# Enter the Apprentice Contest and Win Big!



## 99cents

.....


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## 99cents

The tools aren't included with the pouch. Those look like crappy tools anyway.


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## Bird dog

At least they got the japwrap right.


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## Service Call

I'm always learning...does that count?? Plus I'm in the states ( I know shipping is a pain, haha).


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## Majewski

What if I make a new account and claim to be an apprentice and tell a winning story. See, it's easier if you all just give me your points now.


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## 99cents

Majewski said:


> What if I make a new account and claim to be an apprentice and tell a winning story. See, it's easier if you all just give me your points now.


Sure you could do that but then you won't be alive as long as you can remember.


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## Majewski

Lol.


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## wcord

Majewski said:


> What if I make a new account and claim to be an apprentice and tell a winning story. See, it's easier if you all just give me your points now.


The key stroke logger that is installed on your computer will tell us the truth. 
Besides, pretty slimey to steal from an apprentice.

Seriously though, you do raise a valid point. I suggest the winner submit proof of their apprenticeship, before being awarded.


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## HackWork

I was really hoping for Pick-A-Number to be the contest.


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## Majewski

wcord said:


> The key stroke logger that is installed on your computer will tell us the truth.
> Besides, pretty slimey to steal from an apprentice.
> 
> Seriously though, you do raise a valid point. I suggest the winner submit proof of their apprenticeship, before being awarded.


Now you're picking up what I'm laying down!


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## LARMGUY

That Fluke is broken.

It's showin 119 VAC without measuring anything.


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## Majewski

And that pen is picking up current in thin air. Tesla is alive and working!


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## wcord

LARMGUY said:


> That Fluke is broken.
> 
> It's showin 119 VAC without measuring anything.


That's the new model, designed to pick up the microwave transmission of electricity. 
See it works. 
There is 119 volts in the air, free to anyone who can invent the proper receiver.:whistling2:


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## Bird dog

wcord said:


> The key stroke logger that is installed on your computer will tell us the truth.
> Besides, pretty slimey to steal from an apprentice.
> 
> Seriously though, you do raise a valid point. I suggest the winner submit proof of their apprenticeship, before being awarded.


Some apprentices aren't in an apprenticeships like in right to work states. Letter from employer, on company letterhead, in lieu of say union apprenticeship paperwork.


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## skittles

I'll bear the shame as the cost of potential free stuff lol I should be getting notification of my test score for my journeyman in the mail tomorrow, so i guess that means I'm still an apprentice. 

So I'm thinking of the time an EC company was changing the lights in my school and we were helping their guys out. I cut the black and the white on a hot 277v troff. 
Thankfully i was on a fiberglass ladder and wearing leather gloves. The butt chewing and detailed explanation of the pain i just barely avoided by the guy i was working with was enough to make me think about going back to painting.
Didn't help any that one of my wire nuts fell off the hot wire right after that and made my first firework display. 
That was a fun day.


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## wcord

Bird dog said:


> Some apprentices aren't in an apprenticeships like in right to work states. Letter from employer, on company letterhead, in lieu of say union apprenticeship paperwork.


I would like to think that a journeyman wouldn't stoop low enough to basically steal from an apprentice
but reality is that there is always at least one out there who is a slimeball


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## Majewski

Slimeballs are everywhere!


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## ppsh

My story isn't of a ****-up on the job, it was my first electrical job, doing resi with a 70 year old semi retired electrician. The guy was doing this on weekends and the occasional week day when he didn't have work Didn't have a clue of what I got myself into until the 2nd week working with him. I guess my f***-up (_learning experience_) was working with him for a better part of 7 months.

First week went okay, spent a few days as a shovel operator laying some pvc.
Have to wait for the carpenters to catch up, so we come back back a week and a half later. I get tasked with putting up all of the outlet boxes in the rear unit. He hands me small a box of roofing nails and a case of Carlon adjustables and I get to work putting them up, he walks in and looks at my hammer and blows up that it does not have a milled head and it wasn't at least a 24oz hammer. He pulls a beat to hell harbor freight claw hammer out of his car and "gifts" it to me while berating me to never use a smooth face hammer for electrical again.:laughing:

Soon run out of nails, (running out of materials was a common experience on this job. He liked to by things in he smallest pack size they came in) got some drywall screws and an impact from him and continued on putting them up. He goes and inspects my work at lunch, then blows up again once he saw that I was putting screws in _ALL FOUR_ positions. Apparently to him2 screws in the front of the mount and one for each ear was overkill and a waste if you were using screws, one in the front and one in the top ear was all you needed if you were using screws. These weren't long screws either, they were self tapping drywall screws for metal studs being used in wood instead. 

