That hum

[FROGMAN524]

Freaks me out just watching. Lost an uncle when his ham radio antenna he was mounting touched a power line.

 

[4Waters]

Is that 220 or 221

 

[Backlash]

Is that 220 or 221

Whatever it takes.

 

[HNL2LHC]

What is up with the hook pole? In case he has an issue and has to be pulled away? If so that is scary.

 

[TrollerDave]

Not a fan of noisy electricity. ️

 

[4Waters]

What is up with the hook pole? In case he has an issue and has to be pulled away? If so that is scary.

Yes

 

[Lumpy]

Try getting lit up by 240…wet hand to wet hand on a stainless steel tank filled with water bonded by water and copper to ground…ya know those old cylinder breakers that don't work unless they are over 50 amps they were rated for? I did that. System kept running…felt it from hand to heart to hand.

 

[Javajoe]

I was unhooking a welding ground to a steel column and with the clamp in one hand and other hand resting on the column when he decided to stick weld again. My fault, I was young and was drinking. Made my teeth hurt. It didn’t last long but holy shit

 

[FROGMAN524]

One time I was cutting some #10 wire that I thought was dead for whatever reason; it was 277v. I cut the hot and the neutral together with a pair of wire cutters. There was a loud bang, flash of light and the cutters literally exploded. I fell off the ladder and ran for my life.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Love the 60 cycle hum...

It is when you hear the Bzzzztttt that things are going bad.

 

[hallett21]

One time I was cutting some #10 wire that I thought was dead for whatever reason; it was 277v. I cut the hot and the neutral together with a pair of wire cutters. There was a loud bang, flash of light and the cutters literally exploded. I fell off the ladder and ran for my life.

Did the same but phase to phase so 480. Threw me off of a 8ft ladder, blew up my dykes and rattled me for a day or 2.

 

[chadzilla]

That sounds sketchy... My childhood friend is an electrician and showed me a video of him and his crew throwing the breakers for a school that they had just finished wiring. As they flipped the breakers, there was a significant "bang" if you will. I asked him about it and he said that the breaker lever is a "loaded" switch in that there is either a very large spring inside that preloads the actual contact switch or a small explosive charge that throws the contact switch. Reason is a human can not throw the switch fast enough and the power will create a very large arc and burn the contacts. Crazy stuff!

 

[jesco]

Did the same but phase to phase so 480. Threw me off of a 8ft ladder, blew up my dykes and rattled me for a day or 2.

Same here.... cut through a 30a/3p-480V feed for a cardboard bailor. Superintendent took off my lock (never found out how he got the key) and turned the breaker on thinking I was done hooking it up. Fire ball about the size of a basketball hit me in the chest, left large black mark on my shirt, singed my chest hair, and blew a hole in my strippers I could put my pinky through. Eyes we cloudy and seeing white spots for a few hours also... good times.

 

[DirtyWhiteDog]

The fact that they made the pole/tool is why I'll stick with residential 240

 

[NicPaus]

Did the same but phase to phase so 480. Threw me off of a 8ft ladder, blew up my dykes and rattled me for a day or 2.

Most Sparkies are a bit Off. Few to many volts will do it Lol. Your still Young and Normal hahaha

 

[DLC]

I touched a 9 volt battery to my tongue once and Im still not right in the head…

dam smoke detectors - chirping away….

 

[GreenEnergy28]

This was a while ago, but still wild.

 

[QC22]

Try getting lit up by 240…wet hand to wet hand on a stainless steel tank filled with water bonded by water and copper to ground…ya know those old cylinder breakers that don't work unless they are over 50 amps they were rated for? I did that. System kept running…felt it from hand to heart to hand.

This explains a lot.

 

[Sherpa]

Same here.... cut through a 30a/3p-480V feed for a cardboard bailor. Superintendent took off my lock (never found out how he got the key) and turned the breaker on thinking I was done hooking it up. Fire ball about the size of a basketball hit me in the chest, left large black mark on my shirt, singed my chest hair, and blew a hole in my strippers I could put my pinky through. Eyes we cloudy and seeing white spots for a few hours also... good times.

I would have punched him in the face hard as I could.

