eLeCtRiC sHoCk!!!!

[Dave_]

Well.

Im very new to this forum. (7th post..)

Been on the books for 6 years, qualified 2007, 2391-10 passed 2009 (june exam - 2nd attempt! Doh!) Achieved a merit grade in 2391-20 Design, Erection & Verification in june 2010.... quite chuffed that i have got both parts... but with six years experience i am greener than the New Forest... I have so much to learn.... i have a very deep respect for time served electricians - after all, my knowledge is from them......

I guess your wandering what the *** is this guy babbling on about? well.......

After seeing the thread regarding ' tell us about your faults' i started thinking.....

and im curious to know what mistakes we ourselves, competent sparks have made during our prosperous careers.....? The reason i list my qualifications is to prove there is something between my ears (alongside the fluff, lewd thoughts and odd electrical impulse ;-)

I mean, we are all human. from what i have seen there a lot of 'have a go' DIY peeps that shouldnt be let loose with a bus pass let alone a screwdriver, possibly some bad sparks etc.... but come on guys what have you done? 'momma? am i bad??'

Ill never forget when i was on site (after a few weeks on the tools) and my new friend derek told me: were human, we make mistakes. one time in your career you will make a stupid mistake like cross the polarity on a socket outlet. I listened. did it a week later. (my only chance, *** i cant do it again!)

I have read some cracking stuff on here, JURASSIC SPARKS - GREAT STUFF!! But these are other mens mistakes.....

The Best i know about was when a BT engineer broke a fibre link in a very critical data centre and a very well known bank lost all its ATM's for one hour on a saturday morning to the tune of around ten million pounds. oh bugger.

I cant cap that.... doubt you guys can either ;-)

My silliest mistake was just that. silly. not thinking. I used to work in a posh girls school - a maintenance job basically. I was in the sports centre repairing some light fittings.... In the gents changing rooms (staff luckily) changing a 6ft tube in a VP fitting. I removed the old lamp and then when i put the new lamp in i was at the top of the steps, stood on top literally (8 tread) at full stretch, WITH MY PINKIES ON EITHER ENDS OF THE CATHODES, fitting energised.....

i wont tell you what happened next.... they says its just history... but i'm still here.... i gained 'experience' from that.....

well come on lads, spill the beans.........!

Im new - if this is something that is generally not spoken about then just delete this post, give me a nudge and ill gain more 'experience'

Dave

 

[Zimmer]

Must have went close to 15 years without getting a shock, until a few weeks ago, had no tools with me and was sleepily pushing in a small contactor with my keys to check was the next contactor pulling in sequence.
I guess I put my keys somewhere I shouldn't
Yowwwwwwwwwl

 

[aptsys]

CMB SAYS

Still not with you on this....

I remember years ago in tech one of my teachers telling a story regarding a call out to a pub. Cant quite remember exactly why but it involved isolating a circuit in an old wylex board with BS3036 fuses. When he gripped the fuse top and bottom he got a horrendous belt and threw the fuse across the room. Turned out it had been sabotaged in a manner so live fuse wire was protruding top and bottom of fuse carrier hence the shock.

There's always been the lettering "SWITCH OFF BEFORE HANDLING FUSES" on those Wylex boards.

I totally agree with SMB.

 

[nickblake]

Had my first shock yesterday after 8 years in the job. unplugged an emergeny light fitting and it went into emergency mode, climbed down my steps and then climbed back up only to have 240v running through 1 arm to the other holding onto pipework/ceiling grid. dropped down the steps not knowing how it had happend. Investigation revealed some twit had taken a switch wire and earth ( neutral cut out) from another fitting so the emergency fitting had a s/w aswell as the permanent feed and neutral and earth it already had. so when i unplugged the emergency i had taken away the neutral so it still had a switch feed from another fitting which was lashed across in a flex which wasnt obvious. therefore neutral at the plug was live. so 2 faults, wired unsafe with the roaming switch feed and not bothering to connect the extra neutral! bloody hurt 2!

oh the maintained fitting eh , thats why we test test and double test , never rely on just un plugging un plug and re test , hope you are ok mate pain in th hands when that happens