[tkrussell]

Ok, I am in a weird mood. Let's lighten this forum up a bit.

It is going to be a long winter, except maybe for Stratmando. Does it get chilly down there in Key West? Say, maybe even down to 70? Poor baby.

I would send you a sweater, but it was +5 deg here last week. Even though it was 50 today, I know the fresh, cold, bone dry, Canadian air is on the border. How do they do it all winter up there?

We seem to have a good, steady, eager bunch here, with all kinds of experience, and stories.

How about sharing some "war stories"? Like the time I was on top of a 10 foot aluminum ladder working 277 volts live, and the hot wire hit me in the head? Twice. And I lived!

Or code, I see many posts getting added to with code discussions. Good discussions, probably should be their own posts. I wonder what admin thinks sometimes. So far, no complaints, but... never know.

I wonder what the OP (original posters) think sometimes, too. Some must see all the posts, us going back and forth, and say to themselves, jeez, sorry I asked.

Strat, ever get the answer to the Parallel conductors you asked?

Ever short something out in front of a customer, and tell them you meant to do that? And then tell them you need to go for parts when you really need a clean pair of shorts?

Maybe on that note I will close.

But seriously, but not too much, anyone got anything to share. Or on their minds?

Ever get drunk on the job, and go back to the boss and tell him it was his fault? And he bought it?

I got a million of them.

[CaptainRich]

Tk, yer killin' me!
As an auto tech, I've seen, and done, some dumb stuff, too! It's all part of the learning curve!
As long as we all go home with all our fingers and toes, it's a good day!

[twinkiedooter]

You must be bored! Just wait a few more days and we should be hit with another snow storm, below zero weather, and who knows what else to entertain us. You must have missed the Australian tourist post. I laughed so hard I fell off my chair. If I find it, I'll post the link for you.

[twinkiedooter]

Here it is. https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/humor-...sm-169535.html. Read this and try not to fall down laughing...

[donf]

TK,

I've got one for you. While I was a field tech, our office started getting calls from the USN to meet the USS Harlan County at the "Phib" base here in Virginia Beach.

She started radio calls about 100 miles out. Their copier died and they needed copies of some "Bohica Forms" for re-enlistments. (For those who have never had the pleasure of serving, "BOHICA" is black shoe sailor talk for, "Bend Over Here It Comes Again" -- Reasons to re-up!

Our tech got to Little Creek Amphip base to greet the ship as it was piloted in. He gets on board and is taken below decks to the ships office. And there to his delight is 1500 lbs of copier laying on it's side smashed to to bits.

It seems that the ship hit heavy weather on the way back home and the copier had slipped its tie downs and spent several hours sliding back and forth, up and down until an Ensign (specifically a 90 day wonder Ensign) tried to stop the mortally wounded copier from moving by stepping in front of the copier at the apex of a swell. Two broken legs later and 5 of the crew with minor injuries they managed to get the beast re-secured.

The office Lt. Jg. Asks the tech how long it will take to get it up and running.

With a "Sam Elliott" face and soft voice. The CE told the Jg. It would take about 20 minutes. The Jg. Says, okay, get to work. CE says, get the Chief in here and give me a PO for a Copier and a Crane. Make arrangements to cut the deck open so the crane can lift the carcass out. Call us when the new copier gets here and we'll be back. In the meantime, step next door to Disbursing and use the copier that's installed there.

With that the two of us turn and leave. Neither of us offered last rights to the long gone copier, but I almost took the express elevator down to the Quaywall from the Quarterdeck I was laughing so hard!

[KingsX]

As a Canadian on the forum, I just would like to say that winter is no problem! But we all live really close to the border so its not really different then Washington, or Minnesota, New York, Maine, etc.

I haven't had any major things to report, but I thought I'd say hi from the Great White North!

[kp2171]

Tk, you made my night. Cracking up here.

Maybe not the same, but its all I got. Just a diy'er who loves to watch you pros do your thing here.

Not a funny story really, but more of thank-God-i-was-there moment.

