# Panel Gore



## Rora (Jan 31, 2017)

How can one describe the strange satisfaction you get when you see an _absolute_ disaster that is _absolutely_ not your problem? It's the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing stuff like this exists, and that somewhere, someone has to deal with it... someone who is not you.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

Yes, I agree.......the smug grin.........lol.


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## Peewee0413 (Oct 18, 2012)

Brad K must have been in there. 

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## bill39 (Sep 4, 2009)

In my previous life my job was to troubleshoot, redesign, or replace many, many panels that were as bad or worse than this one. Often times without any accurate prints.

The phrase “When eating an elephant you have to do it one bite at a time.” always helped me out. 

Be sure to take a lot of time talking to the operators & maintenance men to break things down.

It became very satisfying to walk away leaving the customer with a cleaned up panel AND accurate documentation.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

I have had the pleasure of having to deal with crap like this before.
My plan was to always remove all the wiring and start over. Make a new schematic if there is not one. "Usually the case".
Sometimes I was able to convince people to allow a complete rebuild when time allowed.
In most cases it stayed that way.

The bad part about this, its not uncommon. It seems this, is all to common.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

A few years back, I redid a mobile crusher unit powered by a genset. It resembled the first pic you have there. When I opened the cab door, handfuls of wire spilled out, I convinced the owner to let me do a haircut and a complete rewire. A couple days and resetting the genset to 60 cycle (gray market Euro machine) it busted concrete like a new one.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Speaking of crusher systems; I once went to look at a job to rebuild a "Motor Control Center" for a stationary crusher at a gravel pit. I was expecting to find an older MCC structure that had outlived its usefulness. What they had was a shack made from an old truck trailer with plywood walls, and a bunch of open type starters hanging on nails (one nail per starter) wired up with SO cord (in some cases SJO, even though it was 480V...), fed from an old FPE panelboard that was the guts only, no enclosure or cover. I took a buttload of pics and can't find them, but it was a wonder that nobody had been killed (that they admitted to anyway).


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## gpop (May 14, 2018)

What worse is spending a few days cleaning the mess up then come back a week later and see it back in the same mess. 

Why do people with prints need to pull all the wire out of panduit, cut all the zip ties and add wire nuts


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## Forge Boyz (Nov 7, 2014)

gpop said:


> What worse is spending a few days cleaning the mess up then come back a week later and see it back in the same mess.
> 
> Why do people with prints need to pull all the wire out of panduit, cut all the zip ties and add wire nuts


I've already spent more time fixing the "repair" than the simple problem that they tried to fix.

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## joebanana (Dec 21, 2010)

Does any of that siht even work? I'll bet there's at least half a dozen lose terminations.


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## stiffneck (Nov 8, 2015)

Here at the Airport, I get the pleasure of knowing who from my shop, or what contractor made the mess. It's a great training tool/practice, put it back the way it's supposed to be, then find and fix the actual problem.


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## gpop (May 14, 2018)

i like the second pic. If you have a bad digital overload just hang that bad boy to the side and go straight to the starter.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

gpop said:


> Why do people with prints need to pull all the wire out of panduit, cut all the zip ties and add wire nuts


They don't know how to read them. And instead of admitting they cannot read them they have to pull on every wire they think goes to the problem.
I'm not picking on anyone as there was a time I did not understand schematics.



joebanana said:


> Does any of that siht even work? I'll bet there's at least half a dozen lose terminations.


That panel with the addition of ten pounds of dust is what I saw every single time in one dept in the plant I worked in.
You had to vacuum or blow it out before you could even start.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

JRaef said:


> Speaking of crusher systems; I once went to look at a job to rebuild a "Motor Control Center" for a stationary crusher at a gravel pit. I was expecting to find an older MCC structure that had outlived its usefulness. What they had was a shack made from an old truck trailer with plywood walls, and a bunch of open type starters hanging on nails (one nail per starter) wired up with SO cord (in some cases SJO, even though it was 480V...), fed from an old FPE panelboard that was the guts only, no enclosure or cover. I took a buttload of pics and can't find them, but it was a wonder that nobody had been killed (that they admitted to anyway).


We have those, all 480 volt controls, with a fan blowing on it to keep the contractors cool.


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