Did you ever have a job that was just going too well? I had that dream project yesterday and today until about 12:30. The project was to retrofit 28 recessed cans into an old house, the customer was a dream to work for and the pay was top dollar.

Yesterday went great, 21 cans no problems. Today one of my helpers stepped part way through the drywall ceiling, no problem the homeowner was having drywall patched and repainting anyway. Then it happened, I was on a ladder talking to a contractor on my cell and drilling with a 6' Diversabit. I wasn't paying attention and drilled through the 100 year old heart pine floor upstairs. OUCH! And it was me that did it, no yelling at a helper, just me. The customer was very nice about it, but I bet it'll cost me a fortune to repair. I guess I'll find out in the morniing when I meet a floor guy to get a quote.

This is going to push me to raise my prices about 10% to cover things like this. I went years without having any costly mistakes, but they've been occurring much more frequently lately. Most have been very minor ($10 or $20) and this was definately the worst, but I'm going to start a reserve fund. The bad thing, or good thing depending on your view, is that none of these mistakes will come anywhere near meeting the need for insurance to pay due to a $2500 deductable. But I hope I never need to use the insurance. Let my pain be a lesson to all to make sure you get paid enough to cover the mistake you never make.

throw the cell in the truck and strap a pager on. less distracting.

Thanks for the advice. I have had a few close calls. almost destroyed some old pine shelves today trying to get out a 35 year old panel in a beach house. It seems the salty air just swelled the wood real nice and snug. (not to mention it was framed with with 2x6's) I had to get the trusty sawzall and a demo-blade. well you know the rest My hand broke the impact from the locked up sawzall to the pine.
"oh , thats just factory smoke coming out of your new panel, it comes with all new electrical equipment "

EE,
does your contractors insurance cover such things?

Just two months ago I accidently knelt on a brand new $1200.00 cooktop which of course broke the glass top. This was for Mrs Painintheass. She was ok about it though. My insurance covered it only because it happened after it was installed and not during installation. I drove to another state and got a new one and also did a couple hundred dollars work for nothing. Regardless of the cooktop incident I would never work for her again. On the ladder+ talking on the cellphone + drilling with a six foot bit+ not paying attention = formula for disaster. Live and learn I guess. I hope you wouldn't ream your helpers for doing this as we all make errors in judgement.

[This message has been edited by Electricmanscott (edited 10-03-2002).]

I dropped an under-cab light (fluorescent) onto a range and chipped the enamel big time.

It cost me about $50 for the repair, and I didn't even break even before paying myself on the job. Out-of-State Retirees... (or "ferrin' old f@rts" in WV speak)...

I've also dented the top of a range once while retro-fitting a range hood (including venting through 6' of horizontal soffit without being "invasive") , but was never asked to repair or pay for it.

I'm in constant fear of damaging something at the Greenbrier Houses. Even a simple fingerprint will result in backcharge. I hate to see what would happen if I really messed something up! Simply dropping a screwdriver onto a porcelain sink while installing one of eight vanity sconces would off-set my entire net pay on the job!

Forget your mistakes, remember the lesson.

I drilled a 1" hole through my cousins roof one time. He was helping me (first mistake) and was positive that I wasnt going to go through the roof. I knew it was bad when I pulled the bit out and saw sunlight. He was cool with it though...

was installing a box on the underside of the front desk of a 5 star hotel. Of course the easiest place to mount was on the inside of the front. Talkin and mounting with you guessed it, screws too long. Brand new mahgony hand crafted from somewhere. Front had intricate designs. ohhhhh man. Still remember the feeling when my aprentice goes "man, the screws are coming through the front". At first I thought he was joking but then the look on his face said it all. Learned a valuable lesson, as should all, that making friends instead of enemies of the other contractors pays dividends. Finish carpenters pulled me out of that one.

I dropped a half-full roll of T&E (Romex) through the ceiling of the last big rewire I did (the Bacton House).

Fortunately, it was already rotten and due to be replaced anyway! Phew!

