ECN Forum
My first experience early in my career at 13, was when I opened up a neutral in a multiwire branch circuit to replace a ballast.

It felt like I was being kicked in the head by a bull!
My high school electrical teacher always made the new kids grab a live receptacle. Never do that again!
I was really young, probably around 7 or 8. I was plugging in a night light, my finger slipped and I touched one of the prongs. OUCH!
When I was in 4th Grade, I came into the possession of two refrigerator boxes. I laid them inside the old dirt floored garage out back and over the next few days, kind of moved in. I ran a 2-wire cord from the house out across the cedar fence posts so I could have light. Then there was enough of a rain to dampen the floor and my sleeping bag and I found out that the lampholder's paper isolator didn't always isolate the outer metal body and that the unpolarized plug was in backwards. I can still taste the metal in the back of my mouth from the thru-body jolt I got when I turned the light off that damp night.
Posted By: pauluk Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/23/02 09:21 AM
First jolt I ever got was at the age of about 4 when I went to "help mommy" unplug the vacuum cleaner, got the plug part way out and put my fingers around the back to get a better grip. Lucky it was just across one hand.

The most severe shock I can recall getting was from a series-chain of fairy lights on the Christmas tree when I was about 13. I was changing a bulb when the holder disintegrated and left me holding the shell of the miniature lampholder in one hand and the wire which had become detached from the center contact in the other. 240V hand to hand -- Ouch! [Linked Image]
Posted By: sparky Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/23/02 10:31 AM
during my apprecticeship i found out those mini-mag flashlights are great bite sticks
[Linked Image]
When I was about 5, my dad was building us a new house. He had some open sockets and was always telling me not to put my fingers in them. I kept asking why, and he would always tell me that it would hurt. I guess I didn't believe him and I kept asking again and again, he finally said, Donnie, just do it and find out for yourself. I did and it hurt a bit, but didn't keep me from becoming an electrician. When I was about 5, my dad was building us a new house. He had some open sockets and was always telling me not to put my fingers in them. I kept asking why, and he would always tell me that it would hurt. I guess I didn't believe him and I kept asking again and again, he finally said, Donnie, just do it and find out for yourself. I did and it hurt a bit, but didn't keep me from becoming an electrician.
By the way, that is the only house that I've ever been in that was done completely, including the phone lines, in rigid metal conduit. They were replacing all of lighting at the factory where he was maintenance foramen and he bought the conduit that was being removed for scrap metal price. Most of it was full straight sticks of 1/2". It was all bent using the bender in a Rigid Tri-Stand vise and hand threaded.
Don
I cant count how many times over the years. The worst and most stupid was back when I owned a commercial sound and lighting company some ten years ago. We were working nite shift on a job and it was about 2am and very cold. The truck was parked far away from the work area and I needed my KO kit. I had my hole saws inside with me. Well I crawled up a ladder to make my hole in this LIVE 400a three phase panel. I pulled the conductors in the gutter out of my way and pulled the trigger on the drill. My intentions were to yank the bit out as soon as it went through but that didn't happen. The bit caught some conductors and it blew out of the drill and landed between legs B and C on the line side. Big blue arc... Me on ground... 1200a main tripped... Everybody in the dark.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.
I was about 14. I touched the output of a flyback transformer on an old B&W TV. About 6KV. The TV was located in the corner of a room. Almost broke my collar bone! I never really recovered. Still kinda nuts. Kinda nuts. Kinda nuts. I drill and pull and put those twisty things on, throw the switch and everything (well usually everything) comes on. People smile shake my hand and write me a big fat check. Everyone (even my wife tho I don't get much done around the house) love me. Wonder what I'l be when I grow up. Any suggestions?
12VDC motors will oscillate briefly at 60 Hz when connected to a 120V source, then it explodes.

Hey, I was a preteen and tired of buying batteries!

Never really got hit until I was an apprentice. 240V through my left hand while holding a 250V 20A receptacle as the mechanic turned on all the breakers. This same mechanic (Virginian for "journeyman") was scarred head to toe from dropping a screwdriver into a live meterbase, and was the only electrician I've ever witnessed step through a ceiling. This guy was an accident waiting to happen.
N-N-N-N-never. yup, 480 volt one phase in each hand was the worst, tuck, rolled and ducked out of the way of several arc blasts.

A friend of mine was working in a lighting contactor panel last week though, someone turned a switch on and he leaned against a live 277 volt conductor. The crush of his muscle broke the socket of his upper arm (Nope, he ain't that big) as well as destroyed some tendons, he'll be out a while.
For trained professionals only—stay away form a 60Hz poke on one’s sweaty forehead with contact points centered about an inch apart. It gives the lovely sensation of blue-white arcs above the eyelids, a plethora of brain spasms, a bizarre Martian taste in the mouth, and—around two seconds later—an intense headache.

The fun is right up there with the morning-after stool visit following a big bowl of Improved Tezpur Thermonuclear Orgasm Chili.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 08-25-2002).]
While trying to find where a lighting circuit failed, stuck my head up the drop cielig grid. some one left the wirenuts off a 277V circuit with wires hanging outside box. Found myself on floor with smell of burnt hair
Joe,

My first shock was when I was a kid. I put my habd across the plug while I was trying to unplug it. The worst shock I had was when a plumber cut a wire in the wall. I "thought" the circuit was DEAD. But it wasn't and I reached inside the wall to find what was left of my wire. Well I grabbed the neut in 1 hand and the phase in the other and I was stuck. The lights in the basement were going dim. My boss thought that there was a brown out. NOPE It was just my nose lighting up. I got off it after what seemed like an hour. I was OK but I was shoock up. The funniest shock I ever got was when I was installing alarm wire. We worked with 110 vdc and I didn't realize it at the time. (1975 I think.) well I was above a grid ceiling and as I was lowering myself down through the ceiling the phase wire caught my lip. It threw my head back against the grid ceiling. Which then proceeded to spring my head back toward the wire. Back and forth I went for about 4 times. I looked like a bell clapper inside a church bell. I finally got away but my lip swelled up real large.

