12 years back there was a CB'er that had a double 3-500 Z amp with 3500
volts on the plate that lived next door to me.

One day he noticed he was running about half power instead of full bore so
he popped the top of the amp and noticed one of the wires on the tube caps
(PLATE) had come unsoldered.....so instead of turning the amp off he melted
the solder a bit with his insulated soldering iron and forced the wire back
into the molten puddle....It worked!.......Then holding a large roll of bare
solder in his hand he added a bit more to the molten solder

It didnt take him long to let go of that roll of solder in his bare hand!!!

His entire hand was burnt white!
"Mike Andrews" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:
In message , Steve Nosko
writes

SO... He reaches around the end...grabs some line cord and proceeds to
cut
off a piece with scissors...

Blam! ... notched scissors!

On a vaguely similar line my father was rewiring an outside building and
carefully removed all the fuses from the fuse box before cutting out all
the old cabling. He then came across a cable he had forgotten and cut
this too, BANG!! It was the input to the fuse box. One very badly melted
pair of cutters and a rather startled father.

I gotta. I just gotta.

About 25 years back, I was a new systems programmer for a government
agency which I'll cleverly call WeBuildHighways. Our sister shop, the
Department of inHuman Services, was fairly close, and we spent a fair
amount of time visiting and swapping hints and kinks.

One day I was there while some remodeling was being done: an old door
wsa being blocked and a new one cut. I heard a Skilsaw fire up, saw a
blade movingd ownward, and cringed: there was a quad-box about a foot
below the blade and in its path.

My counterpar was a bit quicker, and shouted "Turn Off All Your
Terminals RIGHT _NOW_!!" -- just before the blue flash and the great
dark silence.

This was before PCs, and so we only lost some 3270 terminal sessions
to the mainframe. It was ... interesting.

Another time I'll tell about The Guy Who Blew Himself Through The Door.

--
Mike Andrews

Tired old sysadmin

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 12:01:14 +0100 Paul Burridge
wrote:

Anyone got any high-current/low-voltage horror stories they'd care to
share?

Co-worker of mine wore his nice shiny new anniversary wrist watch
(with metal band) while working around his car battery. Pushed his
hand down into a tight spot and shorted the hot terminal to ground
with the band.

He said there was a flash and suddenly the band was starting to glow.
He jerked his hand out almost instantaneously, and the watch and band
sailed across the garage, hit the wall, and crashed to the concrete
floor.

He wore a bandage around his wrist for a couple of weeks, but all he
has to show for it now is the brand around his wrist that the
watchband left behind.

I have no idea what he told his wife....

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*I'veÂ*heardÂ*ofÂ*aÂ*telephoneÂ*exc hangeÂ*painter
putting a can of paint down on the main exchange 50V
bussbars: caused quite a fire too. Another phone tech
had a fuse that blew once a week, he kept putting a
larger and larger fuse in until the wooden exchange
building burnt down.

Mark H

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 12:26:33 GMT, Mark Harriss hath writ:

Another phone tech had a fuse that blew once a week,
he kept putting a larger and larger fuse in
:
:
until the wooden exchange building burnt down.

Problem solved! HI!HI!

73
Jonesy
--
| Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
| Gunnison, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | OS/2 __
| 7,703' -- 2,345m | config.com | DM68mn SK

"Paul Burridge" wrote in message
news
Hi all,

Anyone got any high-current/low-voltage horror stories they'd care to
share? You know; where your messin' about with a car battery or
something like that and forget to take your watch off or whatever.