Last apartment complex I worked on (thankfully) before opening my company, we had a project leader in a hurry. Nothing went fast enough for him. He kicked my back hoe operator off the hoe because he was " digging fast enough" hops on to show him how the make that hoe move, then rammed the bucket thru about 8 ft of finished building wall and took out 3 windows.
Two days later, I was project manager. We had a $15,000 insurance claim. Also had to spend several days with insurance claims adjusters, auditors, lawyers and a very angry general contractor and royally p****ed owner.
Have never seen that former company ever do another apartment building.

While installing the thermostat for a heating installation in an grand old house, many years ago, I was drilling up from the basement with a hand brace into what I hoped was the wall stud space.
My helper was upstairs watching to make sure we did'nt damage the beautiful hardwood floor. I yelled "It should be through by now"
He answered " I can hear it, but I can't see it"
Then I saw different colored chips coming down the hole. I was drilling up into the bottom of a piano.
We never said a word to anyone. I guess they didn't move that piano for quite a while.

Another time, when I was a helper, I was watching the floor while my boss was drilling from below, and I felt a funny sensation in the bottom of my foot. The worm of the bit was into the sole of my shoe.

Ed

[This message has been edited by electric-ed (edited 10-03-2002).]

Drilled up through an oak floor once. No problem just moved a waste paper basket over the top of it. These days I would own up.

I'm glad to see it works the same way for the rest of you guys!

One time I was drilling through a wall in the kitchen to install a cut-in box and every time it seemed to run into something where I expected to be hollow space. Later I realized that I just messed up his pocket door. Owner was very nice thow, he refused my offer to cover the cost.

Quite some years back, working in a $$$ house...drilled down from the attic/crawl; drilled up from the basement. Found the snake, pulled in 2-12/3 RX. Terminated in panel, terminated load side in devices. Two days later, get a call from the owner, he wants to pay bill. Go to his house, wife comes in & trys to close the "pocket" door.
OOPS, I caught the damn thing dead center, top & bottom, and fished the RX right thru it. There was no visable damahe to the door, the track was OK, but I had to pull the RX out & start over again..
John

oh yeah one more... Just moved into our brand new house. decided to install under counter pucklights. was drilling small hole in wall to fish wire up to top of cabinets. noticed white pastic.uh oh hit the 2" drain from the upstairs bathroomcoming down the wall to the basement.

[This message has been edited by elektrikguy (edited 10-03-2002).]

I know this one is not electrical but my wife's cousin was installing one of those headliner mount rifle racks in his BRAND NEW Ford F-250 4x4 and he actually drilled four self tapping screws right thru the roof and didn't notice them sticking out till he was all done. He put clear silicone on them and left it that way.

Well, I'm glad to hear we're not the only ones that occasionally have a run of bad luck.

I met with the floor guy today, expecting an estimate of around $500. He looked at it and said he things he has some matching wood at his shop. I asked how much? He said "Buy me a beer". I told him he'll have to charge me more than that, but at least it's not going to eat all the profit.

Electricmanscott, I really wouldn't ream out a helper for making a mistake such as the one I made, in fact I've had helpers try to pay for mistakes they made, but I refuse telling them to just be more carefull and do'nt let it happen again. And that goes for me too.

[This message has been edited by Electric Eagle (edited 10-03-2002).]

I have done a few of these myself through the years.

One time I was doing a major remodel on an old house and went to hang the fluorescent strip lights on the kitchen ceiling. The old ceiling was lath and plaster so I used a couple of long wood screws to mount them with. I thought it worked pretty well until I had to move one fixture that didn't quite line up. I had sunk the screw right into the upstairs bathtub drain trap. The water went all over the new oak kitchen cabinets with the GC standing right in front of me.

Another time I was installing an outlet in a nursing home for a TV. This was an old building and the walls this time were lath and plaster. I laid out the opening for the box and cut the hole in the wall-right in front of the drain line for the bathroom sink. I thought well that isn't too bad, just move the hole and blank up the mistake. Second try was worse, I found the drain stack for the second floor hiding in the wall. I still needed to get the outlet in, so I moved the box again for try number three. This time I found a cold water line hiding there. Right about then my helper left the room because he was loosing it while I was left wondering if I had enough blank plates in the truck to cover all the damage. I got the box in with the next hole I cut. The maintenance guy was pretty cool about it all. He took part of the blame because he told me that he wanted the outlet "right there".

