# I think I’ve hit my most “apprentice” moment so far



## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

I’ve been doing my own thing for a little while since my foreman is happy with my work and lets me do my own stuff 

let me set the scene

Im installing baseboard heaters in the 25kv electrical room on the job site I’m on, im proud of my job, everything is going swell. I have my Robertson screwdriver in my hand.

I try to get up off my knees, I set it aside, it rolls off the cantruss that I set in on, and to my absolute HORROR, as I try to catch it, I whack it and it goes flying into a 6” PVC conduit in the floor.
I’m now going to have to try to go fishing with my level and some yellow rope to try to get it back, to attempt to avoid the absolute embarrassment im going to have to deal with.
Ok let’s all laugh about it right now while I don’t have to admit to anything yet


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

If you aren’t making mistakes you probably aren’t doing any work either. I think most of us “old guys” have plenty of stories or are lying…


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## BillyMac59 (Sep 12, 2019)

Go fishing with a magnet .... I've "heard" that works ....been there, done that


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

BillyMac59 said:


> Go fishing with a magnet .... I've "heard" that works ....been there, done that


Yeah my level is the orange Klein one and the magnets are SUPER strong. Im hoping it’ll work 😂


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

Like the time I dropped the lug down underground feed from the meter socket. Oops.


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

Wish me luck guys 😂


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

Good thing its pvc, otherwise your magnet wont get too far down a metal pipe.

I wasnt on the crew that left a pipe wrench in a 4" rigid robroy underground run. That took a bit of explaining lol

Mistakes and mishappens happen. Its all part of learning


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

VICTORY


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

Magnetic strip in that aluminum level?

If that's your biggest booboo you're doing awesome.


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

MikeFL said:


> Magnetic strip in that aluminum level?
> 
> If that's your biggest booboo you're doing awesome.


Biggest boo-boo so far! Im sure I’ll make more. Im about to turn 4th year apprentice in about two months so my foreman has been kind of letting me work alone as a jman with the other jmen in the same building. It’s been fun!


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

swear, sometimes you can drop a screwdriver from 4' up and it'll dance around the floor until it finds a pipe stubbed 5'up.........

Physics does not apply to these situations.


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

micromind said:


> swear, sometimes you can drop a screwdriver from 4' up and it'll dance around the floor until it finds a pipe stubbed 5'up.........
> 
> Physics does not apply to these situations.


That’s about what it felt like! It bounced and flew straight down 😂


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## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

How come if you were TRYING to get it in the conduit, It'd NEVER happen


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## joe-nwt (Mar 28, 2019)

emtnut said:


> How come if you were TRYING to get it in the conduit, It'd NEVER happen


Different physics apply in that situation.


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

Martine said:


> Biggest boo-boo so far! Im sure I’ll make more. Im about to turn 4th year apprentice in about two months so my foreman has been kind of letting me work alone as a jman with the other jmen in the same building. It’s been fun!


*WOW 4 years already.* Seems like it was just yesterday you introduced yourself to us.
It is amazing how something can go down a hole or under something by accident, but if you are trying never goes where you want it.


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## Signal1 (Feb 10, 2016)

Nice level, I have the Greenlee version, the magnets are very strong. I think they call them rare earth magnets.


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## HertzHound (Jan 22, 2019)

I’ve been told, the difference between a craftsman and a craftsboy, is that a craftsman knows how to hide his mistakes. 

Congratulations on becoming a true craftswoman!


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

just the cowboy said:


> *WOW 4 years already.* Seems like it was just yesterday you introduced yourself to us.
> It is amazing how something can go down a hole or under something by accident, but if you are trying never goes where you want it.


time Sure does fly! 🙂


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

I think what I did in my case was to take apart the magnet on the end of a magnetic parts picker and attach it to the head of my steel snake and push it down the pipe. Had to bend the head of the snake so that the bolt that held the magnet to the parts picker fit through, but it worked well enough. Thankfully the lug didn't go too far into the pipe.


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## Orthalion (Oct 8, 2021)

The only thing to make this more of an "apprentice" moment would be to have your journeyman come check on you while you were in the middle of retrieving the screw driver.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

Orthalion said:


> The only thing to make this more of an "apprentice" moment would be to have your journeyman come check on you while you were in the middle of retrieving the screw driver.


That would be completely normal........


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

So, how come the pipes were left open? Some a hole could drop crap in them to be, well an a hole!


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## Almost Retired (Sep 14, 2021)

i have become paranoid about open pipes below where i am working
i dropped a meter lug once (with the wires installed in the pipe)
i checked another lug and a magnet would stick to the set screw pretty good
tied a string to the magnet and Very carefully fished it out
Whew !!! gimme a rag to stuff in there LOL


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## Slay301 (Apr 23, 2018)

Just remember if you ever mess up or get in any sort of trouble what so ever lie and deny


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## Orthalion (Oct 8, 2021)

I didn't do it. 

It was like that when I got here.


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## HertzHound (Jan 22, 2019)

In one way or another, it’s always the foreman’s fault anyway.


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## zoltan (Mar 15, 2010)

When I was an apprentice I was prepping the pulling head for a grocery store service. I skinned a conductor back with a razor knife and after I made my slice I chucked the RK into the bottom of panel board can. The RK went straight into an open 3" pvc conduit! 

Luckily a magnet on a string was able to pull it out.