Caper
Posted By: Redsy Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/26/02 03:13 AM
Never use the bottom of a control enclosure as a shelf.
1987, before major "electrical Safety" awareness, I was troubleshooting the 4-20 milliamp control signal for an SCR-controlled 480 volt oil heater. No gloves. Reached for the meter and my hand came across 2 fuse clips at 480 volts. Never felt anything like it before. Never want to again. My hand looked like it had popcorn growing out of it where the contact took place.
Funny thing about accidents is, during the incident, you suddenly realize all at once what you did wrong.
Hi Guys;
I got a nasty scare (but a relatively minor shock) a number of years ago while I was a student in college. I was helping the theater stage manager replace several bad autotransformer dimmers in a large stage lighting switchboard. We had turned off the power to the entire board at the MDP feeder breaker in the basement of the building, then taped a warning sign over the breaker (no way to LOTO, unfortunately)and locked the door to the room behind us. While I was virtually inside the switchboard from my waist up, the stage manager noticed several pilot lamps light up on the board, indicating that the power had been turned back on. He warned me at about the same time a heard a dimmer start humming about two inches from my left ear. As I backed out of the board, I brushed against another dimmer which shot me backwards to the wall behind the switchboard. Quite discouraged by this, the SM and I went down to the switchgear room, found the breaker had been closed, and the warning note crumpled on the floor. We turned the breaker off again, then hid in a corner of the room where we could observe the MDP. A few minutes later, a secretary entered the room and attempted to close the breaker again, whereupon we stopped and detained her until the campus police arrived.

It turns out that a wiring fault existed which led to the air conditioner (20 a., 220v.) in her office being connected to the feeder breaker for the stage lighting service (300a., 120-208v. 3ph. [Linked Image] ). Four things happened immediately thereafter; 1) The secretary was instantly fired, 2)The lock to the switchgear room was changed, 3) The MDP was modified so that the breaker could be locked out, and 4) the air conditioner circuit was reconnected to a different power source.

Yes, we should have had the college electric department do the work, but they refused because they "had never worked on that kind of thing before". [Linked Image]

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-26-2002).]
When I was 5 years old I went to work with my Dad who happened to be an electrician. Since watching him install receptacles I wanted to do that too. When I got home I went to my moms bathroom and got 2 of those nail files. You know, those good conductive metal ones. [Linked Image] Well if you jab one in the hot side and one in the neutral side at the same time you get knocked on your but pretty good. The funny thing about it was that my mom watched me the hole time without saying one word about it.
Wirewiz
The biggest bang I got was when I was about 14 years old and went hunting on a rainy day.
Got the urge to take a leak next to a barb wire fence.
It took 10 minutes before I was able to walk. [Linked Image]

That's the stuff family legends are made of!
My brother still brings it up at family reunions. ;(
Posted By: sparky Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/29/02 10:15 PM
owwww [i/] [Linked Image]

despite this, you've gone on to [i]have
a family??
sparky:

I think the family was started because the milk from this cow was "energized"

http://www.kencove.com/stafix/how.gif

Does Article 547 cover this product?
i was about 5 or 6 and was unplugging my race track and zap hand to far back on that big plug.

the one my dad still laughs about is when i decided to rewire my sisters blow dryer to 120v even though it only ran on 2 D batteries. thermal melt down on the bathroom counter nice little pile of plastic burning when dad walked in. we were out of batteries and i was maybe 8 sister was 9 i told her i could fix it no problem.
Got burnt once by a model train track... The train had derailed and I went to retrieve it
(without turning the X-former down) when my metal watch band found some potential... ZAP! Lots of sparks and a blistered wrist for a few days. Didn't get shocked though...

[Linked Image]

Of course, one can't forget the intentional use of "condensors" (capacitors) in shop class in school... Just charge with a handy spark plug wire (a few pulls on a lawn mower does the trick), and toss to the unsuspecting whilst shouting "think fast"...

[Linked Image]


[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 08-29-2002).]
Posted By: TE Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/30/02 06:46 AM
Had an Electrician tell me this, my first
thought was thats not to bright, my second
thought was:
"Why in the $#@% would you tell anyone ?"

He was getting ready to check 480v 3 ph
with a wiggy, with one lead on A phase he reach up with the other lead and scratched
his head.
Currently,

Those fences can really sting can't they! Man I was working on a farm when I backed into a fence once. Ouch! did it hurt.
[Linked Image] hey guys maybe i can do one better on this.when i was 13 i always wanted to build a jacobs ladder(the thing you see in the old frankestine movies).well i found out about some old neon sign trnsformers at a old run down movie drive inn. asked the owner if i could have them, "sure just don't get hurt with them". no problem!two were in great shape, the third had been in the weather & the case was severly rusted.i decide to check them out,so i sut down on a metal wash tub,not realizing that one of the hi voltage wires is touching. i plug it up & boy do i get a good jolt.needless to say the cord went flying.this was one side of a 15,000 volt neon sign transformer.boy that hurt! not to mention [Linked Image]!
Grew up in potato country and did my share of work for farmers that used romex to power conveyer belts without male plugs, just bare wire pushing 220.
They thought it was hilarious to watch someone get zapped (this is with 220 on wet concrete floors!)

As for the barbed wire incident, the field was empty, he had moved his cows in the barn for the winter the week before. Let us just say that that was a mistake I never made again!
I was attracted to the idea of a Jacob's ladder as well. I beat some copper wire as flat as I could, borrowed my cousin's Model T ignition coil, and powered it with my Lionel train transformer (cranked all the way up, natch). Well, the arc just wasn't long enough, only about an inch or so.

Then I chanced on the possesion of a burned out incandesent street light, 'bout eight inches in diameter. I connected one side of the T coil to both contacts on the lamp base, and the other side to a wire wrapped round the widest part of the bulb. When turned on it was GREAT! I called in friends, got around on the other side to show it off, leaned over to adjust the transformer and put my hand in the middle of the loop.

