Are you a manly electrician?

jeepinmatt said:
Faraday effect. Inside doesn't matter. It all travels along the outside. Or something like that. Ever welded? Ever welded in the rain? There is a difference.
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Just gave me shuddering chills from my last job. Suddenly, it was February again.....outside, 3 a.m., finishing up my night on 2nd shift welding together an oil rig. Rain blowing in sideways as I'm trying to get my last pass in on some 1" A514. Try keeping that shit to temp when it's 34 degrees and raining sideways! ....that, and the buzz you get sometimes....
 
jeepinmatt said:
Faraday effect. Inside doesn't matter. It all travels along the outside. Or something like that. Ever welded? Ever welded in the rain? There is a difference.
Click to expand...

There was one summer we were trimming out some new warehouse offices in the middle of summer in Hickory. I was covered head to toe in sweat with some awfully wet clothes. Grabbing a receptacle I thought was turned off was about the worst hit of my life. Instead of just my hand/forearm tensing up, my whole fuckin body tensed up til I stumbled back and hit the deck. Lots of four letter words came out as soon as I gathered my thoughts.
 
One of the best electricians I know got arc flashed working in a panel that he thought was off. Come to find out the building had 2 mains and somehow the panel he was working in got backfed from no 2. Nearly killed him. Put him in the UNC burn center for over a month. He's a way better electrician than I am so I damn sure don't get too confident. I check everything now, even if I know 100% that I personally killed the power.
 
I work on 2kVDC systems live… sometimes.. in an arc flash suit. And <600VAC commonly. All of it is dangerous, even 120VAC. Work on it dead if possible.
 
I vote kill if/when you can! Worked on test set-ups at 1.5MVAC & 3MVDC...dead of course and 120 (tingly), 240 (sparky) & 277/480 (hell no) live. Hell I got shocked by the static build up off a 500kV tower in NY twice because I'm a moron and they made my hair stand on end!
 
A lot of it is perception.
In my younger days I was a structural steel welder for a steel building erecting company.
Been zapped enough to explain the way I act now! :dumbass:
We added a 2nd story to an old 50s art-deco gas station in The Bueno Vista area of Winston Salem.
Asphalt roof. when it was time to weld we had to basically flood the roof and have 2 guys on fire watch.
Could not touch anything in the entire building that was metal. I was zapping every one.
I had to lay the rod down to clamp it .... I was getting hit through gloves.
They shut the building down and unplugged all electronics whenever I welded after that.

But the worst was getting hit by the HEI on our racecar.
Full MSD from switch to plugs.
Closest I've ever come to having something make me pee my pants!
 
Lizooki said:
But the worst was getting hit by the HEI on our racecar.
Full MSD from switch to plugs.
Closest I've ever come to having something make me pee my pants!
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Yes. In college my buddy had a '92 V6 'Yota that was running rough, missing a bit. Popped the hood and started pushing down on all the spark plug boots till I found THE bad wire. Screamed like a little girl and danced around shaking my arm. But I found the problem!
 
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