f7ben Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 Just now, NaturallyAspirated said: Copy that, glad you are still breathing Ben. Neal 7200v will kill you dead.... There likely isn't a lot of fault current though because of the distance to the transformer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold Member BOHICA Posted February 14, 2018 Gold Member Share Posted February 14, 2018 1 minute ago, NaturallyAspirated said: Yes. Little flesh from a couple fingers, and the temporary heart blip. Also some mental desire lost to do that job. He went through some depression, came out of it, went through the same tech school program I did and is working a pretty decent gig in TV now, like what I used to do. Pretty proud of him. Neal At 41, a few close calls, and 20 years of doing this my desire to do it is starting to go down. Another 5 years, the wife will be done with her doctorate and I can prolly retire and go to my local utility and read or install meters or flopping whoppers or working at homedepot. I will be pretty salty towards working in a group in another 5 years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f7ben Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 Just now, BOHICA said: At 41, a few close calls, and 20 years of doing this my desire to do it is starting to go down. Another 5 years, the wife will be done with her doctorate and I can prolly retire and go to my local utility and read or install meters or flopping whoppers or working at homedepot. I will be pretty salty towards working in a group in another 5 years. I have 10 more years and done Wife can work then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaturallyAspirated Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 (edited) 8 minutes ago, f7ben said: 7200v will kill you dead.... There likely isn't a lot of fault current though because of the distance to the transformer. It can. He ended up in Ramsey Medical Center Burn Unit for a few days. Electrical zaps are bad, but some of the cases in that place were flat out horrible. I remember one kid was probably 12 years old, or so and was 80% covered in burns. Wrapped up like a mummy and in traction. Neal Edited February 14, 2018 by NaturallyAspirated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaturallyAspirated Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 2 minutes ago, f7ben said: I have 10 more years and done Wife can work then Same here, I hope to duck out of TV before 2028 Olympics in LA. I'll stick around the ranch feeding some cattle for the rest of my days. Neal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 7 minutes ago, f7ben said: I have 10 more years and done Wife can work then Sounds familiar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 3 minutes ago, NaturallyAspirated said: Same here, I hope to duck out of TV before 2028 Olympics in LA. I'll stick around the ranch feeding some cattle for the rest of my days. Neal Max’n And relax’n all cool while shootin’ some B-ball outside of the school? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaturallyAspirated Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 1 minute ago, Rod Johnson said: Max’n And relax’n all cool while shootin’ some B-ball outside of the school? Damn (alt) right! Oops! Neal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 4 minutes ago, NaturallyAspirated said: Damn (alt) right! Oops! Neal Here’s a pick of me drinking with John Cena! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaturallyAspirated Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Just now, Rod Johnson said: Here’s a pick of me drinking with John Cena! Looks like a pick of you drinking with dirty grubby toes! Neal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 3 minutes ago, NaturallyAspirated said: Looks like a pick of you drinking with dirty grubby toes! Neal You can’t see John cena? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaturallyAspirated Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 6 minutes ago, Rod Johnson said: You can’t see John cena? He's in your mind, like alt left! Neal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSFB Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 13 minutes ago, Rod Johnson said: You can’t see John cena? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold Member BOHICA Posted February 14, 2018 Gold Member Share Posted February 14, 2018 35 minutes ago, f7ben said: I have 10 more years and done Wife can work then I don't think I cam make it 10 years being the boss.... Its like herding cats sometimes!!!! Plus the extra stress isn't worth the money sometimes. I would be able to go longer if I just went back to being just a journeyman... Its easier to do the niggiring and let somebody else do the figuring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVT MXZ XRS Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Some of you may have seen these before for safety training. Guys lucky he's still alive. Benny, glad you're ok. Be more careful, wear your PPE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleepr2 Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 8 hours ago, f7ben said: Working in a drive cabinet my last shift on friday at about 5am. Was done trouble shooting and reached down into the bottom of the cabinet to grab the drive cover that I set down there and got belted hard. It got my left hand and arm and thankfully I wasnt touching anything with my right hand or it could have been bad. I stepped back and collected myself and saw that there was what appeared to be two wires twisted together sticking up bare at the bottom of the cabinet. I knew I got belted hard but wanted to know by what voltage to ascertain what my immediate future risk was. I got my meter back out and when I went to check the wire to ground it blew up in my face. Full arc flash...me blind and my meter blown out of my hand. Turns out it was two legs of a 480V circuit that had melted their tape off and melted the wire to the point where they werent touching but were very close. I