In this months PE ...............

[Evans Electric]

Only ever worked at one place that wanted electricians to have, I think the 16that that time. That was due to one of the lads installing a section of busbar chamber back to front.

Well Tony  , I don't think the 16th would have  been of much assistance  in getting that the right way up . TBH  .

This has reminded myself of an instance years ago with a BBC .   We  ran a sub main from a switch room to a new Nurse's Home at a hospital .  I was a young sparks  then  ,  I phoned the office  for them to arrange a shutdown  so I could drill & fit a sw/fuse to the BBC  .... drill the busbars  and connect tails to them .  

Supervisor makes a rare visit to site  , tells me its difficult to get it shut down .   He then tells me to drill the 2" hole & mount the switch .    Then ....are you listening .... disconnect the earth wire from the metal bodied drill  & drill the bus bars live !!!!!      I'd already made my mind up that he was crazy  so asked how would I bolt the cable lugs on and get two spanners in there without frying myself .

He said ..... are you listening .....  you'll be fine just don't touch earth !!!     I'm still here as you may have noticed .    I spoke to the hospital   Clerk of Works and sorted it properly. 

 

[ProDave]

^^ what was wrong with that procedure. DNO works live all the time. Ask miss Sweedy.

 

[Sidewinder]

I don't think you would get a DNO doing a job like that.

Yes they work live, but that was a bit OTT.

If, something had gone wrong, the downtime would have been much more than the shutdown time to do it safely.

 

[Andy™]

^^ what was wrong with that procedure. DNO works live all the time. Ask miss Sweedy.

they have proper procedues and the proper tools / PPE. simply disconnecting an earth from a drill so it doesnt go bang isnt really suitable...

 

[kerching]

I preferred the MEM BBCs.....the one with two rails per busbar

fit chamber and load it to the gunwhales with redundant BBCL clamps :innocent

or better srill if the client would stand the cost ( and they usually did) fit as many  fused switches as you could for expansion!...and they they came out with Merlin Gerin  panelboards and life got a lot easier 

 

[ProDave]

I don't think you would get a DNO doing a job like that.

Yes they work live, but that was a bit OTT.

If, something had gone wrong, the downtime would have been much more than the shutdown time to do it safely.

I should have put the tongue in cheek smiley on the end of my post.

 

[Evans Electric]

I never quite figured where that guy was coming from to be honest .I've met a few in my time .    

Jointing live is a different kettle of fish ,      imagine trying to shove your hand up behind the bars to push a bolt through , drop the lug on ,  spin a nut on , then get two spanners on , thrashing about between phases or earth ....utter madness. 

They were always skimping on stuff ...  if they quoted a job and it needed  4 X 4   trunking ,   they'd send out  3 X 3  .  Remember we were just employees then ,  you havn't worked out how many cables there will be ,  its all done above your head 

Then as always happened , halfway through you would realize it was too small . 

 

[misssweden]

^^ what was wrong with that procedure. DNO works live all the time. Ask miss Sweedy.

Even I would want that one dead. Just because jointers are slightly nuts doesn’t mean we’re suicidal. 

they have proper procedues and the proper tools / PPE. simply disconnecting an earth from a drill so it doesnt go bang isnt really suitable...

Proper procedures in this case would have been to do it dead. There’s only so much you can do with rubber gloves and insulated tools. We’re mud monkeys, not magicians.

 

[Evans Electric]

The instance I describe was long before  the phrase Health & Safety ...risk assessments  etc .      In reality , had I followed his instructions I would have been fried on the bus bars .  They were a typical  small contractor  of that time ....wobbly steps...van with poor brakes  ....compared with today , Health & Safety on a scale of  1  to  10  would score about 0.5 

They had a stores at the yard with a storeman  who was a pain .   Two annoying things I remember   :-

1)   We used a lot of 1/4" drills  either for trunking pins  or the centre drill for our useless Enox tank cutters  for drilling 3/4" holes for conduit.

          Ask for a couple of 1/4" drills  and you got 5/32"   that didn't fit  the Enox cutters .   Reason ??   5/32" is a clearance size for 1/4"     No good arguing , he stood firm . 