I try to check on both sides of a wall now before just cutting in to it.


[This message has been edited by fla sparkey (edited 10-03-2002).]

When I was in business, I drilled a hold from a basement to snake a wire into the first floor wall. I went outside instead! I saw daylight through my hole and knew I screwed up. Top it off, it was my brothers house. Then years later, I had 4 people working for me, I figured I would be smart this time, all of my people were lic. elec. contractors and 1 helper. Wouldn't you know that of my LIC.guys drilled a 4" hole through the roof on the first floor which happened to BE the floor of the second floor. Ruined the wood floor and the carpet on the floor too. So much for skilled labor.

ah....drillin' into the wild blue yonder!

I hit a plastic water service pipe when driving a ground rod. When the plumber had the water turned on a unplanned for fountain appeared. Painter got wet and had half of a wall washed off.
Case of bud and 2 hours digging, then back filling and moving ground rod, All of us were laughing about it.

Nesparky,

Have you ever worked with Overland construction of Omaha? If so, what was your experience?

GJ

I was adding a recep.and cable outlet on a wing wall(which was finished with 1/4" wood paneling) using a jigsaw to cut the box openings.The wall studs were turned on the flat side so I cut matching holes on the other side of wall Fortunately,the other side was drywall so I was able to have the holes patched.Had to use shallow boxes for outlets though

I was trenching for some pole lights when I heard a whistling sound like an air hose.
Trenched through a gas line. Fire dept came shut down a 4 lane road each way. Got a $1,500 fine for not calling for a mark out. The gas line was only 3" below the earth. Who woulda thunk it?

in my experience those cable guys do waaaay more damage with drills....

Golf Junkie
send me your email address please.
Yes i have done work with overland.

A customer just re-modeled his kitchen. Everything was imaculate. He wanted a recepticle inside of the cabinet over his range for a microwave. I thought I played it smart. I wanted to move the range out of the way so as not to damage it while working obove. While pulling it out I felt resistance half way. I looked to see if I caught the plug but it was loose. The I looked down and saw that the leg on the range had dug into his brand new flooring riping a 6" gap. Needless to say, it it was a freebie.
Mark

I can't work yet, but, once when I was helping my dad run a cable line along a black iron drain line, he was driling through the wall to the garage (the target room was right next to a bathroom and the pipes came in through the bedroom's closet), half way through drilling, his drill stops, then the upstairs toilet flushes, then, we realize that he drilled into the bathroom's drain line. Yuck! Thankfully, we had to leave the next day, next time we go though, there's a new piece of pipe welded in, and new furniture where the pipe went through the wall.
Ian A

My own "favourite mistake" was the time I had a service change one morning. I got there early, set up, and was all ready to cut the wires when the homeowner came out and askd "Who are you and what are you doing?" OOPS- I was off one street, in a place where two streets were only every so slightly different in name!
I packed up, with apologies, and got to the right place on time. Set up, was just about to cut the wires, and ....BANG...BANG, followed very quickly by a zip zip as the bullets went whizzing by.

That day was wasted, as police dealt with a barricaded gunman, and my truck was wrapped in crime scene tape. The gent had taken exception to a traffic stop, had raced home, and in the drama that followed, killed one of the cops- whose last words were "come on out- we only want to talk to you!"
By the way, this is the ONLY service change where it hasn't rained on me!

Remind me never to get near you guys, your all bad luck!!

D'oh! That's the second time I double posted! Gotta stop doin' that! Sorry for the double-posting.
Ian

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 06-13-2005).]

Hey Guys,

Don't feel bad. I was in business for 15 years with 4 trucks and several employees.

More than 1 drilled holes in floors and walls and through carpets.

1 formen ( Not his fault) blew up 4 TV's and a radio. (Open neutral on a multi branch circuit.)

1 foreman ( Lic. man and lic. inspector) drill a 4" hole through a floor and rug. The ceiling in the kitchen was actually the floor of the bedroom upstairs.

1 journeyman (also licesened) ( lucky I caught it before we energized it.) hooked up 120 control circuits to the 480 power line to some motors. This same man couldn't hook up a 3 phase reversing drum switch. ( He forgot to tell me that he was color blind!)

