Mistakes you have made

[Baddegg]

Look on the bright side, someone could have put one down.

We call em foreigners down here ?
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Here is a little story that will amuse and make you laugh at my expense. I really don’t mind how loud you laugh. I am helping some friends refurbish an old cottage, I have done the re-wire and fitted most of the Kitchen up to date. I volunteered to plumb in the two toilets (one up one down). I got all the pipework fixed and the pan seated, turned the water on, and to my surprise, no leaks. I let the tank partly fill, and pushed the flush. One slight problem, I hadn’t yet connected the waste, so the water flooded out onto the floor-boards and ran through to make a small lake in the room below. Oops!! ????

I’m only laughing because you just reminded me I’ve done that ????

 

[Highresdis]

Rushing to finish a rewire I put my foot through a ceiling...(seriously)

Me too! Right up to the rather high portions of my leg, slightly painfully...

 

[nicebutdim]

Once watched a colleague tip water from a waste pipe into the basin he'd just removed it from.

No major issues from such a small amount of water, but clearly remember scratching my head and wondering how he could be so daft as his face turned increasingly red.

 

[Phil L]

A colleague once had a young lad doing work experience with him, he asked him to strip back the cables ready for fitting sockets/switches young lad came back to him really chuffed and said he had cut them back and stripped them as asked, colleague went to check and asked where are the earths? Young lad just stood there and said I thought that was for stripping the cable back so I cut it off when I had stripped the cable, needless to say there were some expletives bounded about that Day

 

[FatAlan]

A few years back I remember doing a bit of soldering at Windsor Castle.

 

[7029 dave]

A colleague once had a young lad doing work experience with him, he asked him to strip back the cables ready for fitting sockets/switches young lad came back to him really chuffed and said he had cut them back and stripped them as asked, colleague went to check and asked where are the earths? Young lad just stood there and said I thought that was for stripping the cable back so I cut it off when I had stripped the cable, needless to say there were some expletives bounded about that Day

If he did not show the lad how to prepare the cable, its hard lines.

 

[Phil L]

If he did not show the lad how to prepare the cable, its hard lines.

100% agree and our boss had exactly the same thoughts and made it well known to the spark where the blame lies

 

[Andy78]

Somebody in the wholesalers told me he'd wired a whole ring in 1.5mm on a new build once.....which only got noticed during the second fix, don't know what the outcome was but it sounded like a real horror show.

1.5mm 3 core was used on one job I saw. By mistake. It got corrected though. Well at least the two legs from the board did. Still like that as far as I know. The house renovation was for the son of the owner of a local electrical wholesaler ?

 

[David Prosser]

Could of been a fatal mistake by my novice self. Good few years back after just starting out I worked maintenance in a factory. One time looking for a fault on a production line I went to remove a blown fuse. Got my tester, only one I had, (YEP ----ling multi-meter) and proved dead ??(multi-meter Only thing issued for us to use and as a novice I knew no better).

Just about to unbolt fuse (300A I think ABB switch fuse isolator 19mm socket) with an uninsulated socket set when the guy I worked with said (say with SA accent as that what he is) "Hey, W.T.F. you doing ? You F-ing stupid or something". "You've got your meter on DC, it's still live bell-end"!

Now I can't lie I was flipping livid, not that it was live or that I had F'd up and nearly killed myself but that probably the biggest, laziest useless MF bloke I have ever worked with most likely saved my life. Trust me this bloke did nothing for the four yest we worked together.

I am know an SAP, you wont get on my sites without the proper equipment for proving dead, if I catch you chancing it with a multi-meter your out.

I look back on that incident and shudder, It could of done for me and no good the investigation finding poor/non existent safe isolation training and lack of correct test equipment.

 

[Baddegg]

1.5mm 3 core was used on one job I saw. By mistake. It got corrected though. Well at least the two legs from the board did. Still like that as far as I know. The house renovation was for the son of the owner of a local electrical wholesaler ?

That’ll be fine then these no chance they’d spot the difference anyway! ?

 

[littlespark]

I must be too careful.
I have never managed to evacuate a factory, or wipeout a third of a housing estate.
Any mistakes I made have come with personal injury, and not to anyone else....

But 2 legs through a ceiling either side of the joist is hard to beat.
I did roughly the same as a little kid.... but swap “joist” with “barbed wire fence”

 

[richy3333]

@littlespark ouch!! Bet your eyes watered ?

 

[littlespark]

@littlespark ouch!! Bet your eyes watered ?

The fence was only 2’ high. At the time I Must have had a 25” inside leg measurement. Took a scratch from about the knee, Up my inner thigh to just short of serious

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Chasing a wall out when doing a partial rewire and the brick came loose. Chasing away it fell through in to next doors bedroom... Peered through to find the brick on the tiled floor. It was thankfully owned by the same customer who was converting both to hmos. He found it hilarious. Didn't mind as plasterer was booked and next door was being done following week anyway.

