# Tell me about idiots



## V-Dough

"Take plates from this truck and put them on that one, if cops pull you over tell them you're going to the mechanic"


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## joebanana

We were doing a lighting retrofit for a school and "Smokie" thought since he couldn't find the breaker, he'd just turn off the switch, forgot to check it after break, and guess what? 277v. to the ceiling grid wire gets you the nickname "Smokie". And apparently blows chunks of flesh off.


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## CGW

ibew88 said:


> Is anyone willing to share some stories? Tell me some stories about something dangerous or stupid done by someone on the job.


Climb up there on that ladder with the bent leg and cut that gigantic tree limb with that chainsaw over there. What? You don't have the balls? 





joebanana said:


> We were doing a lighting retrofit for a school and "Smokie" thought since he couldn't find the breaker, he'd just turn off the switch, forgot to check it after break, and guess what? 277v. to the ceiling grid wire gets you the nickname "Smokie". And apparently blows chunks of flesh off.


Oh wow....


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## Service Call

Pull 100' of 1" EMT in a ceiling over a cosmetic counter and "it" decides to fall back out. 15' to the floor, oh what a mess. I did not install it, but I did get to watch it.


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## ELECTRICK2

Last year a guy was running AC90 to feed a couple recepts.
I guess he got confused with the order he was supposed to follow.
Tied the whole roll of AC90 to a live circuit.
Didn't trip circuit until he picked up the roll to move it.
His only explanation when I did the "Incident investigation" was to say That was dumb.


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## ELECTRICK2

Since I told a story on somebody else, to be fair here's one of mine.
Doing a reno in an upstairs bathroom.
Most of the floor is cut out.
Wanted to check the wires in a jb and set ladder up leaning against a wall.
Unfortunately the feet of the ladder were on the downstairs drywall.
Soon as I stepped on it of course the feet went through the drywall and I heard the scream of surprise from the lady of the house in the kitchen below.
Only thing that saved me from it being real nasty was a 2x4 cross pitce was between the ladder legs and didn't allow me to fall.
All I could think was That was dumb.


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## LightsOn81

I roughed in Romex for a bunch of can lights one day. Everything went great til I got out the attic and was looking over my tools and saw my 10 n 1 missing. So I go back in and get all the way to the furthest part of my work area my foot slipped off the joist and my leg shot through the ceiling! 

I was hanging by my elbows and I just knew I would wake up in bed at my house 2 hours away. I opened one eye at a time and, yep, it wasn't a dream after all. So I pull myself out and look down and see my boss half grinning "what you doin Slip Rock?"

EMBARRASSING


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## LightsOn81

Now since I've told on myself....

I've seen a guy try to drill a hole in a can with a SDS drill on hammer

A guy turned a 3 phase 208V disconnect and it blows the fuses immediately. Instead of getting his meter out he grabs 3 more fuses for another building and throws it again!

Same guy leaves an open can of PVC glue on top of a ladder, knocks it on to himself and wipes the glue all over his face

Seen a guy try to pop a 1/2 hole in a 4 square box cover with a unibit while holding the box cover in his hand.

Seen a boss run off all his good help trying to prove he was in charge

And FINALLY

We come back from Christmas and Mr. Blue Wire Nut says "hey guys you won't believe this. My roommate died this weekend. I heard a loud bang in his room and after he didn't come out for a while I went in and checked him out and he was on the floor not breathing." So I said then what. He says, "so I called my ex wife cuz I didn't know what to do." 😳


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## MechanicalDVR

Used to do service work in a few government buildings that had 5' drop ceilings with cat walks and plaster ceilings hung off wires. Over the years going there had several apprentices just step over the cat walk railing and walk out on the plaster. A guy that weighs under 150# can normally get out close to 10' before falling through. Most guys just broke ankles. Depending on the floor of the building the fall was 12' to 20'. One guy in a shop area tried to walk across exhaust duct, wasn't pretty but the guy in the guard shack that the duct smashed into never wanted that apprentice in the building again.


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## wildleg

I was in a small sporting good store that was about to open, punching out.
It had purple open ceiling, and orange and purple carpet. The painter (?) was touching up the ceiling, standing on top of two five gallon buckets that were on top of a bakers scaffold. As I'm looking out of the corner of my eye, I'm wondering what is in those buckets. Down goes the painter, with a 5 gal bucket of orange paint nearly full all over the floor. As the GC and the painter are scrambling to shop vac the paint out of the carpet, in walks the Architect and the owner to do the walk thru. I had to slip out the back door because I didn't think I could stop myself from LMAO.