While working on a job as we were just done with the job and removing a large ladder, we knocked over a planter and shattered it. (We also got blamed for putting dents in the hard wood floor. It wasn't us though and the insurence didn't pay for it.)

Another time a man tripped over an 8 foot 2 bulb strip light fixture. It slid across the room and "Tapped" a lady in the ankle. We asked her if she was OK and she said YES! 5 Minutes later she said that her ankle swelled up and I had better give her the name of my insurence agent. Lucky for me the manager of the store saw her not a day later walking normal on the street and said to her, "Gee, I see the swelling in the ankle went down. That is good news. I can tell Harold that everything is OK." That one never went through either. The manager loved me and we took care of him on the next service call! Shall I go on?

It is just part of the job. Yet they wonder why it costs so much. Last thing and I will get off my soap box. I was working at a new car dealer. I was going to drop off my truck to him to get work done. The owner of the shop tells me, "Harold, take it easy on me and don't rip me off." I replied back to him, " Gee, I charge you $ 50 per hour for 1 man and you charge me $60 per hour for yours and I have to bring my shop to you!" (This was back several years)

Ahhhhhhhhh the drilling through wood floor trick
I used to carry wine corks in my truck
they blend in great the homeowner always has stain in the basement yuck yuck

Hmm. Trenched through a TV main last week.

Saw a guy drill through a hardwood floor from the basement up, that was cool.

The most memorable at the moment was the time that I happened to work on a job for a day, where a six-plex was under a tight deadline to get done, so the boss was throwing extra warm bodies at it.

Well, I happened to have the super's number on my Nextel, and the guy running the house (a guy named Scott was filling in) didn't. Scott asked me to call the super and ask a question about something, I got the answer I needed, and then the super said, "By the way, safety meeting is at 10am, you need to be there."

I knew that the super didn't mean me specifically, but I asked Scott if he wanted me to go, since it was my first day in this six-plex and perhaps his time would be less wasted than mine at a stupid safety meeting. He agreed, and so off I went.

Well, the safety meeting was 3.5 seconds of "framers, get off the roof when it's windy," and then the super went around the circle of trades, asking if we were going to be ready for inspection. When he got around to me, I just kinda nodded and shrugged. I hadn't heard anybody say there was no chance of being ready by the next day...

Oops.

Scott was not at all pleased with me when the inspector showed up the next day, and the super wasn't too tickled at his building being behind, unannounced, either.

Now days, if I'm a guest, I "have no idea."

2 (among many boners that I've pulled) that stand out in my memory:

I sent a couple of guys to "Make safe and demo" an office area in a 2 tenant warehouse building that was vacant. The new tenant would be getting some new offices.
The next morning the superintendent called me and asked what had happened. The guys hadn't done a thing.
I called our electrician, who told me that he'd completed the job and already dropped off the paperwork at the shop. Then I pulled the work order up on the computer.

-I had sent them to the wrong side of the building, and they'd demoed about 2500 sq ft of office that was to remain....oops

soon afterward

I ordered a 625' pull of 750kcmil aluminum, however I failed to write aluminum on the order. This happened about a month after I had told our inside salesman that he didn't need to ask if I wanted al or cu, "Just send copper unless I specify otherwise"
Fortunately, they took back the 4 reels of 750 copper, so it wasn't expensive.

But it sure was humbling.

When I started doing resi service work, A older gent once told me about doing work in attics, he said:

" you do this work long enough and sooner or later you will fall through a cieling"

And sure enough it happened, right into a master bedroom.

Anyone else have this unfortunate accident?


Dnk.......

ok here is a couple of `mistakes` that i personally have made during my varied carreer.

doing a remodel of a bar in the New Forest area of Hampshire, apprentice on the first floor looking for my soon to emerge drill bit, he says " i can here it mate but cant see it" so i move it over a bit, wind the bit through the ceiling, "still cant see it", so i move it again by another inch or two.

the next thing i here is a loud scream, and the plumber comes down the stairs with his hand on his rear,

i drill into the bathroom and not the stairwell straight into his rear end!!!!

