A personal "best". 1

[itsmoked]

Well, I should probably call it a 'personal worst'.

I stumbled upon this beauty. Note the wood wire-insulator. The complaint is that it has all devolved into needing additional work with a pencil in thru the 'port' to get it to engage.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[FreddyNurk]

What is it (apart from being a deathtrap?) That looks like a wound up coathanger rather than wire. Is that a cardboard enclosure too?

EDMS Australia

 

[itsmoked]

Why, it's a motor starter!

I believe you may be correct on the coat hanger.

Yes, that's a cardboard enclosure cover because, well.. after the forklift had its way with the original cover this was what they repaired it with. Note the black tape hanging down by the urpppped-up flex, available for reinforcing the cover if needed.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[jraef]

OMG Keith, that’s one for the record books! The cardboard and coat hanger used as an “enclosure” is brilliant. I’ll bet that’s 480V too, right?

I never took pictures, but once I was called to rebuild the “control system” for an aggregate plant. It was an old Air Stream travel trailer with plywood screwed to the walls, then they nailed open type motor starters to the plywood and wired up everything with SO cord for power, zip cords (lamp cord) for the controls, wire nuts and black tape for most of the connections and a bunch of desk fans blowing on it all to try to keep it cool. I wanted to document it for a “before and after” shot, but they wouldn’t let me. I think they were afraid of lawsuits.




" We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know." -- W. H. Auden

 

[flexoprinting]

Well!, that's different.

 

[John2025]

Wow! Just when you think you've seen it all.

 

[btrueblood]

Looks safe. Cardboard is an excellent ablative that will keep the components cool for a few extra milliseconds during a fire. And pencil-port security? Flawless, you'll never have a hacker disabling your system...and survive to tell about it.

 

[John2025]

If they spray painted it,they could call it Nema3.

 

[edison123]

I don't see no fricken pencil.

Muthu

http://www.edison.co.in

 

[Strong]

Either made by MacGyver (see TV show) or it is a government job that cost a lot of taxpayer money!

Walt

After making this post, I found MacGyverS2000 on another forum. No personal reference was intended!

Walt

 

[John2025]

Note to Keith: Remember spare pencil

 

[itsmoked]

I knew you folks would crack me up.

Ah Jeff!! That would've been so cool to see. I'd have waited till I was alone then got the shot. Course I needed a picture so in-case my replacement doesn't work we can return this to service...










27. Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Sparweb]

If you ever get around to replacing it...
Looks like you could saw it in half, and have two screwdriver demagnetizers.


STF

 

[waross]

I think that I met one of the guys that built that.
True story.
Many years ago I working at the Pacific National Exibition in Vancouver. I was next to an electrician in the cafeteria lineup.
I struck up a conversation;
"Well, what are you up to today?"
Electrician;
"We're working on a ride at the midway. We have a hot ground and we've been testing all morning trying to find it."
I knew that there wasn't much test gear available.
"That's interesting. What are you using to test with?"
Electrician;
"We're using a welder to test it."
Offhand I couldn't imagine how to use a welder to test for a hot ground. Maybe I can learn something.
"How do you test a hot ground with a welder?"
"Simple. We change some connections and then holler 'It's alright now.' The welder picks up his grinder and grabs the steel frame of the ride. He screams and drops his grinder."
"Just a minute."
WE change another connection and shout;
"It's okay now."
"The welder picks up his grinder and grabs the steel frame of the ride. He screams and drops his grinder."
Pause.
"That guy's crazy. I wouldn't trust us!"

I see he has another job now. grin

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[jraef]

"Use a welder..."
Didn't see that one coming, but that's rich!

Reminds me of an incident with my now deceased partner. We were working at Boeing on the overhead cranes, and there are duct-o-bars running across the bridges that power the hoists. He and I had a procedure for locking out the power to those rails when we were working on the cranes, because even though we were working on PLCs and VFDs, we didn't want anything powered. But we started our days 2 hours before the electricians would arrive (to get around union rules), so the electricians never saw that we had a Lock Out/Tag Out procedure. One day one of the young ones asked us how we knew which of the bars was which phase. Without hesitating, my partner licked his fingers and grabbed two bars, then started twitching and shaking. He let go and said to the kid, very matter of fact; "See that? I was jerking to the right, so it was A-B-C. Had I jerked to the left, it would have been C-B-A."

We almost got thrown off the job for that...


" We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know." -- W. H. Auden

 

[Sparweb]

I once chased a hot ground from a resistor bank (which had caught fire) from the supposedly isolated enclosure of the bank, through the armour of an armoured cable, which passed through a buried plastic conduit, into a separate building, through a connection box that was now hot, too, and then to another connection box where the armour had been cut improperly and nicked a hot wire's insulation. I had a stern conversation with the idiot who installed the cable, which sure took the shine off of they guy's pride for having tracked down the ground fault...

STF

 

[unclebob]

That's what happen when you don't use Duck Tape...

 

[marks1080]

Why bother with a button? Two loose 'live' wires should be good enough. Wanna start the motor? Cross the wires! Easy... and no dumb fuses to get in the way either!

 

[Skogsgurra]

I visited a National Treasure a couple of years ago. There were a few really old things there. Probably regarded as Valuable Historic items. But the installation wasn't up to today's standards. I was thinking about telling the guys there to get it fixed. But Im much too gentle and didn't like to ruin the good mood everyone was in.

Some time after that, the whole thing burnt down. The police arrested a young girl, for no apparent reasons - and then let her go with excuses and a bundle as a compensation. They never found the reason for the fire. What do you think?

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[3DDave]

Fires like that are almost always because power companies recycle electrons without carefully inspecting them.

In my house there was a corded wall clock in the kitchen. There was no socket and the cord disappeared into a small hole in the wall. I went into the attic and found they had scraped the insulation off a wire, cut the plug from the clock, and wrapped the stripped back clock wires on the exposed conductors. A little of that garbage electrical tape as applied to keep the wrapping secure.