 

[suffolkspark]

Was once re terminating 25mm tails on a domestic property as they had about 2 inches the red and black showing where they entered 100A blocks, anyway the property had 2 phases and N and about 4 boards as it had storage heaters and a small office in an outbuilding, I managed to mix up the tails and connect L & N for a submain board to L1 & L2, I dont know how but no computers were harmed, but the fluorescent lights made the loudest GRRROANNN I've ever heard!!! Blew a small glass fuse in the security alarm panel but everything else was fine!

 

[pc1966]

I look back on that incident and shudder, It could of done for me and no good the investigation finding poor/non existent safe isolation training and lack of correct test equipment.

That tale is one that every apprentice or DIY-er should read. There is a good reason for voltage testers being used for that job!

Thankfully my multimeter mishaps have simply blown the amp-range fuse once or twice which hardly merits a mention here.

 

[James]

I think many of us when we were a bit younger and more gung ho, have made mistakes involving safe isolation.

it is easy to think of it as a chore when you are starting out in the field of electricity.
once you have seen one of the following happen to yourself or others you start to take it more seriously.

wrecking a perfectly good set of side cutters
destroying the end of a screwdriver
having a drill bit disintegrate before your very eyes
falling off a ladder from direct contact
burning your finger tip from direct contact
being given cpr and surviving
having your face burned from a large arc flash
being set on fire
being given cpr and NOT surviving.

its like working with poisonous snakes, become complacent and you will regret it.

to any of the DIY or Trainee members, these are the real consequences of making mistakes with electricity. It has no morels, and takes no prisoners.

 

[littlespark]

Everyone makes mistakes.... that’s why we have a 4 year apprenticeship and not, say, 5 week crash course.


A few weeks ago it was time for blood donors. Usual place, usual travelling team of nurses down from Edinburgh.
However, this time I got a young lad.... quite chatty. Everything fine until he says “ give me a second, I need to call someone over.... I’m not allowed to do the needle bit on my own yet”



So, over comes the senior nurse..... Turns out they can do it on their own, after 30 tries.

“Tries”!



“so how many has he done?” Says I

“6”




It took 3 plasters to stop the flow of blood.... the second one going DIRECTLY over the first.... like that was going to help!

good job I don’t feel faint at these things.

 

[telectrix]

Everyone makes mistakes.... that’s why we have a 4 year apprenticeship and not, say, 5 week crash course.


A few weeks ago it was time for blood donors. Usual place, usual travelling team of nurses down from Edinburgh.
However, this time I got a young lad.... quite chatty. Everything fine until he says “ give me a second, I need to call someone over.... I’m not allowed to do the needle bit on my own yet”



So, over comes the senior nurse..... Turns out they can do it on their own, after 30 tries.

“Tries”!



“so how many has he done?” Says I

“6”




It took 3 plasters to stop the flow of blood.... the second one going DIRECTLY over the first.... like that was going to help!

good job I don’t feel faint at these things.

that would freak me out totally. i need a sedative for a blood test.

 

[Let me think]

Everyone makes mistakes.... that’s why we have a 4 year apprenticeship and not, say, 5 week crash course.


A few weeks ago it was time for blood donors. Usual place, usual travelling team of nurses down from Edinburgh.
However, this time I got a young lad.... quite chatty. Everything fine until he says “ give me a second, I need to call someone over.... I’m not allowed to do the needle bit on my own yet”



So, over comes the senior nurse..... Turns out they can do it on their own, after 30 tries.

“Tries”!



“so how many has he done?” Says I

“6”




It took 3 plasters to stop the flow of blood.... the second one going DIRECTLY over the first.... like that was going to help!

good job I don’t feel faint at these things.

He's now up to seven, thanks to you (only 23 more time to get it prefect)

 

[telectrix]

having a drill bit disintegrate before your very eyes
gawd, reminds me of one of mine. 30 years ago, new years day, fitting an alarm system.
drilling through front doot architrave with a 8mm long bit for door contact. straight through incoming lead sheathed supply cable which was buried in wall behind said archtrave. 4 vans and 6 blokes from EMEB turn up. dug out drive, cut cable jointed new 5m of concentric. got a bill for £3K , disputed it as the cable should not have been there. apparently it was originally surface and house owner had plastered it in, so i bounced it back to him. never knew if he had to pay out or not.

 

[Let me think]

having a drill bit disintegrate before your very eyes
gawd, reminds me of one of mine. 30 years ago, new years day, fitting an alarm system.
drilling through front doot architrave with a 8mm long bit for door contact. straight through incoming lead sheathed supply cable which was buried in wall behind said archtrave. 4 vans and 6 blokes from EMEB turn up. dug out drive, cut cable jointed new 5m of concentric. got a bill for £3K , disputed it as the cable should not have been there. apparently it was originally surface and house owner had plastered it in, so i bounced it back to him. never knew if he had to pay out or not.

Luck you're still here - Like the rest of us.

BTW I've always found the easiest way to find a 'rogue' cable(s) outside of prescribed wiring zones is is to drill where in theory they shouldn't be.....for whatever reason they like to be exactly where folks want to put up shelves and/or pictures.

Hence I like the look of no nails for picture kits. Still to try them.