(not a very happy man)

drilling into the corner of a wall in a basement, managed to hit a 2 inch water service, before the stop valve!!

lots of water and a lot of cleaning up!

knocked a whole box of 8 foot fluorescent tubes of a tower (i was up about 20 foot) onto a new cleaned wood floor, now that was a scary one.

fell through a ceiling in a shop remodel took out a load of troffers and best part of the ceiling, broke three ribs and knocked myself out, 2 days in the hospital and a $3000.000 bill at the end of it, Insurance covered it and i still work for the client to this day.

britspark

One of my worst mistakes happened on an extra I talked the customer into! Was doing a finished basement and talked the homeowner into installing a recess light above the fiberglass tub. While installing the can for the recess I dropped my kleins into the tub putting a nice chip in the finish. Cost me $125.00 to have a chip, smaller then a quarter, fixed. Trust me I don't go near those tubs with out putting drop clothes in them !

well if you guys want to really know , i've fallen threw 2 ceilings.one at my brother-n-laws.told my sis that i thought he was going to kill me for it. when he got home from work.i was hanging there from the rafters.my sister had to come get me down. shoot i was scared to deah. but he was cool about it, & said not to worry about it. the second was in an old house i was rewiring. asked the owner where i should step, he said there should be ok.it wasn't! we both got a good laugh out of it later, but right then i belive we both wanted to run & hide.

Electure,
You have nothing on me mate.
I may have told this story before too.
I was working with an Apprentice Line-Mechanic one day looking to remove a "Suspect Pole" from down by the Ocean-front.
Anyhow I seem to remember this because we were driving down the Main Road and my charge was waving at all the pretty girls, from the Pole Truck.
I was in radio communication with the Crew down the road for Isolation purposes, from the basket of the EWP.
We cut all the wires away on the 400/230V side of the pole and had the 11kV side left, when all of a sudden the pole gave way and turned itself upside-down.
It seemed to dance over the fence of the nearby property, it smashed the glasshouse and the adjoined Chicken coop an the end of the pole smashed the Conservertory(sp?), on the front of the house.
Chickens were running everywhere!.
I got into a great deal of trouble over that, but it's nothing like my mates with the Pole Truck in the middle of the river.
As those that frequent the Chat rooms will attest.
Believe me guys, if you make a mistake, you aren't alone, we've always done something worse!.

Eons ago, as a young draughtsman, I joined an elite team working for HM. I felt out of my depth, surrounded by all these highly qualified people. Across the office was an immaculatly turned out 'go-getter', always seemed to be sneering at me, neatly groomed hair, too many teeth, confident, crisp shining white draffy's coat, ( why did mine always have ink and tea stains all over it? ), new Morris 1000 car, a right Mr. R. Slicker. Peeping up from my tiny drawing of a small bolt, I saw that he had a huge full-size model of the tail-section of a 'thing' on his desk, cast in amber epoxy resin, which he was self-importantly measuring with great bravura. This was to be painted in 'crackle paint', covered in strain-gauges and put in a press to get stress levels on the surfaces. Suddenly there was an almighty crash, and the $100,000 casting was 'flying'- but all over the office floor in bits! You could have heard a pin drop. And, Oh Joy! he'd taken the model out of the Chief Engineer's office without permission! Suddenly the Chief walked into the D.O. Told of the accident, he just shrugged and said "We'll have to make another one." $100,000, and not an eyelid was batted!- It was the Cold War, and budgets were infinite. At that time, I took home the equivalent of just $120.00 a month, with a wife and new baby at home.
Alan

There was that, but also most managers at such companies realize that such was an accident, and not an act of vandalism. Not like in high school chem lab, where a kid that accidently breaks a beaker gets reamed out over it. A good company knows that its people are more valuable than any specific piece of hardware.

Guilty as charged. Not only have I fallen through a sheetrock ceiling from working in the attic above, I actually did it twice! Fortuneatly, it was not on the same job.

I'm also guilty of drilling through a "new" hardwood floor one time while drilling holes for some hi-hats I was installing. I never told anyone that I did it, but the homeowner did find it a few weeks later. I denied doing it, but felt bad later on having to lie about it.