           Trying to be clever .        We used to swap them with the pipe fitters  on site .

2)      Ask for a 12" hacksaw blade  Eclipse .   " Are you cutting 6" trunking ? "  No  " Then you can't have one  , just a 10"  flexi Ding-Dong  blade  because you all keep breaking them "     

 

[kerching]

just a 10"  flexi Ding-Dong  blade  because you all keep breaking them "     

I have a Ding Dong hacksaw....must be 40 years old at least and it is still my best one ( even better than the IT and Facom 1000V ones!) BUT, pray tell, what is a flexible Ding dong blade?

 

[Evans Electric]

AT LAST !!!!   Something that Kerch has never heard of    :slap :coat :happybunny:

They were cheapskates  Kerch  .  So you know what apprentices were like for breaking  hacksaw blades  ...  bearing in mind most jobs were  steel conduit  , we were cutting & threading for weeks on end  sometimes  on bigger jobs  and eventually the rigid Eclipse blade would  snap .

They couldn't bear to give you a box of Eclipse blades ...you just got one ! 

So they discovered these Ding - Dong  FLEXIBLE  blades   , black in colour ,  the blade could be bent almost double  BUT  lost it's cutting edge after a day  and resembled a smooth , shiny  metal strip , the laughing stock of pipe fitters on every job.   

It was even worse to get a new  Rawlplug  jumper bit     ( I know you remember these )   He used to inspect the old one before issuing a new one .  

I described this on here a few times .....  we were installing the lighting etc on a new multi storey car park  ...great long runs of steel conduit & through boxes  fixed to concrete .      We all sat on top of steps   Rawlplugging saddle fixings when we heard s strange noise from lower floors .  

Someone went down and came scuttling back  , agog ...   " The Sprinkler guys have got drills that hammer "    

Our firm was so old fashioned  we were still plugging fixings by hand ..... the Sprinkler guys were leaving us standing .

 

[kerching]

Just realised.....those Eclipse blades weren't the double edged ones were they?....about 2" wide?

if so we called them "plumbers blades"

 

[Evans Electric]

Some of them were !!!!  I'd forgotten about those  pieces of  pooh ,  you couldn't saw a straight line to save your life with them .   Don't  think they were Eclipse brand though  ...they were Ding -Dong too 

 

[Geoff1946]

Ah yes, industrial storemen, a breed apart, protecting their domain!

Can I have an XYZ please?

Sorry no, I've only got one.

Well i only need one.

I've been told I've always to keep at least one on the shelf.

Why?

In case it's needed...

 

[ProDave]

^^ or the modern version

Sorry it's out of stock

But I can see one on the shelf right there

Sorry, the computer says it is out of stock so I can't let you have it.

 

[kerching]

Usually wearing a brown warehouse coat, shirt, tie. All  biros neatly arranged in a weird spring clip affair in top pocket.

the elite also carried a small slide rule as well as it made them look clever

 

[roys]

Some of the store men also had rainman memories for 8 digit stock numbers for example:

"I need a 20S SWA gland"

"so you want a 12068423"

"yes please"

"sorry none in stock"

 

[Tony S]

If I wanted cable glands, locknuts, more or less anything from stores, I’d order 50 off of each and put them in the plant squirrel stores, free issue from there on.

Fun when you get a call from stores “there’s three great big switch panels blocking the stores up where do you want them delivering?” “I don’t want them, the switchroom is still a pile of bricks.” When we did get the panels delivered, 2/3rd of them went back to Brush as substandard (scrap).

 

[Evans Electric]

Usually wearing a brown warehouse coat, shirt, tie. All  biros neatly arranged in a weird spring clip affair in top pocket.

the elite also carried a small slide rule as well as it made them look clever

You met him too then ?  

 

[kerching]

You met him too then ?  

Many many times 

did yours use 'chits' or 'dockets'?   And were they attached to a home made clipboard, again with a springy clip holding the 1" long pencil attached with a piece of that hairy/sisal string?