Woke up on the other side of the room.
I understand ¾-volt snout-to-udder will make cows do the hula. Then there's this...nasag's operation electrobarb (Their 1940’s “Sour Cream on the Hoof” project kinda’ backfired.}




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 08-31-2002).]
I was trying to get a 3 prong plug into a 2 prong receptacle when I was about 14-15, ok maybe i was 16. I need some a/c !! anyway, after that I swore up and down that the white wire was always The hot. we had the 4 circuit edison based fuse panel.(thank GOD no-one jerry rigged them with a penny) I knocked out my moms coffee pot, couple of lamps and maybe even the washer machine.
277v in an emergency lighting fixture, where on is switched and one is always hot. It was supposed to turned off as my Journeyman assured me. Never trust your Journeyman when you are green!
he laughed for long time . It hurts
My son was about two years old when he got his first electric shock. He liked unwinding the christmas lights, crawling through the house with them stretched out behind him. He would plug them in like he saw me do many times, and watch them light up. Well he had his little index finger across both prongs when he plugged them in. He cried a little bit, but he was alright. (personally, it was the proudest day of my life)
My first experience with electricity occurred when I was 2 and discovered the keys fit perfectly into a 15 amp outlet. Very educational.

My most exciting electrical experience occurred on my fist day on the job in a theater scene shop in Charlottesville VA. I was instructed to move a Table Saw from one room to another. The saw was plugged into a 50amp 240v Nema 15 style outlet mounted upside down (cord tail went up)! As I gingery removed the plug a loose screw dropped inside (as best we could tell while dissecting the slag). [Linked Image] Instantly I had a four inch blue fireball hovering above my hand (seemed like forever). The breaker tripped, the fireball disappeared and I was left with a ring of ash around my thumb and index finger. Aside from scaring the crap out of me, it did no permanent damage. And that was just my first day of work!

SD
Posted By: walrus Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 09/22/02 03:44 PM
I've been shocked numerous times, hate it every time [Linked Image]. Some Mechanical gas pumps with Electric reset have a small brush motor inside a Exp Prf enclosure. Well they break [Linked Image] and you have to take the cover off the enclosure and try the reset to see why it ain't turnin'. In the winter I sometimes wear cotton gloves and they generally have some gas on them. Well needless to say when the brush arced right next to my glove, my glove caught on fire [Linked Image]. I shook that baby off faster than you can blink an eye. Pretty comical now but I checked my pants right after it happened [Linked Image]
I believe I am the DUMBEST of them all....

I have 2 major situations...1 for A.C. and 1 for D.C., I guess I wanted to FEEL the difference !!

First major shock occured while I was working in my Boss's Carpet Cleaning Van.
I was cutting out some left-over carpet to line the floors of the work van with a razor-knife. Wanting to get an accurate fit, I placed the carpet inside the van to trim it up in place and didn't notice the 2 gauge wire comming from the Carpet Cleaning Machine starter. So, I began to cut along the carpet when I skinned the 2 gauge wire with the razor-knife when "POP"....the razor blade connected the wire and the metal floor-board at the same time, (thus ARC WELDING was invented)and if that wasn't enough to make your day more interesting, when the FLASH occured, I pulled my hand with the KNIFE in it backwards real fast and then forward into my other hand holding the carpet !!!!!!! Burned and Stabbed !!!!

The next was more recent....
I was at work troubleshooting a 240vac heater relay, that was sticking and forcing the heater to over-heat.....
I had the STAINLESS STEEL cover open and had a meter out to test when the over-heating caused the circuit breaker to trip.....I yelled at my partner to just let it stay tripped so I could tighten the screws up on the relay with an ALLEN/BRADLEY pocket tweaker screwdriver !!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!BIG DUMB MISTAKE !!!!!!!!!!!
With 1 hand firmly placed on the back of the STAINLESS STEEL cover and the other holding the tweaker, (with an un-insulated shaft) on the 240vac relay lead screw, My partner (who DID NOT hear me) re-energized the circuit breaker and ME !!!!

WOW !!!! How lucky are any of us who have been shocked ????
I have learned to NEVER deviate from LOCK OUT,TAG OUT proceedures AGAIN !!!!!
The ONLY difference between an CLOSE CALL and DEATH is LUCK !!!!!
Please slow down and use LOTO ALWAYS !!!!!

MIKE
I got banged a few times. When I was 8 or so I stuck my finger between the prongs. Ouch, but not a big deal.

I also got hit when I unplugged a Battery Backup unit for a computer. (UPS) Not sure why, I might post a question about it here.
Posted By: pauluk Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/24/02 06:08 PM
Another one I remember from when I was young is pulling the plug on a clothes spin-dryer while the lid was still shut and the motor turning.

It provided quite a forceful demonstration that a motor can also act as a generator when I touched the prongs.
Posted By: spyder Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/27/02 11:36 PM
People often ask me if I have ever been electrocuted. I always set them straight by explaining that electrocution is death. But yes I have been shocked. As an apprentice I learned how travelers on a 3way switch work the hard way. I was working on a 3way swich that I was informed was off. Lesson #1, always test first. I got hit off one traveler, so being the smart apprentice, I went and flipped the switch on the other 3way thinking I was turning it off, and promptly got shocked off the second traveler.
It was stupidity on my part and luckily we were all able to laugh about it later.
Posted By: Scotts Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/30/02 06:59 PM
I am sitting here in my office laughing out loud at these stories. I think my top 3 are Sparky66wv, Harold endean and of course currently.