 

[CLdrinker]

Try being in an UG vault doing inventory and the lineman starts pulling on 16kv cable so we can find the date tag.
Or after you just pump out a structure and that switch is humming. It was submerged 5min ago and now it’s bone dry.

 

[Taboma]

That sounds sketchy... My childhood friend is an electrician and showed me a video of him and his crew throwing the breakers for a school that they had just finished wiring. As they flipped the breakers, there was a significant "bang" if you will. I asked him about it and he said that the breaker lever is a "loaded" switch in that there is either a very large spring inside that preloads the actual contact switch or a small explosive charge that throws the contact switch. Reason is a human can not throw the switch fast enough and the power will create a very large arc and burn the contacts. Crazy stuff!

Yes, they have both motorized breakers where an electric motor, something akin to a large ole drill motor, pre-charges the extremely heavy duty spring, or manually charged, where you crank or lever a handle back and forth to pre-charge the spring. When you to open or close the breaker you push a button and there's a very loud bang --- or you better hope so, because if de-energizing you do not want to draw an arc. Desirably you've already disconnected downstream loads, so there's little current draw on the circuit.
The higher 5-15KV enclosed breakers I'm familiar with (and said a silent prayer whenever I had to push that button) all had an additional "Puffer", that would give a blast of air when de-energizing the breaker in order to mitigate and immediately suppress any blade arcing.
Even your common home panel breakers use an internal spring to open or close the contacts rapidly.
The open style switches line crews deal with as an entirely different matter and I think they enjoy disconnecting under a heavy load so they can slowly open the switch and watch the lovely arc --- those dudes are far stranger than us "Normal" sparky types.
I'm not familiar with any breaker types that use an explosive charge --- unless they just blow the f*ck up, then you best seek distance because if it creates a plasma cloud of vaporized copper, you're day and life just went to shit.

 

[Taboma]

Try being in an UG vault doing inventory and the lineman starts taking on 16kv cable so we can find the date tag.
Or after you just pump out a structure and that switch is humming. It was submerged 5min ago and now it’s bone dry.

Spent four years doing exactly that, replacing all their old 15KV lead-covered cable and new building new substations on San Diego area Navy bases --- all their manholes are filled with water.
My old cable splicer was killed on a subsequent manhole splicing job at the then new Otay Prison complex. It was a 15KV double ended circuit, problem was two contractors and by coincidence two separate outages taking place simultaneously on each side of the loop --- a total circle jerk because neither contractor new about the other having the outage. Circuit tested and de-energized for both splicers --- contractor A, finished their splice first, and re-energizes his end of the loop ---- promptly blowing up and killing splicer working for contractor B at the other end of the once de-energized loop ---

 

[Sleek-Jet]

This was a while ago, but still wild.

That was a failure of the circuit switcher contact in one of those big horizontal insulator looking things. The motor operated disconnects don't move fast enough, or have arcing horns to snuff out the arc. The arc rose as the ionized super heated air did and didn't snuff out till it (the arc) reached the static wire above the bus work and caused a ground fault with opened the up stream breaker.

 

[FROGMAN524]

Yes, they have both motorized breakers where an electric motor, something akin to a large ole drill motor, pre-charges the extremely heavy duty spring, or manually charged, where you crank or lever a handle back and forth to pre-charge the spring. When you to open or close the breaker you push a button and there's a very loud bang --- or you better hope so, because if de-energizing you do not want to draw an arc. Desirably you've already disconnected downstream loads, so there's little current draw on the circuit.
The higher 5-15KV enclosed breakers I'm familiar with (and said a silent prayer whenever I had to push that button) all had an additional "Puffer", that would give a blast of air when de-energizing the breaker in order to mitigate and immediately suppress any blade arcing.
Even your common home panel breakers use an internal spring to open or close the contacts rapidly.
The open style switches line crews deal with as an entirely different matter and I think they enjoy disconnecting under a heavy load so they can slowly open the switch and watch the lovely arc --- those dudes are far stranger than us "Normal" sparky types.
I'm not familiar with any breaker types that use an explosive charge --- unless they just blow the f*ck up, then you best seek distance because if it creates a plasma cloud of vaporized copper, you're day and life just went to shit.

