Something to laugh about to lift the mood.

[wade88]

So i have noticed a fair amount of unhappy posters this last couple of weeks, thought i would throw myself out there as the sacrificial goat of comedy and try to raise some smiles amongst a few of you...

And so, long story cut embarrassingly short, we have this large mixing crucibal here at work 9ft high, 1 tonne capacity, pretty basic stuff, 7.5 kw 3ph motor, 3 heating bands around the mixing bowl on separate phases circa 15kw of heating all in all.

Night shift supervisor comes to me in the morning last week as i get in, bit sheepish, says

"Ben, the control panel to the mixer sort of....well....blew up last night, smoke was pouring from the vents and there was a huge bang" .... *SIGH*

What utter foolishness has one of these numpties done to it now...so i open the panel up and sure enough, the incoming 6mm tails have burnt away, flash burn every where, and the din terminals have completely broken apart like a grenade went off in there. My guess was after the machine has been moved around a bit and this control panel dragged along behind it, terminations came loose and some serious arcing had been occuring until it finally went. So i replaced the tails, replaced the din rails connectors, checked other fuses, ran around with volt meter for a while to just see what was what and all seemed well...

Turn on machine heaters *BANG*.... all goes again, traced voltage back to the point it stops and first phase cartridge fuse downstream of contactor goes down as soon as i select heater band 1....scratched head for a while....figured maybe the SSR took some damage during the initial 'blast' and figured id just replace it from stores anyway. So i disconnect the heaters to take all load of the circuit to see if they were the problem, try again *BANG*, check cable insulation, fine, checked just about everything and was just walking off to get megger when i noticed this......


Now, im ready for the assault here, but in my exp, which we have established lately is limited but i dont feel poor, i am use to the disconnection tab of most MCB's and DIN terminals to be at the bottom, so, when i replaced the damaged DIN T's for the incommers, i automatically just put them in this orientation without a seconds thought, turns out the panel builder had put them in the other way around, so being insulated on one side only and the terminals exposed on the other, i had unknowingly slotted the N incommer terminal next to the first phase of the heaters the other way around so they were just snuggled up, zinc to zinc.....every time i turned it on, dead short and pop.

After some hours, one or two phone calls, and changing over system components that were absolutely fine, it turns out, i was just a massive dork.

Maybe you had to be there...but i had to laugh

 

[Silly Sausage]

Hahaha! Numpty!

So what you're saying is...You're not perfect!
I dread to think what balls ups I've done over the years.

 

[wade88]

We've been over this perfect thing Archy, i AM perfect, glitches just occur now and again .

But yes, massive prat

 

[crow11]

something else to make you all laugh, went to mates house other week, then he says the ignition isn't working on the built in hob, so i said i would have a look, obviously tried it nothing at all so i thought i would switch the oven on to see if that was working both of the same supply both on plug tops in the oven housing oven all lit up so i thought maybe fuse as gone in plug, so got talking for a bit but left the oven on, after a while switched oven off, switched off isolator above worktop undid screws to remove oven opened oven door and got hold of it on the inside lip at top and guess what, i had switched the grill on instead of oven and grabbed hold of the element, as you can imagine i have never moved as quick in my life, burnt all across fingers there was bit of skin stuck to the element lol my own stupid fault really all my mate could do was laugh and everybody elese who's heard about it

 

[Knobhead]

I never make mistakes, my theories just don’t always work.

Wade, you’ve broken the electricians creed. Never own up to anything.

 

[wade88]

I couldn't think of a reasonable answer in time Tony when i was asked what was wrong with it....i just couldn't fabricate a plausible sounding argument fast enough....i buckled....