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## gnuuser

while i was working on a network hub for the computer room beside the carton shop, the roof crew was installing drains for the roof and they had all the pipe together and slid the sleeve over the drain fitting (sleeve was 1/4 inch too large so the drain fitting pretty much rattled around in it.) and this fitting was necked down to an 1 1/2 pipe
they went up on the roof to cut the membrane and that should have been that( not )

it had rained during the night and there was about 4 inches of water covering the roof pan
(very large flat roof )

end result several tons of water trying to go through an 1 1/2 drain line
and water spraying out around the sleeve like a sprinkler on steroids!
crew boss was about crying because all that water drenched all the servers in the room
and boy did the smoke roll

it was all i could do to keep form busting a gut with laughing:laughing:
i dont think that operation was planned out very carefully


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## Majewski

Sometimes I can be the biggest idiot I know. I was changing plugs in a remodeled attic turn finished master suite and the tenant was somewhere in the home having evening cocktails. All of a sudden arc flash and I heard a loud noise. She swore she heard me say "flip the breakers".


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## MechanicalDVR

Worked with a guy named Pete B., his story was his dad was the world's best oil burner mechanic and he did service for Esso Oil in NJ when Pete was growing up. That resulted in him claiming to be the best oil burner mechanic of the time. He was a plumber on the plumbing side of the company I worked for.

We had a Army contract for building maint. on a few facilities. One being old barracks they used for offices. They had large coal furnaces converted to oil for heat. When I say large the return air ducts coming in the back of the furnaces were 3' high and 6' or so wide. The burners fired at close to 4 gals an hour in some of the buildings. When on site you had to call in before you left to see if there were any urgent issues.

I called in and found they had a no heat call and asked me to take a look and see if we could get it running. So we drive over and find old Pete sitting outside the mechanical room on the ground with a black face and his hat was smoking. He said FU when I asked what was up. 

I go in and see the cast iron doors on the front of the furnace open and soot covering everything. Pete had gone in and figured the burner had no spark so he was crawling in the open doors with his extendable mirror to check for spark when his foot or something hit the reset button, the burner tried to start and his mirror provided a good ground for the ignition trans, it arced to his mirror and ignited all the oil at the base of the burner box. 

I think every one that worked there went in and hit the reset button before he got there, filling the box with oil. The guy I spoke to said he had no idea what happened but the building shook and sounded like a train went through. 

Not sure what the clean up cost after that 'puff back'. Pete was gone after that one.


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## MTW

Mech Diver said:


> I think every one that worked there went in and hit the reset button before he got there, filling the box with oil. The guy I spoke to said he had no idea what happened but the building shook and sounded like a train went through.
> 
> Not sure what the clean up cost after that 'puff back'. Pete was gone after that one.



You think he would have known better than to crawl into it in the first place.


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## RePhase277

I had a man in the attic running wire for can lights in a kitchen. I was in the kitchen talking with the lady about placing a can over the stove area. She was full bore cooking dinner, with all four stove eyes. The guy up stairs was singing Lenny Kravitz. As he passes over head, he says "What I really wanna know is.... are you gonna go my uggghhhhh!" and steps through the ceiling, raining sheetrock down over dinner.

Good thing it was his brother's house.


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## MechanicalDVR

MTW said:


> You think he would have known better than to crawl into it in the first place.



Yeah being the best oil burner man an all. He was the subject of jokes for months to come after that. When I hear the name I always picture the smoking hat.


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## nrp3

I'm sure he looked like something out of a bugs bunny cartoon.


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## cabletie

I was 14, I just finished cycling through five different shops at the county vo-tech, now I had to pick one. I picked electrical trades......idiot!

Now that I am reminiscing. The cycling through the different shop classes was freshman hazing that lasted till Christmas break. Well I had my fair share of gladiator fights in welding etc...and I had one more shop to go. I was not looking forward to it because I heard how machine shop handled their freshman. 

Well the guidance counselor goes home room to home room to see if he can get any guys to cycle through upholstery class. Seems they only had girls cycling through this year. So me and a friend figure this will be perfect, two weeks with no hazing and chilling with Freshman chicks. 

Well I guess we didn't know anything about upholstery class. This was the shop that the men's basketball team took to get out of doing any real studies. And now me and my friend are the only freshmen they had to haze all year...... Idiots.


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## MTW

Mech Diver said:


> Yeah being the best oil burner man an all. He was the subject of jokes for months to come after that. When I hear the name I always picture the smoking hat.


Yeah, the worlds best burner man surely would have known that multiple failed resets result in a combustion chamber full of oil. But then again, people who self declare that they are the best usually have ways of proving they are not, as you saw first hand. :laughing:


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## MechanicalDVR

MTW said:


> Yeah, the worlds best burner man surely would have known that multiple failed resets result in a combustion chamber full of oil. But then again, people who self declare that they are the best usually have ways of proving they are not, as you saw first hand. :laughing:



I have been to smaller burners in that complex and if there is visible oil in the base of a burner box you smell it when you open the outer room doors. But then again I don't smoke and still have the sense of smell. If he didn't quit the job he would have been known as 'old smokie' on the radio.


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## frenchelectrican

I have one service call tto fix the control box on clevland boiler and that boiler iit have gaz / oil burners ( 2 oil nozzless plus gas nozzle ) 

Anyway.. I was working on the panel and a idiot try start a boiler but he make couple mistakes one is he cut the purge cycle too short and trun burners on ( both gas and diesel fuel ) and as soon he hit the ingitor switch ..

