By what have you been electrically shocked? (NOT electrocuted.)

[Van]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Well I thought I was going to win this thread but it sounds like Van's ignition coil is going to beat me... I'll have to settle for second.

Back in high school I built a Jacob's Ladder for a science fair. I got a 10,000 volt transformer out of an old oil furnace and attached two metal rods to it. While I was adjusting the rods for my class demo, the class moron walked up and flipped the switch on. The power threw my arms wildly in the air. I tingled from the shoulders down for ten minutes but other than that I was ok. I was VERY lucky.

Lesson Learned... always unplug the cord or shut off the breaker... never trust the switch to keep you safe.

Wow you are lucky to be here. I mean mine was shocking < pun intended > but that kind of trnsformer puts out a heck of a lot more amperage than an ignition coil. I came close to getting nailed by a jacobs ladder once, caught it just in time. BTW it's really fun to hold a piece of paper between the rods as the arc goes up , slices it like a knife !

 

[gafftaper]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

BTW it's really fun to hold a piece of paper between the rods as the arc goes up , slices it like a knife !

Sure is cool, My class demo was about putting different things between the rods to show what conducted, what insulates and what the electricity just blasts it's way through.

I was young and dumb back then. These days I would be WAY more careful about playing around with those kinds of toys... and I would have a long conversation with myself first about if I really needed to do it in the first place.

 

[jason0]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

I actually have avoided being shocked with live current in the theater. My list:

120v (stuck a paper clip in the outlet in 2nd grade, got hit testing a computer power supply i was converting to use with a practical, a toaster, and a few other ones) which isnt that bad.

I work part time in a machine shop. THese machines are all 30-60 amp, 3 phase runs. In older shops, where no neutral wire was run, people would take single phase using the ground wire as a neutral. It worked, but it energized the machine body, and you could literally feel it.

a disposable camera

a tv i was taking apart that i thought i had properly shorted the caps on (turned out i missed the main ones, thats about 10000v but so little current i was okay. And it only went from one finger to another in the same hand. I was lucky.

The best (worst?) is a moron-techie story. At my school, our lavaliers are pretty shitty. we replace the batts for every dress rehearsal or show. Anyhow, we ended up with a bucket full of partialyl used 9v batts, like 50 or something. The projector guy, who really didnt have a job, decided to take them all and clip them together, then run wires and poke people with me. HE hit me with it first, in the shoulder. my arm knocked the light board too close to off the table. Hes been build-crew only since then.

 

[Van]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Oh sure, stick him on the build crew ! Where he's surrounded by power tools and sharp objects! There he's only a danger to the Carps !

 

[Dani]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

The Act curtain box, thankfully its fixed now....kinda

 

[steine]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Having almost 70Volts between the stageframe and the groundsupport truss.
(It made the monitor system recieve clear shortwave broadcast as well = one of the leadsingers found himself singing while he was singing a different tune in the radio)

Getting a few shocks from a lightsystem, all cables had to be connected to the right fixtures, because the 3 wires were not connected similar in any of the plugs. (phase-neutral changed place in one cable, phase-ground in another and neutral-ground in a third... etc.)

Usual shock between an ungrounded pc and a similar console.

 

[Cooze]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Just for what its worth, if you have ever been electrocuted then you should be in a casket, if you are reading this, you were probabaly shocked.

Im only correcting you because one of my old teachers would always get on our backs for this. No hard feelings.

Thanks!

 

[v75vette]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Anybody ever have the Carpal Tunnel test?

I had it done last week on my right wrist. Nothing reminds you that you've messed up quite like a nice little shock. Let me tell ya... I almost smacked the doctor when he shocked me the last time (not on purpose it was from the shock I swear!)

Very interesting test...

 

[steine]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

I've had the test, pretty unpleasent at times.

 

[Chris15]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Just for what its worth, if you have ever been electrocuted then you should be in a casket, if you are reading this, you were probabaly shocked.

