Ontario BS Thread

I've been yelled at numerous times for shit like that. I usually just say I don't care and they fuck off and complain to the building security in which they tell us do it on off hours if necessary.

Those switches are fucking terrifying to throw though. I remember turning on the main at the last job I was. Whole fucking room shook when that switch closes.

It's different for us though we always schedule shut downs off hours. We have a crew that only with nights for that.


My thing is 347V, will not do it live. Just way too dangerous.

We recently had an accident on our site with someone getting hit by 600V.
Was fucked how it happened. Whole switch board was shut down but one cabinet that was mislabeled by Siemens didn't mention that there were three control Transformers for metering in that cabinet and he touched it. Was in the hospital for 3 days for monitoring but luckily was ok. Really lucky to be alive. Only way to have shut those down was to shut down the 13.8 transformers feeding the building.

Sadly I've been on the other side of those on more than one occasion. Honestly if I wasn't wearing the suit not sure I'd still be here. Some guys are cowboys and will do shit with no suit. Just idiots waiting to be a statistic.

10 000amp 480VDC battery bank being dead shorted in front of me from an idiotic co worker was not fun. 3 days of welders flash in your eyes sucks.
Co worker was burned pretty good on his arm. No suit.

The other two others myself and co worker were perfectly fine. One was a malfunctioning disconnect 600V 400amp. Other was a 480V switch board short. Luckily the blast was at the back of the unit and we were fine. Just scared the fuck out of me.

 

That's what as builts are for

 

At least working on Material Handler Generator Systems (aka Scrap Cranes) residual energy is gone if you wait long enough... always surprised more labourers aren't seriously injured connecting cables to the magnets. Toubleshooting drop contactors in the extension under the operators cab always gave me the willies though - felt like you were working in a 3'x6' steel coffin with only a tiny door to exit from...

 

After cycling on of the big mains live, I always pause for a second, so people don't see me shaking when I walk away.
It's the main switches and breakers that have not been exorcised for 30+ years that really get my backside puckered.
Customers seem to get upset when I tell them we'll have to schedule a hydro shutdown before we do a plant/building shutdown and they will have a cleaning/ lubrication/repair added to their bill.
When they balk, I simply say,
"I will do it ,with YOU standing right in front of me, but I hope you understand, if there is a failure while it is live, everyone in that room will be LUCKY if they are dead when shit goes south, please google 4th and 5th degree burns and come back and talk to me when you are prepared to have that on over 80% of your body, dying is not the worst thing that can happen"

I was in the same building when an Electrician closed the main on a 3000KVA transformer feeding a 600V corner grounded delta system onto a bolted short.
I literally had a bit of a flashback and thought an artillery round had hit.
40 Cal suit only ensured he had an open casket funeral.

347V... Widowmakers for lighting systems... seen people get hit because they forget it will be a mwbc and those neutrals will be deadly.

480V First incident I ever had with that was when I first started working in industry full time when I was going to school,
my Maintenance general foreman (Master Electrician) and I were up on a catwalk over a truck bumper nickle chrome plating line (think of bit vats of hot acid).
He determines it's just a blown 100A fuse in this one disconnect.
I was standing behind him and bent down to grab the fuse pullers...
I guess he wanted to just change the fuse quick and used his screwdriver to pop out the fuse...
He must have bridged two phases because all I know is there was one hell of a bang and a flash and I'm trying to stop my boss from running down this catwalk over the acid vats with his face and jacket on fire...
His dress suit jacket had a lot of nylon or polyester in it so he also spent a week or so having the melted plastic from his suit pulled off the burns.

Needless to say all my work clothes are 100% cotton.

Big battery or capacitor banks... that's a big nope on my part...
I'd feel safer being with the army engineers doing ordinance disposal, with a steel pipe,
than I do working with those things...

Back in high school I was working in the maint department at a factory maintaining the electric lift trucks...
one of the guys accidentally shorted out one of those batteries with a big ass wrench, wrench and top of the battery exploded, glad there was a safety shower near by so we could wash all the acid off ourselves... Lol my ears were ringing for a few days after that. After that I tell customers that they don't want me to work on them because it will cost too much.

Get called to hookup some equipment with a 10hp 600V motor and starter on it. Ran all the feeds for it, then looked at the starter they got for this thing.
Lol looked like it had been sitting in a back lot in the rain for a year. Tell customer he needs a new starter...
Customer is cheap ass, says he just got the machine and he had just seen it running at the other place. It works fine.
I said no way am I gonna power that up.
He called my boss at the time...
Boss calls me and says the guy says it's good, power it up...
I refused saying the starter is bad and it's even full of spiders nests, no way was it running in the past year or more.
No way will I power it up.
Boss says finish the wiring and he will come down there and throw the breaker.
Ok...
Boss comes down, flips the breaker,
Cheap ass owner uses a mop handle to hit the starter button,
Machine starts up fine...
They both look at me like I'm an idiot..
BOOOM! Starter blew itself right out of it's cabinet and took most of the control relays with it...
I gave them both a very smug look and continued packing up my tools with my back turned to them,
(so they could not see me laughing my ass off)

I'll do some residential / light commercial 120V live (switches and receptacles) in the right circumstances. But other than that.. LOTO

One of the first electricians that ever taught me gave me some wise words (in those days working live was common place).

"Always check power before you work on something,
if your going to touch test it do it with the back of your hand,
because electricity will cause your muscles to contract,
so if you use your fingers it may force you to grip the live wire and you'll cook in your own fats.
If you use the back of your hand the muscles contract and you'll only end up slapping yourself in the face,
That way you are reminded that it is stupid to touch something live"

 

I read somewhere about those things....

 

Oh I want me one of those!

 

Soooo glad I only work in 12V DC.

 

When I get attitude from entitled tenants it's when I apply snail mode, otherwise I do what I have to do in a timely manner.

Respect towards people is very important.

 

Oh my...

 

What? You didn't offer to get the gas generator off the truck and fire it up in her condo unit?

 

And I thought it sucked getting zapped from 220V as teenager working general labour on a housing site. But it taught me to always check the breaker though and never trust the sparky. Asshat said it was off and couldn't stop laughing after.

 

lol. thats called working for the government...

 

Wow! I cry like a baby when I get the static carpet shock that my kids like to give me....little (big) bastartds.

 

Snail mode you say... hmmm

 

After 16 minutes I had to evacuate.. too hot in there
Windy and 24 outside ⛅ with Grey skies during testing.
2 man tent

edit: i came inside after packing all up and the tv says its 4c outside very windy. so the temp. control is not accurate but the basic point is heat in tent with no fumes and dry heat, for that this thing gets a thumbs up..

 

You need to write a book called, "Shocking revelations of the electrical industry"

 

https://www.autotrader.ca/a/toyota/...e=no&ursrc=hl&orup=2_15_18&pc=P0H 1K0&sprx=-2

Ready to go build...for over 70k after taxes...yes it's used...

 

It doesn't say exactly what packages/upgrades it has but a new pro is upwards of 55k. The decked system is about $2k, the rack is probably $1500 and there's only 10k on it. It's close to fair I suppose. I'm not sure what the new market is like here but in the US these trucks regularly go for above MSRP. Though the target audience for this specific build is limited

 

I agree it's probably fair when you factor any labour costs or whatever. I didn't mean to get into the cost of a new truck discussion, I was trying to go to Amazon and my URL bar defaulted to my old autotrader search and thought it was interesting.

Topic change: Anyone get the PS5/Xbox yet??

 

Yea I was chuckling about the person who buys this 1. will have no idea how to use said item's or what its for 2.will wonder why these are stripped off immediately if you actually try to use the rig as intended