Next few days go by without incident until it was time to start gutting the old wiring from the crawlspace. I was finishing up putting up some can lights when I heard a crack and a yell come from the crawlspace. He was cutting some of the old wiring loose to pull out from the other side of the house and cut the 12/2 that fed temp power for the carpenters compressors and battery chargers. by mistake, blew up his strippers doing that. He was too experienced to bother carrying a volt stick. Yells at the GC and carpenters for using the old NM to feed temp power even though he saw where it was coming from, right through the crawlspace opening. (Not the only time this happens either.)

This was about the time I realized I was working for somebody who lacked anything resembling a brain. 

His idea of "running low voltage" was to take a carlon adjustable single gang, drill a 3/4" hole in the bottom for a 1/2" sealtite connector and run the sealtitle 2 feet into the crawlspace. Too difficult to run cat5/coax while everything was open. Was loads of fun to pull that through when the crawlspace was solid mud in March.

He decided to have a weatherhead for the phone/tv to enter the side of the house, then go down through the wall and come back out crawlspace level so there wouldn't be a wire stapled down the side of the house. Drills 2 holes, one for cable, one for phone, one comes out crooked, so the answer was just to use a heat gun to make it fit in the wall, few months later, turns out it got kinked... Drilling down into the crawlspace was the most time consuming part of this ordeal, all he had was 2 m18 drills and 4 1.3ah batteries to drill this. Figured it wouldn't be too bad, just go thru the 2x4 and the sub floor. What was beneath this though was about 14" of various lumber that had been added to who knows how many times since 1917. 2 stacked 4x6s and a 2x6 beneath that that the old porch was tied into. With our luck we hit the 2x6 beneath it also almost dead center. One of the drills ended up releasing the magic smoke 2/3 of the way through, drilling that far with a 1 1/4 daredevil bit was just too much for it. He ended up bringing his hole hawg the next day to finish it.

His other incident of blowing up pliers happened when adding another temp feed for the roofers to run their compressors on, old 8x8 box below the panel, didn't check power and started clipping wires because he needed that knockout space that the conduit feeding it used, ended up clipping the old AC feed thinking it was off, blew up his kliens and shocked him, proceeded to curse out the GC and carpenters for "turning on breakers that he turned off a month ago. "

Everything except for the smoke detectors was wired in 12ga or larger. Had to get creative on how to fit everything into the boxes.









That's the highlights of what happened on that job, the guy screwed up a ton more, often dumping whatever he screwed up in may lap to fix it during the week. Did learn quite a lot from fixing the mistakes he left me to fix. 

Would I work for him again? Obviously not.

Did I learn a lot from this job? Probably more that I would have working with a sane electrician.


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## Majewski

He wasn't an electrician...he was something else. lol Nice story!!!


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## hatsgoods

ok so i was talking to a few others here on the form and i was asked to post my story here. so here it is. 
2 years ago i suffered from a heart attack at the age of 20 due to thati have a condition called tunnersysdrome witch made my artiries smaller to my heart and the one collapsed. they rushed me to emergency surgery and put a stent in my artery. just recent i had a blood clot in my lugs from my blood being thicker, then just about 3-4 weeks ago i had another blood clot in my leg. i am now not able to work as a apprentice as i was getting ready to start school for being one. my dreams where shattered but that don't stop me from leaning from you people here on the forms and helping out my family if they need some help with electrical.i went to my next county over vo - tech school for electrical technology and i specialize in residential. due to the hospital stays i don't have any revenue to get a new multi meter so i am turning to E.T amily for help. any help would greatly be appreciated. thank for your time. - kelli


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## HackWork

hatsgoods said:


> ok so i was talking to a few others here on the form and i was asked to post my story here. so here it is.
> 2 years ago i suffered from a heart attack at the age of 20 due to thati have a condition called tunnersysdrome witch made my artiries smaller to my heart and the one collapsed. they rushed me to emergency surgery and put a stent in my artery. just recent i had a blood clot in my lugs from my blood being thicker, then just about 3-4 weeks ago i had another blood clot in my leg. i am now not able to work as a apprentice as i was getting ready to start school for being one. my dreams where shattered but that don't stop me from leaning from you people here on the forms and helping out my family if they need some help with electrical.i went to my next county over vo - tech school for electrical technology and i specialize in residential. due to the hospital stays i don't have any revenue to get a new multi meter so i am turning to E.T amily for help. any help would greatly be appreciated. thank for your time. - kelli


Did the blood clot in your leg cause permanent damage, or will you one day be able to start your apprenticeship? 

Were you on blood thinners? I would be surprised to hear that they didn't put you on them after the heart attack.


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## hatsgoods

HackWork said:


> Did the blood clot in your leg cause permanent damage, or will you one day be able to start your apprenticeship?
> 
> Were you on blood thinners? I would be surprised to hear that they didn't put you on them after the heart attack.


yea after the first clot they put me on a thinner but they said at the 2nd one that the fist med nevered worked so now im on a shot 2 times a day. i will be able to work and go back too school but not fir a while


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## HackWork

hatsgoods said:


> yea after the first clot they put me on a thinner but they said at the 2nd one that the fist med nevered worked so now im on a shot 2 times a day. i will be able to work and go back too school but not fir a while


That's good to hear. 

I know that my blood thinner works because nothing ever heals :laughing:


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## 99cents

I think we should give hatsgoods the meter and then have some more guys kick in points to continue with the stupid story contest. How about it, dudes? Some members have enough points to buy a truck.


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## HackWork

That sounds good but check the other thread since MechDVR may be sending her one.


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## 99cents

HackWork said:


> That sounds good but check the other thread since MechDVR may be sending her one.


Gotcha.

Mech's a good dude :thumbsup: .


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## ponyboy

Do I have any points?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## hondariderar

I don't have anything extravagant but here's my funny.

Last year was my first year. I work in a data center and we do alot of data and telephone. We were adding some hydra and was handed a slammer for c4 blocks. We got to talking while I was playing with the slammer and ended up slamming the palm of my hand. It got my attention, I tried to hide it but for those little nicks poured alot of blood. Don't know how it bled so much but my jeans looked like a murder scene from trying to play it off lol.


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## 99cents

hondariderar said:


> I don't have anything extravagant but here's my funny.
> 
> Last year was my first year. I work in a data center and we do alot of data and telephone. We were adding some hydra and was handed a slammer for c4 blocks. We got to talking while I was playing with the slammer and ended up slamming the palm of my hand. It got my attention, I tried to hide it but for those little nicks poured alot of blood. Don't know how it bled so much but my jeans looked like a murder scene from trying to play it off lol.


Good story but you don't ride a Kawi :laughing: .


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## hondariderar

99cents said:


> Good story but you don't ride a Kawi :laughing: .


Lol I had a 2000 zx6r back 10 years ago. Most of my stuff was honda. Don't ride much of anything now that I'm halfway grown up!


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## 99cents

hondariderar said:


> Lol I had a 2000 zx6r back 10 years ago. Most of my stuff was honda. Don't ride much of anything now that I'm halfway grown up!


If you rode a Ninja, all is forgiven  .


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## 99cents

Biscuits said:


> Do I have any points?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Ten. If you reply to this, you will have twelve  .


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## hondariderar

Thank ya massa &#55357;&#56908;


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## BaumannMN

My journeyman asked me to get his hammer drill with a 1/4 inch bit from his cart. I spent far too long trying to figure out why I couldn't get the bit in the drill so I asked what I was doing wrong. My journeyman said "First, put down the Sawzall."


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## 99cents

Okay, I'm going to wrap this up pretty soon...


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## BaumannMN

Not much of a response... Where are all the good stories?


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## 99cents

BaumannMN said:


> Not much of a response... Where are all the good stories?


I dunno. I never had a Fluke when I was an apprentice.


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## Majewski

99cents said:


> if you rode a ninja, all is forgiven  .


cbr600rr!!!


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## hondariderar

Majewski said:


> cbr600rr!!!