Im only correcting you because one of my old teachers would always get on our backs for this. No hard feelings.

Thanks!

I believe I pointed that out in post #7...

...To quote propmonkey from an old thread on electric shock, "... shocked(electrocution is being killed by the way)...". None of you has ever been electrocuted. You are all still alive since you are able to post.

There have been several other threads on electric shock in the past. Some of them are:
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1926
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2989...

 

[SAWYeR]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

A female stagepin connector in the ports of our smaller theatre. The ports are about 15-20 feet off the ground, 6 inches wide, and have a 40 degree slope in the back. You get into them with a ladder, and crawl on hands and knees in a harness. I was told that the power to the cable was off and the dimmer in the dimmer racks was off.....wrong. What a surprise I got when my pinky and ring fingers went in the sockets while I was leaning out to grab it. Glad I was wearing the harness, I almost fell out! Bogus.

 

[Toffee]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

We have gas lanterns that we wired to have LED's in them so that we can control them from the board. Well they have to be wired every night since we can't leave them just out in the open during the week we have to lock them in the prop cabinet. Well I was setting them up for the weekend and I got shocked by the dimmers when I sure as hell remember me turning them off. I got hit so bad my hand felt numb and tingly for a hour or so.

 

[TimMiller]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

I've been hit by a few things. Um nice big caps 250mf 250V. Got my fingers across a lamp powersupply in an x-spot two legs of 400V (i have a scar to prove that one). Been shocked by 120 and 240 once or twice at least..... When i was doing industrial electrical our electrician got his tape measure across the lines on the over head crane (3 phase 480) that shook him up pretty good. I'm suprised he didnt fall off the beam he was holding onto.

 

[astrotechie]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

many plugs, my desk speaker, pool pump. Most of these where when i was pluggin them in, in the dark . SO feeling around try to put the plug in, part of hand touching the plug, quick shock.

nothing larger than 120V

 

[Mharriman]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

ok i have a good one i had knee surgery a couple of months ago and i got shoked when the brace they gave me to keep my leg straight hit a wall out let and i needless to say it hurt for 2 reasons one the shock from the out let and the fact i jumped cause of the shock and hurt my knee. The funny part of the story is the fact that most of the brace is like cloth but at the point were the knee bends is the only metal and yes thats the part that hit the wall outlet.

 

[Logos]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

I have only been shocked once in over 35 years in the business since then I have never trusted anyone else to tell me the power is off but have always made sure that the thing I am touching is not plugged in. Sure I've been hit by static a few times but that can happen anywhere.
I do not understnd why anyone would open up something that is plugged in.

 

[PadawanGeek]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

I was changing a bulb on a PAR and the guy told me it was off, but then when I go to change it, I get shocked and almost fall off of the ladder. Another time I was changing a bulb and I thought that It was unplugged, so i touched the wires with both hands and I get a shock up both of my arms :neutral:

 

[avkid]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Most of the lamp changing incidents could have been prevented with the use of a non-contact voltage tester like this:
Gardner Bender Circuit Alert

 

[Edrick]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

Those things suck I have two of them for the electrical work I do and they give of all sorts of false readings for god only knows what reason. Plus if you tap it or you go to put it against the wire it will cherp.

 

[Van]

Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?

We have gas lanterns that we wired to have LED's in them so that we can control them from the board. Well they have to be wired every night since we can't leave them just out in the open during the week we have to lock them in the prop cabinet. Well I was setting them up for the weekend and I got shocked by the dimmers when I sure as hell remember me turning them off. I got hit so bad my hand felt numb and tingly for a hour or so.

It's quite possible that what you got hit with was a preset warming level voltage. Alot of dimmers will go ahead and throw somewhere around 32 volts or so down the line to keep the filaments warm. That's why you UNPLUG ANYTHING Plugged into a dimmer before working on it. Just because the board is off doesn't mean the circuit is not energized.