caught both legs with my hand and then when I put my meter on them I shorted them out. I ended up going to the emergency room mostly as a precaution where they ran a of of blood and urine work etc.....my labs showed elevated levels of muscle damage so I have to have two liters of fluids through IV to flush my kidneys. I had a nasty burn on my finger This was the 2nd worst shock I have received and it highlights the danger of working industrial electricity. All of the cabinets on the cranes that are similar were inspected afterwards and the same two wires were found hot and taped in several of them. A drive upgrade was done and the old drives had a 480v feed to a fan transformer that the new drives didnt have and these wires were somehow just taped up and overlooked. One minute you are minding your own business and the next you could be laying on your ass wondering what the fuck just happened. Mind your P's and Q's boys Really glad you OK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtssrx Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 9 hours ago, f7ben said: The worst I ever got shocked at work was just months after I was hired.....I never told anyone cause i thought I would get fired. I got blown off a ladder and had burns on entry and exit of both my hands. I didnt feel right for days after that shit. Knowing what I know now I had no business doing what I was doing and I should have been in the hospital. But I lived to tell the tale I’m glad your okay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Contributing Member Jimmy Snacks Posted February 14, 2018 Platinum Contributing Member Share Posted February 14, 2018 Close call Ben and happy you came out relatively unscathed...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostynuts Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence. Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works. One day I’m mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way. It seems as though I hadn’t remembered to unplug it after all. Now I’m standing there, I’ve got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover. Time stood still. The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine. It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of shit lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses. Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you’re all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand. At this point I’m about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can’t let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences … but Dad always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled. This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil. At this point I’m thinking I’m going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas. ‘Damn!,’ I think, as I remember I just filled the tank! Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think ‘Oh God please die …. Pleeeeaze die’. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner’s right foot. So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day …. he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created. I honestly don’t know how I got loose from the wire …. I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned. There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire. Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things: 1 – Three of my teeth seem to have melted. 2 – I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right). 3 – Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think. 4 – My left eye will not open. 5 – My right eye will not close. 6 – The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that. 7 – My nuts are still smaller than average yet they are almost a foot long. 8 – I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don’t understand this???). That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow. The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brother groove Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Glad youre ok Ben, been in the business for over 30 years and seen some nasty stuff happen. Please stay safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICEMAN! Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 Yikes. Glad you’re alright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoslinger Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 I worked as an industrial electrician for about 2 years while attending college in the evening. very dangerous environments and not somewhere you want to be hungover, not paying attention, etc. I never got zapped, thankfully. you're damn lucky ben. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoslinger Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 but the high voltage to your body perhaps explains some things. are you sure the current didn't go from one ear to the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainecat Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 11 hours ago, f7ben said: I'd love to take anyone for a tour of the place I work.....its so cool. I wouldnt call it dangerous but there is 1000 ways to die any given day for any of us working there. You just have to be diligent in looking out for situations that could hurt you Wife’s brother is a master sparky at the AFB near here. He’s old like me and tells me stories like yours. He says the best part of getting old is sending in the young guys in the nasty shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Contributing Member steve from amherst Posted February 14, 2018 Platinum Contributing Member Share Posted February 14, 2018 We only work with 24 volt. My old buss partner could get lazy at time and would strip a field wire with his teeth. He was working on a clock once and didn't notice someone had bypassed the transformer. Went to strip the wire with his teeth and stuck 110 in his mouth. Till this day no matter how far the truck is he will walk to get strippers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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