ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Still looking for a record

wanna borrow my hammer.

The saddle type connectors are made by Arlington. This particular model snaps into the knockout, rather than having a locknut.

Scott35, This isn't Bell, but is up in the SF Valley (where we had a giant earthquake).

The saddest part of this (to me) is that there were only 2 boxes and 6 light fixtures in the whole of this installation, and the guy missed this. The little Black Box in the upper right KO is a lighting relay pack.

Scott 35, I've never worked in Bell yet, but...
The socialist republic of Lomita has an inspector that wouldn't bat an eye to this!
I did a rewire of a private school there & I almost busted out laughing in front of him...
We called for rough wall inspection, He shows up & the first thing he asks me is "What's that putty on your boxes?" I explained that it was a "FIRE PAD" & it was there because of the rated corridor. His reply "Oh." moving right along he stops & looks puzzled at a lighting whip coming from the ceiling... "Why is your flex so small?" he quieried... "It's MC Cable... It comes with the wire already in it" I reply... "Hmmmm, Sounds expensive!" he says... (I'm starting to loose it at this point)But I tell him that it saves on labor... finally we get to the back & he fingers around in one of the switch boxes & asks "Where's your ground?".. I pull the green pigtail out & he then takes me over the top.... "Oh yeah, it's the green one!".... The superintendant & I look at each other & almost lost it completely!!! I can't fathom how a person so lacking of even the BASIC knowledge of our trade could become an official! Later on I called him to look at the switchgear & he asks me what he's looking for it it!!!!! Looking back at this, I'm not sure if to laugh or cry!!!

Lostazhell;

LOL at the "socialist republic of Lomita" terminology!


Scary story regarding that certain Inspector. Must make all the rest of the Inspectors a little mad, huh?

Scott35

BTW, Welcome to ECN!
What part of So. Cal. are 'ya from?
I am in Orange County - near Disneyland.

Scott35

Thanks for the welcome Scott =)
I'm about 15-20 mins from you in Huntington Beach (Land of the Stainless Steel Ground Rods!) Back to that inspector... I found out later that he was a combo inspector for plumbing also.... Funny though, the plumbers told me he was clueless in that trade as well! I wonder if he just happened to be related to one of the uppity ups in the city?
My opinion is he was just a drywaller that took a mail order course for inspector.

Randy

Stainless steel ground rods????

Swedejr- Yeah, Huntington Beach, CA requires stainless steel ground rods if you do a service changeout here... Something to do with the salinity of the soil.. I guess it decomposes the copper rods or something... but its funny that this is the only Orange county city that does require them Joe has an unfair advantage with these pics, being from Mass... The older buildings have had more chances for hatracks to screw em up!... On that box, at least the wires seem to actually have enough length to make it OUT of the box... A few of em might even hit that golden 6 inches... (This is all looking at the glass ½ full though..).. If all the grounded phase conductors were stuffed together in one blue wirenut I'd swear I saw that same box in a 24 hour Fitness remodel..

Are those 2- 3/4 emt's coming in from the top???

Huntington Beach has some very smart ideas.
There's a requirement that any metallic conduit installed outside be painted with a marine grade paint (after all, they were the original Surf City [salt water]).
There's also the Noodle/Ground test. You will pull the Neuts from the bar on a resi, or pull that "crazy" neutral link that never get used from a comm/ind service.
You'll test each one to ground in front of the inspector.
You're not gonna get any kind of rough unless all your grounds are terminated, that means no "conduit inspections" in your walls.

I just wish half of the towns around here had half the smarts of HB, we'd be 4 times ahead...S

Scott... From what I've heard from some other electricians that have done some work recently here, EMT wasn't being allowed outdoors anymore... PVC, IMC or RMC were the allowables. I think I remember one of our guys being required to use schedule 40 for a rooftop run for a new a/c condensor on a tilt up... I've never had the noodle ground test done for an inspection in HB yet, but they were very thorough when they checked everything..