3 ms·
heh man, I'm glad you got out of that easy, I definitely wore safety glasses 100% of the time after my experience. I think a lifetime of experience with dangero
by ericd 7mo ago
heh man, I'm glad you got out of that easy, I definitely wore safety glasses 100% of the time after my experience. I think a lifetime of experience with dangerous wall outlets and harmless little 1.5V/9V DC cells teaches us the wrong lessons about DC safety. I've since heard stories of wrenches exploding when they fall across EV high voltage battery terminals. Wrenches aren't supposed to be explosive.
The electricians I was working with also told me stories about how with the really big breakers, you don't stand in front of it when you throw it, because sometimes it can turn into a cloud of molten metal vapor. And that's just using them as intended.
- bluGill 7mo agoAmps - the old 48vdc telco data centers vaporized wrenchs once in a while.
- jacquesm 7mo agoThose harmless 9V DC cells can do a lot of damage if you use them right.
- sobjornstad 7mo agoThis reminds me of the sailor who [decided](https://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-50.html https://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-50.html) to measure his internal resistance by pushing probes through the skin on his thumbs and electrocuted himself with the 9V multimeter battery.
- jacquesm 7mo agoMythbusters time. Salty fluids can be remarkably conductive. Blood qualifies. What's interesting though is that you have to wonder if there isn't some contributing factor here, as a kid I did this quite a few times, so that's one more for that list of stuff that could have killed me. At the same time: I didn't have nice insulation piercing tips back then (I do now) and that may be what saved me. I will definitely not try this again. Another story in the same line is that I heard that a horse got killed by contact with a lantern battery, but I don't have any reference for that, just a story by a family member that collected coaches.
- scheme271 7mo agoA bunch of those big breakers require two people. One person in a flash suit and another with a 2m long pole around the first person. That way if an arc flash happens, the second person can yank the first person to safety without also getting hurt.
- pocksuppet 7mo agoWhy don't they use the pole to flip the breaker from 2m away?
- defrost 7mo agoRuins the fun and interrupts instilling respect deep into the bones of interns. Allegedly While on "work experience" from high school I was put on washing power lines coming straight out of the local power station near the ocean - lots of salt buildups to clear. Same deal, flashover suits and occasional arcs .. and much laughter from the ground operators who drifted the work bucket close.