your first and worst electric shock!!!

[Guest112]

Hi I thought it would be interesting to hear about situations that have happenned to different people in the electrical industry and would be a wake up call for perhaps those who are inexperienced or have not had a shock.

My first was when i was a second year apprentice i managed to go two years without a belt and after isolating a main switch for a db supplying a chinese take away below a snooker hall had a belt off a lighting circuit which was fed from the snooker hall upstairs my fault as i assumed everything was dead as shouldve been but as they say NEVER ASSUME

the install was shocking cables were literally selotaped to the wall with connector blocks hanging everywhere, obviously since then ive had a few the worst being my fault while being an apprentice still was running an earth into alive db while forming a bend on the earth slipped and touched my middle finger on the busbar and burnt my hand slightly.

so whats your worst? and ALWAYS CARRY YOUR TESTERS WITH YOU MY T100s ARE MY BEST USED BIT OF KIT and touch wood i havent had a belt for years

(dont particularly want to bring up any negative stories regarding deaths caused from electric shock and if anyone has known anyone to have serious injury/death from electric shock my sympathy towards those and their friends and loved ones)

 

[Deleted member 26818]

My first was when I put my finger in a caravan hook up point. I was about 7 at the time.
My worst was with an old 3 phase board, put my hand across the exposed incoming terminals, got 415V across my hand, made my shoulder ache for about a week.

 

[simpson93]

hmm first shock was while i was working in a hospital about a year after working as a sparks,
i wouldnt say any of the shocks ive had are perticularly bad would it be wierd to say i liked em a little?

 

[Guest112]

i know what you mean,i know a proper old school spark just about to retire now and during a toolbox talk on electrical safety he was telling my old boss and the boys that to check if a busbar in a panel is live hed lightly stroke it to see if it was live or not he reckons its because hes got really dry skin on his hands, and myself can grab a megger at 1000v setting very briefly he can just straight hold it without flinching says he barely feels it ive seen him do it, i suppose we all have different tolerances i dont mind a belt wakes you up lol

 

[keefy]

It's the best cure for a hangover I would say! Many a time working whilst not being quite with it, got a belt by being dumb, felt a million dollars for the rest of the day.

My first and worst was up a ladder working on a pub sign light, the type with a small section of steel conduit going out to the lights. Hot sunny day, climbed the ladder, grabbed the conduit for stability (where was the scaffold you may ask) and got a big belt. It turns out the earth to the pole was damaged down below and the box screw had gone through the live cable.

I have also had a shock from 2000volt neon transformer. Not much fun as it kind of stung rather than giving that muscular pain you normally get.

Whilst I'm waffling on I may as well tell you all about the 'best' shock I ever had. Working on a building site in the winter, fixing some temporary lighting, 240, not 110! Finished the the job, got the lamp and plugged it in. It came on straight away. Apparently I was working on a live cable all the time but because it was so effing cold, and it was only a small supply and I have a really high skin resistance too I didn't feel it. I would not endorse this kind of working, and I still question myself as to whether it was live at the time, but everything pointed to the fact it was.

But hang on a minute, are we not told to NEVER work on live cables? So none of us could have ever had an electric shock...

 

[diditrain]

my first was when i was about 10 years old, trying to replace a lamp in a pendant on my landing in total darkness. My finger went straight into the lamp holder. Might be why i dont have much hair these days

 

[Mark_Burgess]

First was when I was a little child and remember either putting in or pulling out a plug and caught a finger on the uninsulated pins somehow.

Very recently when working in a 3 phase board my little finger brushed a cable into a back of an MCB lower down that was off, the cable into the MCB was stripped to long. The ISOLATED board I was working on had a circuit back feeding from another board to that MCB.

 

[alli]

When I was a kid, my mum gave me the old broken iron to dismantle. I pulled the back off, thought I'd fixed it and pluged it into the mains to see if it would heat up. I saw I had not but a cable back so put my fingers in and got a belt. I was sitting against the wall at the time and my head and back where thumping the wall as I got electrocuted. I finally let go and still can hear the cries from my mum, ...............WILL YOU STOP MAKING ALL THAT DAMN NOISE UP THERE!!!

 

[millwall ken]

As a mate, I tried lifting a floor socket; stuck my mitts underneath and got a belt like you wouldn't believe. You could smell the roast pork...

 

[i=p/u]

My first was an electric fence getting chased by a farmer(was young yob) and never had one since. But i did work for a family firm recently and there son was bossy and young but i held me tounge like the supervisor told me we were searching for psu for camera in a hotel when we found it he was using my voltage tester to test fused spur and psu anyway he was shouting to me turn off and turn on and i was like rolling my eyes and doing what he said, he must of thought off and touched and dived off ladder and by ---- was he awake then.. Quite funny but scary too