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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
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Electure,
Not just electricians get this! On vacation with Mrs B. in Cognac recently, I had the camera confiscated after she viewed all the day's pics. at the Hotel and found them all to be of crap French wiring! Got round her with a morning of clothes shopping- works every time, especially if I want a new tool! [Linked Image]


Alan


Wood work but can't!
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 328
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A couple weekends ago we shopped for a new bed set and I mentioned to the shopkeeper that he should consider getting some of the outlet inserts that would prevent a young child from sticking something into the exposed outlets. All the outlets were at toddler level and in between the beds in a store where parents would likely be very distracted.

Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,876
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e57 Offline
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Like ten years ago, I was driving around in the service truck after a late night call, and noticed crowded bar getting out, some guy locking the door, figured I missed my drink... I looked up at the sign and the neon was arching out on the wall, and smoldering up on the roof. I stopped, had to beat on the door to get the bartenders attention. We couldn't find the circuit for the timers, So I popped a few boxes open and cut it. Had my drink while we waited for the fire dept to show. Left my card... Next day the boss says somebody dropped this off for you... A laminated "you drink here free card." Didn't use it as much as I should or could have, but nice to be appreciated. He also became a regular customer.

Another for that list...
Moved to Seattle with a girl-friend, bad mistake and long story that I won't bother with... She threw me out... I had no money, no place to stay, and it's raining. As I'm walking down the street, I see the 65 year old man working in his main panel, in the RAIN, then he shocks himself, and gets thrown back. I run up to see if he's OK, and he says, "I'm in way over my head, I don't know what I was thinking, I should have called an electrician." - "Wow, funny you should say that..." He let me live in the basement we remodeled together (Rough and Final), got three squares a day, and bus fare home to SF when I was done. Cheapest work I have ever done was paid in gold like that.


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 693
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"I put a cover back on a hand hole on a 480 v parking lot light one time on my own time...the screws were laying in the cover."

"...a control box dangling off the wall... I stopped and put in the proper size screws and mounted it back to the wall."

"The electricians forgot to nail up a box, so I snatch a hammer out of a toolbox, pound the nails into the stud, and walk away."


I can see it now... Two guys coming back from lunch, ready to continue work, when:

"Um, Sam, didn't we leave that open/off/hanging when we left???"


Larry Fine
Fine Electric Co.
fineelectricco.com
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 693
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Quote
"I looked up at the sign and the neon was arching out on the wall, and smoldering up on the roof."

Last year, while driving home just after sundown, I happened to notice a pole-mounted capacitor bank with one of the cut-outs arcing and spitting sparks. Since it was less than 100 feet from a fire station, I went in and suggested calling the POCO.

It felt good, but didn't get any drinks!


Quote
"I should have called an electrician." - "Wow, funny you should say that..."

I'm often in the local orange or blue store and sometimes I observe a customer with that "what-the-hell-am-I-looking-for?" look on their face, and ask if they can use some electrician's advice.

Inevitably, they ask, "Oh, are you an electrician?", at which point I just have to respond, "No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night!"

I often end up getting a job out of it.

Sometime back, I saved a guy from burning down his friend's house. He was installing a range circuit, and buying the proper 50-amp breaker and receptacle. However, he was about to buy a roll of 12/2 NM, because "the bigger wire is too expensive." Yikes!


Larry Fine
Fine Electric Co.
fineelectricco.com
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,143
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Quote
I'm often in the local orange or blue store and sometimes I observe a customer with that "what-the-hell-am-I-looking-for?" look on their face, and ask if they can use some electrician's advice.

I often wear "safety orange" while working - a habit I picked up at a former shop - and I usually get "Excuse me, do you work here?". Unfortunately, it's usually while walking through the plumbing section. [Linked Image]

I also find myself having to bit my tongue when I see folks buying Romex for a bit of DIY work... since NM is verboten in our town.

Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 337
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I probably create a bad name for myself. As I am responsible for the electrical systems on several sites, as I walk through sites and find extension cords in poor repair (ussually the ground prong broken off), I cut off the offending end and throw the cord away.

I can hear the cussing behind me when someone goes searching for the cord later. Maybe I am letting my position go to my head and I like the taste of totally dissemating someone elses budget (they have to by a new extension cord), but I leave the site feeling that I may have done some good.

As I think of it now, I need to make it a practice now to leave a note behind explaining what happened to the cord so someone does not get questioned for theft even though I have someone with me who witnesses my act of vandalism(?).

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 12
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In a garden center I pulled two peices of EMT back together where one had pulled out of the coupler and tightened the screws on the coupler. Unfortunatly there were far worse things in there that I did not dare to touch...

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