As a young journeyman I hooked a 480 to 120 volt transformer up backwards (trying to get coil voltage for a starter to pull in an industrial saw). Turned on the breaker and heard a loud humming sound from the Xformer for about3-4 seconds and then BLAM, sounded like someone touched off a hunting rifle. The nearly 2000 volts we created was too much for the xforemer to handle even just sitting there, glad we didn't push the START button, would have blown the starter off the face of the earth.

A smokey, smelly valuable(expensive that is) lesson!

First one isn't technically a mistake, but the outcome was...as a very young lad in rural Ohio, my best friend decided to try out his new rifle by shooting at those funny-looking cans on the poles...two shots and we were "rewarded" with the most evil sound heard by a kid and a nice bright explosion!! His father was "rewarded" by the local POCO with a repair bill of around $6,000 (This was around 1970)!! My friend was rewarded with a sore bottom that lasted for a week. I got heck too since my dad figured that since I knew about electricity I should have stopped my friend.

Mistakes on my part:

Damaged the busbars on my parent's Zinsco panel trying to seat the double pole breaker for the garage subpanel I installed. Put my best screwdriver on the terminal and smacked it with my hand, broke right through the side of the breaker. End result: Damaged breaker, vaporized screwdriver, one scared old man.

Miswired an old, obsolete cinema projector console, causing total meltdown of the factory wiring. Rewired it my way and no problems!! (The maker of that console was known for serious quslity problems anyway.)

Working for a local electrician, had a meter socket (resi) fail when pulling the meter for a service change. The blast blew the meter out of my hands and across the lawn. I was VERY lucky as I was NOT wearing any PPE (the sunglasses I had on don't count.) Since then, I have always worn at a minimum rated gloves and faceshield and non-synthetic shirts. I would also cut the drop whenever possible before pulling meters.

Dollar wise the most expensive for me was knocking a coated glass reflector for a xenon lamphouse off the shelf while holding the bulb for same. Mirror $850.00 Bulb $1,250 Embarrasment on dropping both, priceless!!

A collegue recently dropped a $45,000 video projector while struggling to attach it to a lift. Ouch.

Always be careful at "assuming" where the ceiling joist are in the attic. I was rewiring a paritally "demoed" house. Went up in the attic to pull some wires. It had insulation laying in between the joist. As I was on my hands and knees, I was moving pretty good until I put my hand where I thought there was a joist, because of the edge of insulation was there. Wrong. My hand went through the ceiling, and of course I was on my way down. Fortunetly? My jaw caught on the joist and saved me from going on through. Ouch! No real damage to the house since it was being remoldeld anyway, but shook me up a bit. Steve

Oh an interesting line here - mistakes ? can tell you a few ones that would well make yer eyes water.

When doing my time I helped out with a rewire at a factory - putting in a new distboard and connecting up some plant. Anyways usual saturday afternoon blast get it done and then out for the evening - only this time it was a blast literally. One of the guys doing it dropped an adjustable spanner unlucky for him if fell onto the busbars took out two phases. Now I jumped as the bang was like nothing I had heard before. Young sparkie not a lot of experiance. Anyways it took out the main fuses on two phases. What happened next ? Yep the back up generator started - mains fail detected and the genny breaker closed - spanner was well and truly wasted - The second bang wasnt as loud but well we all raced to try and shut the diesel down.... Dont think anyone would have heard it woith all the panting that was goin on.

I heard about a maintenance crew working on a genset someplace near vancouver - had just drained down the oil and were out getting a cup of coffee when they had a mains fail - that old engine started and run for a few minutes before it siezed up..... That must have been an expensive fix. Try explaining that one to your boss....

Oh and a could it get any worse story, A trucker out on I 40 gets a slow puncture - tyre heats up and starts to smoke. Pulls over in the rain parks under a bridge for shelter. Tries to call on the mobile to let boss know tyre is kaput and needs tyre repair cant get signal under bridge walks up shoulder to get signal on phone calls boss and tells him, during concersation turns to look at truck and sees tyre on fire - hes loaded up with HAZMAT so he aint going back for the fire extinguisher - starts to run back up the road to stop traffic, wet road gut running about waving arms ? Yep tailenders all over. Meanwhile truck has burst into flames and then the bridge collapses with the heat.