Went to see my wife's mother in Mississippi this year at thankgiving. She bought a new home (older construction) and we went to check it out. The vacation became a workweek as there was so much work that needed to be done on the place, and my wife and I are able to do the work. Four days of nonstop work sunup to sundown... though we did make it to the gulf coast for a few hours one day.

First night there my wife freaks out cause she finds mouse droppings in the bathroom cabinets. This is rural Mississippi, so there are critters all over. But her mother is half blind and didn't know better to clean them up. Plus, she's a country girl who thinks a frog in the bath just keeps out the bugs.

So my wife is on edge already. City girl whose idea of camping is siting in a 1500 sq ft newer built log cabin with a book by the fireplace drinking a glass of pinot noir.

Two days in they are doing laundry and its taking forever to dry. I'm busy teaching my 4 year old how to run the lawn tractor up and down the back 40 so I do a mental note. That night just before bed I place my hand by the vent outside and feel no air. Crap. Mental note to take care of this tomorrow. Dryers vent hose is probably undone.

Tomorrow comes and I have other things to do immediately. We're leaving in 8 hours and I have 10 hours of work just to pretend I'm OK being done.

The day goes on and I get everything on the must do list done with no time to spare. On the way to the shower I hear my mother in law tell her husband to check the breaker cause the dryer stopped running.

The dryer... I forgot to check it out. That morning I saw there was a bunch of lint in the laundry room and it was humid as all heck, so of course the dryer is just venting into the room. Great. Almost forgot about the dryer.

So I tell him to check the box after I pull the dryer out and see I need to reconnect the flex hose to the outside wall and cut about 2/3rds of it off. He resets the breaker that had tripped.

I'm squatting behind the dryer in bad light so I can't see much but in a few seconds I hear crackling, I smell burning, and I see an orange glow that is obviously getting bigger and just might be a flame any second now just below the outlet. I yell for him to throw the breaker now and he does.

Long story short... I take apart everything at the wall and as I'm working the pa-in-law asks what's the problem. I grab the problem with my needle nose pliers and show him.

The moist environment in the laundry was condensing water in the box. A mouse had climbed up inside, perhaps wanting a drink or perhaps just exploring. Crossed the wires. Fried mouse. Double electrocution I'm guessing.

Scary thing for me was seeing the really bright orange glow when he threw the breaker back on. Don't know if theyd have had a fire before it blew again, but I can tell you... having been standing right there watching the glow come through the sheathing... I'm thinking maybe it was one of those moments when I was meant to be there.

They never would have fixed the dryer and they never would have moved it out before throwing the breaker over and over. Maybe its just me being melodramatic, but I've never been so close to an electrical fire, and with all that lint, I just imagined what wouldve happened that night if theyd run a cycle before bed.

It'll never play as good since you weren't there, but there's my story. Moral is two problems can become one huge one if left unfixed?

[Stratmando]

Hey TK, I'm in Tavernier, Key West is 100 Miles away. A whole different place. Looks like another t-Shirt day. Most Are, Not trying to rub it in.
Didn't get the parallel answer, Larger than 1/0 or lower than 50 Volts. Many Electricians don't work the Low Voltage, And Many Low Voltage people usually don't work with 1/0.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Here is one of the weirdest calls. The customer said they heard a loud Bang, Power went
Off, then back on. They said their A/C wasn't working. I measured voltage at the A/C and
Has 120 From 1 hot to ground, the other hot to ground was 120 Volts. But between the 2 hotlegs was Zero Volts, I went to the Breaker Panel, and had same readings, 120 volts from each hot leg to ground, but zero between the 2 hots.
Then I measured at Meter Can, and Had 120 volts to ground on both legs, but here I had
240 Volts between the 2 hots.
My only answer was,Somehow the 2 hots shorted together, then blew one side open (coming from meter), and the 1 good hotleg was now fused together going to the 2 hots that feed the Panel. Very Weird, they lost use of all the 240 volt Equipment.
The 1 hot leg that opened had fused to Aluminum Conduit.
When I told them, they thought I was a Nut, I then Pulled out the damage wiring with a Truck, took several tries to get it to break loose. Pulled new wire in, Works fine.
Originally was going to ask what others thought problem was, It seemed too out of the ordinary?

