Ecmweb 6456 502ecm18fig1
Ecmweb 6456 502ecm18fig1
Ecmweb 6456 502ecm18fig1
Ecmweb 6456 502ecm18fig1
Ecmweb 6456 502ecm18fig1

Short Circuits

Feb. 1, 2005
Everyone makes mistakes. Some are just funnier than others.

Do As I Say…

I work for a modular structures manufacturing company as a quality inspector. I have to verify that hi-pot dielectric testing is performed when Romex cable is used in the rough-in. A very qualified senior electrician who was training me would always tell me how easily someone could get zapped while doing it. He was so careful he would even yell, “Hi-pot!” to make sure no one was touching or working on the building when he conducted the test. Well, his day came when he grabbed a Romex wire with one hand and started his hi-pot with the other and zapped himself. It scared me to death, but as he was being shocked he stayed calm and told me it was all under control. I never knew if he got shocked because he wasn't paying attention or did it intentionally because he was trying to teach me a lesson. I think he got distracted, but he's never admitted the mistake to this day.Jose Guillen
Riverside, Calif
.



Wing and a Prayer

While I was in the Air Force, the same malfunction always occurred on a huge aircraft hangar door. The door was made up of three parts: two bi-parting doors and a third that lifted up for the planes' tails. I went in to repair this tail door many times with a master electrician who was training me, and we found that if you cranked it up, it would rest correctly on the limit switch when it came back down. I had to go fix it myself one day, so I began to crank it up but forgot one critical part: the bi-parting doors had to be open before the tail door was raised because it served in part as the upper track for the bi-parting doors. These 60-foot tall doors began to flail in the wind, and it was bar none the scariest experience of my life. The hangar was full of F-15 fighter jets, and I was about to take them out with this new giant fly swatter I'd created. Everyone in the hangar joined in and used every piece of equipment they had — de-icing ladders, etc. — to hold these massive doors while I drove across the base to get a 60-foot bucket truck. A couple of years later, someone told me the story of the stupid airman who almost took out an entire hangar's worth of planes, and I just laughed along.Craig Young
Zanesville, Ohio

Illustrations by Clint Metcalf

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