There was a double boom noise it was pretty loud but the gas did ingite and backfirre the by time diesel fuel got ingited second boom sound ..

I have to run over and shut off boileer and fix the interlock so they cant open fuel during purge cycle..

After that ..one guy got a pink slip ..


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## MechanicalDVR

frenchelectrican said:


> I have one service call tto fix the control box on clevland boiler and that boiler iit have gaz / oil burners ( 2 oil nozzless plus gas nozzle )
> 
> Anyway.. I was working on the panel and a idiot try start a boiler but he make couple mistakes one is he cut the purge cycle too short and trun burners on ( both gas and diesel fuel ) and as soon he hit the ingitor switch ..
> 
> There was a double boom noise it was pretty loud but the gas did ingite and backfirre the by time diesel fuel got ingited second boom sound ..
> 
> I have to run over and shut off boileer and fix the interlock so they cant open fuel during purge cycle..
> 
> After that ..one guy got a pink slip ..



I think you mean Cleaver Brooks boiler and there was more going on there than just the purge time, there should have been two valves with an interconnecting 3/8" rod to prevent gas and oil from opening together and also the pilot proving had to be bypassed to have the main gas valve open rapidly. I do get your point, that guy could have blown up a building.


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## frenchelectrican

Mech Diver said:


> I think you mean Cleaver Brooks boiler and there was more going on there than just the purge time, there should have been two valves with an interconnecting 3/8" rod to prevent gas and oil from opening together and also the pilot proving had to be bypassed to have the main gas valve open rapidly. I do get your point, that guy could have blown up a building.


Yuh that the one.. I think it is 500 hp CB boiiler and the one i working is a larger unit 750 hp CB and two thing we were lucky that time we have window and doors were open ..

But i do not know who messs up the control system but i manges to bring it back to the setting from factory ..

After that it work fine ..


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## MechanicalDVR

frenchelectrican said:


> Yuh that the one.. I think it is 500 hp CB boiiler and the one i working is a larger unit 750 hp CB and two thing we were lucky that time we have window and doors were open ..
> 
> But i do not know who messs up the control system but i manges to bring it back to the setting from factory ..
> 
> After that it work fine ..



That is some scary chit my friend.


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## frenchelectrican

Mech Diver said:


> That is some scary chit my friend.


Yuh it was and with that much fuel in combustion chamber i kinda expect the induction blower to fly out ..

And tharnk goodness that boiler is semi cold aka under 10 psiig.. Normally it will be in 350 psig ... 


So we were fortally the luck is on our side.. I would not push my luck on that ..


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## joebanana

LightsOn81 said:


> I roughed in Romex for a bunch of can lights one day. Everything went great til I got out the attic and was looking over my tools and saw my 10 n 1 missing. So I go back in and get all the way to the furthest part of my work area my foot slipped off the joist and my leg shot through the ceiling!
> 
> I was hanging by my elbows and I just knew I would wake up in bed at my house 2 hours away. I opened one eye at a time and, yep, it wasn't a dream after all. So I pull myself out and look down and see my boss half grinning "what you doin Slip Rock?"
> 
> EMBARRASSING


I was doing a remodel at Sally Fields house right after Smoky and the Bandit release. Burt Reynolds bought her a sauna tub, so she decided to remodel the whole bathroom. The plumbers had removed the old tub on the second floor. I'm standing in the old tub cavity, on the ceiling joists, pulling the old cloth covered wires out of the existing wall sconces above the tub, when the boss taps me on the shoulder, and gives me the "come hither finger". We proceed down stairs, and in the middle of the hallway there's a pile of plaster, I look up and there's a 5' section, wall to wall of plaster missing on the ceiling (wood lath and plaster). Upon further inspection, the old tub has been leaking for some time and deteriorated the plaster. I just may have saved someones hair-do from total annihilation. Sally wasn't very impressed though. 
Yeah, that was embarrassing. :whistling2:


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## LightsOn81

joebanana said:


> I was doing a remodel at Sally Fields house right after Smoky and the Bandit release. Burt Reynolds bought her a sauna tub, so she decided to remodel the whole bathroom. The plumbers had removed the old tub on the second floor. I'm standing in the old tub cavity, on the ceiling joists, pulling the old cloth covered wires out of the existing wall sconces above the tub, when the boss taps me on the shoulder, and gives me the "come hither finger". We proceed down stairs, and in the middle of the hallway there's a pile of plaster, I look up and there's a 5' section, wall to wall of plaster missing on the ceiling (wood lath and plaster). Upon further inspection, the old tub has been leaking for some time and deteriorated the plaster. I just may have saved someones hair-do from total annihilation. Sally wasn't very impressed though.
> Yeah, that was embarrassing. :whistling2:



Not trying to imply anything about age but that's back when she was smoking hot!


