Steve, good job. I put a cover back on a hand hole on a 480 v parking lot light one time on my own time.

It was laying on the ground next to the pole in a hospital parking lot close to where I had parked with my burnt hands, (another story) the screws were laying in the cover.

Roger

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 11-13-2003).]

About two weeks ago i pulled around the back side of a store and saw a control box dangling off the wall being held by the conduit. I stopped and put in the proper size screws and mounted it back to the wall. Dont ask me why.

heh~ dunno 'bout you fellas , but i actually looked around first to see if anyone was watching...

Steve, LOL I did the same thing.

Arseegee, it felt good afterwards didn't it.

Roger

I've done little things like this a few times.

Who knows, just tightening a plate or replacing a cover might help prevent an accident. But I know what you mean about glancing around first. I guess these good deeds still have a certain "getting caught" element about them!

Mostly because nobody outside the trades would belive you were doing a good thing and not trying to hurt some one or destroy property, sad but true.

Not to mention that if you were caught doing something like installing a KO seal, in today's society you might find yourself sued for anything that goes wrong with the electrical system for the rest of the life of the building....

You probably locked some poor rodent in there

heh~
sure thinkgood... the entire grid will be compromised.... the poco will dust the ko for prints....the state will search and find no permit!....i'll be posting from some dungeon asking for bail $$$

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~S~

No, they'll blame the meter reader.
Or POCO linemen doing maintenance on meters.

Putting a KO cover on some stranger's meter $ .35

Looking around so not to be fined for trespassing $ 500.00

Knowing some kid playing around is NOT going to put his finger inside the meter….

PRICELESS!

God Bless You.

Walking around an unfinished basement that was being finished. 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. Oh yeah, I put the hammer back! Don't know why I did it, but I felt well afterwards.

Sometimes a thing so offends your sensibilities you just to do someting!

Why, just the other day, I was leaving a shopping center when I noticed a switchgear door open. It was hard to miss- it stuck out into the traffic lane! Maybe too hard to miss- some one had "tapped" it just had enough to bend the rod that held it in the 'open' position.
A moment with a pair of pliers, and the door was once again closed- securely this time.

I have an obsessive compulsive thing about looking over the exposed electrical assembly wherever I go. You would be amazed how many places have recepts with no covers. I have seen that in the kids aisle in clothing stores, waiting rooms, and even in a hardware store.

How many of you guys have had your spouse tell you to stop looking at the conduit on the ceiling of a department store? I also have a habit of checking out my friends new houses to make sure everything is safe and sound. Hmmm? I wonder if that is why I am always getting invited over?

I constantly look at the electrical wherever I go. I dont know why, but it just interests me. I am sometimes amazed at the ammount of stuff that is just downright wrong.

I almost always take a good look at the ceiling. I looked up in a recently completed addition of our church last week and noticed the key still in the test circuit switch for the fire alarm. Maybe not a killer but sure an invitation for trouble.

An interesting point here gentlemen: If you see a hazard, say an open cover, and report it to the owner/person responsible, and there is a subsequent accident/fire; - Are they still covered by their insurance if they take no remedial action? Are they culpable of a reckless act and liable to criminal procedings in the event of subsequent injury or death as a "act of omission" if they do nothing?
Alan

Oh, yes...You're not alone.
This_Thread identifed the syndrome, but we never came up with a cure for the "Electrician's Disease" that runs rampant through our members.

Good point there. It must be over a year ago that I reported a missing cover on a streetlight in a nearby town to the works dept. of the borough council. I had no acknowledgment of my e-mail, and the cover was still missing when I went back some time later.

Haven't been down that way for months, but for all I know it might still be the same.

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!


Alan

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.

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.

"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???"

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!



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!

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.

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.

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(?).

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...