# This is just ugly



## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

Oil field pump jack....."won't start with the buttons, but it works when you push the contacter in with a screwdriver" said the maintenance man. 40% of these components are disconnected and abandon in place...that's not the WORST part...corner-grounded 480volt service. POCO xformers are tapped high at about 495 volts. ..all the control power on the buttons is 495 to ground!


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

oh, the cylinder in the back fed with a 1/2" plumbing tee i believe is a SPD.
Of course you have to keep the capacitor bank insulated with something....how about a ripped up Mountain Dew box


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

Tell the maintenance man to stop manually pushing in the contactor.
If that motor or wiring is grounded/shorted, the contactor can blow up in his face.
I saw it happen one time. Lucky the guy was standing off to the side because he KNEW what could happen and it did happen.


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## CADPoint (Jul 5, 2007)

Thanks for posting that John!

I also thought what is the motor might be bad and causing the individual components to wear down.

Did you check the motor, and will you check the motor before bring it back on line? (meg-it)


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## glen1971 (Oct 10, 2012)

It's handy when someone leaves that much crap in place that isn't used... Why not get rid of it?? Might make troubleshooting easier..


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## heavysparky (Jun 2, 2009)

One would assume. The maintenance guys that work on stuff like this. Would do better work. Just sad


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## jcjourneyman84 (Jan 24, 2015)

*Ugh,thats rough looking*

Looks like it time for a rebuild, I would probably tear most of that stuff out if it were me. The motor needs to me megged and bridged for sure to make sure no opens, shorts or grounds exist and check the coil as well then I would put some phenolic board or red rubber between those capacitor banks. I might even go as far as stepping my control voltage down to 110V of course then you would have to change the contactor coil and or the contactor. Either way you go about it that don't look good and cant be reliable in that condition. Good Luck! thanks for posting this very interesting.


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

That's a new and innovative way to install a lightning arrestor.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

That control panel probably started life looking pretty good, but years of high pressure "Fix it NOW" commands, having to use scavenged parts and making do with what's on hand at the moment (i.e. Mt. Dew boxes, classic!) has left it looking like this. Don't blame the poor guys who did it, they were likely wincing at the pain from the whips coming down on them from management at the time. 

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the hat... But if I were to now have the luxury of the time and access to the right parts, I would now clean it up for the next guy.


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## mikey383 (May 21, 2012)

That looks good compared to some of the machines I see at my work. 

Modification after modification, all done sloppy. I think most just start out as a quick "let's see if this works, we'll come back in a couple days and clean it up if it does", then they never come back to that machine. 

We have a stretchwrapper that was converted from single phase 480 to three phase 480 at some point, had a button membrane added to it, and it's a mess. No documentation anywhere and barely anything is labeled. It's a troubleshooting nightmare, but luckily, there is rarely anything go wrong with it.


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## Arc'n'Spark (Jul 21, 2011)

These oil patch hacks ain't got nothin' on foundrymen.


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

JRaef said:


> That control panel probably started life looking pretty good, but years of high pressure "Fix it NOW" commands, having to use scavenged parts and making do with what's on hand at the moment (i.e. Mt. Dew boxes, classic!) has left it looking like this. Don't blame the poor guys who did it, they were likely wincing at the pain from the whips coming down on them from management at the time.
> 
> Been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the hat... But if I were to now have the luxury of the time and access to the right parts, I would now clean it up for the next guy.


I agree, The first thing I told my boss was what it had to be rewired....I wish they would have let me! Unfortunately, the operating company only wanted to replace the bad coil.


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

John Valdes said:


> Tell the maintenance man to stop manually pushing in the contactor.
> If that motor or wiring is grounded/shorted, the contactor can blow up in his face.
> I saw it happen one time. Lucky the guy was standing off to the side because he KNEW what could happen and it did happen.


We told this guy over and over, DO NOT push the contacter in.

he told me, "years ago I would wedge a screwdriver in the contacter to keep the motor running...then just call you guys"


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

ibew415 said:


> I agree, The first thing I told my boss was what it had to be rewired....I wish they would have let me! Unfortunately, the operating company only wanted to replace the bad coil.


And so it continues...

As to pushing in the contactor. Despite what it looks like, you cannot exert enough force to close that contactor hard enough and maintain that force against the magnetic repulsion that is taking place in the current path of those contact poles. So what is happening, on an almost microscopic level, is that when he thinks he is holding it in, it is actually chattering at 120 cycles per second, just with so little movement that he thinks it is solid. But in reality, the contacts are heating up REALLY fast and might be on the verge of welding together. 

This is the #1 killer of contacts by the way. Those old GE contactors were famous for that, because their armature was so exposed and easy to get to for that. Numerous people have been seriously injured when the contacts vibrate, melt and spew molten silver, which initiates an arc flash right at the very moment the idiot is standing there exposed, holding his screwdriver on "that big Go button" as one operator I had worked with once called it. 

Sometimes people challenge me when I jump on this by pointing out that on fire pump starters, they have an external lever that is used specifically to accomplish manual closing of the contactor, just in case the coil fails. But next time you see one, look closer. That lever has a pivot arm and a knee lock, so the force your puny human arms can exert is multiplied by the lever arm, then locked into place by the knee lock joint. Also, if you are at the point of needing your fire pump that bad to where you would use that lever, welded contacts are not only the least of your problems, but might even be a good thing.


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## Trigger_442A (Sep 15, 2012)

I would like to hear an electrical inspectors take on returning this panel back to service


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## Trigger_442A (Sep 15, 2012)

When I come across stuff like this it kills me to go against what I know should be done for cost savings. Especially with the higher voltage controls. Hope you can persuade them that it's a significant safety hazard that needs to be addressed.


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

Trigger_442A said:


> I would like to hear an electrical inspectors take on returning this panel back to service


HA, our county inspector would not know what he was looking at! 

I had to explain to him why we don't run a ground wire to a meter can and bond the can.


unfortunately, the company just wanted to replace the coil. 

I can just hear it now...
"its been like this for years! why change now?"


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