I work with some engineers like that. They're pretty good at design, they'll single mindedly focus until they solve the problem, however difficult.
And they think they're good at diagnosis, but they're a disaster. They fixate on the first idea, and then that same single minded focus prevents them from considering any other root cause, regardless of how much evidence says they're wrong.
The key to good troubleshooting is to resist finding the cause as long as possible. As soon as you know what's wrong, you are incapable of seeing the other symptoms that prove it couldn't be that.
Nah. It would probably just make it more comfortable to stand on the bare concrete. I've had great respect for the inside of circuit panels ever since I saw an electrician melt the tip off a screwdriver in the mid-1960's when we had a new house built. Molten metal sputtered onto the inside of the box. Very impressive.
It's amazing how many fields require that sort of focus, from criminal investigation to archeology. I was reading about the mini-ice age that occurred 13,000 years ago. Some people think it was caused by the eruption of a huge volcano:
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while others believe it was caused by a large meteorite or comet striking the North American ice sheet.
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There's considerable evidence to support both theories and I think that eventually the cause will be determined when enough evidence is collected. Even though a collision with a meteorite/comet probably melted and left no crater, like a gunshot wound, there are lots of particles left behind that can tell the story (in this case, it hinges on micro-diamonds and "fullerenes" - which only form under unusual conditions. Ironically, it's a little like a criminal investigation - the pieces fill in slowly but eventually.
Protects to 17,000 volts for close to $200. I am not sure which is the more disqualifying of the two. I only need 240V protection and I'd rather not have to spend $200 for a rubber mat if a much less expensive one would provide at least *some* greater protection than a concrete floor with a French drain running right underneath that area.
Good question - sorry for the important omission. It's covering a concrete floor that has a French drain running all along the perimeter of the basement wall.
The problem with double rubber gloves is the loss of dexterity. Even single rubber gloves make life difficult when working inside close spaces.
I still have the screwdriver an electrician partially melted futzing around inside a circuit panel. I kept it to remind me of the power of electricity. Reminds me of the local skeet range that has a board that contains all the shotgun barrel ends (over 20) that exploded, usually after being fired after the shooter let the barrel get plugged by mud. Bulged barrels, torn barrels, shredded barrels and one that looked like an eggbeater because it shredded in 1/4" ribbons.
I was on the maintenance end of a project where others climbed up a ladder next to 100's of telephone poles. They got talked into buying an fiberglass extension ladder for the project, much heavier than aluminum would have been.
And the ladder actually never went as high as the wires, only high enough that someone standing on the ladder could reach the lowest wire.
But we still used it.
Me too. The connecting a surge protector is on the list, especially if it gets opened for any other reason.
Isn't your heart in the middle of your chest? That's supposed to be the weak link when it comes to electricity.
Seriously? Did her husband know or learn later how little faith she had in him?
The closest story I have to this is from college, one of our fraternity members was always elected House Manager. Sometimes they knew nothing about repairs and just called a repairman, but many years they knew more than that, and my roommate was house manager and I was very impressed by him. I'd never known anyone before who knew what he was doing.
So one night first-year students were invited over for rush, and Don hated rush events (and meetings etc.) and because it was old and rusting, he had removed the metal shower on the third floor so that only the galvanized pipes were standing there, and a bunch of us are talking and the pipes are rocking back and forth, only an inch or two, but I'm thinking Maybe that's bad, But Don knows much more about these things than I do. And less thana minute later one pipe breaks and water is going everywhere, and Don goes to the basement and turns off the water, and gets to spend the whole evening repairing the pipe and doesn't have to talk to the first-year students at all!!!
I don't know if this was partly intentional or not. Hard to believe it would be but Don was a complicated guy. From a tiny town, St. Peter Minnesota, population 8500 then (11,500 now) , maybe grew up on a farm, enrolled in (and graduated from) U. of Chicago, built his own record player amplifier, mounted speaker in the closet put a hole in the wall for the sound to come out (Infinite baffle, he said it was) to listen to classical music. Built a jammer so the guy across the hall couldn't listen to his rock music. Rich'd change stations so Don would change frequencies on the jammer. Rich never found out what was going on. Enlisted in the army after college, 1967, Viet Nam, became a drill instructor. Before or after that, he parachuted in behind enemy lines to do special ops. Came back alive in one piece, I'm told, but I haven't talked to him since the end of his fourth year.
There are actually a number of sputtering methods used to produce exotic metals but I don't think they use a circuit panel, a screwdrive and a careless electrician to do it. (-:
It was a good reminder that even gloved up with long sleeves, goggles are probably a good thing to wear, too. Pop a blob of melted steel in your eye and it's probably lights out forever in that eye.
Yes. He was far more concerned that she told ME about it, though. This is a guy who suggested that I mount a 12VDC gel cell to the bottom of my DeWalt drill using SCREWS through the black plastic battery case!!!!! And DEFENDED that strategy quite vociferously. I asked him to produce one site where anyone had mounted any sort of AGM battery by screwing into the battery case. Ot Nay Oo Tay Right Bay. The kicker? He's a Mensan. Solving brain teasers does NOT equate to having common sense.
Some people are like that - my Mom's brother built his own house by hand whereas my other uncle couldn't hammer a nail into a 2 by 4.
Well, I've gotten 110 AC several times (and one time I figured out that my train transformer was broken, becuase I'd opened it up and had been handling it for an hour and never got a shock, even though I had forgotten to unplug it. The plug was broken from the wire.)
And I once got 2000 volts DC, from a television. I didn't hold on and it knocked me across the room and dislocated a shoulder than hadn't been out for 15 years. I might have been on my haunches instead of my knees. That was a violation of Philo's or Robert's rules. I was being careful and don't even know what I touched.
The beauty of a colour TV (CRT) is you didn't HAVE to touch anything. With 6000volts you just had to get CLOSE. 6000 was on B&W sets - big colour sets can be as high as 25000+
I had a REAL old TV transformer straighten me out real quick - and at
6"I was taller than the basement ceiling height. My hard head drove a nail (head) up through the linoleum flooring , hitting it on the sharp end from below.
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