3 ms·

I avoid anything over 12 volts or 15 amps, but I wouldn't call this mind-blowingly dangerous. Working on Kilowatt amplifiers with 3KV at 1 amp ready to burn yo

I avoid anything over 12 volts or 15 amps, but I wouldn't call this mind-blowingly dangerous. Working on Kilowatt amplifiers with 3KV at 1 amp ready to burn you to a crisp, that's dangerous. In Europe, with 220+ volt lines, I'd have a different opinion.

wglb 4y ago
110 is seriously dangerous enough.
buescher 4y ago
I think you misunderstand. "Mind-blowing" is not about the courage or skill it takes to work on them, and it's in relative terms. They didn't have contemporary safety standards back then, so I don't think the manufacturers were being completely feckless. All that had to be learned. But today, would you build something that puts one side of an unpolarized plug onto finger-accessible screws and then give it to a neighbor?
- mikewarot 4y ago
  No, but I would gladly repair it for them and explain the danger, if it were a family heirloom. For example, I recently helped a friend get his grandfather's 1949 Airline Television working. There were some interesting aspects of that circuit. My late father had a mint condition Sunbeam Automatic Toaster he loved to show off. It has a hot chassis. --- Back in high school(1980), my chemistry teacher, Mr Tchalo had an old conductivity demonstration apparatus that was essentially an incandescent light bulb in series with two copper prongs that would dip into a beaker. After explaining how it worked, he would slowly pinch them together, then challenge us to do the same. I never tried it. As I said, anything more than 12 volts or 15 amperes, and I get scared. Mr Tchalo was from the old school of teaching, he had been brought back from retirement to fill out the staffing levels required for certification. He spoke with a heavy accent and had some seriously thick glasses, his eyes had been injured in a gas attack in his childhood in Macedonia during The Great War. He was one of my favorite teachers ever.

wglb 4y ago

110 is seriously dangerous enough.

buescher 4y ago

I think you misunderstand. "Mind-blowing" is not about the courage or skill it takes to work on them, and it's in relative terms. They didn't have contemporary safety standards back then, so I don't think the manufacturers were being completely feckless. All that had to be learned. But today, would you build something that puts one side of an unpolarized plug onto finger-accessible screws and then give it to a neighbor?

mikewarot 4y ago
No, but I would gladly repair it for them and explain the danger, if it were a family heirloom. For example, I recently helped a friend get his grandfather's 1949 Airline Television working. There were some interesting aspects of that circuit. My late father had a mint condition Sunbeam Automatic Toaster he loved to show off. It has a hot chassis. --- Back in high school(1980), my chemistry teacher, Mr Tchalo had an old conductivity demonstration apparatus that was essentially an incandescent light bulb in series with two copper prongs that would dip into a beaker. After explaining how it worked, he would slowly pinch them together, then challenge us to do the same. I never tried it. As I said, anything more than 12 volts or 15 amperes, and I get scared. Mr Tchalo was from the old school of teaching, he had been brought back from retirement to fill out the staffing levels required for certification. He spoke with a heavy accent and had some seriously thick glasses, his eyes had been injured in a gas attack in his childhood in Macedonia during The Great War. He was one of my favorite teachers ever.