Outing myself.

[Bill Moore]

That's not necessary. I worked for a small mine when I got out of the service, and spent a couple of weeks as a helper for "the" electrician. He would open a panel and check for voltage by licking his fingers, and brushing them across the breakers/fuses. He told me anything under 480V would just give a tingle.

[bob p]

Old wiring can be dangerous. I have two sayings about working with old wiring:

1. Sometimes you don't know how stupid you were until you look back on it.
2. Never underestimate the likelihood that somebody who was there before you did something incredibly stupid -- more stupid than you could have imagined.

Here's my "outing":

I was remodeling a 100 year old two-flat house. Downstairs was fixed up but upstairs had been uninhabited for decades because there was an electrical fire and the wring never got fixed. It originally had gas lighting that had been switched over to electric. The wiring was so old that there was still the original "tube and knob" wiring in some spots, and other spots had the gas lines converted into conduit with wires pulled through them. Each room had a junction box in the central ceiling where the gas fixture had been converted to an electrical fixture. Part of my upgrade was to bring 20A service to each room and to add wall switches in every room to control the ceiling lights/fans.

I started off on the north side of the main hallway. Here's how the house was wired:

There were originally gas lights in the ceiling of every room. The gas lines to the ceiling fixtures in each room were capped at the source, and the empty lines were converted into use as electrical conduit. They had wires pulled through them and electrical junction boxes were added at the terminals of the empty gas lines. Other pieces of conduit came into/out of the junction boxes. The boxes were filled with wires. Of course, there was no live gas in the boxes because it had been capped off at the source.

After spending a couple of weeks wiring up several rooms on the North side of the hallway I moved t the South side.

My upgrade involved replacing all of the old crumbling wires with fresh THHN. I needed to splice into the conduit feeding the living room ceiling box, so I shut off the mains and cut through the conduit with my sawzall. THAT is when I found out that the North and South sides of the house hadn't been upgraded the same way. Guess what happened.

Yep, I cut through a live gas line. On the south side of the house some genius decided to leave the gas lines intact, cap them at their terminus, install an electrical junction box on the terminus, and bring live electricity into the box. Obviously, this guy wasn't familiar with The Code.

So there I was standing with my finger in the cut gas line like a Dutch Boy plugging a dyke. Murphy's law prevailing, this only happens when you're alone. Luckily my helper arrived 15 minutes later and we got the gas shut off.

I can't believe that someone thought it was a good idea to run 120VAC and live natural gas lines into the same box. But then this house had already had one electrical fire...

This same house had some other interesting surprises, like a back porch outlet (for the electric mower) that was wired in series with a 100W light bulb and had no ground. Whoever wired up that back porch stopped thinking when the light bulb went on. The mower ran a lot better when it wasn't being current limited by the light bulb.

[Enzo]

What a gas hole...



I had a friend in college, moved into a house, and he showed me the kitchen. He had found that the back porch light would not come on. Flip the switch either way. But when he plugged his toaster into the outlet next to the porch light switch, whenever he put bread in it and pushed down the lever, the porch light would come on. Obvious wire swap on the box, but a mystery to him. Ultimately I think he preferred having this show and tell over having it work "right." It was pretty cool.

[Ronsonic]

Boy, I'm glad it's not just me. It's even MORE of a pain when it's an XLR!

No, what's a pain when it's an XLR is when you're doing a bunch and you go from doing the male ends to the female ends but you're still going shield on the right....

[Enzo]

Or you remembered both shells but put them on the wrong ends.

[txstrat]

Or you remembered both shells but put them on the wrong ends.

I think you avoid this by using the special cable with only one end, right?

[J M Fahey]

Well, you can always saw the shells in two, dab a little epoxy on the seams and re-mount them properly.
In 10 minutes you solve your problem !!!
And you can tell onlookers this is the new "NASA" , "MilSpec" or "Green" approved method.(your choice)
I am sure you can come out with some impressive sounding "technical jargon" words, which you can mumble afterwards, leaving them suitably impressed.
If they are Hi Fi nuts, you can always say that it "opens the sound stage", that "bass becomes buttery but not slippery" or that "string quartets take on a new depth of field", whatever that means.

[tedmich]

That's not necessary. I worked for a small mine when I got out of the service, and spent a couple of weeks as a helper for "the" electrician. He would open a panel and check for voltage by licking his fingers, and brushing them across the breakers/fuses. He told me anything under 480V would just give a tingle.

Jeeez... I like my fingers WAY more than that!

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Another variation on the theme...

I was swapping a potentiometer on an old Wah, and had a hard time removing the pinion (the retaining pin was very hard to remove), I installed the pinion (and put the d@mn retaining pin back in place as well) on the new pot and ONLY THEN I realized I left the pot's hexagonal nut and the two washers out.....

Cheers

Bob

[Enzo]

I feel your pain.


Bob, do you have a pin punch? That is what you use to drive out those roll pins.

BROWNELLS : ROLL PIN PUNCHES - World's Largest Supplier of Firearm Accessories, Gun Parts and Gunsmithing Tools

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Well, yes, I have a whole set, but that particular pin was a hollow one (don't know the English word for that, the Italian word being something like "elastic pin"), and indeed a tiny one (its OD was about 1 mm...). I finally managed to drive it out some and then I pulled it off using a pair of pliers.

I hope I'll never do something this stupid again, but I KNOW sooner or later I surely will....

Cheers

Bob

[Enzo]

We call the hollow ones "roll pins." They are made from a flat piece of steel rolled into a cylinder shape. I used to do field service on amusement equipment and had to drive them out all the time. The punch needs to be the same diameter as the pin. ANy smaller and it will try to fit up the center and wind up actually spreading the pin.

And yes, they are a pain in the ass.

[J M Fahey]

but I KNOW

Hoc unum scio: me nihil scire.

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[Robert M. Martinelli]

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Oh, d@mn it....JM, you're right....this means I KNOW at least TWO things, so I understand your being confused....