Lol I was looking at a used cbr1000, but I think I'm gonna have to pass. Little rougher then I want


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## 99cents

I'm wrapping this up this weekend. It's as dead as roadkill.


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## hondariderar

I'll add another...

When I started, I was told a story about hearing a fault travelling down the wire....you know, that zzzzzzz sound moving down conduit. 

Go on a call to replace a 277 lamp ballast. We got a multi tap ballast. I'm just gophering handing tools. It gets put back together and I'm told to go to another floor and turn the breaker on. I do as told...and I hear it. I'm thinking man that sounds alot like what was described to me. (On the phone the whole time with jman) and then it starts, kill it grab something it's on fire, a quick show and it was out though. I found out that was the sound described lol. 

Turned out one was pre stripped and needed capped if not using that voltage, it got missed and ended up somewhere in the ballast.


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## was240

Well... Before I was an apprentice... more like the age of 14, I installed new receptacles in our basement ceiling for fluorescent shop lights. After about 1 month of having everything in and working great, my mother decided to buy a new deep freezer. It was delivered and we plugged it in and it fired right up. We checked on it thru out the day and it was always running, but not freezing. She called and complained about the deep freezer, and a new one was delivered a day later. When the people came to pick it up, it hit me... the receptacle that it was plugged into was attached to a switch... for the new shop lights. 

For my apprentice story, I was attempting to run conduit for a light standard before they poured concrete. I spent 30 min trying to hit the elbow at the bottom of the form from the top. Finally... it hit me. put the elbow on the down rod and attach the bottom after. The rest of the light standards went much quicker.


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## 19delta

I once put a reamer attachment into a drill and tried to use it on the "hammer drill" setting. My foreman just sighed and said "well that's embarrassing" 

I also once tried to chip out a block wall for a receptacle with it set to drill and hammer.

I once witnessed a new apprentice trying to cut string with the BACKSIDE of a knife. He didn't realize which side to use, even after I pointed it out... ALSO, he had just pulled around 200ft of string out of the pipe!!! He didn't last long.

2 summers ago I learned not to piss of the drywallers. They kept taking ladders etc etc until it started getting disruptive to our day. I found one of our ladders in a back room in the ceiling! It was after my 8 hours and was pissed I stayed late looking for it, so naturally on my way out I scraped a few sections of wet drywall mud with the ladder. Well they decided to piss and **** in some of our pipes in the main electrical room next door.. We were sucking string into the pipe feeding the generator and piss got EVERYWHERE!!! I never said a word about messing up the drywall. I figured that I had learned my lesson already... I have many more stories for another day!


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## skittles

Well... I was still an apprentice at the time... The rubber bushings went bad on the meters on 5 apartment units and all the SE got water damaged and needed replacing. So we got everything ready, got the meters pulled, and were changing out the SE from the meter to the panel.
This particular can got a good amount of water inside of it over the last 10 years. 
The first picture is what happened when i tried loosening the lug with a ratchet. In the second one you can see the water droplets still inside of the SE.


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## 99cents

Let's wrap this up, guys. Who wins?


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## daveEM

99cents said:


> Let's wrap this up, guys. Who wins?


You should start a poll with the guys names.


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## 99cents

daveEM said:


> You should start a poll with the guys names.


Thanks. Now I have to figure out how to do a poll  .


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## daveEM

99cents said:


> Thanks. Now I have to figure out how to do a poll  .


Yeah, I have no idea. When I typed that I started thinking but stopped right away. Someone will know. You might have to start a new thread? I don't know if you can insert one into here.


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## 99cents

Done.

http://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/who-wins-apprentice-contest-173658/


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## daveEM

99cents said:


> Done.
> 
> http://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/who-wins-apprentice-contest-173658/


So we donate the points to you and then you donate the points to the winner. That how it works?


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## MechanicalDVR

99cents said:


> Gotcha.
> 
> Mech's a good dude :thumbsup: .


I hadn't read this thread figuring it was just for those looking to win the points. I wasn't aware of 'hatsgoods' back story but yes, I saw her need in another thread. She has received a new old stock meter from me.


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## 99cents

daveEM said:


> So we donate the points to you and then you donate the points to the winner. That how it works?


Easiest thing I think is to just award the points directly to the winner. We will do the math once we decide.


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