I saw one guy get shocked while rewiring a 480 volt fan motor. It three him about 10 feet. My first thought was trying to remember CPR.
Scott
Posted By: joeh20 Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 11/15/02 12:34 PM
Stuck a 12 vdc dewalt battery pack into the front pocket on my liberty's one day, contacts facing down forgot about the pocket full of keys in there. About 20 seconds later got kinda warm down there, pulled it out and grabbed the keys and handed to the guy next to me, he took them and then started cussing me before dropping them, had to throw the pack away, $40 shot to he!!, glad it wasn't an 18V I might not be here.
We have a tool grinder that uses a rectifier in the panel to power the table feed motor. Rectifier pooped out, and i was in the panel replacing it, I had the switch off at the I-Line buss bar so I was happily rooting around in the cabinet. Next thing I k-k-k-now is my glasses are bouncing up and down and I am sitting on my tail in the wheel lathe pit. (This lathe is so big that it sits in a 2 2/2 foot deep pit so the controls are were you can reach them). Turns out that rather than replacing the 240/120 control transformer in the cabinet, with a 480/120 transformer, they just wired a seperate feed to the controls. NOW they tell me.

TW
I have NEVER been shocked!!!
I also live on Mars and believe the CIA is watching me via the V-Chip in the TV set.
P.S. have land for sale in Florida Everglades.

OK, with that out of my system, let me do a quick describe of the wonderful times I decided to become a current carrying conductor [Linked Image]

First experience of drawing current through my body happened around age 3 or 4, with the ever bright idea of plugging in something while holding the plug's blades.
Ohhh the vibrations!!! 120 VAC, "x" milliamperes and 60 Hz! what an eye opening experience.

Moving into working with my father, found out how to work on and around energised stuff by a systematic level of trial and error.

After becoming a full time sparky, got to learn the hands on hard way about open neutral situations or open circuitry for L-L / L-L-L loads.

Got to feel what the high leg of a 4 wire delta has to offer. On one occasion, felt what an ungrounded conductor on a 3 wire grounded delta (240 VAC) does across a semi fixed resistance / reactance (went from right hand to a bonded conduit via tear in pants on right leg).
Luckily, only had 2 instances of pushing current through my limbs at 277 VAC.

Other shock related fun includes camera flash lamp tank circuits, testing Inductors or similar coils with an ohm meter, then holding fingers across coil leads while removing a test lead, the un-discharged capacitor trick, extremely high ESD on VGA monitors (old IBM 14" VGA monochrome monitors with the glare shields added on were common blasters!), crash course in Telephone Ringer AC Voltage, finding a leaky spark plug wire, etc...

Can say this: It's been a few years since the last shock!!!....

Just wondering if I looked similar to the guy pictured below???

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

Scott s.e.t.
I was about 5 years old, decided to see what that little plug was on my Dad's lawnmower while it set there idling!
My first was when I was around 4 years old and in Germany and I stuck a random piece (paper clip or hair pin) of wire into a receptacle in the hallway, getting jolted in the process with 220 volts, of course.

My then-nine year old cousin asked me what happened and between sobs I pointed at the socket on the wall with the little paper clip sticking out of it. Fool goes to grab it and pull it out and soon starts...feeling my pain. [Linked Image]

The most recent one was two summers ago when I was replacing worn-out/cracked wall sockets at my mom's apartment.

I had gotten to the point of replacing the dedicated 20-amp/110-volt air conditioner socket.

I didn't test for voltage before prying off the painted-on wallplate (which came off with the receptacle face ADHERED to it from al the paint).

Didn't realize I had pulled the wrong 20-amp breaker (incorrectly labelled too) before sticking my slightly sweaty hand in the surface-mount raceway box and grabbing for the remainders of that damned socket with such gusto!!! [Linked Image]

I let out a loud curse and my arm vibrated for a bit after I yanked it out. My grandmother (in the kitchen at the time) was like "so, it bit you?" "Uh-huh," sez I.

Sho-nuff...when I went over to the breaker box, I found out I had pulled the adjacent 20-amp breaker that powered a dedicated Nema 5-20 outlet in the kitchen instead!!!

For that project I had been replacing outlets branch by circuit and testing each one individually after it was installed and powered on, instead of knocking the whole house out while I worked and thereby cutting power off to an icebox full of perishables.

Always use the voltage tester (TWICE) before sticking your hand in the damned box!!!!

It's the stupid things like that that can kill you... [Linked Image]
First time for me in the field was when I was 17. Up on top of a 32" ladder leaning against steal gurder.The licensed electrician at ground level told me to go ahead and rip out the old wiring, I asked twice if it was dead, with arogance and attitude he replied hes damn it! Just do what I tell you. I grabed hold of the wiring while holding onto the steal with my other hand for support. THUG! I got belted and couldn't let go for a few seconds. He looks up at me and says " r u getting zapped?" The electricity of 277v ran through my whole upper body including which felt like my head. I said in so many words, you said this was dead! He replys, "oh I forgot about the emergency line" Thanx a lot yah jerk. I couldn't function properly for a couple of hours with him telling me to get back to work. I was head down on a table half asleep. At the time I wanted out, but I definately learned a valuable lesson. I don't care how experienced you are, I'm never gonna just trust anyone again before I check it myself. I wanted revenge on that guy, turned out several years later he was involved in a severe accident and is now a parapalegic. Wouldn't wish this on anyone, starnge how it ended up though.
Posted By: spyder Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 12/07/02 05:12 PM
If the shock does not hurt, often the reaction to shock does.
Posted By: sparky Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 12/07/02 10:02 PM
Wirenuttt,
remember the woolen mills, manlift, washing the fluor. fixtures?
my worst was from a megger in the Navy. Nothing like waking up to that.
sparky;
wasn't that a Dibo job?
Posted By: sparky Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 12/08/02 08:29 PM
yeah, Dibo,.... wash down 'live' lights, remeber where you stuck that sponge?
That musta been one of those if you remember it you really weren't there scenes. [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by Wirenuttt (edited 12-08-2002).]
Posted By: sparky Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 12/09/02 12:38 AM
Ange,
ya stuck the %$& sponge in a 277 tube end!
[Linked Image]
Guess it was a good thing i was around to show you what NOT to do. [Linked Image]
Have had a couple in my lifespan,

#1. Spill water on a plug in a receptacle and touch the water left on the wall after my mother turns off the wrong breaker!

#2. Testing outlets in house; instead of putting probes in outlet, touch to prongs of a halfway out plug. Arc and trip breaker. 120 on both arms, fry dad's voltmeter.