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## MechanicalDVR

LightsOn81 said:


> Not trying to imply anything about age but that's back when she was smoking hot!



That was the year I got married. :blink:


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## joebanana

LightsOn81 said:


> Not trying to imply anything about age but that's back when she was smoking hot!


Yeah she was, she's a tease too. She had the Trans-am from the movie, with the license plate "BR 22" in the driveway, that she decided needed to be washed. So she puts on this tiny yellow bikini, and washed it herself, during our lunch break of course. Talk about a smokin' bod, even after two kids, BOING. (If ya get my drift)


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## jsntrvrs72

*tell you about idiots*

I seen a guy straddling a bus bar inside a 3000 amp service and luckily I checked with my meter to verify it was dead because that idiot hit the hold button on his and it was locked on 0 vac.


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## Fum Duck

I witnessed a mechanic ohm out 480 volts with an analog meter. The meter was not functional after that. It blew apart like a mini hand grenade.


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## Wirenuting

Intercepted a plumber going to repair/pump out a flooded basement in an abandoned building here. 
He was about to wade into the water from an outside stairwell when I stopped him. 

Meanwhile inside the buildings disconnect is floor height.

Sorry for the sideways picture.


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## canbug

Just yesterday I had to look at a blg that we, the Airport, leases out. They don't have any power to their parking pedestals. We don't do the maintenance but I was checking a man hole for them. I ask to see the main electrical room and he shows me. The pedestal distribution is fed from a 250A 120/208V breaker and this maintenance guy says" It trips right away, you wanta see" and proceeded to turn on the breaker. I stop him before he does. I don't need to see a phase to phase short on a 1970s FPE breaker. I trust you it's bad. 

Tim.


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## Chrismcd

I watched a outside contractor at the factory i work at drive self tappers directly on a substation live. With the cfo of the company beside him. Also worked with a guy that put his arms around a damaged 1800amp 480v bus line to convince people it was safe. I burnt down 4 days later.... I could really rhyme off at least 50 things thats ive seen like this lol. Bottom of 100amp panels tapped off bottom lugs with 16 awg burnt and covered with tape and put back in to service. 

Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk


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## Hey_Kneepads

Chrismcd said:


> I watched a outside contractor at the factory i work at drive self tappers directly on a substation live. With the cfo of the company beside him. Also worked with a guy that put his arms around a damaged 1800amp 480v bus line to convince people it was safe. I burnt down 4 days later.... I could really rhyme off at least 50 things thats ive seen like this lol. Bottom of 100amp panels tapped off bottom lugs with 16 awg burnt and covered with tape and put back in to service.
> 
> Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk


Sounds like you work in Toronto.


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## Chrismcd

Hey_Kneepads said:


> Sounds like you work in Toronto.


Hamilton close enough lol

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## Almost always lurkin

A friend of mine was working on a 480 circuit when some yahoo construction worker turned it back on to see what would happen and laughed at the results. Friend survived.

I don't know exactly what happened next but the owner of the construction company was my friend's father.


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## catsparky1

Long ago in my youth I was working on an electronics service center replacing surface mount flo fixtures . I turned off the power removed fixtures and started to unbox new fixtures . Well it was really hot in there so I turned power back on so the ceiling fans would work . I jump up on the table grab m-c and stab into new fixture install lock nut wire nut and off to next fixture . did about 6 of them and j-man walks in to check out progress . He said looking good go to next room after this and told me of all the crew I got what it takes and was happy to have me on his crew . I told him just doing what you taught me and thank you . Now it gets ugly . With j-man watching I grab m-c with authority and it smacks me in the forehead And I get hit with 277 , My head slams back and right into the fan blades forcing my head back into the hot 277 . This process repeated about 4 or 5 times until my legs gave out and fell to the floor , landing on my back and knocking the wind out of me . 

I think I am dead then I hear this howling laughter and see j-man doubled over crying with tears in his eyes from laughing . Takes a couple then as he is still busting up he says "what the f--k did you do I saw you kill the power" 
Uh Uh Uh I I I kinda turned on the power so the fans would work . 
am I fired ?
No But tomorrow we will work on lock out tag out , oh yeah and bring your hardhat .


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## newcastle

catsparky1 said:


> Long ago in my youth I was working on an electronics service center replacing surface mount flo fixtures . I turned off the power removed fixtures and started to unbox new fixtures . Well it was really hot in there so I turned power back on so the ceiling fans would work . I jump up on the table grab m-c and stab into new fixture install lock nut wire nut and off to next fixture . did about 6 of them and j-man walks in to check out progress . He said looking good go to next room after this and told me of all the crew I got what it takes and was happy to have me on his crew . I told him just doing what you taught me and thank you . Now it gets ugly . With j-man watching I grab m-c with authority and it smacks me in the forehead And I get hit with 277 , My head slams back and right into the fan blades forcing my head back into the hot 277 . This process repeated about 4 or 5 times until my legs gave out and fell to the floor , landing on my back and knocking the wind out of me .
> 
> I think I am dead then I hear this howling laughter and see j-man doubled over crying with tears in his eyes from laughing . Takes a couple then as he is still busting up he says "what the f--k did you do I saw you kill the power"
> Uh Uh Uh I I I kinda turned on the power so the fans would work .
> am I fired ?
> No But tomorrow we will work on lock out tag out , oh yeah and bring your hardhat .


