Cut in to a live wire today

[sberry]

Its been a long time since I did that and walked right in to it. All these jobs run together after a while and I cant remember what phase was what. It was a fixture I thought I abandoned several years ago and I still really am not sure there isn't a flying splice somewhere. Old wire on one end and new on the other. This was a nice old set of pliers. Put a little zip in the cutter.
I had worked on part of the feed end of this the other dayand it was surface mounted and had an extension on with timer blocking it all and a splice behind it. I should have known something was up when I ran in to a couple new wire nuts on the other end,

 

[73surffisher]

Made you jump a little, , hate when that happens, , ,ruined a good set of cutters, I bet

 

[James_B]

Needed a change of underwear?

 

[sberry]

Nope, I brushed earlier when I took the fixture off, didn't jump, was a minor spark. Tripped the breaker flawlessly.

 

[MDSPHOTO]

I love when you brush that live wire and you get that nasty feeling that runs up the nerve in your elbow. Whooooooo!

 

[Mustang51js]

Worst I ever got it was twisting wires on a 277 circuit,had my elbow on the ceiling grid and found out that the end of the insulation on my pliers had a slice in it, put a blister in the palm of my hand.

 

[sberry]

I havnt shocked myself in 30 yrs maybe more. I did service a machine and had turned the wrong breaker off. I blasted myself a couple times when I was a kid from switch loops and handyman wired stuff. Wired hundreds of live connections over the years.

 

[James_B]

I've got to admit, working on 115V doesn't worry me quite as much as working on 240V single phase/415V three phase systems back in Australia.

 

[Exceller8]

Never fun... Glad all was OK.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I've got to admit, working on 115V doesn't worry me quite as much as working on 240V single phase/415V three phase systems back in Australia.

More people are electrocuted working on 120vac than any other voltage, partly because they don't worry as much about it. There's no good reason to do any electrical work without making sure the power is off.

 

[Super Mech]

I've blown a few holes in more than one pair of linesmans pliers over the years. Always scares the **** outta me!

 

[Steevo]

I hate it when I do that, mostly because it always seems to ruin my favorite wire cutters.
Glad you weren't hurt.

 

[Zeke]

I have a pair of needlenose with an nice little mouse bite out of one of the jaws. Happened in a panel in San Francisco in '79. I don't think I've been bit since and I wasn't bit then because they were new and insulated.

I've Sawzalled through at least 2 circuit legs as well and even cut my own power cord on the circular saw. Gotta love double insulated tools.

 

[The Cobbler]

I was renovating an old office building that my brother had bought, for many years people had been adding electrical among other things. no one ever took away any of the old. One of my projects was to strip out all of the old unused wiring. Part of the office was crawl space, some was basement underneath. DOzens of wires were hanging without termination or anything. I would trace them back to the panel and usually they were disconnected at the panels too. One wire I traced back to the panel & it was hanging so back into the crawl space I go and snip with the linesmanpliers. zappp! WTF? it was energized .... turns out that the wire was junctioned at a box and fed to another panel and it was fused at 30 amps!
I was young and never thought of a meter or anything, well after that I metered.

 

[Orionrising]

those little buzzy pens work wonders

 

[Norcal]

There was a bootleg mother in law unit attached to a shop that the owners decided to remove some 2X4 troffers in the living room & kitchen & replace them w/ ceiling fans, & they were removed hot, the issue was they were 277 volts, as the shop service was 480Y/277V, the big problem is that 277V lighting is not allowed by the NEC, as it's limited to 120 volts... BTW the owner did get hit by 277V & is lucky....

They did not hook the fans up to the existing circuit, that would have let the smoke out. I did disconnect the circuit & get 120V in it's place, their submersible pump is 480V 3Ø, does seem odd for residential property to have 480/277V but the main "house" is a manufactured home where the idiots who installed the main panel on a pole, failed to use the gasket on the hub & water played havoc w/ the aluminum bus, making it into scrap metal.

 

[tfi racing]

I hate it when I do that, mostly because it always seems to ruin my favorite wire cutters.
Glad you weren't hurt.

For me it doesn't happen for years, it only occurs after I buy a new set of strippers or cutters...