#3. Opening a computer power supply, shocked with???VAC accrossed both arms.

#4. (Actually a burn) Take a leftover take-out sandwich, place sandwich (along with aluminum wrapper) in microwave, put on high, hear popping sound, pop open microwave, try to put in sink, grab the smoldering part, ow!

#5. Father and I are installing new receptacle, (actually I'm holding the aluminum maglite flashlight) and he touches the screw terminals on accident, grabs Maglite, shocks me! 120VAC accross left arm.

My dad tells my family about these encounters:

#1. Working on a house w/ aluminum siding, him and a coworker are blasted 15 feet backwards by 240VAC on the siding.

#2. Barbed wire fence when he was younger and working on a farm.

#3. Shocked by 100VAC on a COAX TV line. Replace TV.

Another thing, I was reading a home structured wiring (PC Network, CATV, phone, audio, ect...) and it said the only danger from holding a ringing phone line would be "jumping up and hitting your head because the mild shock surprised you." You guys agree?
Posted By: Trumpy Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 02/20/05 11:35 AM
Although I ain't proud of it Joe, I as a new Amateur Radio Operator, was changing the power tap on a Power supply unit I built myself, my hand slipped off the terminal and straight onto the "un-shrouded" 230V phase terminal.
I was 14 years old at the time, I've never forgotten that shock, it was like having a whole wasp-nest in the end of my finger, luckily, I had my Left hand in my pocket.
Since then, I've copped a couple of shocks, mainly only 230V ones, through not thinking.
Quote
....mainly only 230V ones?

Please explain? This voltage is dangerous and its takes much less, under certain condition to kil a person!

Please be careful!

[This message has been edited by Joe Tedesco (edited 02-20-2005).]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 02/22/05 12:43 AM
Joe,
Quote
Please explain? This voltage is dangerous and its takes much less, under certain condition to kil a person!
Our single phase voltage is 230V here in NZ.
Anyone ever try to move the Anode wire in the back of a black and white TV set away so it would quit arcing. I did at age 10 and I was lucky to see age 11. I woke up on the concrete floor about a minute later.

And then there was the time I decided to unstick the toast from the toaster. I'd seen my mother do it a dozen times. Guess I never watched her unplug it first. I was down about 2 minutes that time!
Posted By: mkoloj Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 03/07/05 03:20 PM
In response to Theelectrikid's post I am a tele-data technician and I was working at a site of ours troubleshooting a phone line and there are 2 blocks that are in a corner, one on one wall and one on the other adjacent wall, I am plugging onto a line on one block and my forearm touched a pair from a T-1 on the other block, my arm jumped but it happen to jump right in the direction of the other 66 block and I skinned half my forearm on the clips of a 66 block. OUCH!!!!! [Linked Image] The shock did not have any ill effects on me yet, but the clips on 66 blocks can do some damage to the skin with the right persuasion.
Posted By: Seder Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 03/11/05 07:47 PM
It was my first time i cut alive cable when my epmloyee didnot cutof the right breaker
Posted By: DougW Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 06/02/05 05:36 PM
Sophomore year in high school... I had kicked the wall mounted switch to the "off" position outside the classroom I was waiting to enter. When the teacher arrived, I reached over to turn the switch back on... not realizing that the spring for the switch was poking out through a crack, and energized. Got a small scar the diameter of the spring on my finger as a result.

A few while working on bikes and cars... usually faulty insulation on spark plug wires discovered the hard way.

My only "professional" tingle was while re-routing conductors into new paralleled 3/4" EMT for a picky AHJ who flagged an inspection (even though we were under the number of wires allowed by Code, he wanted fewer wires in the pipe). [Linked Image]

My foreman in one room by the panel, me on a ladder in an adjoining room at the 1900. Moving certain wires from one 3/4 to the newly installed 3/4)

Me: "Did you kill that blue circuit?"

Him: "Yeah, it's dead... go ahead"

Me (after cutting wire, pulling it out, running new to the panel, and stripping the end - reach to splice and finding out IT'S HOTTTT) [Linked Image] "Yow! Hey, ya moron, I thought you said the line was dead!" [Linked Image]

Him: "Oops... wrong blue. <CLICK> Sorry, Dude!!!"

I NCV'd it anyway, and made the splice.

I figured if my journeyman foreman (and friend) with many years experience could screw up (luckily without drastic results), that was enough to have me double-check everything since.
Posted By: rusty Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 06/03/05 04:20 AM
Too many times...

1st time (very young) - knew that a light bulb filament got hot and glowed. Rewired a broken lamp with small magnet wire, when not glowing, I felt to see if it was hot.

Another time - (Probably the worst) - Working on 480V irrigation system. Went into field to check, had to start power unit for generator, ran up to voltage, went to center pivot to check...didn't work (had opened panel with disconnect in on position). Shut down power unit. Went back to panel, reached in and grabbed a fuse...huh...what the ???? Upon closer inspection, the generator had been abandoned and a line run in from the REA lines at the road. Lines from the generator were laying in the weeds, wire ends exposed. The muscles in my arms hurt for weeks after this.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like I've been pretty lucky. There have been too many times...some are humorous, some are not. Be careful out there! Luck might run out some day.

Chick
First time was around 7 yrs old, playing in a friend's basement rec room, knocked over a defective table lamp, it grabbed hold and didn't let go! Luckily my friend knew to pull the plug.

Worst was a good jolt with 115vac 400hz aircraft power in the Air Force, was thrown about 60 feet from one plane to another, have permanent callus on my heel from the exit wound. One leg of three-phase contactor on jet-turbine powered mobile generator failed to open. Add wet ground from monsoon storm, sweaty person grabbing heavily abused rubber connector plug and watch the fun. Thankfully the current took a mostly external path on my skin or I wouldn't be here today.

