Slang or not?

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mark32

Senior Member
Location
Currently in NJ
An electrician asked me for a Carlon connector today so I asked if he wanted a male terminal adapter for pvc. "No, it's for Carlon" he stated. Oh, you mean for sealtight, you want a connector for sealtight? "No, for Carlon" again he stated. "Dude I don't know what you are talking about" was my response as I took him over to where the pvc and sealtight stuff is. He then points to a roll of non-metallic sealtight. "That's what I need it for" he said. That's sealtight sir, non metallic sealtight. "No, it's Carlon". I asked him if he went into a supply house and asked for a Carlon fitting, they wouldn't question you? "No", he began, "I'm a union electrician and I know what I need". I am licensed sir and you are busting my balls over trade slang. I then helped him collect a few more items and things were cool after that but I couldn't help wonder what the fuss was about. He knew what I was referring to when I asked if it was for pvc or sealtight.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Interesting, even though he said carlon connector, for some reason I thought he meant carflex right away. Probably because I read carlon as carflex simply because I never use the term carlon.

He was trying to show how smart he was but obviously failed in his attempt. I see it all the time at our supply company- electricians use the worng terms often.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Well, I have been in the union since '96 and have never heard of a 'Carlon connector'.

If someone asked me for one and copped an attitude, I would simply find any connector made by Carlon, with the word Carlon printed on it, and give it to him.

Slang should only be used when both parties are familiar with it. It changes depending on locale, as well.

The electrician erred by not doing his best to communicate with you. How would he feel if you expected him to know YOUR lexicon inside and out?

Example, "Yeah, we have them, right on the line racks next to the M-carts just before you get to End Cap 14B."

:roll:
 

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
you are busting my balls over trade slang.

The people that know the least about a trade tend to make a big deal over small things. If you don't know very much then you have to concentrate on the few things that you do know ( or think you know).

It's impossible to use logic in a debate with a dummy. :)
 

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
Back in the Navy we had this huge can of "monkey S&%t", one day it finally ran out and I was told to go order more, of course nothing in the supply system under that name, I asked everyone what it was really called and no one knew it by any other name, even went to 3 other subs to ask thier people, no one knew, Took me 2 days to get my order placed for Duct Seal.
 

stevenje

Senior Member
Location
Yachats Oregon
As an apprentice I worked with an old journeyman from down south. He had a slang term for EVERYTHING! When you asked him what the H*** he was talking about he would always get a grin on his face and show you what part he wanted along with an explanation of why it was called that. After working with him for a few weeks it sounded like a new language when discussing what parts we were installing. What a kick!
 

teco

Senior Member
Location
Mass north shore
Its not even sealtight, Thats a brand name. Its called a liquidtight flexible nonmetallic conduit connector. I'll bet that would have really pissed him off.
 

hurk27

Senior Member
Try moving from one area of the country to another, as I did when I went back to Florida in the "70s" from Indiana, it was a whole new learning trip on material slang, was used to calling 4 squares 1900 box's because of Raco's part numbers, down there they called them Slaters, Knew EMT fittings by their Raco part numbers, 701, 702 and so on. tools was another trip, got used to calling my lineman's Kline's, and diagonal cutters Dyke's,
been many a thread on here about this, and thanks to the Internet, the whole world is now much closer in learning a common slang.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Back in the Navy we had this huge can of "monkey S&%t" . . .
I won't say what the ex-navy guy I worked under as a new helper used to call wire lube, but I will say that it involved snakes, and wasn't as pleasant to picture as your example is. :cool:
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
The thing is, if he had asked for a romex connector you would have known what he wanted probably.

Even different areas of the country call it different things.

Also what one of the other posts called monkey @#$%, I would have called monkey snot, but he said that it was duct seal and I would have thought he meant wire lube.
 

arits74

Senior Member
Location
dixie arkansas
Occupation
working owner electrician
a buddy of mine that works at one of the electric supply houses in town keeps a foot long piece of 500 mcm copper wire under the counter and when some body asks for some 220 wire he throws that up there,what they need changes pretty quick
 

Rewire

Senior Member
An electrician asked me for a Carlon connector today so I asked if he wanted a male terminal adapter for pvc. "No, it's for Carlon" he stated. Oh, you mean for sealtight, you want a connector for sealtight? "No, for Carlon" again he stated. "Dude I don't know what you are talking about" was my response as I took him over to where the pvc and sealtight stuff is. He then points to a roll of non-metallic sealtight. "That's what I need it for" he said. That's sealtight sir, non metallic sealtight. "No, it's Carlon". I asked him if he went into a supply house and asked for a Carlon fitting, they wouldn't question you? "No", he began, "I'm a union electrician and I know what I need". I am licensed sir and you are busting my balls over trade slang. I then helped him collect a few more items and things were cool after that but I couldn't help wonder what the fuss was about. He knew what I was referring to when I asked if it was for pvc or sealtight.

What ever happened to customer service? If I ask for a "carlon" fitting then you better sell me a "carlon" fitting.
 

wptski

Senior Member
Location
Warren, MI
Back in the Navy we had this huge can of "monkey S&%t", one day it finally ran out and I was told to go order more, of course nothing in the supply system under that name, I asked everyone what it was really called and no one knew it by any other name, even went to 3 other subs to ask thier people, no one knew, Took me 2 days to get my order placed for Duct Seal.
HaHa! Remember working aloft on antenna connections. We were rolling up small balls of that stuff and dropping it on people on deck watch. Glad you posted the real name because I couldn't remember it all!

We used that stuff under a rubberized tape that stretched like a rubber band and when cut acted just like the inside of a golf ball.
 

zappy

Senior Member
Location
CA.
Back in the Navy we had this huge can of "monkey S&%t", one day it finally ran out and I was told to go order more, of course nothing in the supply system under that name, I asked everyone what it was really called and no one knew it by any other name, even went to 3 other subs to ask thier people, no one knew, Took me 2 days to get my order placed for Duct Seal.

That's funnier than s&%t!
 
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