ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Apprentice Bloopers

As a third year Industrial Apprentice back in 1989, my company had just spent $7500 on a telescoping lift, for changing high bay lights mostly. We’ll I had just finished changing a light and had descended, it was close to break time and I was ready to finish up (read as rushing). Pushing the lift back to where we stored it, it suddenly made a loud bang and I looked up in time to see the top going back the way I had just came, and then like a boxer KO the whole thing crashed to the floor. Luckily nobody was behind me to get hurt. That was when I remembered the lift only had 2” of clearance under an I-Beam, in my haste I guess I didn’t get it all the way down. Thought for sure I was fired, but company claimed on the insurance, but the unit could not be repaired and they had to get another new one.

I just remembered a classic. We had a young kid working with us. He was just out of college
and loved to go out and drink up a storm, even on weeknights. One day he showed up to work
looking a little disheveled. It was quite funny when the boss looked him up and down.
Then he started laughing. He said "you have two different kinds of shoes on". One of his shoes
was a dress shoe and the other was a work boot. He got sent home to change his shoes.


Many years ago I was wiring a house with a subfloor. I asked my helper Bill to go under the house and start
pulling wires from hole to hole. He went out to the truck but was unable to find a flashlight.
He then said it wasn't a problem, he would go under without a flashlight. There were vents
every so often that provided a little light. The house also had some partitions in the foundation
so he had to navigate through the crawlspaces to get where I was drilling. I was feeling like a
prankster that day so when he finally got there I asked another worker in a really loud voice
"Hey!! did you guys find any more snakes under the house?!!!". This was followed by a loud scream
and the sound of Bill cussing and making his way to the exit in just a few seconds.
Now, I look back and I'm glad he didn't get
hurt as fast as he exited the place. The memory is priceless.

We sent the 'kid' back to the supply house (3 times) for 277V lamps (4' Tubes).(SH 2 min. away literally, 1989 times were good)
3rd return....... drove into the parking garage...ladder racks and all......Very ugly results.

It was a 'learning' moment. Nice guy, is still having a great career. Just a brain fart.

1 hour later...we all laughed. very hard!!!!


Same day: same 'Kid': whent home (30 miles north) with the foremans keys! (van of incident).

Now that was FUNNY!!!!!! Called home and he had to come back.

Sometime during what must have been my first month or so I was sent under the house to catch some cables, run them back to another up hole and staple them off.

The crawl was roomy near the access but tapered off to about 18" or less at the far end and the ground was rocky.

I put some staples in my back pocket and grabbed a hammer and flashlight and started crawling. After running the wire back I started stapling my way back to the tight end. As it got tighter I decided to put a few staples in my mouth to save the trouble of reaching into my back pocket in the cramped conditions.

At the tightest spot I still had a staple in my mouth as I was laying on my back starting a staple with the hammer. A piece of insulation fell into my face and i flinched, causing me to get the staple half stuck in my throat.
I turned on my side and tried to dislodge it but it wouldn't come out. I had no choice but to commit and swallow it.

Back outside I told the boss what had happened and we wondered whether I should go to the hospital or not. I decided that they couldn't do anything but let nature take its course and that is just what it did.

It took many months to live it down and the staple is currently hanging on a push pin in the wall above my desk.

This is not electrical but it was today. My wife was having the boys painting stripes in the road with that $40 a gallon striping paint. They had cones and barricades but they were in a hurry hopscotching them down the road. One of the guys decided a full 5 gallon bucket was a good as a cone the next time they moved. You guessed it. some woman, probably talking on the phone mowed down 4 cones and the 5 gallon paint bucket.
They were still cleaning up the mess when she got home.