Also took a hit from a pulse ignitor for cinema Xenon lamp. 15kv at several milliamps, very painful.
I remember when I first got into the trade and knew enough to be dangerous. I was replacing a ballast in a strip light above a friends kitchen sink. Yep, Thats right- I was kneeling on the stainless steel sink when I grapped hold of the output wires of the ballast. When I picked myself up off the floor I made sure to turn the switch off !
First good zap I got was from a metal 3Ø 220/380 Volts plug while inserting it in the cast iron receptacle, The earth wire was loose and so was one of the phase wires which made contact with the casing of the plug. I was around 15 and it happened on the farm in The Netherlands. AAuucchh!! [Linked Image]

I had a few zaps from 220 - 230 Volts more due my own mistake and not testing or checking the on / off switch myself. I have learned from my stupid mistakes and "test prove test" and not assume things are off.

The biggest jolt I had was while on a 33 kV cable fault and my mate and I were thumpering at 32 kV dc, 1 pulse every 3 seconds. We prelocated the fault, then when the digger opened up the hole next to a commercial driveway, and exposed the cables, no external damage visible, (they all had previously been repaired before) we had to listen with the microphone which cable made the most noise to id the correct cable prior to cutting, well my mate put the microphone on the metal zippy sleeve while I had the other microphone and headphones on. WAAAUUUUWWW. [Linked Image] [Linked Image]: We were both jolted about 2 metres away into the soil, I saw blue sparks in my eyes, so did my mate and had a zap through his leg as well, but both unharmed but shaken allright. One microphone was arcing to the cable while the other was still on a concrete drive nearby. We survived [Linked Image]:and so did the listening equipment. In hindsight we were thuping from about 1 kilometre away at 32 kV dc, where the fault was the arc would go to the screen of the cable and back to the thumper, must have had at least a couple of kV's at 1500 Joules. Lesson Use HV gloves while touching a HV cable with listening equipment. [Linked Image]
The first real good belt I remember getting was at Gramma's place.. She had this extension cord that the end was a molded rubber triple tap kinda thing.. Similar to what you see on those dollar store specials you can buy today.. Anyway the one receptacle on the cord, the brass contacts were almost flush with the rubber the cord end was made of.. Anyway I KNEW what it was like to touch a 9V battery to yer tongue, and I saw perfect oppertunity to see what 120V TASTED LIKE... Licked the end of that cord, and felt like someone detonated a bomb in my mouth.. I couldn't taste food for a week...

Got another good belt at school once.. highschool autoshop, doing the " check for spark test" on an old '79 Ford LTD we had there.. It had spark.. went right out of the screwdriver shat, around the handle and into my thumb... Screwdriver ended up somewhere across the shop! [Linked Image]
I remember getting zapped a couple of times when I was 5 or 6. A lamp cord and a medicine cabinet receptacle come to mind. Over the years, I got my knuckles tickled several times while troubleshooting broadcast monitors and TV sets. Never with a high voltage anode or focus voltage.

The most recent zap was while recovering from a substation lightning hit. A section current or voltage transducer faulted over internally, and elevated an analog input card to roughly 600VDC. I'm used to being very cautious around my mains, control points or permissive switches because I know there is 120VAC or 132VDC there. 600+ on an analog card is unusual and was caused by a carbon trailing on a PCB. I caught a tingle through my knuckle to the RTU cabinet and was surprised by the meter reading I got. I might never see that again but I wrote a memo to my fellow TEs to be on the lookout for it.
Joe
Posted By: DC10 Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 01/24/06 02:36 AM
I lit myself up in a 480v control panel at the age of 21. I tried to push a contactor closed with my pocket knife which slipped off the plastic button and touched a live contact. I was standing on a wet 8" pipe. I have been bitten by 277 lighting circuits since but that was the worst ever!
Bump-bump-a-do-wah-a-bump-bam-boo!!
Come on folks, surely you all have some more stories.... [Linked Image]
Oh man, I don't think I can even come close to counting the number of times I've been shocked, it's embaressing. First time was on a weedwhacker plug that had come partially out from the extension cord. I was probably about 8 or 10 and didn't even know that I'd been shocked until later.

I've probably been shocked 4 times mucking about with live 120V receptacles without their covers. You'd think I'd learn, but noooo, I'm always TOO CAREFUL to bother with that! It's all been one-hand shocks though, and has never been more than an unpleasant tingle.

The worst shock wasn't even my fault, was a manufacturing defect on a Delta table saw- the assembler had driven a screw holding the power cutoff switch directly through the black wire coming in off the cord. I used it for over a year without noticing, then zapped myself twice- first time I was pretty sure was a shock but had no idea where it came from- I mean, the whole thing is plastic, how could I get shocked from that? Second time hurt like a bitch though, and I frisked that mofo with my multimeter until I discovered the problem- that ONE screw on the entire face was hot, and the tilt lever was grounded to the motor casing; I must have been standing ever so slightly different that day where I brushed them both while turning off the saw. Didn't even get so much as an apology from delta, but they did send me a replacement power cord...

I DID take some pictures... is this worthy of a photo discussion thread of its own? I've got a slew more photos:
<IMG SRC=\"http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/2614/delta36560shockcw6.th.jpg\">


My worst injury from from an old motorcycle battery I'd pulled from a dead UPS and jerry-rigged to a small inverter during 8 days without power. I was disassembling it and accidentally shorted out the cell- with a piece of #22 speaker wire! The insulation instantly boiled off the wire, taking a damned long channel of skin along my thumb and forefinger with it [Linked Image]

I'm happy to say I've never been shocked in my professional life, which is good because 120V is dangerous enough- I sure as hell don't want to become a 480V conductor!

[This message has been edited by SteveFehr (edited 08-16-2006).]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/17/06 02:06 PM
Steve,
If you'd like some pictures posted, send them over to me and I'll throw them up for you.
My most memorable shock was 36v at 400hz.
I was working on a servo on the 06 deck of a warship, about 60-70 feet off the main deck, out on a skinny catwalk. Hot sweaty day, grounded six ways from sunday and I laid the soft part of my forearm on a terminal strip. The "jumpback factor" had me hanging on the rail, over the side, with one arm. I managed to regain my composure and get back up on the catwalk but I was sweating a little more.
These days I sum up the experience by reminding people, a GFCI may keep you from being electrocuted but if you fall off the ladder ... ;-)
Posted By: pauluk Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/20/06 02:13 PM
I got nipped while working on my truck the other day. I was wiring up the trailer light relays for the towing hitch, had the switched wiring right through plus the ground on the coil, and just dabbed the wire from the other coil terminal onto the battery to check that the relay was working.

