Any electricians here?

[MithShrike]

I just started as an apprentice two weeks ago. This is the most fun I've had in a long time at work.

[tuffy]

I'm not an electrician but I have played with electricity plenty. I studied electronics engineering for a couple years before dropping out of college like an idiot.

I still get to toy around with it every once in a while with my job, but I am no journeyman electrician.

Have fun with it and most of all, be safe with it!!!

[cf2112]

I've been an electrician for 20+ yrs, owned my own business for over 10 and still love my job. Just remember 120 makes you feel funny, 277 will send you to heaven.

Good luck.

[jwintosh]

and then there's the 357, the 44, and, my fav, the 40! have fun with your new job!!

[jkim05]

i'm no electrician, but i love electricity

[Mickeyray5]

I was a nuke electrician in the navy. Spent a little time as a maintenance electrician. About 15 years as a service tech doing electro mechanical work. I have one thing I firmly believe. You have professional electricians and hacks. If you see someone testing something live with there bare fingers, he's a hack. Professionals use the right tools and work safe. 115VAC does kill. Getting shocked is not a right of passage, it is a sign of carelessness.

Good luck and be safe!

[caudio51]

Best of luck Matt

I hope not this kind
http://www.botl.org/community/forums/showthread.php?t=13195

[tedski]

I'm not an electrician, but I've done most of the electrical work on my home and I've helped some of my friends.

Here are some pics of the work I did in my last neighborhood ...

[TexaSmoke]

Those High Voltage Inspectors are crazy

[Rank_Tyro]

I have been shocked so badly I had to spend some time in a hospital with an irregular heartbeat.

I hate electricity.

:angerhead

[cvm4]

I'm no electrician, but I love the scrap (copper) they leave behind!

[jwintosh]

I'm not an electrician, but I've done most of the electrical work on my home and I've helped some of my friends.

Here are some pics of the work I did in my last neighborhood ...

nice job! :clap:

[Electric Sheep]

Gummi Bear is an electrician.

[seriesV]

I've been an electrician for 20+ yrs, owned my own business for over 10 and still love my job. Just remember 120 makes you feel funny, 277 will send you to heaven.

Good luck.

:nodlaugh: yeah, 120'll sting ya a bit :eyepoke: 277'll wake ya right up :stickbeat but its the 480 that ya really gotta watch out for :pitchfork - well at my work at least.

[Gummi Bear]

Congratulations.

Report back this winter, when it's cold and raining, and you're in a ductbank. If you're still having fun, then you've definitely found the right job for you.

I started out digging ditches, and threading GRC. I studied hard and finished at the top of my class in apprenticeship school, and busted ass on the job. I started estimating a few years ago (8 already), and have run jobs, done service work, and done a lot of the bend pipe pull wire.

One more thing, to add to cf2112's advice:

When I was a second year apprentice, I was doing some service at a shop where the lights couldn't be turned off while we changed ballasts. I got tangled up, and fell off of a 8' ladder. When I came to a few minutes later, I spit all my fillings out into my hand. 277 will make you hurt.

Pay attention, and work everything like it's hot. Wear your hardhat and safety glasses at all times, keep good boots, and pay very close attention to your surroundings, this will keep you safe on the jobsite for years to come.

Congratulations again.

[Rank_Tyro]

It's funny, just about every electrician you find on a jobsite will have a set of cutters that has a little burn/weld spot on the jaws......

:)

[cf2112]

One more thing, to add to cf2112's advice:

When I was a second year apprentice, I was doing some service at a shop where the lights couldn't be turned off while we changed ballasts. I got tangled up, and fell off of a 8' ladder. When I came to a few minutes later, I spit all my fillings out into my hand. 277 will make you hurt.

Pay attention, and work everything like it's hot. Wear your hardhat and safety glasses at all times, keep good boots, and pay very close attention to your surroundings, this will keep you safe on the jobsite for years to come.

Congratulations again.

Gummi, I did a simaliar thing in a hospital. I got hung on a 277v nuetral standing on top of an 8' ladder (my journeyman told me it was off:angerFU: ) last time I trusted anybody. I check everything and still treat it like it's hot:yes:

Have fun and be safe:smokingbo

[Wasch_24]

I'm not an electrician, but I've done most of the electrical work on my home and I've helped some of my friends.

