mirror70 Posted June 6, 2004 Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 Well, actually it's very good for making a VERY HOT wire. 2hrs later, the veins in my arm returned to normal size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Brown Posted June 6, 2004 Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 ROTFLMAO - why look, he done burn 'imself to a crisp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirror70 Posted June 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 I didn't get burned, but a styrofoam cup and some concrete did. Here's my story, cross posted from another forum........ ---------------------- A friend and I wanted to cut some foam for a plug, but we didn't have a hot wire. We figured we could make our own easily enough using a dimmer switch, an extension cord, some 20ga safety wire, and good ol' fashioned 110V AC current. Also used a surge protector so we would have a convenient on-off switch should the need arise. Well, we bent the pipe to use for the span, wired everything up, set the dimmer to low, and powered it up. Nothing happened. I went and got a styrofoam cup an stuck it on the wire so we would know when it got hot. Cup wouldn't stay in place, so I held it while it was on the wire. After a bit of waiting, we got impatient and started turning the dimmer up. When my friend reached halfway, still nothing was happening. The wire wasn't even getting warm. Well, my friend turn the dimmer just a little bit further and then: Click for sound effect There was a sound like a lightsaber being turned on and all of a sudden not only was the styrofoam cup on fire, but half of it had fallen to the floor. Timed perfectly with the startup of the lightsaber, the wire was also glowing brighter than I've ever made my turbo glow and was so hot that it expanded so much that there was about 6" of sag in the middle (over a 6ft span). The hair on my arm (the one holding the cup) was standing on end, all of the veins on it had popped out, and I could not only hear but also feel the 60hz humming up to my elbow. I don't know how long the wire was on for because everything was happening in slow-mo. Well, I saw our apparatus begin to fall over. At about 45deg I'm pretty sure I yelled "Off! Off! Turn it off!" and the wire landed on the concrete. At about that time my friend flipped the switch and the wire quickly cooled. Of course, it had already burned the concrete. It took about 2hrs for my the veins in my arm to return to normal. During that time it felt like a nonstop adrenaline rush from the elbow down. At that point we decided to dismantle some of the bodywork and cut our profiles once we had a DC power supply. The End. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleaman Posted June 6, 2004 Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 Heh, Being a Powerline man, I hear tons of stories of people playing around and making mistakes. Rule Number one for power is not to give it a path to ground, I like to stand on rubber mats or use rubber gloves when handling live cables. I have never gotten a shock on the job, but lots as a kid playing around at home. Someday I want to build a Tesla Maching, I saw one that one of my trainer built and It was ***king Awesome!. I just need the space to build it and the balls to draw Arcs off of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skategoat Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Thanks for the laugh. Guys around my office are looking at me funny. Let me buy you a Guinness next time at SES. Fleaman, someone once told me that when electricians are working on a panel, they put one hand in their pocket and work with the other. That way there is no path across their chest and thus less threat of a heart-stopping electrical event. True? I love working with electricity. Way more fun than plumbing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gawdzira Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 I have a host of wire cutting tools with holes burnt into them from cutting into live wires by mistake. I also use the hand in back pocket technique when working with live wires. Additionally I take off my watch (with a metal back casing) just in case things heat up. Sparky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Originally posted by skategoat someone once told me that when electricians are working on a panel, they put one hand in their pocket and work with the other. That way there is no path across their chest and thus less threat of a heart-stopping electrical event. True? This is true. I spent a summer as an electrician's helper in a potash mine. They work with voltages of up to 13.8 KV. If they have to work on a live panel, one hand is in the pocket. I don't think they ever work on the 13.8 stuff live, but occasionally they have to fiddle with 600 V. I knew one fellow who fell into a 5000 volt panel, said he woke up in hospital 3 weeks later, lucky to be alive. You have to have a healthy respect for the big stuff. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleaman Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Like they said, it is true that electricians use one hand. With the rubber gloves we wear at work, we can touch up to 15KV and with thicker pairs we can work on 30 kv. But mostly from an insulated bucket truck. Any higher voltages we use leather gloves and fiberglass sticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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