Id be suprised if he still had a job after all of this....

Rugged

Reposted

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 08-18-2006).]

bump

My most costly mistake... a few years ago, I did some technical drawings installing a lot of fiber optic cable. I used our standard cable length estimation technique as usual, but neglected to consider the condition of the cableways or the propensity of this particular installation team to waste vast quantities of trunk for no apparent reason despite clear knowledge of how short they were. To make matters worse, this was all specialty long-lead-time stuff that we ended up having to haggle and buy from a partner/competitor who did NOT want to sell it to us. Ended up with a shortfall of about $1 million worth of fiber optic work until it was all said and done. It's amazing- hundreds of sheets of meticulously accurate drawings, but make one tiny $1 million error on the material list and catch nothing but hell for it! Took me a long time to live down that one! Luckily for me it was a high dollar job, and there was some griping but it paled in comparison to some OTHER problems on that job, so I never really caught much back from it except from the other engineers

Also, on the same job, I made a copy/paste error and was 1 number off on the part# on material list- accidentally ordered 6,000 of the wrong part. Was supposed to be $5 end caps, but accidentally put the number for tee couplings, which ran about $50 apiece. oops! We were able to fix that one though, heh.

Not an electrical error, but one time in the Air Force, I ordered a part for the 30mm gun on the A-10 aircraft. The part was valued at about $40,000.

A few days later I was called on the carpet by the Bird Colonel of Supply who wanted to know why I was ordering an entire gun system, valued at around $1.6 million, for a plane that already had a gun!!

After a lot of yelling and screaming involving my chief, my squadron commander, and the 2-star General Numbered Air Force commander (who BTW was a great guy and big movie buff; I became one of his favs for how well I ran the show at the base theatre) it was determined that the part number I had requested was off by one digit.

Why? The card file of part numbers, prepared by the Supply boss' own staff, was wrong!!

The ultimate outcome was a day off work for me, a Supply Colonel who was almost shipped off to a far away resort, and endless hours for him and his staff to go over every single card file on the base!!

Oh, yeah, and the best perk of all was a free steak and lobster dinner for two at the Officer's club, drinks included. When I got the call from the boss of the Officer's Mess, I reminded him I was an enlisted man, he said don't worry. I asked why, he said he wasn't allowed to say.

The mystery was solved a week later, when the General saw me on the flightline and asked if I had enjoyed the dinner. I told him yes, he said next time I see the Supply Colonel to thank him!!

Yep, part of the Supply Colonel's fine was the dinner for chewing me out for no reason.

I was very lucky to have great commanders during my time in the military.

Made lots of mistakes, not to many costly ones. Been thru 2 ceilings and pulled one suspended ceiling down on myself when i came off a 7 step ladder, office was full of lovely ladies all very concerned for my welfare, I was embarrassed to the max
.

OA

OK here's one more from me. My dad and I were installing an outlet in a wall for a new window A/C. We got the hole cut in the panelling, and since we dont have a drill bit long enough to reach the bottom plate, we used a huge manual drill. Well, it went through WAY too easy. Needless to say, there's now a caulk spot in our aluminum siding. We decided to drill up from the crawlspace instead.

Ian A.

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 08-19-2006).]

One thing that springs to mind here.
When I was an Apprentice Electrician, I was asked to measure the run from the pole, down a long driveway, under a cattle-stop and across the driveway.
This was "on the way past" on the way to another job.
All well and good, I aced that one, or so I thought.
I'd left out the length that ran up the pole.
It was 18ft too short and with a cut-to-length service from the suppliers 100km away.......
Boy did I get a roasting about that.

I've been pretty careful myself.Never been thru an attic yet.I have reeked havoc on a microwave and a copier with the bastard leg.That's about it though.

[This message has been edited by electure (edited 08-23-2006).]

I am not sure if I want my name on this one, but a few years back I was caught up on my own work and so I was helping out a Dam (Civil) Engineer on one of his projects installing a cap on an old timber dam. He mentioned it was like putting a gold cap on a rotting tooth. Well, my name ended up on 4 of the 6 drawings (for drafting) on a dam that catastrophically failed. Only a few million dollars involved. I am glad I was not any closer to that project.