Adventures as an Amateur Electrician

[catbirdseat]

Yesterday afternoon, I was home alone and I decided to install a new motion sensor flood light in the front yard, a job that my wife has been after me to do for more than a year. I knew it was going to be an unpleasant job, which is exactly why I had procrastinated. But I hadn’t guessed how unpleasant it would turn out to be.

 

I opened the ceiling hatch in the family room and climbed a ladder to gain access to the attic space, which was very cramped and full of boxes of stored stuff. I hauled several boxes down so I could move around better. I get back in there and find that a rat has been living up there in the insulation. There were rat turds all over the place. It was horrible, but I was committed. The first thing I’d have to do is vacuum rat turds. It’s a good thing my nose doesn’t smell very well. The whole time I’m thinking of Hanta virus. A farm worker in Grant County died of it last September. Thank goodness, the attic is well ventilated.

 

So now I could see the line I wanted to tap into. I figured I'd put a junction box near the ridgeline where there was headroom and it would be relatively easy to work. I’d then run a line out to the place near the eaves where I wanted the light. I started by going outside and drilling a 1/2 inch hole. I hit something. I thought it was a stud. No problem, I’ll just drill 4 inches through it. Six inches, and I am still hitting solid wood. What the heck? I had drilled right into a beam end!

 

As soon as I figured that out, I angled the drill to the left and got into the attic space. I shoved about 6 feet of wire in through the hole, then went back into the attic and crawled on my face to where I could reach, blindly, for the wire. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it, my face only inches from rat turds. Oh god, yuck! Got it!

 

I pulled the wire until I could not get any more, then had to go back outside to shove more into the hole. I flipped off the circuit breaker for the ceiling lights. Then back up the ladder. Time to cut the wire. Boom! Sparks flying everywhere. I had flipped the wrong circuit breaker. Doh! My wire cutters had a nice hole where the cutting blade used to be. The line I’d cut was for the outlets not the ceiling lights.

 

Nothing to do but carry on. Using my voltmeter I verified that the breaker had indeed been tripped. I put in the junction box, connecting the new line, and closed it up. Back outside to hook up the light. Now it’s raining. There I was standing in the rain on an aluminum ladder in a possible thunderstorm. Well, nothing happened, actually. No lightning. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

 

I went inside, reset the tripped breaker and my new lights worked just fine. It was time to get in the shower and decontaminate.

 

I wonder what the incubation period is for Hanta virus? You don’t have to tell me. I looked it up, 2-4 weeks. First sign fever. No cure. Death rate 33%.

[EWolfe]

 

Maybe try amateur theology next with the upstairs crowd

[catbirdseat]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good luck on your career as an amateur gynecologist.

[G-spotter]

Ok that's it, forget that I asked you to wire my growop. You'll burn the place down.

[MisterMo]

Get yourself a Fluke Volt-alert. Looks like a pen. Carry in your short pocket. Glows if the wire is hot. Works through insulation but not conduit. Works on receptacles. Life-saving little doodad...won't help with the rat turds though.

 

There're probably non-Fluke equivalents for cheaper.

 

As to the pliers monster flash it sounds like you cut two wires at once, yes? Don't do that. One at a time unless verified dead.

Edited April 18, 2006 by MisterMo

[Off_White]

Seven words to live by: "Don't put those wires in your mouth."

[G-spotter]

ratturdzzzt

[EWolfe]

 

 

Edited April 18, 2006 by MisterE

[mountainhesh]

heh, thanks for the detailed report. It was as good as listening to grandma recount a game of bridge, not to be a hater, player.

[catbirdseat]

Get yourself a Fluke Volt-alert. Looks like a pen. Carry in your short pocket. Glows if the wire is hot. Works through insulation but not conduit. Works on receptacles. Life-saving little doodad...won't help with the rat turds though.

 

There're probably non-Fluke equivalents for cheaper.

 

As to the pliers monster flash it sounds like you cut two wires at once, yes? Don't do that. One at a time unless verified dead.

Yes, I have aready decided I need one of those.

 

In order to cut one wire at a time, you would have to cut the outer insulation off the Romex to expose the three individual wires. If you nick them, and they are hot, you could still get shocked (despite the fireworks, I didn't get shocked at all). Still, it would be a better strategy I agree.

[Dechristo]

In most circuits, there is only one wire of the three (usually, the black wire) that is hot; unless, you're dealing with a three-way or four-way switched circuit.

 

Nonetheless, it's best to know which is hot.

[tomtom]

Three-ways are hot.

[Dechristo]

...and often realized by a fluke.

[MisterMo]

In order to cut one wire at a time, you would have to cut the outer insulation off the Romex to expose the three individual wires. If you nick them, and they are hot, you could still get shocked (despite the fireworks, I didn't get shocked at all). Still, it would be a better strategy I agree.

 

With Romex the white & black run along the edges and the ground in the middle. A careful longditudinal cut along the center of the cable will expose things nicely.

 

Of course you've already checked with your Volt alert & know it's dead except for those times when you need, for some unknown reason, to do the job hot.

 

As far as the cutters go, you'd need to be extrordinarily well grounded to get fried cutting wire as you described, but lucky or not a couple of such incidents ruins a good set of cutters & good cutters aren't cheap.

 

And oh yeah, If you're uncertain whether something is hot & you need to proceed, try to do stuff one-handed. That way you're not creating a left hand to right hand current path through your body if things go awry.

[StickBoy]

Also, when working with live electrical circuits, try not to get shocked. And if your gonna blow up tools, make sure they're borrowed. I learned this in apprenticeship. This advice is free of charge. Any further advice will be 35 dollars an hour under the table. Thank You

 

-Mike

IBEW Local 76

[catbirdseat]

As far as the cutters go, you'd need to be extrordinarily well grounded to get fried cutting wire as you described, but lucky or not a couple of such incidents ruins a good set of cutters & good cutters aren't cheap.

You ain't kidding!

 

And oh yeah, If you're uncertain whether something is hot & you need to proceed, try to do stuff one-handed. That way you're not creating a left hand to right hand current path through your body if things go awry.

That's exactly what I did. It's good advice.

[still_climbin]

It’s a good thing my nose doesn’t smell very well.

Been brown nosing lately, eh?

[MarkMcJizzy]

In most circuits, there is only one wire of the three (usually, the black wire) that is hot; unless, you're dealing with a three-way or four-way switched circuit.

 

Nonetheless, it's best to know which is hot.

 

Unless you have a completed circuit using the grounded conductor, then you will have two wires with potential to ground.

 

CBS is a (electrical) dumbshit

[EWolfe]

Who THE FUCK are you?

 

STFU. N00B!!!

 

p.s. my earlier post is a visual interpretation of " You fucking rock"

Edited April 20, 2006 by MisterE

[MarkMcJizzy]

p.s. my earlier post is a visual interpretation of " You fucking rock"

 

I will not tell you who I am. You will have to figure it out.

 

Thanks for the pedantic crap, most of us know "U fucking

rock".

 

As far as thread drift goes, CBS is still an electrical dumbshit

[EWolfe]

Oh, boy. That's a tough one. Uberator.

[G-spotter]

uber-berater