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I've seen some of these monsters with 5 hp motors on them. Big industrial Baldors.

TW

I once heard a story where one guy took the cover off a panel and just put huge alligator clips on the buss bars with no OCPD and the thing was live mind you

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Saw that same thing done with the alligator clips attached at the top of the busbars just below the 200 amp main. The equipment groung was clipped to the nuetral lug. When I said something to him, he told me he has done it that way for 15 years and never had a problem and that his sander has built in overload protection. I offered to install a recptacle for him , but he said that it will do him no good at the next job.....I cringe when I have to go to a job when the foor guys are there.

Orbiter Sander's something different, IIRC it's a vibration sander. They typically draw less power than usual floor sanders. The one i used was a german-made standard belt floor sander with a 1800W/230V 1ph motor. While starting up the lights dimmed noticeably for more than 1 second! The sander was hooked up via standard Schuko plug.
Scary type of work around here is done by people who don't have receptacles around (outdoor work, work in appartment house basements with old wiring,...). What these guys most commonly do is cut off the plug of their extension cord, open the main fuse box in the stairway (ahead of the meters) and wrap a long stripped end of their conductors around the DIAZED fuse screwshells (somewhere in the Non-US-section there's a description of these fuses). This means that their stuff is on the load side of a 20 to 63A fuse. Ground is usually left dangling in mid-air. Most tools they use are double-insulated anyway. Looking at this, alligator clips can still be considered good workmanship.
Here I'm talking of all businesses. Masons, electricians (yeah, I saw several licensed sparkies using the wrap-method),...
Another guy hooked up his Hilti rotary drill hammer to the stoneaged light circuit in our basement (back then the wiring should have been fused 6A but was overfused with 10A). The guys repolishing the marble in our stairway clipped alligator clips to the line side fuse links. After my dad nearly got at their throat they plugged their stuff into one of our receptacles and left a 2000W electric heater running all night.
This was when I pulled the plug!

I was talking to a state inspector who told me that if he sees anyone tapping on to the busbar for power he will make the electrician change the whole panel. I myself have made a contractor change a panel because of paint on the busbar, this was at the painter expense. We warned the painter several times about getting paint on the panels.

I would have liked to see the painters face when given the news.

I imagine he offered to clean it with steelwool and lacquer thinner.