I wasn't thinking when I had the bare end of the wire in my hand as I took it off the battery and was leaning on the chassis with my arm at the same time.

O.K., the bite from the back-e.m.f. of a relay coil's field collapsing isn't going to do much harm, but it made me jump and I felt rather foolish at getting even a tiny zap from something I've known about since I was at least 10 years old! [Linked Image]
Even as little as a 9V battery can kill you. Here's a 1999 Darwin Award Winner:
Quote
(1999) A US Navy safety publication describes injuries incurred while doing don't's. One page described the fate of a sailor playing with a multimeter in an unauthorized manner. He was curious about the resistance level of the human body. He had a Simpson 260 multimeter, a small unit powered by a 9-volt battery. That may not seem powerful enough to be dangerous… but it can be deadly in the wrong hands.

The sailor took a probe in each hand to measure his bodily resistance from thumb to thumb. But the probes had sharp tips, and in his excitement he pressed his thumbs hard enough against the probes to break the skin. Once the salty conducting fluid known as blood was available, the current from the multimeter travelled right across the sailor's heart, disrupting the electrical regulation of his heartbeat. He died before he could record his Ohms.

The lesson? The Navy issues very few objects which are designed to be stuck into the human body.


Here's a letter elaborating on this:

Quote
I'm a former Navy petty officer, enlisted for six years as an electrician aboard a US Submarine. I got a lot of training. This story was used frequently during my training in the US Navy as an example of what can happen when procedures and safety measures are not followed. I considered the story an urban legend until I found the incident report referenced in the official Navy electrical safety guidelines. I now know it is true.

The actual event is slightly different than described above, and even more deserving of a Darwin award. This sailor stuck the sharpened ends of the probes through his thumbs intentionally. You see, he had just taken a course that taught a critical concept called "internal resistance."

Internal resistance is resistance to electrical power flow that exists inside any power source. It causes the terminal voltage to drop when load (current) increases. You can demonstrate this concept, if you're careful, by monitoring your car battery's terminal voltage, while someone starts up the engine. The reading will be ~13 volts while the engine is off, but during the period where the starter is cranking it will drop to 8-9 volts. The voltage drop is due to the internal resistance of the battery.

This sailor, like all other electricians in training, had already been through a safety class in which one of the excercises is to measure your body's resistance by simply holding the probes between your fingertips. (Most people read 500Kohms to 2Mohms.) Evidently, adding information from the internal resistance class, this sailor wanted to determine his own body's "internal resistance.". So he intentionally pushed the sharpened probe tips through the skin to elimate the rather high skin resistance and get only the "internal resistance". This, of course, caused his death.

How, you might ask, with only a 9V battery? Easy. One of the "rules of thumb" that the Navy teaches is the 1-10-100 rule of current. This rule states that 1mA of current through the human body can be felt, 10mA of current is sufficient to make muscles contract to the point where you cannot let go of a power source, and 100mA is sufficient to stop the heart. Let's look at Ohm's law. Ohm's law (for DC systems - I will not discuss AC here) is written as E=IR, where E is voltage in volts, I is current in Amps, and R is resistance in Ohms.

When we did the experiment in the electrical safety class to determine our body's resistance, we found a resistance of 500K Ohms. Using 9V and 500K Ohms in the equation, we come up with a current of 18 microAmps, below the "feel" threshold of 1mA. However, removing the insulation of skin from our curious sailor here, the resistance through the very good conducting electrolytes of the body is sharply lower. Around 100 ohms, in fact, resulting in a current of 90mA - sufficient to stop our sailor's heart and kill him.

As my electrical safety instructor said, "The reason we now have to teach the electrical safety course to all electricians at least twice per year is because some joe was bright enough to be the one person in the world who could figure out how to kill himself with a 9V battery."
Posted By: Kenbo Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/22/06 10:22 AM
My first was same as "CTwireman"

Had a couple due to my own how shall we say oversights but the most memorable

Instaling an extention telephone bell (yes that is correct a telephone bell)outside a building so I decided to connect up from the telephone socket first then conect up the external bell. All went well untill someone rang the phone and 50v gives you hell of fright when you are 20 ft up a ladder. It may have not been the electricity that could have killed me or even the fall. But the sudden stop at the bottom of the ladder not keen on that..................

I freely admit I am a coward when it comes to working with electricity. I just dont like pain
Ken, ringing current is really more like 100vac at 20 hz. It will bite you.
Yep! been there. Nothing like beeing able to "feel your telephone ring".

A.D
I gots me another one:

While taking down Christmas Lights, that were still on! (I couldn't tell in the sunlight and glare from the snow.) The strand I was unplugging had a bad neutral (it grounded to the siding at a bad part of cord) and I grabbed the neutral as I unplugged the strand. I was on a fiberglass ladder, so it wasn't that bad, but my shoulder muscle did ache until the next day.

Ian A.
Posted By: barf Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 08/28/06 12:12 AM
Lately the copper theives have been electrocuted! They use a hacksaw!
Quote

Yep! been there. Nothing like beeing able to "feel your telephone ring".

Felt the pulsations from the 100-105 VAC, 20 Hz Ringer a few times!
(more like, a few too many times!) [Linked Image]

Another sweet blast may be felt from the "On-Hook" status of a Subscriber's Loop, which is "Spec'd" at 48 VDC, but may be up to 55 VDC at times.

When you are sweating hard, it bites just as hard!!!

Like when placing bridging clips across sides of a 66 block, with your finger pushing a clip across sides on the "Ring" side, and the same finger also touches the clip above, on the "Tip" side... OWWWWCCCHHH!!! ...
(assorted curse words commonly will follow!)