Just read it to my wife, she had a tear full laugh too,
Good bed time story though,and a good reminder for me,had couple "almost" cases where fortunately nothing happened


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## wcord

Almost always lurkin said:


> A friend of mine was working on a 480 circuit when some yahoo construction worker turned it back on to see what would happen and laughed at the results. Friend survived.
> 
> I don't know exactly what happened next but the owner of the construction company was my friend's father.


Had that happen to me as a first year: I was splicing up the 600V motor leads.
Asshole plant manager walks over to the MCC to show my journeyman which motors weren't working.
Before my JM had the chance, the asshole flips the bucket on ( way before there was LOTO systems). Needless to say, as I can screaming up the stairs into the control room, he's moving butt out the other door.


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## chicken steve

I'll join the cast of idiots to say i'm an older ALIVE idiot , and further refrain from the old adage to state, a LOT less bold.......~C:no:S~


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## donaldelectrician

Mech Diver said:


> Used to do service work in a few government buildings that had 5' drop ceilings with cat walks and plaster ceilings hung off wires. Over the years going there had several apprentices just step over the cat walk railing and walk out on the plaster. A guy that weighs under 150# can normally get out close to 10' before falling through. Most guys just broke ankles. Depending on the floor of the building the fall was 12' to 20'. One guy in a shop area tried to walk across exhaust duct, wasn't pretty but the guy in the guard shack that the duct smashed into never wanted that apprentice in the building again.[/QUOte
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Meck Diver - There is a Reason that I do not let Anyone Work Above Me .
> 
> EVER .
> 
> 
> 
> Don


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## just the cowboy

*Almost same thing*



Service Call said:


> Pull 100' of 1" EMT in a ceiling over a cosmetic counter and "it" decides to fall back out. 15' to the floor, oh what a mess. I did not install it, but I did get to watch it.


As an apprentice I worked with a guy and we ran conduit outside of a building up four stories, pulled in 6 wires and *sent the crane away*. Jman asked did I tie them off, I said what, just as the wires came out of the pipe. Man they fall out fast.


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## eddy current

Wired a gas pump and dispensers at a marina. They wanted to reuse the old dispensers but one was very old and water got in it all the time. I had sump sensors installed that would shut down the dispenser if any liquid got in there.
One time i went to do a service call there and found an employee using a shop vac to clean out the liquid. He dumped the liquid into the river and it was gas, not water!
He was super lucky the shop vac didn't explode!


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## Electrozappo

On a job where the contractor dropped the ball so the go called us in to help. 
These guys don't know anything. All their temp power is household plugs, they have handy boxes on the end of extension cords, stand on top of ladders, never put the chain up on scissor lifts, wrong type of ladder, deny the two 10 min breaks, don't provide water, chuckled when I asked for a task light and had to explain to them what it even is, they do it all. 
Today I'm taking lunch I look 50-60 feet up to the roof and see this.







And he's on his knees!
Very tempted to call Osha before they kill themselves. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## bobbarker

Someone dropped an explosion proof fitting on the sidewalk in a busy downtown area. The bomb squad was called by passerby s who thought it was a a pipe bomb


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## Majewski

bobbarker said:


> Someone dropped an explosion proof fitting on the sidewalk in a busy downtown area. The bomb squad was called by passerby s who thought it was a a pipe bomb


In those instances....


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## bobbarker

Seen an apprentice who was told by a few journeyman to just use his bare hands to apply fire stop from a bucket because it would allow him to do it better and that the fire stop washes off really easy so no worries. What a freaking mess he made as whatever he touched had fire stop on it and his hands were red for a few days also.


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## Electrozappo

You talking about me? 
Haag that's how I did it when I was a first year. 
My ladder gained ten pounds and it was my ladder after hat no one wanted to touch it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## CADPoint

A laborer for the GC lives right outside the job and right next to a
country convenience store.

This Guy is one of those that can bump his gums, and tell you his life story
in a short time. 

Well the story goes that he went into the country store and someone asked what he did, 
he bragged that he was the safety officer and that the company is hiring. 
One of the good old boys from the country store shows up at job trailer asking 
about opening at the company and with the safety officers name in mind.

The laborer got fired!

___________________________________________________________

Co-worker gets into a three hour txt conversation with boss after work, the boss fires him towards the end of conversation....


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## Anathera

friend of mine used to work on an oil rig out west. Someone decides to throw a spud bar (one of the 6 foot long metal bars for prying, digging etc.) from about 60 feet up just to see if he can stick it. Everyone has a good laugh, passerby decides to try to pull it out and was nearly killed. Bar pierced clean through the power feeder for the rig and stayed live. He didn't know how much voltage but it was enough to send the guy to the hospital for a few weeks.


