Experiences with electric shock

[Ianhill]

We have all had the little tingle of the scalextrics or gathered in a group to put our tongue on a 9v pp3. My old boss as an apprentice managed to get himself stuck for three minutes on a DC circuit, it had attached itself to his hand, needless to say he has had numorous skin grafts and has ended up with a large lump like an egg in the palm of his hand.
My worst experience is as a young lad working on a sonys TV manufacturing line, TV's were going through an aging process the equivelent of 6 months of use for testing purposes before being sent to customer all the old CRT tvs used to go through this process and some may fail they wouod be stripped to useful parts and the reject part discarded. The tube would be discharging of its static and placed to go through assembly again bit of a rip off really as one set will have a tube with 1 years use compared to 6 months, but on this one day the technician did not discharge the tube and my job was to reach over the anode cap to place locating screws for the tube in the bezel, well as I put my third screw in my chest touched the cap anywhere upto 10000v shocked me off my feet and around 10 feet backwards into the line behind my body had gone all weak like i had been kicked by god himself, blotchy red skin others parts pale white sweating my tits off and in shock literarily, dodgy buggers made no entry in the accident book and screwed me like it never happened the place shut down few years later when they moved to LCD and led production in Barcelona.
Everyone knows sonys best consumer standard TVs where the Trinitron crt the TV divisions has been falling apart since the late 90's till nw the brand is in trouble dwindling market share.
Any good story's folks.

 

[DRMousseau]

Worked many years for a small company that eventually grew into an international corporation, manufacturing high-tech electronic instruments for export and domestic markets in the medical and graphic arts industries. Export standards were usually 240V vs the typical 120V American domestic standard.

With such large numbers of open chassis under power, it's inevitable that an incident will occur. A special plaque was made by an employee. A small badly burned and blown circuit board was attached to the nicely oiled walnut base, and included a melted screwdriver shank along with a pair of seized, welded, and totally destroyed diagonal cutters. An engraved brass plate identified it as, "The Sparky KiloVolt Award!"

The back had a listing of names and dates of all the line employees, QA inspectors, and others, including some stodgy top company engineers, who had, for some reason, received the Award thru an outstanding and often embarrassing incident. When received, you added your name and date to the back, displayed it prominently in your office or work area, until you passed it on to another when plunged into darkness as power went out, or when someone screamed after that unmistakable sound!!! The most prominent was a corporate VP and head engineer who received it for his delightful display of fireworks and wonderful rendition of "The 220 Chicken Dance"!!!!

My personal "bright and loud" incident sent my co-worker across from me, hurling from his tall stool to the ground, unable to catch his breath as others came rushing to his aid with much concern,.... "I'm ok!!! I'm alright!!! It wasn't me!!!" he choked out, "It was HIM!!!!"

Everyone then looked up at me as I was calmly and blindly wafting away the spots before my eyes and the smoke from in front of me. "Ya,... he's alright. He wasn't even close. But it sure made him jump!!!!"

 

[dogman dan]

Nothing good for me,, just the usual got a tickle off 110 stuff. The usual lipo KFF.

But one time drilling hole in a cement floor of a Mc Donalds, I cut the 220 line to a row of deep fryers. Good insulated handle on that drill!

Seen guys fly balloons into power lines, but never the bad one that kills people except on film. No way I ever flew into a power line myself, but I've had to fly close enough to reach out and touch lower voltage ones to get a landing. It takes a seriously shitty balloon pilot to do this. (below) You want to stay very far from a line like the one in this picture.

 

[The fingers]

Years ago when I was in a rock band, we were doing a gig on Halloween night at an American Legion Hall. Before the show we were in the kitchen there in a pep huddle with our manager when someone leaned against the cast iron stove. Suddenly we were locked together with voltage going through six of us for several seconds until finally we leaned as a group away from it and the force let go enough to violently separate us. We took the stage shortly thereafter, too intoxicated to realize what happened.

 

[Drunkskunk]

When I was in Jr high, Our "band" wanted to practice in an old barn. we'd been out there before when it was dry and everything was fine. We could be as loud as we wanted, and no one had to hear how much we sucked. It was the perfect location.

This time, however, it was raining. The roof leaked a little, so the floor was damp. We set up to play, but the breaker was off, so 3 of us started playing with no power while the drummer went to flip on the breaker. And when he found it and flipped it on, the rest of us discovered how electric our guitars could be. We ended up on the ground flopping around like fish before the breaker popped again. Of course the drummer didn't see that, he just saw it had popped again, so he reset it again, and then again, and then again, then gave up and came back to find us laying on the floor.

Of course, being teenagers and still alive, we sent him back to do it again.

