ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Shutting off the electrician

Hi Guys:
I've never admitted this "illness" to anyone until now. When I was just a little kid, I was drawn by the magic contained in electric breaker boxes, panels, safety switches, etc. in a great many places - my school, stores, other people's homes and garages in the neighborhood, my church, etc. Pretty daring stuff...sometimes I got caught, usually not. I don't have the nerve to do that any more, so I do my oogling from a distance, and add to my own personal collection of vintage equipment, thanks to friends and eBay.

Is there one of us who has passed by a door labelled "High Voltage" (sometimes even calling out to you, beckoning to you with that characteristic Hummmmm from within) without trying the doorknob...?

There are lots of bad vices in the world today, so I guess this one isn't particularly bad after all... A psychiatrist might offer group rates to "cure" us of these maladies. The problem lies in finding one who makes his office in a building having no electrical installation whatsoever!

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-12-2003).]

Hmmm, now you've got me thinking that my investment plans for a patch of wilderness in high country might have some marketable value: retreats in non-wired surroundings for the electrically-minded addict. Betcha I could set up a week-long fishing, hiking, hunting kind of detachment therapy session in a setting that is reminscent of a pre-Edison era and give your humming minds and clicking cameras something else to concentrate on. I'll have to check the listings on real estate this afternoon......

Bren:
Sounds wonderful...I can almost hear the quiet now.

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-12-2003).]

You're fried, Bren.

With this group, it would be "See that tree, I once saw an idiot........"

Look at that cloud, reminds me of an underground splice one time.....

Squirrels, you know, they chew insulation......

I keep tellin ya, THERE IS NO CURE.

I'm afraid George is right.
I took pictures of the electrical system of the boat I was on the last time I went fishing. ...S

Wow, I just rented my first boat this past July and what did I do?

I opened every hatch and seat cover checking out the wiring.

I just had to know where the FM radio antenna was run to, as I was getting great reception.

I could not do more than a day or two without electricity, camping to me is a condo/hotel in the woods.

Bob

Plan B: buy an existing retreat (where I spent all my childhood summers when my mom was camp cook using two massive wood stoves & where Jack Dempsey trained eons ago) and invite all sparky-types to bring their tools, code books & manuals, cameras and anything else they might use to overhaul the inept, erroneous or aging electrical system and do it right with copious amounts of campfire time for discussion included. All boats are either belly-boats or row boats so no wiring there. Even the camp signal system is non-wired...an old train bell with a rope pull.

Go ahead, throw me in that briar patch!!

Thoroughly genius, Bren!

In my leap back toward historic times I thought about 'the cure' of this condition and concluded that it would only be erradicated if all work was done to code, meticulously performed in logical sequence and spaces with ample room, lighting and a thought to future needs, etc. It made me think of the Enterprise and its successors... you know, Cap'n Kirk's ship on Star Trek and on to Jean Luc Picard, et al. Isn't all of that about the future of a superior class of folk that never would try to pass of slipshod work? I imagine though that if you went looking, you'd find some southern engineering there, too.

What I've noticed about handiwork, whether a genteel craft like cross-stitch or in a telco closet serving several floors with 1A2 key or more advanced technology like ISDN, DSL and the like, that the design and its finished product bear the mark of the person who's hands performed the the work and some are unmistakably loaded with character (if nothing else). Though the safety factors shouldn't be neglected, it would be dull without having those elements of indivduality.

Ya know, I've got a 12V solenoid, we could put it on that bell, attach it to a car battery, Joe could get a pic, and...........

DON'T forget Bren, I'm not only a Sparky, but also a Ham. Trees, God gave us those for someplace to hang an antenna.