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## lighterup

I'll pick on myself and friends..:001_huh:

When we were teenagers , a bunch of us were partying in the woods and had a 
nice big fire going.
We also brought along our coleman lantern and white gas.
It was very dark outside and we needed to fill our lantern , so we moved next 
to the fire where we could see better , so as to be able to fill the lantern:blink:

I guess you know what happened next.:nuke:


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## Switched

lighterup said:


> I'll pick on myself and friends..:001_huh:
> 
> When we were teenagers , a bunch of us were partying in the woods and had a
> nice big fire going.
> We also brought along our coleman lantern and white gas.
> It was very dark outside and we needed to fill our lantern , so we moved next
> to the fire where we could see better , so as to be able to fill the lantern:blink:
> 
> I guess you know what happened next.:nuke:


Great, someone is reading this back in DC and is now drafting laws to ban camping, it's unsafe!


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## lighterup

Switched said:


> Great, someone is reading this back in DC and is now drafting laws to ban camping, it's unsafe!


No , just requires a bond and permit


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## Switched

lighterup said:


> No , just requires a bond and permit


Plus... Classes, followed by continuing education classes, apprentice lantern filler courses, Journeyman lantern filler tests, master lantern filler tests.....

Then after all that some guy that "Thinks" he knows how to fill a lantern is gonna offer to do it cheaper than the rest of us!:whistling2:


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## lighterup

Switched said:


> Plus... Classes, followed by continuing education classes, apprentice lantern filler courses, Journeyman lantern filler tests, master lantern filler tests.....
> 
> Then after all that some guy that "Thinks" he knows how to fill a lantern is gonna offer to do it cheaper than the rest of us!:whistling2:


:laughing: that's good stuff! i was gonna add PPE requirements but you 
nailed it.


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## lighterup

I have a work related one that involves your truly , but definitely was not
my fault..

I was an apprentice , about (1) month into the job and was in the frame of 
mind to do as I am told.

This was a finish on a commercial job (Marcos pizza) and my foreman instructs 
me to stand (kneel) on a large stainless steel oven , which was about 4' below 
a suspended drop ceiling. We were all in shorts on blistering hot day.

He then tells me to remove the J-box cover and take apart the wire nuts of a
certain color ( which I do not remember).

I ask him , is this box hot? He sais no rook just do it.

I do it and sum-a-ma-mitch it seemed to grab me and being in shorts ,
sweating my A** off I do believ I grounded to the stove for what felt like forever.

I then remember falling off the stove and landing on a coke display. Talk
about scaring the crap out of me.

Foreman was bitched out by owner & suspended . I was rethinking my choice 
of trade , but showed up the next day where the new foreman promptly put me
in a new panel (de-enrgized) to land home runs.


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## Majewski

Glad you didn't get hurt "rook"! Too bad the owner didn't give you free food for life.


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## nownojin

I had a friend not me. He was running 1" emt and came to a wall it was a commercial building. The friend drilled a hole into the wall where he intended to run the 1" emt through. He used support wire to poke around in the hole in the wall to make sure the coast was clear before blasting a whole saw into the wall. Unfortunately for him there was three layers of sheet rock on both sides of the wall. Embedded in sheet rock on the far side of the wall there was a 3/4" emt conduit jam packed with live circuits. He took a brand new whole saw and drilled directly into this conduit before he could let go of the trigger. People did stop and gaze upon the unwanted spectacle that was several feet of sparkling flames shooting out of the wall.


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## Majewski

Did I share the story of when a 3rd story luxury condo water supply line was cut and no shut off valves in sight? Well if not, nevermind, I certainly didn't do it.


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## B-Nabs

I had just finished running a job, and the company needed somewhere to put me for a few weeks before the next thing started. So I come on to a job in progress, and I am tasked with finishing a run of 10 1" EMTs into an electrical room for some new lighting circuits. So I'm scoping out the rack that is already in place, starting to get an idea of how I'm going to get around the last couple of corners and into the room and make it look nice. That's when I notice one of the unistruts is an inch or two off the concrete deck. Its anchors (lead anchors) have pulled out. Then I look down the line. They're all like that. About 30' of rack with 10 1" pipes on it, all pulled out. But why isn't it on the ground in a huge mess? Then I find it: The whole thing is sitting on top of what is probably a 50-year-old sprinkler head. So the only reason this rack hasn't crashed down, directly onto several software developers' workstations which are occupied by day, is because of this one cast sprinkler head.

What happened? The guy who built the rack had done so with lead anchors, and used screws that were too small, so the whole thing pulled out. Now, wedge anchors would have been a better choice for sure, but had he used the next screw size up, it would have held. After dismantling his whole rack piece by piece and reinstalling it, it ended up looking quite nice. But I never did quite trust that guy's work again.

Oh, this is the same guy who drilled a hole for an anchor on the upper floor, but drilled a little too deep and punctured the rooftop parking lot membrane!