 

[coyote54]

I bought a "buzzy pen" the day after I saw an electrician use one. It's always in my pocket if I'm working on electrical. It's a simple double checker!!!!

 

[MDSPHOTO]

I bought a "buzzy pen" the day after I saw an electrician use one. It's always in my pocket if I'm working on electrical. It's a simple double checker!!!!

Yup, got one in my stocking for Christmas this year!

 

[ishiboo]

I haven't cut one with pliers since I lived back at my moms, was redoing her garage wiring and shut everything off... except a high wire I thought was part of the garage was actually the kitchen microwave!

Scariest for me though was I was drilling a hole in a top plate from second floor (first floor finished and closed up), they had sandwiched a couple boards together and at some point in the middle a live wire went in diagonally through the board, turned and went down. I hit it with the spade bit (Bosch Daredevil) and it made the usual arc flash... in the middle of a huge pile of sawdust! Fortunately it didn't ignite (not sure how) and I immediately grabbed the shop vac and vacuumed it out.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I saw the after mat of a pair of bolt cutter, the guy was demoing a wall in a retail store and all the power was off in the wall, except the 277 lights.

 

[Falcon67]

Last remodel we did at the old house required moving a wall. I consulted my breaker/outlet schedule (I did the house wiring), turned off the appropriate breaker, removed the wall covering and chopped off the plug run. Blue Flame KaPow. Wife jumped 10', I'm like "Great, what else did I get wrong in the notes..." But hey, I found the correct breaker.

 

[Milton Shaw]

The last one that I found was in a customer's home. The 240 volt cooktop was hooked to one leg of a double pole breaker and the other leg was hooked to a breaker way down in the box from the one that was marked cooktop.

 

[MBfreak]

These are the kind of mishaps that do not need to happen. None are benign.
Even a minor jolt may send you crashing to the floor from a ladder, easily.
Study a bit of electripathology and find out why. The muscle spasms from a current passing thru the human body can not be controlled by willpower.
Period.

In some environments it is considered quite macho with live line working , even at high voltages, but it is becoming clear that the idea is a real bad one.

At least one VERY big electrical company specifically forbids this practice at any AC voltage level above 50 V and DC level above 125 V.
This goes for employees, contractors and subsuppliers alike.

Definitely the right way.

There is NEVER any excuse for working on live installations.

Testing with approved probes and meters is a different story, that can be safely done.

Been in the power industry ( the real high power stuff, up to 800 kV and generators up to 1600 MVA) for 45 + years. 3 lethal accidents in my vicinity and 2 bad burns.

All 5 were caused by sloppy routines and safety work.

The bright shining top notch safety practice company in Europe is the NGC in the UK.
I wish all would be as good.

The Swedish state railroad company is horrendous. 3 years ago 2 linesmen were badly burned , no faults on their part. The supervisor thought all was ready, despite having two outstanding work orders and 2 padlocks were cut.
He got away with a caution, the two linesmen are scarred for life. 16 kV at 16,67Hz is a very dangerous system and disconnection times at arcs are several seconds.


So.
Switch off.
Lock out.
Mark up work area.
Use an approved and verified voltage tester.
Apply work site grounding kit.
Work, and get home to your family unhurt at the end of every working day.


Ola

 

[sberry]

The last one that I found was in a customer's home. The 240 volt cooktop was hooked to one leg of a double pole breaker and the other leg was hooked to a breaker way down in the box from the one that was marked cooktop.

You know come to think of it I did shock myself, or arc,, I don't remember now but stupidly did something on a stove without disconnecting it thinking it was off. Its not like a welder that switch kills the incoming power.

 

[big.jim]

had a bolt drop across busbars on a 800 amp 415volt three phase board that made a big flash , i didnt leave the bolt in there and luckily i wasnt next to it at the time but i got spots before my eyes

 

[dlcwent]

those little buzzy pens work wonders

I bet they do.... 20 yrs. ago my wife went to check on our four yr. old. She had been in the bathroom a little too long. She found her just about to insert a pair of tweezers into the light socket. We got socket covers after that. Anyway glad you weren't zapped. This probably had nothing to do with the live wire thread, but I had to tell the story