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## d2043 (Nov 12, 2013)

nrp3 said:


> Like the time I dropped the lug down underground feed from the meter socket. Oops.


I have done the same thing more than once, I learned to stuff a rag in the pipe while working so stuff doesn't fall into the conduit.


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

I worked on high speed production lines, and the worst is when you drop a screw or nut and don't hear it hit the bottom, you know it is in the machine somewhere. I have seen a 8-32 screw stop a machine from starting when it fell into the gear train, or it throw it out of time.


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

Orthalion said:


> The only thing to make this more of an "apprentice" moment would be to have your journeyman come check on you while you were in the middle of retrieving the screw driver.


I don’t know if I would have laughed or cried 😂


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

backstay said:


> So, how come the pipes were left open? Some a hole could drop crap in them to be, well an a hole!


They belong to another electrical contractor and they had just ran their yellow rope the day before to get their pulls ready. Realistically they should have taped them back up after since we’re now days later and they still haven’t done them. Everyone on the site is pretty non-ahole so they’re safe 😅


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## Orthalion (Oct 8, 2021)

My apprentice dropped a chunk of 1 1/4 pvc 22" long down a 4" DB2 this spring, apparently it can make it all the way down the 4" 90. I walked outside just in time to find him with his arm all the way down the pipe. We had a good laugh then sent a fishtape through from the far end with a big ball of tape on the end to push it out.


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## superdeez (Sep 13, 2010)

When I was a 5th year I worked at Animal Kingdom on the jobs surrounding the The World of Avatar,. For about three weeks a JW I was friends with and I were running big pipes behind a restaurant to finish fiber and data runs that went out into the middle of a lake for some kind of show. I was putting a bunch of 1.5-4" pipes into a gutter, kneeling in a bunch of pine straw and at the top of a moderately steep hill using my beater screwdriver to tighten the locknuts. JW asked me something and then my beater disappeared. I never did find it. IDK if it fell in the pine straw, rolled down the hill or went down one of the 4" pipes. I didn't feel it in any of the pipes. That was one of those jobs where about as soon as you know what's going on at one place, they move you to a completely different part of the job working on another area they were building. We didn't have to pull the fiber and I never heard about it again. 

Knocking out that same gutter, I must have been hungover or tired or something because I splayed a 2" knockout on the drawstud because I didn't thread it in far enough. As a response, the foreman gave us a brand new Milwaukee 18V knockout set. All of the cutters, dies and even the tool itself were still in the plastic. The charger even had the little plastic thing on the plug. As we both drooled over this new tool the JW said: "Damn, man, you need to break stuff more often! Throw that drill into the lake."


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## RECII (5 mo ago)

Martine said:


> Biggest boo-boo so far! Im sure I’ll make more. Im about to turn 4th year apprentice in about two months so my foreman has been kind of letting me work alone as a jman with the other jmen in the same building. It’s been fun!


I've just started my 4th Year as an Apprentice. Exactly right, if you aren't making mistakes you aren't doing anything. Lol


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

Martine said:


> I’ve been doing my own thing for a little while since my foreman is happy with my work and lets me do my own stuff
> 
> let me set the scene
> 
> ...


Damn, how did I MISS this entire thread???

Anyway.. thats IT. You're DONE.. ya feelin' me??? it's OVER... before it even BEGUN!!!

I'll list my record of f-ups later so watch out. for it... INCOMING!!!.. if you think THIS is a "Fuk Up..." You can't hold a candle to this piece of work... says Donald Anthony... (my dad)...
And yes, the answer to your question is yes, his initals are actually D.A.D.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

nrp3 said:


> Like the time I dropped the lug down underground feed from the meter socket. Oops.


"OHHHHHH F U D G E >>>>" dir note: (dad having knocked the hubcap Ralphie was holding out to catch each of them, and catapulted all 6 lug nuts into random places in the deep snow on the roadside far & wide)
Nar: Only I didn't say fudge, I said THEE word... that queen mother of all profanities...
Dad: "What did you just SAY?"
Ralphie: (Collects hisself, comes to senses...) Uh... uh.... uhhhhhhh...
dad: (shakes head up/down ) That's what I THOUGHT you said!
(both Back in car, respectively)
Dad: Do you know what your son just said?
Mom: No dear... what???
(Emphasis is on the being innocently blissfully unaware)
DADWhispering to her ear, (Audible to her & audience, not occupants in car) He said FUCHK...
mom: (Gasps in oturagous over extended disbelied and acknowledgement.) RALPHIE!!!
mom:Oh Ralphie man are you gonna get it, oh this is the end... when we get home boy are you gonna be sorry... and WHERE did you learn that word anyway??? (Ralphie in his mind) Heard it about a thousand times from my old man but... I couldn't throw dad under mom's bus as so I eventually blamed ...

(ralphie) : Schwartz!!!


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

Id like to formally thank myself for capping the 2” PVC because your girl almost lost her screwdriver in a hole again 😂


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## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

Note to self ***

ALWAYS wear your hard hat if working below Martine


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## drsparky (Nov 13, 2008)

How is your kitty cat?


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

drsparky said:


> How is your kitty cat?


so far so good! The vet said that we’re probably out of the woods but we’ve got more blood tests and urine analysis to do again to make sure that whatever infection he had in his bladder that had worked it’s way down is completely gone, but he’s been doing okay so far! Thanks for asking 💕


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