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## 350X

1st job I worked on-j-man needed help pulling wire. Ran out of green, so he grabbed another roll of green and did a special twist and some tape and kept pulling.
Later he told me to "install 20 light fixtures in hallway, by splicing the wires together." With no common since, I spiced them with tape. Got about half done and he came to check on me. He was amused.


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## 350X

More recently(3-weeks ago), I broke through my first ceiling. 
Owners(from out of town)were moving into brand new house. I was running 60a sub-feed to out building,in the attic, with arms full. Tripped & went down over bathroom. What a mess. Costed $150 for drywall repair, swapped exterior garage lights & 20a GFCI circuit next to panel at no charge. He likes me now and had me back to install garage heat and wire new a/c.


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## Majewski

350X said:


> More recently(3-weeks ago), I broke through my first ceiling.
> Owners(from out of town)were moving into brand new house. I was running 60a sub-feed to out building,in the attic, with arms full. Tripped & went down over bathroom. What a mess. Costed $150 for drywall repair, swapped exterior garage lights & 20a GFCI circuit next to panel at no charge. He likes me now and had me back to install garage heat and wire new a/c.


Sometimes failing in front of people sets them at ease and they warm up to you better.... Probably how I became married.


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## papaotis

"mistakes, ive made a few, but then again, too few to mention":whistling2:


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## Majewski

Some have told me my life is a mistake!


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## papaotis

could be. broken rubber?


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## Majewski

papaotis said:


> could be. broken rubber?


What's that? Lol


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## Going_Commando

Majewski said:


> What's that? Lol


The swimmers saw light at the end of the tunnel, and traveled through the latex barrier on their mission upstream. 9 months later, BAM, out pops a Majewski.


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## flyboy

papaotis said:


> "mistakes, ive made a few, but then again, too few to mention":whistling2:


I made a mistake...once. I thought I made a mistake, but quickly realized I was mistaken.


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## Majewski

flyboy said:


> I made a mistake...once. I thought I made a mistake, but quickly realized I was mistaken.


Lol. You're a smooth talker I see.


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## Helmut

If you've never backed up over a parking lot light pole you just put up, you haven't lived..

Yup, I did it.

Broke the pole, smashed the LED light, and looked like quite the horses ass that day.


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## millelec

was tearing out old circuits in emt in a drop ceiling at work. I come down off of ladder. co-worker decides to help, so grabs sawzall, asks me if I'm done pulling wires out. said yes, he then proceeds to saw thru different 1-1/4" conduit containing all the essential circuits for office and alarm system. was almost entertaining to see the various arcs shooting out of pipe as he continued to cut...until he finally killed receptacle saw was plugged into.


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## nownojin

millelec said:


> was tearing out old circuits in emt in a drop ceiling at work. I come down off of ladder. co-worker decides to help, so grabs sawzall, asks me if I'm done pulling wires out. said yes, he then proceeds to saw thru different 1-1/4" conduit containing all the essential circuits for office and alarm system. was almost entertaining to see the various arcs shooting out of pipe as he continued to cut...until he finally killed receptacle saw was plugged into.


HAHAHAHAHA how much trouble did he get into ?!?!? LOL


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## TRurak

Helmut said:


> If you've never backed up over a parking lot light pole you just put up, you haven't lived..
> 
> Yup, I did it.
> 
> Broke the pole, smashed the LED light, and looked like quite the horses ass that day.


Did it last winter


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## MechanicalDVR

Was doing a job at a service garage. Last day of several days there I asked my helper to back the van into a bay to pack up. Would have been getting home a bit early and it was a beautiful day out. He missed the door and tapped a soda machine and it tips back through a 7'x8' plate glass window. Nobody was happy.


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## Big John

Working on a power plant, on a yard transformer that was down for maintainance. Rest of the plant running at full capacity.

"Test the pressure safety switch," they said. "It'll be fine," they said.

Hit the switch and steam starts roaring out of the relief valves on the roof of turbine hall, and then the sirens go off.

Oh, fudge. 

Tripped the entire plant offline.


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## catsparky1

One of my good guys missed three floor plugs in a slab two weeks ago . This is the first and last time ANYONE will ever layout a new project . So I core the slab bore under slab and hit my cores . 3 plugs 6 pipes power in one data in the other in 115 degree heat . After I tell him it's not how bad you f up it's how quick you recover so call me bounce YO.

Today I show up on this job to scare the crap out of him . He looks at me and just starts laughing wtf is so dam funny . He says you will see . I look to my floor plugs and they are gone . Yeah they need water there too so the plumbers saw cut the slab . Now the general yelled at me for this I took it and made it happen . So I see general and ask how long did he know they needed water there .

Answer-I knew it all along 
So an idiot and a huge waste of money . 
I love my dirty , nasty , disgusting job , no really I do!!!!