Scott35
Posted By: RayS Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 09/19/06 08:06 PM
When I was a kid, (11?)I got blown out of a tree by a service. I was climbing after a rocket stuck in a tree. I had to pass a couple power lines, and, having just enough knowledge to be dangerous, figured, "I'm insulated by the tree." Did a quick "brush it" check with my hand on the lower line, no shock, that's great. Next line up, same check, I thought I died. (duh-upper line was the hot one) Turns out that I was on the primary side of the service xfmr- 7200V. It is by the grace of God that I survived- the doctor and utility people said I should be dead. Angels put me on the ground without injury. [Linked Image]
Posted By: Frosty Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/01/06 11:27 AM
Even though I'm only 14 this year I've been shocked more times than I can remember. Mostly DC jolts, from 1.5v to 24v through "tasting" of battery terminals, experimenting...

Believe it or not, my worst shock was yesterday... the socket which I plug my computer to was flaky, I had to tape the switch halfway between the on and off positions to get it working, and it totally failed in the middle of a gaming session. Not wanting my dad to spend money to hire an electrician, I bought a socket from the DIY store, shut off the main breaker (too lazy to shut individual ones) and proceeded to replace the socket. While I was busy stripping the wires, my dad came home and he was like, "Hey, the power's off!", and before I could tell him, he turned on the main breaker. I had 240v 50hz current flowing through my fingers and palm before I knew it. Luckily, my dad heard my howling and proceeded to quickly shut the breaker. My finger has a large blister (where the phase wire was touching) and my whole arm was tingling. Still feel it now... [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by Frosty (edited 10-01-2006).]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/02/06 05:27 AM
Frosty,
You are one very lucky young man.
What you should have done was turn off the Circuit Breaker that supplied the circuit you were working on and locked it so that no one else can re-energise the breaker and the circuit.
This would have been a very simple job for an electrician to do, provided the wiring was rather recently installed.
A lot of people die or are badly injured because they are too mean to get a qualified electrician to do a simple job like this.
Please don't take chances like that again, you are only ever one electric shock away from death.
Money is nothing, life is everything.
BTW, Welcome to ECN. [Linked Image]
Where abouts are you in the world?.
I note that you mentioned 240V 50Hz in your post, so that rules out the US.
Cheers,
Mike. [Linked Image]

{Message edited to add a missing full stop}


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 10-02-2006).]
Posted By: Frosty Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/02/06 01:43 PM
My parents are big no-no's with electricity, they cannot change a fuse or wire a plug without scaring themselves to death with thoughts of electrocution. My parents said the socket was 'too dangerous' to change and told me to run an extension cord from other functioning sockets. I want to be an electrician when I grow up, but my parents are unhappy because they said I would get killed sooner or later. I figured I'd join because reading about experiences of veteran electricians on the field are much more helpful than watching PoCo wokemen service the big transformer near my house. Hope you don't chase me out because of my age and I can't do anything much (except wire up low voltage stuff)! Even with my (very) limited scope of electrical knowledge, I can pretty much see unsafe electrical installations everywhere. Regarding the location, I'm from Singapore.

[This message has been edited by Frosty (edited 10-02-2006).]
Frosty !

Welcome to ECN.

Which country are you from ?
UK ?
240 Volts 50 Hz. Just curious.

Play is safe mate, electricity is very dangerous.
Posted By: tajoch Re: What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked? - 10/08/06 03:27 AM
My worst shock was aboard a Destroyer in the USN, I was called to Aft steering to Repair/fix some none functioning receptacles, I used my my meter, and determended that one of the fuzes had blown,
(On USN Ships all power is ungrounded, so every 120V circuit actually has 2 hots (at approx 60ish volts) and no neutral.)
So I walk over to the fuze panel, and start turning the thumbscrews to open the cover, (now this panel was located directly under a "Scuttle" (which is a navy term for an alleged watertight opening) well in this case the gasket on the scuttle leaked and had been leaking for some time, so the hinge across the top was beyond rusted out, it was gone.
SO when I swung the cover open, it slipped in my hands and fell into the fuze panel across the A and B terminals. which unfortunatly didn't trip the fuzes up stream, so I am standing there getting 120v from both arms, I couldn't make my hands open nor could I move my arms. (big period)
But being a quik thinking lad of 20, (and so scared that I needed to go change my shorts after this) and realizing that I had no control over my upper body, I started working on my legs, and finally fell to the deck, breaking my self free from the panel. I don't think I took any type of permenant damage from it, But (to me) the worst part of it was all this happened while I had 4 guyz watching me.
the aft steering watch, my Div Officer, an ensign, my Chief (who was an electrician) and the steer watch operator.
I have no idea how long I stood there getting shocked, To me it felt like a long time, but I heard later from the guy on steering watch that I was smoking near the end.(and I don't mean from a cigarette..... lol) To me I think I was hung up there for at least 5 min or more.
No permenant damage as far as I know.........lol Of course I have a list of friends and ex's who would disagree.......lol

Oh and someone mentioned something about Sticking a meter lead w/ the other hooked to 480V to the forhead.....

Same ship, One of my shipmates and I were trouble shooting the limit switches on a boat davit (boat davits are the (basically) winches that lift/lower small boats on/off a ship.)We had actually Red tagged the whole system, and started Troubleshooting the system, "C" was at the control cabinet w/ a simpson 260 meter, and I was out moving the limit switches. Well after awhile he stopped calling out for me to move the switch, so I went to check on him........
and he's sitting there w/ one meter lead hooked to the common (480v control system) and he's looking at the meter w/ this confuzed look on his face, and he's got the other lead in hand scratching his forehead..
and everytime the lead touches his skin, he starts these lil minor body jerks..........
I was like WTF, some ain't right here......
So I grabbed the lead of the common, and then he "wakes up", later we found out that someone had turned on the breaker for the panel w/ the red tag still hanging on it.
so w/ him usiing the meter on ohms, and having voltage present he got some strange readings, not to mention what happened when that lead touched his forehead........
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