Just a story

[onemoretry]

So my father-in-law has (had) an old equipment building on his farm that was severely damaged this winter (and 20 years of neglect). About 2/3 of the roof collapsed and 1 wall came down. We decided to rip it down and start fresh. Before I ran it through with the skid steer, I asked if he had disconnected power. Of course not, didn't know where the switch was. My brother-in-law tracked the breaker down in the house while I devised the plan outside. There were three wires tied directly to the building, bare wires mind you through ceramic insulators in the all wood building. BIL came out saying that he thinks he found the right breaker, so I get the voltmeter out and check. Turns out two of the three wires were OK, but one of them was still hot. It was wired for 240, but one side was direct wired into the panel and the other side was on a 120 breaker. We had to take the whole house down to get it straightened out... I am amazed that the place hadn't burned down with live bare wires all over a collapsed building.
Just thought I would share, and no pictures, sorry.
Back to the regularly scheduled program.

 

[700jfm]

I remember as a boy living in Va. We lived in old farm homes with it wired like that. Sometimes when the fuse would blow out, my dad would put a penny in it intill we went to town. I konw but that the it was done. That's were I learned to say son-of-a-*****. And what soap tasted like.

 

[burleymike]

Sounds like my barn (soon to be shop) fools that lived here 25 years ago strung romex from the back of the house to the barn. They just wrapped it around some old ceramic insulators to support it.

They ran two 20 amp circuits one from the garage circuit and the other was fed off a 60 amp breaker. This is 12awg wire so it is amazing that it never burned. The sun has eaten the sheathing off the romex and the black wires have lost most of their insulation.

The wiring inside the barn is even worse, the cattle have destroyed most of the PVC boxes that are only 4' off the ground.

They used the romex on the 60 amp breaker for 240 and 120 using the ground as a neutral. It is a real quailtiy job

 

[Frank Elson]

I visited a friend with a barn attached to his farmhouse one day.
He did a bit of welding and his wife came screaming into the barn saying that her television went off when he started the welding...

Turned out he'd just drilled a hole in a wall, carried a 13 amp wire through to a bunch of sockets and all the garage stuff ran off that.

I backed away, slowly and carefully...