 

[FROGMAN524]

Spent four years doing exactly that, replacing all their old 15KV lead-covered cable and new building new substations on San Diego area Navy bases --- all their manholes are filled with water.
My old cable splicer was killed on a subsequent manhole splicing job at the then new Otay Prison complex. It was a 15KV double ended circuit, problem was two contractors and by coincidence two separate outages taking place simultaneously on each side of the loop --- a total circle jerk because neither contractor new about the other having the outage. Circuit tested and de-energized for both splicers --- contractor A, finished their splice first, and re-energizes his end of the loop ---- promptly blowing up and killing splicer working for contractor B at the other end of the once de-energized loop ---

What would happen to your body with that much power?

 

[Sleek-Jet]

What would happen to your body with that much power?

It cooks you from the inside out.

 

[rrrr]

Did the same but phase to phase so 480. Threw me off of a 8ft ladder, blew up my dykes and rattled me for a day or 2.

I learned long ago not to cut more than one conductor at a time, even though I had performed checks for voltage on circuits grouped in a junction box or panel enclosure.

Mislabeled conductors and similar traps laid by others are always waiting to kill you.

 

[jesco]

I would have punched him in the face hard as I could.

Oh I was REALLY close. Only reason I didnt was he in his 70s and was forced to go back to work losing all his retirement money in a scam, so we all felt bad for him. Had he been a younger Super, I would have def throttled him. I told him that and he started crying and kept saying how sorry he was as I was loading up my truck and walking off the job.

 

[Racey]

Try getting lit up by 240…wet hand to wet hand on a stainless steel tank filled with water bonded by water and copper to ground…ya know those old cylinder breakers that don't work unless they are over 50 amps they were rated for? I did that. System kept running…felt it from hand to heart to hand.

Good news is 240 to ground is 120 (unless it's a rare open delta 3 phase on the wild leg). Bad news is you were wet on both ends

One time I was cutting some #10 wire that I thought was dead for whatever reason; it was 277v. I cut the hot and the neutral together with a pair of wire cutters. There was a loud bang, flash of light and the cutters literally exploded. I fell off the ladder and ran for my life.

In some ways you are lucky you were cutting the neutral at the same time and juice went through the pliers and not through your body, holy shit

Once you break that 200 volt barrier the chances of survival start falling rapidly.


Taking a direct hit through your body on just the 30 volts a TIG welder puts out will wake your ass up and doesn't feel good at all.

 

[Taboma]

What would happen to your body with that much power?

As sleek-jet stated --- cooked well done, or if it results in a fireball with extensive burns or worse yet, the copper bus bars start vaporizing, with even far worse results.
The factors are almost infinitely variable from cataphoric to miraculous. One of my sparkys after working far to long on a shut-down made what should have been a fatal mistaken --- stuck his hand into one of the 15KV phases. So he took about 7.5KV into his knuckle, the foreman standing next to him heard him "Arghhhh", grabbed his belt, pulled him out and his pants were on fire at his knee. He ended up with a tiny hole in his knuckle and another matching one in his knee cap --- that's it. Doctor checking him afterwards couldn't believe it. 20 years later I ran into him on a job and both holes were still visible --- he should have been fried, but wasn't ????

 

[HNL2LHC]

I touched a 9 volt battery to my tongue once and Im still not right in the head…

dam smoke detectors - chirping away….

Now that explains a few things I always wondered about you….

 

[Lumpy]

This explains a lot.

Kelly and I cant wait to see you and Chere again! Im bring a battery charger this time!

 

[QC22]

and Im bring the Clown Juice!

 

[Taboma]

Good news is 240 to ground is 120 (unless it's a rare open delta 3 phase on the wild leg). Bad news is you were wet on both ends



In some ways you are lucky you were cutting the neutral at the same time and juice went through the pliers and not through your body, holy shit

Once you break that 200 volt barrier the chances of survival start falling rapidly.


Taking a direct hit through your body on just the 30 volts a TIG welder puts out will wake your ass up and doesn't feel good at all.

In a sweltering hot LandingCraftMedium engine room, your sweaty ass sitting on an aluminum or steel stringer, that 24V DC can cause your asshole to puker right up too.