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i trained as a spatrk inthe royal engineers, andi was never once told to check for dead with my hand. Check electric fences yes, but never anything else.
 
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If I’ve been working with a gang on switchgear maintenance that I’d done the isolation on. The last thing I’d do is the back of my hand on each open cable and bus bar, seeing is believing for the other lads. Only got bitten once, isolated a fixed capacitor bank and was a bit impatient!

Maybe “the last thing” wasn’t the best way of phrasing it!
 
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i trained as a spatrk inthe royal engineers, andi was never once told to check for dead with my hand. Check electric fences yes, but never anything else.

i was in the royal signals, it was part of the procedure for powering up a comms vehicle, written in books and the lot! when i look back, i think even the people teaching the subject didn't really know what electricity was about.
 
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I was going to post a thread about the worst shock you have ever had but never did it.

My worst shock was about 20 years ago. C/U in basement that was flooded with a foot of water. Old Wylex board, took the cover off put test lamp on L - N incomer, no light. Thought to myself i will just take off the plastic covers on L -N incomer. 1st time the lecky actually grabbed me and i could not let go! Because i had had so many shocks i could still think so i sat in the water and used my legs to push myself away! It felt like minuets but probably about 10 seconds i was getting an electric shock from one hand to another across my chest! Basically the terminals were loose in L - N terminals so did not light up test lamp! I didn't like it but maybe a lot of people would have died from the same situation.

But hey i'm a cat so another life gone!

Top Cat. I'm going to remember that: where possible not to check for voltage on the grub-screws of terminations and connections as they may be loose, but try to go for the solid bits or bare cores of the cables. That goes down in my book as a Very Top Tip. Thanks.
 
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Top Cat. I'm going to remember that: where possible not to check for voltage on the grub-screws of terminations and connections as they may be loose, but try to go for the solid bits or bare cores of the cables. That goes down in my book as a Very Top Tip. Thanks.

Thanks ACVC i will take that as a compliment not a p**s take!
 
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Worst belt i've had to date was off my sister in laws cooker. End of a long hard and hot day in a loft i still had the element to replace. Having replaced it i flicked everything on with all the covers off to check it. All warming up i switched the cooker off...........on the cooker itself leaving the isolator on. D'OH! Upon screwing on the back plate the back of my hand touched the terminals and WHACK!! It was quite funny, they were all sitting down eating dinner, jumped out of their seats. I put the cooker back together and went to put the RCD back in but low and behold it was the MCB which tripped, saving me from boiling myself. So much for RCD protection eh!

Check your RCD times and RCD trip current - might be time to replace it!
 
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No you Pi** on electric fences to check them!
Many moons ago when I was a young squadlet we were on yet another pointless exercise on Salisbury Plain, nobody gave a crap and we just meandered round whilst the officers did their jolly jape thing. Anyway the section Cpl decided to go for a ****, he unzipped and started to let the waters flow with not a care in the world. I called to him that it was an electric fence to which he told me to F off as he haven't got a jolt as he'd checked it and it was fine. having grown up around fences like that I might have told him it was on a repeating timer, lessons learnt.

Anyway he ended up sitting on his arse with sore bits and we had a smoke break whilst he recovered. Then we decided to take a short cut over the fence, so he nicely uses his weapon butt to hold the fence down whilst we all step over. This bloke was a bit of an idiot as we were issued Sterling SMG's which had a metal butt fitted. Got another smoke break out of it... :lol:
 
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A spark mate was using a 240 volt metal housing drill to hole the beams,cue earth fault and hands on pipes

He came shooting out of this bathroom as if it he been a cannonball, on to the landing with the drill still in his hands
I dont think he actually hit the floor until he smacked into the wall

He was shaking so badly,I had thoughts of putting a Hilti in his hands(off hammer of course) and letting him loose on drilling a hole through the stone wall, to calm the shakes a touch

I'm ashamed to say,it could have been tragic,but sadly laughter got the better of me
 
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A spark mate was using a 240 volt metal housing drill to hole the beams,cue earth fault and hands on pipes

He came shooting out of this bathroom as if it he been a cannonball, on to the landing with the drill still in his hands
I dont think he actually hit the floor until he smacked into the wall

He was shaking so badly,I had thoughts of putting a Hilti in his hands(off hammer of course) and letting him loose on drilling a hole through the stone wall, to calm the shakes a touch

I'm ashamed to say,it could have been tragic,but sadly laughter got the better of me

No different to the rest of us then!
 
