dgrant Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 I just saw this thread and even though you all are making fun of people's thoughts, ideas and weird adaptations, for everyone else who by chance thought it was OK to do this....ITS NOT!!! Things like this will get you KILLED. OMG, someone actually put a screw into a source wire from the pole...how they did that without dying is anyone's guess as the current level there would have been nearly astronomical. As DevMike mentioned, makes me "cringe" too. Long ago, I got nailed by 440 on a 200Amp main. No, I did nothing wrong, it was a failure within a cabinet at work, shorting to the outside case. But touching the case and ground, lit me up and I'll not forget it. Left my arm tingling for 3 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 There must have been a current limiting resistor in this equation. Otherwise the 200A supply would have fried you were you stood. Its like the guy who touches the positive and negative terminals of a 660 CCA auto battery. I ask why was he not fried with those 660 Amps? I did something stupid many years ago. My pinky was resting on the frame of a magnetics cabinet and I had a probe on a variable frequency motor controller.card. Just happens that there were three terminal near by that tapped the 3 ph 440 volts. While looking down at a wiring diagram my hand lifted the pinky from the cabinet frame and I tried without looking put my hand back. Well it drifted a few inches and my pinky touched one of the test terminals. Even though I was not grounded per say. It appears that i capassitively still made a path. I still got one hell of a jolt. Left me tingling too. And I had a good sit down and rethink my technique for troubleshooting in a live cabinet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 (edited) This was a relay that had come off its mounting inside the cabinet, probably something touched the case and no one knew about it. I'd have to guess there was some other limiting factor in there but still, I'll never forget it. 440v 3-phase 200amp. The touch was momentary as I pulled my arm away in a flash, which broke the connection, but left it tingling for weeks. This rack had remotely controlled variacs which ran power to quartz lamps. It was never used after this event. This is one of those cases of a rack(as we called it) that was humming with power, key only access when turned on and something you wanted to stay away from. It was very old school stuff that was replaced with 250volt/20amp DC supplies but there were two of these AC racks left and they used them one last time. As the power passed "through" my body, it should have killed me where I stood. For unknown reasons, I'm still here! lo, probably to continue paying taxes... Edited September 27, 2015 by dgrant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 "That man's absorbed a lot of voltage"OMG! I loved that movie.. that radio guy cracked me up.. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted September 27, 2015 Author Share Posted September 27, 2015 ... As the power passed "through" my body, it should have killed me where I stood. For unknown reasons, I'm still here! lo, probably to continue paying taxes... And to make children smile with your light show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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