[chuckhole]

The power supply on one of our computers here at work fried. Opened the box up and found a dead snake (about 18" long) that went down with the sinking ship.

[donf]

Chuck,

I went out to a construction trailer that had just been put down in Chesapeake and the typewriter had stopped working and smelled terrible.

When I got the typewriter vertical in its covers, I found the field mouse still frozen to the only constant hot line in the unit.

TK,

This one comes from my nephew-in-law. Two characters - Mike and his step daughter Am****. One sunny afternoon this past summer, Mike was using a bench grinder to sharpen the blades of the riding lawn mower.

AM (just graduated from Va. Tech, Bus. Mgmt.) comes into the garage and asks Mike what he was doing. Pointing to the blades, Mike say, "I'm sharpening the mower's blades."

With that, Am, walks to the mower, starts it and proceeds to mow both front and back yards. When she finished, she sees Mike in the hammock and tells him to keep on relaxing. Even though it doesn't look it, the yard is finished.

Mike says, "Thanks, now I can put the blades in and re-mow the yard!"

[KingsX]

I work with professonal audio and video and other sound equipment including concert backline, and one time setting up for a show we heard something big clunking around in a guitar speaker cabinet. We assumed at first that a magnet had fallen off, but when we tested it, they all worked fine. So we cracked open the cabinet, and inside was a cordless drill! Which begs the question, did he then borrow another drill to screw the back on, or did he go old school with a screw driver!

We've also found other tools inside equipment and power amps are very popular houses for mice!

[Stratmando]

Went to repair a stove as all cooktop units failed to work, When I took the first control apart it was full of ants, no room for any more, fried. This happened when it got cold down here and the ants went from control to control for the heat of the Indicator and control when used, until each failed?

[donf]

AH- Tools and misc stuff found inside...

Back in late 70s; IBM Lexington, KY released a Model 70 Electronic Printer. Then we released another Gussied up version of the same printer inside white covers and Gold lettering. With an IBM 50 years of typewriters written in gold leaf on the right rear of the cover. A beauty.

Well a poor unsuspecting lady paid for the fancy box and when it came in, she swore the house and typewriter were going to disintegrate from the noise.

I got the "Drop what you are doing" call and hot footed it over to the customer. Took the covers off, turned it on, zero noise. Looked inside the top cover and there was the villain.

One of the quality check line workers had stamped his approval on the typewriter, slapped on the cover and latched it down. His name stamp with it's statement about quality was left inside just over the motor mounts. When the cover got jammed down, the stamp compressed the motor mounts allowing the clutch driven motor pulley and related detentes to beat the devil out of each other.

I sent the stamp, pawls, pulley, rubber motor mounts back to our technical support team, thanking them for such wonderful quality control from our manfacturing counterparts. :)

[tkrussell]

Well, no one asked about drinking on the job, so I will fill you in, I love telling this story.

I worked for a contractor that was of Italian heritage, born in USA, but had many pisans in the area. Immigrants from all over would come to the area for work in the mills, and of course, each nationality would congregate in one area.

So, me being one of his cracker jack electricians I was chosen for all of his "important" clients, if you get my drift.

One I was sent to, I forget what I had to do one morning, just some routine wiring, was a pleasant elderly gentleman, a character right out of a movie, with the wool sweater, the shirt buttoned to the top, the felt Fedora hat, thick Italian accent, just like many I have met.

Did what I had to do up to lunch time, when he offered to feed me lunch. One thing I learned was that when food and drink was offered, declining was not an option. They are just a very hospitable culture, not sitting down with him would be somewhat of an insult, and I know how to chose my battles.

Well, I was presented with fresh Italian bread, cheeses, antipasto, and other typical working class foods, along with home made Port wine.

While I knew I was not to drink alcohol on the job, I had a small glass without making a big deal of it, just to get through lunch, not hurt his feelings, and just get back to work, and avoid an International incident.

One small glass of wine is no big deal for me, esp with all the food, plus, I am no light weight, I can handle some booze, so this should be no problem.

