# Nitro experiences arc flash, eyes are itchy..



## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

I was rewiring a outlet that was all fuggered, in a hurry also. Had a neutral shared between the same phases. Pink ground re-colored green. Failed to realize there was another current carrying conductor feeding another box on the same neutral from that box. Basicly I screwed up. Failed to check all the conductors in and out. Failed to test with a tick stick before cutting. I have the go, go mentality(even though i'm currently union). Need to clamp down on testing and checking everything out before cutting. Eyes seem good, was about 1'6" from the flash. I'm buying safety glasses, ASAP on the company account. Guess I"m posting this to remind peeps to wear safetey glasses and check first before cuttting. I also got shocked this weekend at home, lol, WTF is going on. Turned off a room and assumed the whole room was on the same circuit. Bad week for me but.. luckily nothing terminal. LEARN from your f-ups. Test, wear safety glasses.


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

nitro71 said:


> I was rewiring a outlet that was all fuggered, in a hurry also. Had a neutral shared between the same phases. Pink ground re-colored green. Failed to realize there was another current carrying conductor feeding another box on the same neutral from that box. Basicly I screwed up. Failed to check all the conductors in and out. Failed to test with a tick stick before cutting. I have the go, go mentality(even though i'm currently union). Need to clamp down on testing and checking everything out before cutting. Eyes seem good, was about 1'6" from the flash. I'm buying safety glasses, ASAP on the company account. Guess I"m posting this to remind peeps to wear safetey glasses and check first before cuttting. I also got shocked this weekend at home, lol, WTF is going on. Turned off a room and assumed the whole room was on the same circuit. Bad week for me but.. luckily nothing terminal. LEARN from your f-ups. Test, wear safety glasses.


Hum so your cutters look like;








This now? ^


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

yeh, worse than that. learned some respect today. That was a 20 amp circuit. Am I afraid, no. I'll die before I leave electrical. Did I learn something, hell yeh.


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

If you were cutting a neutral and touched ground all you should have seen possibly was a spark. A true arc flash would have been more demonstrative, with molten copper particles blowing out like a shot gun and possibly reigniting and sending the phenomena into your unprotected face and leaving a powdery residue. I'm glad you're safe and ready to wear PPE>:thumbsup:


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

RIVETER said:


> If you were cutting a neutral and touched ground all you should have seen possibly was a spark. A true arc flash would have been more demonstrative, with molten copper particles blowing out like a shot gun and possibly reigniting and sending the phenomena into your unprotected face and leaving a powdery residue. I'm glad you're safe and ready to wear PPE>:thumbsup:


This was more than a spark, cut the line and a ground at the same time..


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

nitro71 said:


> This was more than a spark, cut the line and a ground at the same time..


That is not a good thing to do,live...or not.:thumbsup:


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

I'm not intending on doing it again, LOL!


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

The eye itching thing is probably from the flash, getting flashed or exposed to UV light like that will usually do it. Those cutters of mine are like that from the same thing. I cut through a 3 wire cable that had a power on it from more than one breaker, I traced what I thought was the only circuit, and turned it off then just cut, then I found the other circuit. 

Remember guys it's always live till you check it.:yes:


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Jlarson said:


> The eye itching thing is probably from the flash, getting flashed or exposed to UV light like that will usually do it.


Yeah, he'll wake up this morning feeling like there is sand in his eyes. That used to happen to me when I was around arc welding a lot and constantly got the flash in my eyes.


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

We have all done it. At least I bet we have all done it. So what brand of linesmans are you gonna buy this time?


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## Mike in Canada (Jun 27, 2010)

Been there, done that. Make sure your safety glasses are UV blocking, and that will help a great deal. I did something similar to this not too long ago... I was cutting a piece of BX in the ceiling that I had traced from a box, and after it mingled with a couple of other strands I ended up picking the wrong one. The liar won't read through BX shielding, so you're kind of working on faith. My faith was not rewarded.  I've got a notch in my Klein J2000's. A good-sized notch.

Mike


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## Mr. Sparkle (Jan 27, 2009)

7 years and counting, no notch. 

I think I should retire my J2000's because I just jinxed myself.


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

I was making a pretty good run on not knipping anything live myself. Figured I'd share this, might help someone re-evaluate using safety glasses and checking with the tick along with turning power off. I had checked with my wiggy but failed to realize there was another conductor in the back of the box. Having the pink ground phased green did not help either. Eyes feel pretty good this AM. Back to the rodeo!

It was my poor strippers that took the hit. They are toast!


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

HackWork said:


> Yeah, he'll wake up this morning feeling like there is sand in his eyes. That used to happen to me when I was around arc welding a lot and constantly got the flash in my eyes.


That happened to me too while I was working with a welder at Jeffersonville,Ind. Boat Works. He got offended when I finally told him that I couldn't stand watching him weld ...it hurt my eyes.


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## 76nemo (Aug 13, 2008)

I took an apprenticeship in Cali blowing glass, you weren't allowed in with out the big heavy coke bottle looking things. I can run a good mig bead, but it's all by feel, I can't see the pool. I couldn't see the colors mingle in the glass either, so that was it for me with glassblowing




.............and "Yes", I gots me a notch in the cable cutters Just one, but it counts Boss, it counts yessir


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