Paul; I guess mine concerns 'zero amps'. Particularly, a motor generator
unit comprising a 48 volt 200 amp DC generator driven by a shaft coupled 3
phase 230 volt motor, which we moved a few miles. After supervising the
move, at night, I left the in charge technician and the crew to finish off
and went home to bed. Around 01.30h, I was roused by a phone call, "No
output". This unit HAD to be working by 09.30h at latest, next morning!
During the move the DC generator must have lost its 'residual magnetism' and
when restarted was putting out +9 volts instead of -48 volts and
consistently tripping the output circuit breaker when they tried to connect
it to the working equipment and batteries!
Although I had never encountered it before I had sufficient technical
background to surmise what had happened and after blowing a few fuses and
burning off a temporary lead in my hand was able to get sufficient negative
48 volt voltage onto the field winding of the unit. It recovered and was
there until all the equipment in that building was retired some 15-20 years
later.
Phew!
PS. 200 amps @ 48 volts is some 10 kilowatts, the output of one motor
generator set and there were 3 of them.

I heard of a newly installed phone exchange
generator that kept stalling when they cut it on to
the load: they pulled it all apart and checked every
part of the alternator and diesel motor with no
success.

Then one day they were trying again and these
linesmen rushed in from the pub next door shouting
and screaming: The grid in the area had been shut
down for line repairs so the immediate city block
had no electricity. They were knocking back a few
coldies when they heard the roar of the generator
and saw the lights in the pub flickering.

It seems the techs had wired it in without
relays to isolate the line input cables and were
trying to power an entire city block: no wonder it
was stalling. They were lucky they didn't fry a
linesman too.

AIEEEEE! :-o

--
Gregg t3h g33k
"Ratings are for transistors....tubes have guidelines"
http://geek.scorpiorising.ca

Mark Harriss ) writes:
It seems the techs had wired it in without
relays to isolate the line input cables and were
trying to power an entire city block: no wonder it
was stalling. They were lucky they didn't fry a
linesman too.


There is a lot to be said for nipping in to a pub occasionally. Maybe one
could find a lot of safe linemen there.

.... Martin

While not low voltage, I remember reading in the '60s in Scientific
American an article which mentioned how many milliamps of current was
enough to be felt / dangerous / deadly, etc. It mentioned that
substantially larger currents could sometimes even be safer as they could
cause involuntary muscle contractions which would interrupt the current
flow.

The example given was of a worker at a high-rise construction site in New
York who was changing out of his work clothes at the end of his shift in a
temporary shack that also housed the site electrical power connections.
While doffing his trousers he accidentally backed into a high voltage
panel. An estimated 60 amperes passed from one buttock to the other
through muscles that immediately straightened, propelling him through the
shack and its door and into two lanes of road traffic which immediately
stopped.

Because the current didn't pass through any vital organs, he only
sustained surface burns and various bruises and scrapes though the
electrical panel manufacturer's logo is now mirror-image tattooed to his
behind.

I've *gotta* find the source of all this...

Jim Horn, WB9SYN/6

"James Horn" wrote in message
...
: While not low voltage, I remember reading in the '60s in
Scientific
: American an article which mentioned how many milliamps of
current was
: enough to be felt / dangerous / deadly, etc. It mentioned that
: substantially larger currents could sometimes even be safer as
they could
: cause involuntary muscle contractions which would interrupt the
current
: flow.
:
: The example given was of a worker at a high-rise construction
site in New
: York who was changing out of his work clothes at the end of his
shift in a
: temporary shack that also housed the site electrical power
connections.
: While doffing his trousers he accidentally backed into a high
voltage
: panel. An estimated 60 amperes passed from one buttock to the
other
: through muscles that immediately straightened, propelling him
through the
: shack and its door and into two lanes of road traffic which
immediately
: stopped.
:
: Because the current didn't pass through any vital organs, he
only
: sustained surface burns and various bruises and scrapes though
the
: electrical panel manufacturer's logo is now mirror-image
tattooed to his
: behind.
:
: I've *gotta* find the source of all this...
: Jim Horn, WB9SYN/6


60 amps though "Human flesh" will cook it well done! 15mA through
the vital organs will kill! As little as 30 microamps will cause
a severe muscle reaction and not even the sturdiest will be able
to resist movement if the current reaches 2 mA.