 

[Voltron]

I worked with a guy that attracted lighting. I saw him get nervous when the clouds were gathering one time and thought he was joking when he said that. Not ten minutes lightning struck down the road, and a 2 foot arc jumped off a metal doorframe and zapped him, bright enough to light up the room! A second time he was indoors on the phone, there was another not very nearby strike, and and arc jumped 6 indhes from the phone right to his lip!

 

[Dauntless]

Shooting some remote commission meeting live in LA, we had to pump all sorts of light in these old buildings. Next to my camera was going some huge Molie, properly known as a Mole Richardson. This guy flips it on and jumps back, seems it shocked him. It was in a corner so I strung tape as a 'Do not cross' and hung a "Do not touch" sign that the idiot in question would attempt to whine about it not saying why. As though he was owed some explanation about why he wasn't supposed to touch something he wasn't supposed to touch without the sign.

But in fact it was a soundman who worked with us, so I DID tell him was was wrong and that the other guy was going to unplug it. Years later I don't remember if I saw him touch it or not. But I did see him walking away just fine. Once the power was off I could open the front and see someone had done some ridiculous rewiring. We put it away to let the rental company deal with.

Days later we all receive copies of the complaint he wrote. Claiming he was actually a union electrician, though apparently one with a casual attitude about things he's warned not to touch. No mention of me standing there telling him to leave it alone, but plenty about his brush with death. He did have plenty to say about a blowhard on our crew he felt in competition with and should be fired. I'm not aware that the individual named so much as touched the rental light. He did cry about the whole thing while the rest of us were laughing.

So I don't know if our Operations Manager really talked to him this way, but he bragged about saying "Nobody has to explain to you why not to touch it, but I guess I do have to explain why I'm firing you. . . ." to the effect that his clueless behavior made him a hazard on the set AND because he lied about what happened in his complaint.

Prior to that I'd had a bigger zap on the job from a rack full of 240v equipment. I finished the night at work. The first guy zapped by that light was fairly indifferent to it, but smart enough to go unplug it anyway. Can't say I understand how this other guy nearly passed on from it. He, too, finished the shoot, I guess from his hospital bed. What a trooper.

 

[fechter]

I've probably had more than my share of encounters with high voltage. Once I touched a 450V main filter capacitor in an old tube transmitter. That was probably the worst shock I've gotten, but luckily confined to one hand. My arm flew back and my hand hit the wall behind me so hard my knuckles were bleeding. Hmmm... don't do that again.

Once got a bit close to the flyback transformer in an old television set. This kind used a vacuum tube rectifier for the high voltage. The anode on the tube "reached out and touched me" from a pretty good distance. This burned a nice little 2mm hole in my thumb. Since it is AC at this point, there was no shock, but the burn was really nasty and took months to heal.

I was stripping a live wire on a lighting circuit to replace a ballast. I knew it was hot and we didn't want to turn off the circuit because that would put the whole work area in the dark. I accidentally touched the strippers to the junction box, and poof-
My 14 ga stripper hole turned into a perfect 8ga stripper hole. Lights went out and it destroyed the breaker feeding the circuit. There I am on a ladder in pitch dark. When we tried to reset the breaker, it blew the main feeder for the whole building. This knocked out power to a big meeting the senior management was having, so no hiding this mess up. I was wearing gloves and was not injured. There was a small ball of molten copper stuck to my glasses that was permanent. Damn, that was embarrassing.

I've discharged countless small high voltage capacitors with my hands. The ones in photo flash units will really zap you.

 

[Ianhill]

Its strange how I even like electrics, from a young age I've been showed how not to do it, My dad putting a CB Aeriel up back in the late 80's flashed it across the 3 phases on the lampost knocked out half the neighbourhood and had the police out and electric board trying to fine him lucky to be alive, When I got a bit older watching him drill a hole in the kitchen and the drill went straight through cooker cable in the wall and sent a lovely bright spark backout the hole he was drilling, Watching my mate cut through a toaster flex with a kitchen knife and its turned on blew a nice hole in the blade and he was like wow, i think he was fine cuz we had such a great distance from the mains board it limited the dead short amps but it also takes a fraction of a second longer to disconnect if its a phase to phase fault opposed to phase to earth where the fault loop impedance comes into play distance from the mains transformer to your house and back be it through the ground and or conductors depending on system type the supplier uses.

 

[dogman dan]

Starting to look like some of the geniuses on this forum were also smart enough to work around a lot of power and live through it.

Myself, being a dummy I have done tons of shit like fixing light fixtures or switches hot, for dumb reasons, and have melted tools in the process. Never was too afraid of 110. Just don't stand in the puddle and do it. Work with one hand, uncover one wire at a time, don't use tools without good insulated handles.