But now you've got me thinking about it, your right, it was totally the original panel builders fault who put his DT's upside down. What a total idiot, jeez

 

[trev]

something else to make you all laugh, went to mates house other week, then he says the ignition isn't working on the built in hob, so i said i would have a look, obviously tried it nothing at all so i thought i would switch the oven on to see if that was working both of the same supply both on plug tops in the oven housing oven all lit up so i thought maybe fuse as gone in plug, so got talking for a bit but left the oven on, after a while switched oven off, switched off isolator above worktop undid screws to remove oven opened oven door and got hold of it on the inside lip at top and guess what, i had switched the grill on instead of oven and grabbed hold of the element, as you can imagine i have never moved as quick in my life, burnt all across fingers there was bit of skin stuck to the element lol my own stupid fault really all my mate could do was laugh and everybody elese who's heard about it

That reminds me of a non electrical cock up years ago. We had a coal fire where I grew up, I got in from work one day and I'm the first one home so I laid the fire and set it away. We'd had something delivered that day which had polystyrene packaging so because it was before the days of environmental friendliness the packing got thrown on too but it started to roll down towards the hearth so I picked it up to throw it further back. Big mistake, the stuff was already starting to melt and stuck to my hand. Now rather than just shake it off My bright idea was to pick it off with my other hand.
Both hands badly burnt and it cost me a few days off work

 

[ayjay]

when i was an apprentice we were rewiring the palace court hotel in bournemouth i was assisting a fella called roger in the mains room which was next to the main transformer housed inside a fariday cage btw-
he had the trunking lid off and placed a spanner on top just above the bus bar chamber the spanner fell off and went straight into the top of the chamber
BOOM all power lost to the whole of the hotel
the bars completely vapourized
oh how we laughed

 

[snowhead]

No mistakes here either, however quite a few unplanned, sometimes short notice, events have taken place in my presence.

Usually put down to the self learning curve.

 

[markc123]

I was once hooking-up a caravan....and for those of you who know static caravans...the main bedroom wardrobes are small, and sometimes awkward to get into.

Anyway, to make things easier i decided to sit on the top shelf, where the small cu was located. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the top shelf snapped under my weight aswell as shelf 2 and 3 and i was sat in the shoe compartment with broken wood everywhere in a brand spanking new static caravan.

Had just been given the contract at that site for the year aswell, luckily the manager found it funny...but only after he'd told me the damage will be coming off the next bill that i submit. We live and learn.

 

[wade88]

I was once hooking-up a caravan....and for those of you who know static caravans...the main bedroom wardrobes are small, and sometimes awkward to get into.

Anyway, to make things easier i decided to sit on the top shelf, where the small cu was located. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the top shelf snapped under my weight aswell as shelf 2 and 3 and i was sat in the shoe compartment with broken wood everywhere in a brand spanking new static caravan.

Had just been given the contract at that site for the year aswell, luckily the manager found it funny...but only after he'd told me the damage will be coming off the next bill that i submit. We live and learn.

How incredibly shelf-ish of you to just run around breaking other peoples caravans Mark...

......................................

 

[KFH]

Testing a panel that controlled a testing rig with 9inch pipes supplied by a 1,000 gallon water tank and and a large pump. A seal on one of the pipes failed and there was a 30ft fountain next to me. I pushed the emergency stop, big mistake as I cannot now turn off any of the valves electrically, but the fountain is now only 15ft from the gravity feed from the tank. I have to find the manual handle and go under the fountain to manually turn off the supply and outlet valves. There was no one around to laugh but they did afterwards when they saw me soaking wet.

 

[High Tower]

Being exceptionally lazy, quick remedial for a letting agent on the way home. Void property, hops up onto the bog to change shower pull cord caus too lazy to get steps. Go through toilet seat and get both feet stuck in the thunder box ! Lucky no one was around

 

[wade88]

Lucky it hadn't been in use previously with a gammy flush!

 

[timo1]

That reminds me of a non electrical cock up years ago. We had a coal fire where I grew up, I got in from work one day and I'm the first one home so I laid the fire and set it away. We'd had something delivered that day which had polystyrene packaging so because it was before the days of environmental friendliness the packing got thrown on too but it started to roll down towards the hearth so I picked it up to throw it further back. Big mistake, the stuff was already starting to melt and stuck to my hand. Now rather than just shake it off My bright idea was to pick it off with my other hand.
Both hands badly burnt and it cost me a few days off work

I can relate, I knocked an iron off the stand while ironing, as it fell to the floor I didnt think I just caught it....ouch.