He was such an interesting old gentleman, not lonely mind you, as he lived with a large family, he was just happy to have someone sit with him during the day, I guess. He had been a very hard worker, owned a business, all his family were out working it.

Half hour turned into an hour quickly, and I said I better get back to work.

He said, firmly, "You just sitta you a** down and enjoy, I amma paying the bill, you tella you boss I saidaso, I amma the boss now. Ifa he got a problem, tella him to coma see me."

I ended up sitting there a into overtime, eating, drinking, talking, drinking... we had a grand time.

Man that wine was so good... we polished off an entire jug.

Now mind you this is not the first time I was offered and had some from the many clients I worked for, but never to this extent.

Needless to say I had me a nice buzz going when I left and drove back to the shop, the boss waiting for me there, a half hour after normal end time.

Instead of trying to hide any effects, I was fine, no slurring or and real serious effects of drinking, but clearly I was under the influence, I stood in front of his desk, he liked a report from everyone of the day's progress, and began with "Sure I am drunk, but this is all your fault, your keep sending me to your "buddies" and I cannot refuse anything they offer, I cannot insult them, you know how they are!"

He came back with, " So your not done?"

Nope.

"Then you go back tomorrow, and continue until he let's you finish".

This one day job took me three days to do, every day the client and I sat for lunch and killed the entire afternoon.

And each day I would get back home to the wife, feeling great, and she asked, "working in the Italian neighborhood again?"

Yep, I love my job.

And I got a jug of Port wine to bring home.

The good old days.

[donf]

Okay, 4 more U.S. Navy ship service calls. Two for the same ship.

U.S.S Fairfax County:

1) IBM sent me on yet another, drop what you are doing call to the beautiful Quaywall. All U.S. Navy ships use, "Drop center desks'. This is a space saving desk that allows you to mount the typewriter to a hold down plate and then drop the typewriter out of site when not needed. The ship's newest typewriter had been received that day, so the Chief prevailed upon a Navy CB to bolt the typewriter to the desk. When they turned the typewriter on to test it, I ground to a stop, with a noise from Hell sound.

The CB, had used an 8 inch bolt to come up from the sheet metal tray under the typewriter and into the operational cams and related clutches. When they turned the unit on, it was a horrific death.

What you are supposed to do is mount the bottom cover to the sheet metal tray with 4 1/4 inch bolts and cover caps. Not 8 inches of solid steel bolt.

Once again on the Fairfax County, the ship had just returned from a cruise to the Med. They received a brand new 19" wide Correcting Selectric!! The seaman that unpacked the unit, took it out of the box and went to place the new machine on the Chief's desk. With that, he stepped on the line cord, pulled the typewriter out of his own hands. Flight time for the machine was mercifully short, however, the crash was unable to be controlled. The typewriter hit the deck on the left rear of the frame, fracturing the frame and destroying the typewriter.

Once again, let us re-visit the U.S.S. Harlan County. This lady hit some really foul weather on the way home from the Med. Everything in the ships office was secured according to the rules, except A small weapons save that rolled over and crushed the typewriter on one of the clerks.

Last but not least, I went on-board of an oiler that was berthed at the U.S. Nay's D & S piers. The ship had also suffered damage at the hands of the sea on a return voyage. The Ships office was located just inside a weatherdeck WTD along the Port side hull wall.

The Ship's Office, had a split NWT door entrance way. After the heavy weather broke, the clerk opend the door, and was nearly drowned because someone had not doged downed the WTD to the weather deck and the ship's office filled with seawater drowning several typewriters.

[kp2171]

Wife's italian, but 2nd generation US... so its not the "good old days", but there are still some truths.

If the boys break out the shot glasses and a bottle of sambuca or someone's homemade lemoncello the truths are:

1) the bottle will be emptied by nights end
2) many lies will be told (wife says old italian men are
Worse that a group of pecking hens)
3) bail might need to be made
4) if you are asked to play bocce out back, you do it
5) its not the first time drunk bocce has been played there

You might as well dial 9-1 on the phone and wait...

I remember the first time I was there when a bottle was opened. It like it was holy water blessed with Christ's own hands. It was pretty cool, how much it connected them together and to their past.

