ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area anyone ever done this(or how many times)

Whoa!

Just today I was making up a panel (no fish tape invovled) and the bare EGC on the Romex I was feeding in touched the main bus and kapow! It sounded like a 30.06! My helper, Jimmy, came running down the stairs with eyes wide and wild, and said he saw the arc flash upstairs! He said he knew I was alright because he could hear me cursing... Man, and I've intended to start watching my language more!

The GE bus has flanges that prevent a 240V short, so it was only at 120V, the resulting shockwave was enough to whip the EGC into my shirt (it actually stung a little) and it sounded like a breaker tripped right after the initial blast, but none had. I guess the EGC had whipped around enough to bang against something.

Didn't get burned or shocked, surprisingly since I had hold of the entire cable with both hands at the time. Not real sure where it had grounded itself. By the sound of it, I may have gotten into both poles (across 240V), but I couldn't find any evidence of it.

With Jimmy wild eyed, I took the opportunity to say:

1) It only takes one mistake and
2) We're dealing with some pretty serious power even at 120V.

I think it got his attention.

Glad you didn't get hurt, 66! Probably a good warning for Jimmy though. Maybe we should get the address for your insurance agent?

All strong cases for a fiberglass fish.

I must admit that I too have shortened up a steel fishtape.

GJ

[This message has been edited by golf junkie (edited 12-06-2002).]

66,
Quote
He said he knew I was alright because he could hear me cursing...
LOL
Scott

Virgil,
a few expletive deletives while blowing yourself up should'nt be a prob

<warning-do not try this at home>

slight variation on the fishtape story, but end result is the same.

The boss and myself are pulling new runs of THHN in through a 2" EMT that was jam packed with old TW. We shut down as many of the old circuits as possible but some had to be left on.
So we pulled very carefully and wore gloves. The pulling went fine with not much resistance, until the THHN was almost into the gutter, when suddenly, I heard BAM! and saw a flash from several rooms away!
Sure enough, on the final tug, the boss pulled too hard and jammed one of the TW's into the sharp bushing-less connector,
causing a nice explosion.
The day was pretty much crap from then on.


[This message has been edited by CTwireman (edited 12-06-2002).]

66wv mentioned "It sounded like a 30.06"

That reminded me of the time, back in the fifties, my helper and I were finishing up a rewire job in an old house that originally had a 110 volt, 2-wire service. All the old K&T was the same dirty color, you couldn't tell white from black.

While I connected the GEC to the water main, my helper was installing jumpers from the old "service" (just a porcelain fuse block) to temporarily feed the new service.

Down in the semi-dark basement, I cleaned the water pipe, bolted on the ground clamp, stripped the end of the GEC, and, straining to see in the dark, inserted the end of the wire into the clamp.

KA-BOOM and a blinding flash.

My helper had gotten the hot and neutral mixed up.

Ed

How many times ? just once!!!!!!

In a rendering plant (very noisy) many years ago. I was the helper with my hand over the end of the pipe while my boss pushed the fishtape in (on scaffold in another room).We had worked together a few years so we had a system for doing this or so I thought. It hit my hand pretty hard and he stopped pushing and I waited for awhile and then was just taking my hand away when I heard it going again. The resulting flash and BOOM had to be heard to be believed. Then things got real quiet as the 800amp 480 volt breaker tripped feeding this panel. I had a new appreciation for electricity and after some personal cleanup:> ) was ready to go again.

still seeing stars,

Glenn

I haven't had the experience of doing this
[reserve my SCA tests for other areas ],
But have seen others do it a few times! Seen it first hand [as others were pulling into hot panel] and seen the result [as being called in to fix resulting problems or find out whaddaheckhappened!!!].

I've been very fortunate so far and haven't had this problem occur when pulling into hot panels [I am the guy at the panel! Will not put someone else in a potential hazard situation].

To minimize risks, I made some custom shield covers.

Need to create more pulling / cover items for panels. If I only had access to a CNC Machine, these could be precision items!!!

Another "Virtual Reality" item on my PC[s]!
VR being "AutoCAD Reality"

Scott s.e.t.