# MCC's Shunkster style video



## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

Yeah, you still talk funny. :laughing:

I would have liked to have seen some of the field wiring. Looks like EMT? 

What kind of equipment does all that gear you added control?


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

That's a lot of drives in that cabinet. Do they all run at once, or intermittently? Any heat problems?


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

erics37 said:


> That's a lot of drives in that cabinet. Do they all run at once, or intermittently? Any heat problems?


That ain't chit. I've done lineups with hundreds of drives. Yeah, the room gets hot, but the rooms themselves always feature intake dampers and exhaust fans.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

So..uhh...we have a lineup of some fancy looking stuff. What does it all do? Or is that top secret information?


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> So..uhh...we have a lineup of some fancy looking stuff. What does it all do? Or is that top secret information?


Runs motors. Maybe 30 of them. Conveyors, ex fans, HVAC, evaporators, pumps. Nothing very exotic or interesting.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> Runs motors. Maybe 30 of them. Conveyors, ex fans, HVAC, evaporators, pumps. Nothing very exotic or interesting.


I dunno, seems like you do a lot of interesting work. Do you live in or near a city?


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> I dunno, seems like you do a lot of interesting work. Do you live in or near a city?


If it's weird, I WANT to do it. This install was in a town of less than 10,000 people. I tend to specialize in weird.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> I tend to specialize in weird.


Yeah, not just electrical work.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

That MCC looks a lot like several I've installed recently, except they have a mix of VFDs and across-the-lines starters. 

I'm a big fan of Allen Bradley too. I do a lot of stuff in mines, rock crushing plants, asphalt plants and other highly abusive environments. A/B seems to hold up better than anything else. 

As much as I like Square D panels, I've had quite a bit of trouble with their drives over the years.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

What do mean not interesting, beats the heck out stuff I work with.

Do West coasters have accents ?


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

dronai said:


> What do mean not interesting, beats the heck out stuff I work with.
> 
> Do West coasters have accents ?


You tell me:


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Dooouuude?


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

Marc, are you at liberty to divulge that that kind of gear costs?


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> Marc, are you at liberty to divulge that that kind of gear costs?


Really depends on your matrix, but a guy would expect to pay between 80 and 130 grand for that A-B stuff


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> Really depends on your matrix, but a guy would expect to pay between 80 and 130 grand for that A-B stuff


Matrix? As in your buying volume? That's quite a spread in your matrix then.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

Marc, how do you typically work a job like this? Do you do it yourself, or do you have your minions do it? Assuming you have minions, of course.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> Marc, how do you typically work a job like this? Do you do it yourself, or do you have your minions do it? Assuming you have minions, of course.


Rent-a-sparky. Read between the lines.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> Rent-a-sparky. Read between the lines.


:thumbsup:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> Rent-a-sparky. Read between the lines.


I'd love to be able to do that here, but the "rent-a-sparky" influence is just too strong.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> I'd love to be able to do that here, but the "rent-a-sparky" influence is just too strong.


I used to think so too. My advice... Drive to the hall and open a dialogue.


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

I got sent out to service some A&B gear like that, it was about the same length but double sided. It ran all the ventilation fans for a pharmaceutical plant that used radioactive materials.

The company I worked for had supplied it, installed it and wired all the line voltage connections to it.

A contractor working for Johnson controls came in and modified the AB wiring to match what they needed. At this point it was commissioned and worked fine. At some point after that the Fire Dept wanted additional controls added for their use and they did not want it to have any connection to the Johnson controls. 

The company I worked for was contracted as an extra to provide the controls. Our guy installed the new control cabinet, wired it into the AB MCC and tested it. This produced smoke, killed three out of a few dozen fans and generally irritated the buildings engineers and staff. 

So now I get sent in and literally they had about 10 suits and half as many in house maintenance guys watching me try to figure it out. 

Anyway, our guy impressed me in his ability to screw it up, he had rigged it so that our override controls tried to pull in both coils of mechanically interlocked contactors. We ended up buying a ton of new coils and a few small contactors that were damaged from the melting coils.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

BBQ said:


> The company I worked for was contracted as an extra to provide the controls.* Our guy installed the new control cabinet*, wired it into the AB MCC and tested it. This produced smoke, killed three out of a few dozen fans and generally irritated the buildings engineers and staff.


Did you fire this guy ?


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

dronai said:


> Did you fire this guy ?


No, he was a construction foreman and I was a service foreman so I would not have been able to. 

I went to another of his jobs where he had done a weekend cut over from an old service to a new service ........... he had reversed the rotation of a large building with many 3 phase loads.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

BBQ said:


> No, he was a construction foreman and I was a service foreman so I would not have been able to.
> 
> I went to another of his jobs where he had done a weekend cut over from an old service to a new service ........... he had reversed the rotation of a large building with many 3 phase loads.


He sounds like a Champ :thumbsup: and he's a foreman. Go figure ?


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

I don't get to work in too much 3 phase, but I own a phase rotation meter.

That's if it's not phased taped


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

dronai said:


> I don't get to work in too much 3 phase, but I own a phase rotation meter.
> 
> That's if it's not phased taped


Yeah. That's step #1 when relocating equipment or cutting over a new service. Everyone is entitled to a "duh!" moment.


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

dronai said:


> He sounds like a Champ :thumbsup: and he's a foreman. Go figure ?


He could run a good job, on time, on budget, looked good, but they should not have let him do technical stuff.


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

MDShunk said:


> Yeah. That's step #1 when relocating equipment or cutting over a new service. Everyone is entitled to a "duh!" moment.



Pretty much, I had go there first thing on Monday and roll the phases on a bunch of feeders to get them set temporarily.


It was a ton of work they and the power company did rerouting primaries etc. I am pretty sure it was the power company that actually swapped things but our guys should not have been relying on the power company. We had plenty of phase rotation meters, I bet one was in the gang box.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

Long time ago, I hooked up a large mixer, 3 phase 480V. The machine operator was right there. When I did the final hook-up, Nothing was taped, so I asked him if the rotation was correct, when I tested. he said yes.
Return home, 3 hrs. later the owner called giving me s... that the machine was turning the wrong way !

This was a Plant relocation, so all the equiptment was old, with disco's, and starters etc.


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## sarness (Sep 14, 2010)

I had two jobs I did with bad phase rotation.

One was at a JcPenny with insufficient cooling, got up in the penthouse and took a look at the squirrel fan (like 6' diameter, largest I had seen) and noticed the rotation was opposite to what it should have been. The motor was just recently rebuilt and I was just the parts driver at the time.

The other one was at a newly installed automatic sliding freezer door. The tech was pulling his hair out trying to get it to close properly on the limit switches. It had one for open, and two for closing, one was to slow down the other to stop. The switches ran off the rotation of the door motor.

I got it to work somewhat but closing was hit and miss, until I realized it was running backwards. Swapped the phases and it worked perfect.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

MD.,

I was watching your Youtubé and somehow I was not sure which number you mention on the main bucket did you say 2,000 or 3,000 amp main breaker ??

Merci,
Marc


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## AWKrueger (Aug 4, 2008)

frenchelectrican said:


> MD.,
> 
> I was watching your Youtubé and somehow I was not sure which number you mention on the main bucket did you say 2,000 or 3,000 amp main breaker ??
> 
> ...


 I heard 3,000


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