ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Confessionals...

Years ago, I was working on some fluorescent lights in a kitchen - if I remember correctly, it was a bank of about 8 4-foot tubes (4 ballasts). I had removed the wires and later on wanted to check the circuit hot. I touched the wires together, forgetting about the load attached - got a spark that was enough for a couple of pieces of molten copper to drop to the floor, leaving some burn marks on brand new linoleum. Ended up deducting almost the cost of the job off my invoice.

Another time I had stepped in some roofing tar, and one of the very few times I decided not to remove my boots, managed to track it onto a customer's brand new off-white carpeting. Spent a few hours scrambling to remove the tar with a rag and paint thinner, strand by strand, before the customer came home from work. I must have done a good job though, as the customer never did complain about it - mind you the customer has never called me back again for more work either!

Probably not enough room here to list even the greatest portion of mine over the years but some highlights,

damaged undergroung TV and telephone lines,
patched up and buried. several incidents

computer rooms unplanned shutdowns. OOPS!

holes where there should not be holes. white toothpaste will work for wall repairs

smoke let out of just about anything electric. ashamed to say

I agree some penance is in order but isn't that big book reading a little severe?
KB

... Jeez,..where do I begin??
1. Spilled white paint all over shrubs and side of house beneath a service entrance pipe I had to paint while in the act of trying to free a ladybug that'd gotten stuck to the wet paint.
2. Whilst pulling wire thru a basement ceiling,broke a water pipe connection(it was already very corroded)and flooded the basement..water was coming out of the high-hat holes.
3. Whilst trying to drill up from the basement into the hallway wall for a receptacle,I mis-drilled and came up 3" shy of the wall in the hardwood hallway floor,..with a 7/8" auger bit.
4. Whilst wiring a single phase disconnect switch that someone else had already started but left and hadn't tagged the wires(supply and load came thru the same nipple,all black THHN)I inadvertently wired phase A to line,and phase B to load on the same side of the 2-pole switch..Main on...check,...Disconnect switch to on...che-- BOOM!!
5. My helper smashed an arm off of a Waterford crystal chandelier,(the fixture was still on the floor in it's crate)when he was attempting to remove the fan brace box from it's packaging,and the 4" round box comes tumbling out,and in slow motion I am on the 6' ladder screaming "Noooooo" and there must have been a tear in the space time continuum at that moment,because my voice seemed to sound slowed down,and remember falling thru the air as I lunged for the falling metal projectile..I didn't catch it,and he stood there in his own urine,because he'd literally soiled himself..I got up off the floor,and he thought I was gonna yell,..I didn't but I had to explain to the H.O. about the broken fixture and the wet spot on the rug... True story..
Russ

The helper had an accident huh ??
From that day on I would have him wearing a pair of adult diapers so as to avoid that mess happening again.

KB, you do the crime, you do the time.... Right?

Anyway, all, I am very impressed, many would not owe up to lesser of some of these. But it goes to show, we're all human. Dumb things happen all the time, sometimes we are inflictor of that dumb thing.

Not exactly what you guys do but when I was in the computer biz I was hooking up a string of 3420 tape drives. Not important what is in them but they are served with a proprietary AMP connector, 3 phase w/ground square deal, on a 14 guage cord. Female plug into a male on the drive.
It turns out over the 20 years these drives were in the field and all the no name knockoffs we had, supplying cables, you COULD miskey the plug. It also turns out the first disconnect in the 3803 serving the cable is 100a. (U/L stands by the listing)

Well the last words I said were "fire in the hole" as I plugged it in.

I am not sure exactly what the chain of events was but I did seem to have a bolted fault that was not being cleared by the branch circuit O/C device.

The plug was bouncing around on the floor shooting flaming copper balls. The UPS alert was going, the CPU alarm on two 3090 processors was going, smoke alarms above and under floor going, then the Halon claxon started that "baaap ... baaap" thing. I picked up the cable by the sheath and beat the fire out but I had a heluva time getting the little blonde computer room manager to go abort the Halon. She was just frozen with eyes the size of a white hat
Finally after I just screamed "You got Halon? ... You are fixin to see it!"
an operator broke the glass and flipped the switch.

Definately will get your heart rate up.


[This message has been edited by gfretwell (edited 08-18-2005).]

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it might be about confessionals in Catholic churches. These used to be closet sized booths that had sliding partitions between the sinner and the priest. Questions on how to install lights, outlets, etc. What section of the code addresses confessionals...

"Father forgive me, for I have singed."

"Father forgive me, for I have singed."

"Say 10 hail Murrays and singe no more."

On the oops parade for me:

Miswired a motor for a film projector once. It ran ok on test, a little noisy which I had dismissed as used motor, old age. Got to change it again when it burned up a day later.

One horrid make of projector console, totally fried wiring when I cross phased the power to the lamp rectifier. Ouch.

And when working for EC here in So Cal., lifted a shared neutral and fried a microwave and the electronic controls on a very expensive refrigerator. Double ouch.

And way back, fried my best screwdriver and burned buss in my parents Zinsco panel trying to seat a 2p 40amp breaker. My dad was sure I'd bought the farm! (I was 16 at the time.)