 

[bobc]

My biggest bang was quite recent, wiring up some test equipment on a running 75kW (440V) motor.
The 4mm banana plug in my hand totally disappeared & my hand was black. Amazingly the motor and inverter just kept spinning & I wasn't hurt at all. (that was a piece of earth/neutral stupidity on my part...)
We have a contract engineer at work who is forever zapping himself; he's a really smart and capable guy & usually looks like he's at death's door with various circulatory ailments. I expect he'll outlive us all.....
I've said for years that the odd belt is an excellent way of weeding out the less capable engineers, but there's really no need for unsafe working practices with modern test equipment & I'm now actually pioneering "safer" high voltage test fixtures and procedures is the lab at work - & should have done it years ago...

 

[bigmoose]

Biggest zap happened back in graduate school. I was running the night shift on the nuclear accelerator and it was time to fill the liquid nitrogen cold traps. I got my dewar and headed into the hot area back by the ion source, radiation was almost nil there and you had time to do your work. That source was running at about +85,000 volts.

I climbed up on a pedestal and reached towards the teflon tubing carrying the gas stream. Well the LN2 trap had boiled dry and had offgassed condensable products up the teflon tubing. When my finger got about an inch away from the teflon I saw a bright spark jump to my right index finger, and I was blown off the pedestal into a rack of K sized gas bottles.

The first thing I thought was I am a dead man, I reached to check my pulse. It was a bit erratic, but there. Thankfully I blew the fuse on the ion source power supply and my "buddy" came back to check the ion source and found me slumped on the floor. Being students, and stoooopid, we didn't tell anyone; we replaced the fuse, tidied things up and went on like nothing happened.

For me, I consider it was the grace of God that let me carry on after that incident...

 

[DRMousseau]

My kid brother used to find a great THRILL, in grabbing the electric fence with both hands while his knees were firmly planted in the dewy grass of the pasture!!! I HATED the many incidental zaps I received from those things!!!

I notice many that express little concern for the typical 110V ac line. I live year around in 34' "rolling upstairs apartment",... my e-bike serves as an auxiliary vehicle to my RV. While I have a nice battery bank and generator system, I often depend on 110V "shore line" service when ever available. More than a few times, I have found my entire chassis to be "HOT" due to a faulty extension cord borrowed from others. Often unnoticed, 'till one grabs the door handle while standing on damp ground in bare feet!!!! I now own ALL my own necessary cord sets of high quality, AND safe condition!!! While the tingle is somewhat "light", I shudder to think of the possible damage that could be done to my home and it's many systems, components, and equipment!!!

And while the "shock" of low voltage systems may seem insignificant,... the potential danger can be EXTREME!!! I was fortunate to be working in the golf car industry during the early '90s as a field mechanic. I assisted in the introduction and maintenance of the first prototype fleet of 48v electronic controlled, regen golf cars (Club Car),.. powered by a bank of six 8v Trojan deep-cycle batteries,... now a standard in the field. Extreme care is always exercised around such when servicing. And while holding a 9/16 wrench carefully in guarded hand to prevent shorting against an opposing terminal while connecting cables,.... I neglected to remove my 22k heavy solid gold wedding band!!!! Yup,... in a split second, that ring turned a bright glowing red spattering molten gold from the contact point and INSTANTLY cooked itself to my finger!!!! Although immediately plunged into a nearby snowbank, the damage was already done. Totally ruined wedding ring, and a lifetime "wedding BRAND" around my finger!!!!

 

[Dauntless]

Biggest zap happened back in graduate school. I was running the night shift on the nuclear accelerator and it was time to fill the liquid nitrogen cold traps. . . .

So right about there I'm thinking this is gonna be one of those stories where Keanu Reeves played him in the movie.

 

[The fingers]

Was 7 or 8 years ago now in November, a partly cloudy day threatening to rain, when lightning struck a water tower as I stood around 100 yards away. If the ground was wet I probably would have felt it. I'm glad that it didnt branch out to strike the 40 foot light pole next to where I was parked. I jumped into the car as a second bolt struck about a mile to the northwest.
The charge knocked out the internal sensor which told the pumps that the tower was empty when it was really full, sending water cascading down for about an hour from the overflow before it was turned off. I'm not sure exactly how long it took, because I went inside a building to hide for the rest of the morning.

 

[bigmoose]

...So right about there I'm thinking this is gonna be one of those stories where Keanu Reeves played him in the movie.

That gave me quite a chuckle!!

You should have seen the size of the cockroaches we bred after a few exposures in the target room! ... and the albino cat ... and "three toed" louie... oh and Nurdgel our lab assistant. Best story in the world about Nurdgel but it can never be stated in print.