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Yesteday, light drizzel but I had promised to fit a dibond sign 4, 10 by 2 foot panels to a metal clad wall, standard job nothing unusual have done lots of work on this site in the past year, Coming out of the wall are the OLD wires from a light box the customer had removed a few weeks ago. (me ) "that wiring is dead ?" ( HIM)"yes disconnected it when I removed the box (me) "OK" So I go up the ladder to push the wires down the back of the cladding and you can guess the rest, Somehow I managed to let go of the wire and stay on the ladder, (me) "you *F**** ******" the little hair I have on this baldy napper was standing on end! I think yesterday wasn't my day to to die but it felt a little to close for comfort. So I will now buy a tester and never ever do that again Oh by the way , why did I trust the(******)client? because he was an ELECTRICIAN
-------------------- Terry Colley The VintageSign Co 42 barrack hill Romiley Stockport Cheshire, England sk6 3az tel 0161 494 5089 terry@bullandbrush.fsnet.co.uk Posts: 210 | From: England | Registered: Dec 1999
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Hi Terry You were VERY LUCKY,and thanks for the reminder, we all take these things as O.K and never think of the results until it happens, I bet you will always remember to test in the future, and so will I, NOW !! Brian www.brian-the-brush.com
-------------------- Brian the Brush brian the brush uk Yorkshire, UK www.brianthebrushuk.com Posts: 123 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Sep 2001
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This should be a lesson for everyone. You must always check for yourself (ie "better safe than sorry"). You can get an inexpensive tester at lowes for around 10 or 12 bucks.
And you can never trust electricians. I had one turn on a 15 K transformer on me while I was wiring some neon.
-------------------- Mark Kottwitz Kottwitz Graphics Ridgely, MD www.SeeMySignWork.com -------------------------- Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein Posts: 746 | From: Ridgely, MD | Registered: Oct 2000
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WoW! Terry! glad to see you survived. It reminds me of a situation that changed the way I work on electrical things! I was 20 feet up in a bucket working on a sign, replacing a ballast. I actually went into the room where, I watched the man pull the breaker and shut the sign off. I was working for about a half hour, twisting the last of the the wires together on the last ballast, when WHAM! I got thrown back into the bucket! Seems the sign was on a timer! It came on by itself! When working with electricity, make sure the power is OFF nad there are no timers!!
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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One thing many do not realize is that a high tension wire can arc up to three feet. That is pretty scary. You have too much good work to do Terry, you need to be with us for a long time.
-------------------- Bill Riedel Riedel Sign Co., Inc. 15 Warren Street Little Ferry, N.J. 07643 billsr@riedelsignco.com Posts: 2953 | From: Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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In the early ‘70s, one of my co workers at an electric sign service company half listened to the Safeway store manager mention something about the time clock as he checked to make sure it was off before troubleshooting their sign. As Larry was tightening the secondary leads on some new 15KV 60 mA transformers, the sign switched on. He couldn’t let go and had to jump off the ladder to free himself, falling about 15 feet to the pavement. With his arm hanging limp by his side, he hobbled in to talk to the manager. “Did you say something about the time clock?” “Yeah, the sign just turns on at random times.”
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I recently hooked up some outside lights on by granddaughter's trailer. I tied into two outside lines that were on the front and the back porch. To be safe, I pulled the main breaker inside the trailer, and proceeded to make the connections. As I was finishing up, I brushed the last two wires I was connecting with the back of my hand, and got "stung". I couldn't believe the wires were hot with the main breaker off, but after further investigating, discovered and extra line had been run under the rtrailer from the power pole !
NEVER trust a bare wire without testing first.
I knew this rule very well, having serviced signs for many years, but this just goes to show that even someone who knows better can make a false assumption, which in the case of electricity, can prove deadly. Always test first....
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Sadly, it doesn't work out for the good all the time, instead of just teaching a painful lesson.
Years ago, while going thru Wynn's buyout of the Golden Nugget, a bulb servicemen from local illumination company, had removed panel from false ceiling and was up into it, working on replacing a ballast...supposedly, power was off, it wasn't......he died...
When it comes to a life or death situation, you have to do for yourself and not rely on others, especially if you have no idea of their competance levels...not all are true journeymen...
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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I'll add this just as a warning: A freind was using his boom truck on a construction site, I think he was being paid to help put up trusses. He was in the truck, and heard a strange crackling or buzzing sound. He got out to look around, and saw that the boom had made contact with some high voltage wires. I'm guessing that when he got out, he was OK because he was holding the inside door handle which was plastic.
But while he was standing there, the truck started rolling backwards, and in haste, he ran to it, grabbed the outside handle and was killed instantly. Rumor was that it was something you wouldn't want to lay eyes on.
He was a young guy, 35 maybe, left a widow and two children.
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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All this reminds me of an incident in Tenn. that I heard of from a friend, that claims he was the witness to such... It seems this fellows father was a traveling electrical troubleshooter, and one day the father took his son to work with him for the day, they loaded into father's boomtruck and took off to a day of replacing bulbs and ballasts on a long list of cutomers that required alot of driving to reach... As day ended, the father headed the rig home, Elmer(friend's name), noticed something unusal as they proceeded home and queried his father as to why, as they passed thru these little burgs and townships, that ppl. were going to bed...his father was confused by his son's question and asked him to eleborate, ok, as we go thru town, ppl. are turning off their lites and I guess it's because they're going to bed, right Dad? Dad looked over his shoulder into rear of truck and realized that he had left boom partially extended and hanging off the end was about 1000' of powerwires, jerked from their poles as truck passed underneath them on way thru towns...he had darkened five burgs by time Elmer's question brought his attention to bear and retify problem by properly anchoring boom to truck bed, where it should be... Sorry to hijack subject, return to your regular programming now...
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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Not off the subject MrMc . . . just another great story about how electricity and stupidity don't mix . . .
I shared this here a coupl'a years back . . .
Years ago when I was working for Neon-Ron, I had to ride with the shop electrician to the high school footbal feild to look at some painted signs, while he made a repair on the scoreboard. We went in the ol' red boom truck.
My part only took a few minutes, but he was still busy, so I just sat in the truck and waited . . . for some reason, when he was done, he came down, got in the truck and we sat there and snacked on sandwhiches he brought and we talked a while. Finally, we decided to head back to the shop.
As we were driving out, the classes were changing, and all the kids were looking up and pointing . . . we were very curious as to what they were all lookin' so horrified at.
We craned our necks and looked up too . . .but could see nothing. Our curiosity went on for several seconds as we rolled slowly along the little access road by the school. We wondered if there was a plane coming in for a crash landing, or some weird never-seen-before bird . . .Superman mabey . . .
No, of course not. It was us, technically the the boom . . . still extended about 25ft, it was dragging the electrical lines down beside the school . . . .
How we kept our jobs I'll never know. Full and complete mercy was given us for our utterly reckless stupidity. But we did get 'suspended' a week without pay.
That's the maddest I EVER saw our boss.
Fortunately, there were no casualites, or injuries . . .
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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