Not-so-handy handy-man incidents

[bluefeet]

1990, stationed at Pope AFB, NC - 23yrs old.

I purchased my families first washer & dryer, while living off-base in an apartment complex. The small apartment had an even smaller odd-shaped laundry room at one end of the apartment. Squeezing the two units into the room was challenging enough. How I was ever going to plug in the dryer after attaching the 220 cord to the back of the machine was another question.

[A less than brilliant idea entered my pee-brain]

I'll plug it in first! So I'm squatting in the corner having just plugged the one end into the power supply, holding the other end of the 220, about to slip the little copper rabbit-ear thingies to the back of the dryer. As I move the rigid cord toward my new dryer/electrocutioner, it thankfully slips out of my hand.

"KA-BOOM!!" (The memory is a little shaky. I'm not sure if the "ka-boom" was the 220 or me hitting the wall)

I see a large flash as I fly backward the short foot or two, leaving a nice dent in the drywall.
It is now pitch dark.
My eyes hurt.
The wife and baby are both crying/screaming.

While I'm pretty sure I survived, I was convinced I was blind - letting anyone within ear-shot know of my condition (failing to reason that I am in a dark, window-less corner of the apartment, after sunset).

So after a few panicked moments, I stumble out of the laundry room, realizing what had happened. The results? I knocked out power to all 8 units in the building. Burned a little hole in the linoleum as the 220 sought grounding. My face was a little "sun" burnt from the flash. I was seeing red for a few hours. And had the pleasant exchange, trying to explain to the on-call super what I had done.

/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Can you beat that stupidity?

[STLantny]

I chopped my finger off while cleaning some equipment at my first job.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
I chopped my finger off while cleaning some equipment at my first job.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't even want to know... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[wdcbooks]

In 1996 I was working retail at a clothing store on Cape Cod. The store had just finished a promotion complete with balloons and streamers to mark the end of summer. I was tasked with removing the deflated balloons from the track lighting.

I climbed up a ladder and used metal scissors with a metal handle to remove the strings. They were tied to the track lighting so I just stuck the scissors in the little depression. I was shocked so badly I blacked out, fell twelve feet and demolished a display rack. Despite being out for a few minutes it didn't really hurt. My head just buzzed and I felt disoriented.

Given the store's fear of a worker's comp claim I was able to take a few days off with pay though and recuperate on the beach.

You're lucky you didn't end up on www.darwinawards.com (http://www.darwinawards.com) .

Slightly off topic, but still stupid...

My father has a large farm. I was visiting during uni holidays when his main irrigation pump broke down. I have a fair idea what I'm doing so I decided to give it a go rather than pay a repairman an exorbitant fee.

The pump was directly attached to a 3 phase power line, so I couldn't unplug it, but I turned off three switches on the meter box (at the main shed - a fair distance from the pump) before opening the pump cover and taking a look. A few tests revealed a faulty capacitor, so I unhook the bare copper wires and set about putting in a replacement. I'm just about to put the new one when my father drives up, grinning, saying he's found the problem. The switches in the meter box were turned off, he says, and he just [censored] turned them back on!!

I was 20 seconds away from getting electrocuted. I could have throttled him.

[rusellmj]

While checking an engine for a tapping sound, I decided it might be coming from the rotor cap. I reached over to touch the cap to make sure. I woke up on my back looking at the sky.

[astroglide]

i can't beat it, but i can definitely match it. i did the exact same thing less than a year ago.

i took delivery on a new washer/dryer. it came with a cord, but they charged me like $25 for it. i was in home depot and saw they had them for like $12, so i figured i could buy that and return the best buy one since it was still in its packaging. bear in mind i never return anything ever, and i have basically lost millions of dollars in unsent rebates uncashed checks (tax rebates, you name it).

so i buy it at home depot. i take it out of the bag. it has the looped ends that attach to the dryer taped together. i wasn't even going to plug it in, i had just heard about prong differences in cables and wanted to make sure i had the right one. for some reason holding it up to the socket just wasn't enough for me. so i plugged it in, with about the same result. big bang, everything goes dark. i'm stumbling around and wondering if i'm dead and my head has an intense panic/ring sense to it, heart is racing 90 miles per hour. i ended up having to go outside to reset the master breaker to my condo block because it turns out mine was defective.

damage ended up being that the outlet needed to be replaced, the breaker was broken, and the broken breaker had an electric arc that fried another breaker inside the box. i think i might have posted this at some time in the past, not sure.

now i'm an idiot of course. but i'm left scratching my head that when you order 'hot coffee' at mcdonald's it says 'warning: this coffee is hot' on the cup. looking at the packaging for the cord, there was no warning whatsoever about plugging it in if the other end isn't attached to a dryer. it blew because the ends were touching each other, but they're taped together from the factory...