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## millelec

Big John said:


> Working on a power plant, on a yard transformer that was down for maintainance. Rest of the plant running at full capacity.
> 
> "Test the pressure safety switch," they said. "It'll be fine," they said.
> 
> Hit the switch and steam starts roaring out of the relief valves on the roof of turbine hall, and then the sirens go off.
> 
> Oh, fudge.
> 
> Tripped the entire plant offline.


you haven't lived until you've tripped a plant off line. co-gen plant, had recently installed flow switches in coolant piping for engine block. (prime power diesels). take gen-set offline for oil leak in V of engine. secure coolant flow by shutting one isolation valve. fix oil leak next day after block has cooled down. start engine up to test, no flow with engine running, dumps plant since master control thinks there's been a loss of coolant. wasn't an instantaneous trip, so I'm walking away to get something or put something away and all the lights go out, and ATS transfers emergency bus to POCO...oops...:whistling2:Save
Save​


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## millelec

saw this gem at the local TigerMart store the other day. wanted to ask if the different colored extension cords were due to their weight handling rating....:no:


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## millelec

and yes, they did haul the sign up into place using the 2 extension cords


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## MechanicalDVR

millelec said:


> and yes, they did haul the sign up into place using the 2 extension cords


Such an old fashioned thing to do, newer sign guys have gone cordless! :thumbsup:


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## Gnome

nownojin said:


> Embedded in sheet rock on the far side of the wall there was a 3/4" emt conduit jam packed with live circuits.


I'm prepping my own house in the evenings after work for a service upgrade which here means running circuits or installing receptacles for bathroom plugs, refrigerators, and outside receptacles. I'm also fixing all sorts of handyman WTFs along the way and dropping additional circuits into the kitchen, mechanical room and utility room. Plus adding hard wired smokes.

The house is all plaster over blue board; total wall thickness of about an 1". I've determined that a sheet metal blade in my jig saw cut off at about 1/2" when fully retracted makes quick work of the plaster and metal lathe while only penetrating a 1/4" into the wall cavity. 

So I'm humming along cutting holes for old work boxes, building confidence, when I get to the downstairs bathroom. The only place in this tiny bathroom for a receptacle is on the wall to the right of the sink. The other side of the wall has the light switch for the bathroom and the power is run into the switch box before a switch leg is run to the light. Going to make for an easy peasy fish from that box into my new GFCI box.

So I get out my drill to drill the corners of the box cut out making sure I'm clearing the existing box. Drill the first hole and stick a piece a wire into the hole to make sure there isn't a stud between the new box and old and to make sure their isn't a stud in the way of the new box. Every think is clear so drill the other hole. Get my jig saw out and cut the two verticals no problem. Go to cut the first horizontal, get about half way across and suddenly I've got water spraying out of the wall.

Son of a ; WTF! Get the water turned off and chip away the rest of the box openning with a chisel in an effort to do no more damage. Find out some moron has got the copper supply lines for the sink directly behind the blue board. Like literally pressed up against the blue board. I straddled the cold line with my box and just barely missed drilling into the hot when I drilled my corner. My jig saw has cut a shallow notch right across the cold water line.

Now I've got to cut the pipe; ream out a copper coupling so I can slide it down over the pipe and then back up so I can solder the coupling into place all without letting it slide down into the wall. Manged to do it without making the hole that is now in the wrong spot any bigger. Extend the hole away from the pipes' use the cut out piece to patch the hole, and then finally fish my wire and install the GFCI. What should have been a quick 30 minute no fuss job takes 4+ hours plus time to fix the plaster and paint afterwards.


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## Majewski

Luckily you got the pipe repaired like that. Plumbing ninja.


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## Jhellwig

I used to work for an idiot that wouldn't label homeruns so to find the breaker to label the panel he would take a piece of #12 and short the circuits out after we had trimmed out. Then he wounder end how he was going to get the black marks off the devices.

This idiot never wanted to have much to do with his dad's electrical business until he died.


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## Helmut

Jhellwig said:


> I used to work for an idiot that wouldn't label homeruns so to find the breaker to label the panel he would take a piece of #12 and short the circuits out after we had trimmed out. Then he wounder end how he was going to get the black marks off the devices.
> 
> This idiot never wanted to have much to do with his dad's electrical business until he died.


I got one better than that. I onced did a stunt with the Steel workers union.
Top guy who has been there 33 yrs, used to put a bigger fuse in the overhead cranes, and where ever the smoke came from, was the problem.

Needless to say, I didn't last long in the Unions.


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## Helmut

I still remember his name. Norm Lawson.

What an idiot..


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## JRaef

"I need 1000' of 4/0 THHN"

What shows up to the site: 

4000' of 1/0 THHN.

Big semi truck and trailer, core charge for the steel reel, laughter all around, but it wasn't that funny for the guy who had wanted the 4/0.


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## JRaef

papaotis said:


> could be. broken rubber?


My Dad once told me I should write a thank you note to the Trojan company...


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## MechanicalDVR

JRaef said:


> My Dad once told me I should write a thank you note to the Trojan company...


That's funny my father told me Johnny Walker was to blame.


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