Here are some pics of the work I did in my last neighborhood ...
Whoa!

Nice work Ted. :rofl:

[BORIStheBLADE]

I am a electrician too. I have been doing it for almost ten years.
Great money, great trade women think your smart cause you mess with electricity. Women are so stupid........
Enjoy your time as an app. Team up with a old timer whenever you can, they have the best stories and they know all they tricks.

[MithShrike]

I'm no electrician, but I love the scrap (copper) they leave behind!

We leave NOTHING behind.

[MithShrike]

Congratulations.

Report back this winter, when it's cold and raining, and you're in a ductbank. If you're still having fun, then you've definitely found the right job for you.

I started out digging ditches, and threading GRC. I studied hard and finished at the top of my class in apprenticeship school, and busted ass on the job. I started estimating a few years ago (8 already), and have run jobs, done service work, and done a lot of the bend pipe pull wire.

One more thing, to add to cf2112's advice:

When I was a second year apprentice, I was doing some service at a shop where the lights couldn't be turned off while we changed ballasts. I got tangled up, and fell off of a 8' ladder. When I came to a few minutes later, I spit all my fillings out into my hand. 277 will make you hurt.

Pay attention, and work everything like it's hot. Wear your hardhat and safety glasses at all times, keep good boots, and pay very close attention to your surroundings, this will keep you safe on the jobsite for years to come.

Congratulations again.

Thanks for the advice. I'm in AZ so the summer is what I gotta worry about, not the winter.

[cvm4]

We leave NOTHING behind.

I've mainly worked on big jobs (5+ story buildings) and well, you get the picture. Something is always left behind.

[Rank_Tyro]

My shocking experience came about from overconfidence and wanting to show off a bit.

I was an Air Force weapons troop, and part of my job was maintaining the gun system on F-16's. One of those jobs was performing a functional check on the gun system on a monthly basis.

The M-61a1 20mm gatling gun fires it's ammunition electrically. A round is fed into one of the chambers of a 6 barrel gatling gun, and then the barrel is moved into the firing position. When that happens, the firing pin slams into the primer of the shell and then 300 volts at .25 amps is fed into it which fires the shell.

Well, when you test the gun, you disconnect the lead from the gun itself and then test it to see if the voltage is there when you pull the trigger on the stick. The tester is called a "beer can", and has a transformer in it that steps down the voltage to something that will just lite up an led to show if voltage is present.

One of the steps in the checklist you use is to put the end of the test cable onto a pad of steel wool in order to check and see if there is a short in the cable. I didn't do that step......

I was stationed in Korea, and was dropped off in front of an Arch to do a functional check on an airplane that had not fired it's gun in over a month. I had a rookie "two man" to help me out.

We hooked up the power and air conditioning and started the check. I was on a ladder underneath the gun compartment, hooking up the tester to the gun firing lead, (this was where I skipped the test of the beer can). The rookie was in the cockpit turning on and setting the computers for the test. I was coaching him on what switches to turn on to program the SMS for a gun firing.

After everything was set up I told him to pull the trigger. At that point, I removed the safety pin which provided an electrical disconnect. The next part of the test was supposed to go like this......."trigger pulled, pin removed, light on. Pin in, light off. Release trigger, pin out, beer can set to stray voltage setting, light off".

Unfortunately, I was going from memory and forgot to test the lead. When he pulled the trigger, I was holding the beer can in my left hand, with my right hand holding the connection INSIDE the jet itself. Since the test lead had a short in it, when he pulled the trigger, all of that electicity was sent through my body into the fuel tank I was leaning on. I could NOT let go.

When he pulled the trigger, he was waiting for me to tell him over the comset that I had a light on the tester. Unfortunately, I was being electrocuted and could not speak a word. He sat there for about 10 seconds holding the trigger, waiting for me to talk to him. He finally turned around to the left to see what I was doing, and when he saw me with my hair standing up, eye's bulging, and back arching.......he started LAUGHING at me. This went on for about 7 seconds, and then he said, "oh shit" and let go of the trigger.

I promptly fell off the ladder and lay on the ground twitching. The rookie ran to the phone in the arch and called the MOC and they radioed my boss who drove out and then called the ambulance.

It was not my best moment ever......................