Have a cousin who was in spain in the service. He's been back in the states for 15 years now... good life... but I think hed gladly take a year off his life for a great bottle of homemade sangria. Nothing he's had here, bottled or homemade, has come close for him.

[kp2171]

Getting off topic from electrical, but these are all I've got and it fits the mood of the thread at least.

I'm a chemist.

Short horror story - kid at some school isn't using the proper safety can for acetone... in fact he's decided to put it into a wash bottle and light the stream on fire. Backflashes, now he is on fire. Teacher goes to get the fire blanket, opens the wall case... it is still in the original thick plastic wrapping it was shipped in. lesson learned the hard way... check your safety equipment BEFORE you need it.

Another horror story - our lab safety officer reported to a genereal safety director who was a rules and regulation guy... meaning he had poor scientific knowledge but he knew the red tape rules and reg's... he was a face guy. Safety officer has done a great job of getting rid of 95% of some really nasty stuff in his time there... so he's pretty proud.

One day he comes to me looking sullen. He found in the basement a lead container that was being used to hold open a door. He knows its lead. He knows its probably got something radioactive. He tells the big dog.

Later, next day he gets a call from the big dog. The guy says don't worry, no problem. My guy says really, what did the hazmat guys say? Big dog says they hadn't come yet... but hed OPENED THE CONTAINER AND IT LOOKED EMPTY. I wanted to puke.

Short end... it was radioactive, but hazmat said it wasn't going to hurt anyone... don't remember what it was... but ugly lesson number two - don't open the radioactive waste container to "check it out"...

Last one for now - physical chemists are a unique breed. They practice at the merging of math, physics, and chemistry. They have to be able to do these great mathematical gymnastics and still see the application in little cartoon drawings in their head. But I knew one who I wouldn't want to cook me toast.

Ever see how a doc can freeze a wart using liquid nitrogen? Well this p chemist had one on his hand. And we had a nuclear magnetic resonance machine that used liq N and He to cool the electromagnet. So the brainiac gets a dewar flask and proceeds to fill it with some liq N. OK. Fine.

Unlike the doc however, who uses a q tip to touch only the smallest area with the liq N he pours it like water... only this liquid is about -300F. Instant, immediate frostbite all over his hand. The guy had his hand bandaged for well over a week. And he told everyone what happened like it was no big deal... like there was no blame to be placed and clearly no real lesson learned. Moral - some smart people can be dumb and dumber.

[rtw_travel]

On the Canadian west coast, I should point out that we get all our cold air from Alaska, so it only seems fair that we give it back to you!

As a young electrical engineer in a power plant, we ran a commissioning test on a 500MW (big!) turbine. Basically, it was a load rejection and loss of power test to see that everything worked in an emergency. In theory, a 'class 1' (battery operated) lube oil pump was supposed to start to supply turbine bearing lubrication while the turbine slowed down.

So the turbine is running at full speed... the operator trips it and shuts down the regular power. The normal lube oil pumps shut down. Backup power comes on instantly. The backup pump starts... and then trips on starting because the breaker was set incorrectly. The whole turbine comes to a screeching halt. This all happens in about 30 seconds, and we spend the next 6 months replacing bearings.

Normal electrical practise says to always use a breaker. This is probably the only case where I'd rather put a penny in place of a fuse and melt the pump into the ground rather than have it trip.

[pelle]

I work for an electric and gas utility:
Had to change a meter for a residential cust underground service.. Explained to the cust the power would be out about 15 - 20 sec.. Cust wanted to watch.. pulled the meter and both line clips came with the meter and welded against the meter channel.. never seen anybody jump so quick (me).. the cust just stood there in awe of the noise and sparks.. Needles to say I dumped the transformer and knocked out 8 customers for about 2 hours before the line dept could show up..
Went to a fire call and needed to cut the service taps for the fire dept.. couldn't get near the house so went to the mid-span taps took out my trusty telepole and cutters and managed to weld the cutters to the neutral about 15' up in the air.. Stood there and waited near my hanging pole until line dept came to get it.. can't even repeat the comments on this forum..

[Stratmando]

Anyone change out a live Meter Can?