Has anyone (else) noticed that some people can take an electric shock whilst others just die? Serious question, after an incident got me thinking: on a building site, some old cables were unearthed that I was about to test for live when a Polish labourer brushed his back hand against the potentially live cable to test it. He reckoned that whilst he had seen someone electrocuted, he himself had had a few near misses and never been much affected. It can't just be boots? I am a multi-trader and I have been shocked 3 times and I have to admit I was surprised to have been so insignificantly affected.

Another time, I came under the aim of a laser 2020 speed gun, on a motorbike, which tickled my back so incessantly that I accelerated off and had to argue a speeding ticket.

There is alot of factors involved, one is your body resistance if your body resistance is high you will not not get as bad a shock as someone with low resistance. another is obviously your heart if you have a weak heart getting a shock is not going to be a good thing.
 
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Very early in my apprenticeship we went on a job at a garage, big job lots of high bay lighting, 3ph lifts, inspection pits...I'm sure you get the idea.
So my mentor (who was a total swine, but a good teacher) assembles a mobile scaff, tells me to get up it and start stripping the old light fittings out "Don't worry" he says "I've killed the circuit". Up goes 16 year old Trev (who thinks he's bullet proof) about 20 feet armed with his trusty drivers and starts to strip out. The old bugger was watching for when I put my driver on to what would have been a permanent live, at that point he screamed "BANG!!!"
"After recovering my composure I said "What the hell did you do that for?"
"How did you know it was dead son" was his reply "Never take anyone's word for it"
Lesson learnt the easy way
 
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Check your RCD times and RCD trip current - might be time to replace it!

Brand new board, brand new RCD, installed and tested literally a fortnight before. Tested it again after it didn't pop but all came up fine. Amazing really. lml =)
 
british army still teach back of the hand test as standard, i still do it all the time before i touch any bare copper if theres any doubt as to wether or not it's live (even though i have just proved it dead) as you can't always trust bloody machines!

They don't exactly teach it as a way to prove dead though do they.

Mind you, I can agree with the latter part of your post. Even when I've proved dead and locked off I still give it a flick! I learnt the hard way when I proved dead, locked off, went to start stripping the sheath and got a belt whilst at the top of a metal ladder!

I still to this day don't know how it happened exactly, must have been a fault of some kind with my Martindale, either that or I just didn't use it properly! Anyway, yeah, thats why I flick, even when I'm 100% sure it's dead coz in this game, even being 100% sure just sometimes isn't good enough!
 
Mate of mine sat in the novelty electric chairs where you grab the bar grips in the amusements ... it shocked him so much he get off all sheepish and said now i know what it really like ...................!!!! Yeah right lol ... i just laughed ;)
 
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I was talking to Steve who was the handy man on this private estate. The guys who were installing a deer fence came over to say they had finished, this was a big run around 250 acres.

As typical of Steve there had been a lot of banter and friendly rubbing with the lads as he was that sort. Steve then asked how do you check the fence is working effectively, to which the old boy walked over and grabbed hold of the wire for half a minutes and says; just do that and you'll be able to tell.

Steve walks over, full of pee and vinegar and grabs hold, within a second he is on his knees shaking and not saying alot, the lads were peeing themselves laughing. I never seen a 6 foot bloke who was larger than life, shrink into this dribbling wreck so quickly. Its amazing stuff this electricity!
 
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