BigB:
Couple of incidents, actually. Presence of mind is a slippery thing some days, I don't work around the big stuff alone anymore. I was staring into a 2,500 A 480 V CH switchboard with the outer cover removed. My hands were resting on a horizontal edge of the dead front with one piece of a cast copper bus tap (meanwhile the SWEPCO guy had left to get his hot stick and kill the transformer)and was just about to touch this 2 pound chunk of copper to the energized bus with both wrists on the grounded dead front...My journeyman saw what I was about to do, yelled "IT"S HOT!!" and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back from a scenario that I was 1/2 inch away from that would have really messed up my weekend.
The second incident involved installing an automatic capacitor bank on top of a switchboard. The only logical mounting location was above an 8,000 A terminal section, where this gob of cables came into the building from the transformer and fed both ways into 4,000 A Mains. What a mess of bus bars, lugs and cable. I had the top to the 2 piece front off and was working on a stepladder, securing the capacitor unit to the S/B structure, when I dropped a 5/8 x 3 bolt with a couple of washers on it, into the open section...yes, Virginia, your life does flash in front of your eyes as I awaited the fireball. The spaces between the phases were pretty narrow and all I can say to the incident was that Devine Intervention saved my scrawny behind from being toast. It seemed like minutes passed before the hardware clattered to the bottom on the enclosure. That was more than 10 years ago and the incidents provided the impetus for me to become a blacksmith. But the bidness of Blessing Wires pays better, so I am back at it. I B Lucky...