[Blarg]

I'm delighted. This the incredibly rare permutation of the classic "fvck up" thread that doesn't sound like random bits from my autobiography. I think I actually escape the electric chair in this version of story.

[Brainwalter]

[ QUOTE ]
While checking an engine for a tapping sound, I decided it might be coming from the rotor cap. I reached over to touch the cap to make sure. I woke up on my back looking at the sky.

[/ QUOTE ]

Get new plug wires.

[tonypaladino]

[ QUOTE ]
Slightly off topic, but still stupid...

My father has a large farm. I was visiting during uni holidays when his main irrigation pump broke down. I have a fair idea what I'm doing so I decided to give it a go rather than pay a repairman an exorbitant fee.

The pump was directly attached to a 3 phase power line, so I couldn't unplug it, but I turned off three switches on the meter box (at the main shed - a fair distance from the pump) before opening the pump cover and taking a look. A few tests revealed a faulty capacitor, so I unhook the bare copper wires and set about putting in a replacement. I'm just about to put the new one when my father drives up, grinning, saying he's found the problem. The switches in the meter box were turned off, he says, and he just [censored] turned them back on!!

I was 20 seconds away from getting electrocuted. I could have throttled him.

[/ QUOTE ]

Electrictions Safety Rule #1

If the breaker switches aren't within your line of sight, post a notice not to touch switches.

[CORed]

I used to work for a small chemical company. Part of my job included keeping a small chlor-alkali system that was used to produce bleach running. The controls for this system were located in a large steel cabinet with an interlock that required you to turn off the main power to open the door. This cabinet contained a bunch of printed ciruit boards with 110V relays, among other things and several fused motor controlers for 480V three phase motors in the bottom. Sometimes, when trouble-shooting, it was useful to have the panel open with the power on, inorder to take voltage readings, or find a relay with arcing contacts, which could be accomplihed by attaching a pair of vice-grips to the shaft that connected the door latch to the main breaker for the cabinet and turning the main breaker on. It was many years ago, and I don't remember the details of the problem I was trying to solve, but, I had the door open and the power on, and, for whatever reason, decided that my next step was to pull the fuses from one of the motor controllers. These fuses were the tubular type: A plastic tube, about four inches long and 1/2 inches in diameter, with metal contacts on either end. They were easily removed by hand, which I proceeded to do, without shutting off the main breaker, kneeling on a concrete floor.

I was lucky: My heart didn't stop, I didn't lose cosciousness, I didn't get burned. The fuse was in a 480V three phase cirucit: 480V between any two of the three legs, 270V to ground. The current went from my left hand through the left side of my body, to where my left knee was in contact with the concrete. I know, because I felt intense, burning pain through the entire path of the current. I was prbably only in contace with the hot fuse for less than a second. Fortunately, I didn't get a muscle spasm that wouldn't allow me to let go. I've had a few 120V shocks in my life, and they aren't pleasant, but this was much worse.

[CORed]

[ QUOTE ]
Electrictions Safety Rule #1

If the breaker switches aren't within your line of sight, post a notice not to touch switches.

[/ QUOTE ]

OSHA regs require the switch to be locked and tagged. Most industrial type switches have a place where you can insert a padlock.

[Boris]

Wow. You and astroglide are animals. I probably would have died.

[willie]

as an electrician, i gotta say that i laughed my ASS off picturing this

a regular 110 volt will pop and scare the piss out of you. 220 sounds angry, be damn glad you didn't blow yourself up doing it.......


jeeeesus

[willie]

CORed, you're dammmmmn lucky to be alive.

480 is no joke and you arched somewhat along a line that includes your heart.



i can't believe how dangerous OOT is with electricity! /images/graemlins/smirk.gif