Holy SH*% Moment!

[Skipper]

From "Running scared", an 80's movie with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines playing 2 Chicago cops:

Scene when the cops are chasing bad guy, driving cars down the elevated train tracks-

Crystal: "Stay away from the 3rd rail. That's 20,000 volts."
Hines: "It's not the volts that will kill you, it's the amps."
Lady in the back seat: "How many amps is it?"
Hines: "Enough to push a train."

 

[justsomeguy]

Riding a motorcycle in Tucson isn't recommended, either. Lots of blue-haired drivers, with their turn signals flashing for no apparent reason. :cussing:

 

[Ross]

There was a time when defensive driving was a commonly embraced concept. Defensive living is more likely to allow you to make old bones than is blindly charging ahead.

 

[RobertLangdirect]

This past weekend i had a Holy *&^% moment that i wanted to share so everyone else is mindful. . . Feel free to chime in with what you've done . . .

Shorted out the back of my altenator with my wedding ring.

Told the wife I would not wear it again once my finger healed.

 

[Ross]

I stepped off an engine stand when I was 20 years old and got my wedding ring caught on a bolt. The ring broke before my finger. I haven't worn a ring since.

 

[Dantodd]

I stepped off an engine stand when I was 20 years old and got my wedding ring caught on a bolt. The ring broke before my finger. I haven't worn a ring since.

Lots of stories about mechanics and wedding rings. Airplanes are especially bad, lots of rivets and large sloped surfaces.

 

[CaptJake]

Gonna go w/ Merlinuxo on this one, Retired EOD
Craziest thing I ever survived you ask? It all started in this little room and the guy in the front of the room said "raise your right hand and repeat after me......................."

 

[Dantodd]

Gonna go w/ Merlinuxo on this one, Retired EOD
Craziest thing I ever survived you ask? It all started in this little room and the guy in the front of the room said "raise your right hand and repeat after me......................."

Have a friend who was a Sapper in the 235th. Nothing I've done (and I've done pretty stupid things) compares to the risks he took and dangers he faced to keep his troops safe.

 

[rgranger]

120VAc is over-rated (in terms of danger). Unless you were standing in the ocean, it's improbable you'd experience anything worse than a bad jolt. Among us ham radio tinkerers here, we've done some far dumber things with 3000V but that's another story.

Having said that, 120V can kill but you probably never came close.

3000V! It is not the voltage that kills you, it is the current and the AC nature of the current. AC can disrupt the heart and cause defib.

Take an electric fence for instance. The voltage on those can exceed 1500 but the current is in mA and the current is DC.

And as far as personal dumb moments go... When I was in graduate school, I was doing some maintenance on a YAG LASER... I had unplugged it like you are supposed to do, but neglected to discharge two very large capacitors before I stuck my hand into the box. When I came too... I as sitting against the wall on the opposite side of the room and the tip of my finger had a small charred cone of flesh blown off. I guess that is where the current exited my body.

The second rule I had broken was to always keep one hand in your pocket so that the current does not pass through your chest.

 

[Bill Roosa]

I think that Don's 3000 volts was radio frequency voltage so you get a somewhat different kind of current flow than ELF 60 Hz voltages.
Google "skin effect" for the full story.

 

[RonRelyea]

shocking experiences

when I was about 4 years old, my older brother told me I should unscrew the bulb from the lamp on our dresser, lick my finger and stick it in the socket because it "wakes you up in the morning". I quickly learned not to trust him in matters like this.

another potentially deadly encounter was later at about age 8 or so ... I was at an uncle's house for a clambake and I went to open the basement refrigerator barefoot on the concrete floor. My hand muscles contracted around the handle and I passed out. Luckily my cousin had the presence of mind not to grab me but to unplug the fridge .... I got a good burn on my arm, but luckily, no dain bramage er ... drain bamage ... um ....dram bainage ... oh you know what I mean ....

 

[kpgraci]

I've got 2 shocking stories...

When I was about 6 my night light went out, the kind with the 7W screw-in bulbs, so I unscrewed the bulb and stuck my finger in the socket to 'clean the contacts' - last time I ever stuck my finger in a light socket.

...and as a adult and perhaps even dumber - I was rerouting some wires to my 220V water heater, while they were hot I grabbed one of the insulated legs with a pair of needle nose pliers and was bending it to the shape I wanted - I touched the pliers to the other insulated leg and pop - melted a perfectly good pair of needle nose pliers - right through the insulation.

 

[Bob J.]

3000V!
Take an electric fence for instance. The voltage on those can exceed 1500 but the current is in mA and the current is DC.

Still hurts when you pee on it. The stuff we did as kids, makes me wonder why I'm still alive.

When we had the farm I made contact with the electric fence more times than I can count. The mA may be small but it still curls your toes.

 

[Ross]

I think that Don's 3000 volts was radio frequency voltage so you get a somewhat different kind of current flow than ELF 60 Hz voltages.
Google "skin effect" for the full story.

We had a medium frequency transmitter when I was Air Force I took 12 watts rf and 800 volts dc anode across my fingers to ground on the heel of my hand. I had some neat little burns on one finger and on my hand. The power output tubes with exposed anode caps carried rather high voltages in order to keep the current reasonably low.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Then there was that time in the SERE course when they wrapped my nether regions with a bare wire and got out the M312 tactical phone. You know, the one with the "push to ring" genset in the handle. Sang like a canary!!!
Not that that was a dumb moment. that was when I triple volunteered for the course in the first place.
Only slightly less stressful was when they let the attack dogs practice chasing us. think that falls under: "The deliberate application of terror is an effective form of strategic communications" rule cause they were clearly trying to communicate something to us.

come to think, that whole course was an HS month.

 

[kpgraci]

Then there was that time in the SERE course when they wrapped my nether regions with a bare wire..

Doesn't the 'E' stand for Evasion?

 

[BobM]

Glad to see we all had some fun!

Breaking out of the trees on my ATV and realizing I was about to jump off the lip of a sand pit. Put my feet down and stripped myself off the bike, but didn't jump off the cliff TG. Just a broken leg.

Got "pit maneuvered" by a stupid teen doing 100mph in rush hour on a three lane highway...spun me under a tractor trailer truck that luckily just spun my back into the guard rail. Walked away with only bruises.

For electrical all I got is reaching behind a rusty electric stove to pull it out from the wall to unplug it. Unfortunately someone had removed the plate behind the controls. I caught 220V from it. Someone had directly wired it to a 20 amp fuse hidden in the basement. It wasn't a fuse in the box. Neat trick that.

 

[MrBee]

billyK,
I did the exact same thing a month ago. had the panel down to work on the stereo install and touched across the shore power breaker, with bare arm no less. My wife , who had told me several times up to that point that I should unplug the shore cord, just laughed at me, after she knew I was ok.

Brian

 

[Serena1]

And I thought I registered to this website to get information about Hunters.....

As for my "moment"...actually nothing in comparison to the rest for you. Although I will be taking delivery of a new Hunter 33 soon....perhaps the story will follow.

 

[RAD]

Speaking of electricity this is an all time favorite video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm6iCl_qI1w