off pretty well from the rest of the motor but if the crumbled material can get into the motor it can create other problems.
 

chris kennedy

Senior Member
Location
Miami Fla.
Occupation
60 yr old tool twisting electrician
Good question, never used it in a high hear environment. Learned that trick from a manufacture of vibratory equipment.
 
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