I'm so stupid... Was: Head Cleaners

From: Rob O'Donnell <classiccmp.org_at_irrelevant.fsnet.co.uk>
Date: Thu Jul 1 05:27:05 2004

At 02:49 01/07/2004, der Mouse wrote:

>There was the time I was working on mains wiring (helping my parents
>with their house)


This reminds me.. Some years back, I was doing a complete re-wire on a
friends house. They had just moved in, and the previous occupant had been
a bit of a DIY nut. I suppose I should have been warned by the "clock
point" being bare (thin, multi-strand) wires hanging out of a wall,
connected to mains electricity by twisting the other ends around bared
cables of the 30A ring-main under the floorboards above.

Anyway, it was early evening, but quite dark. I was taking out the old
sockets in the kitchen in order to connect up new ones to new cables in the
same spots. I'd pulled out every fuse and breaker in the house, except for
the dedicated 45A (at 240V) circuit to the cooker - this had a standard
main outlet integrated into the cooker isolator switch (pretty standard in
older UK installations) , to which I had attached a lamp, to give me chance
to work on.

Anyway, working my way around the kitchen, I opened up the last socket,
snipped off the old cable, and BANG.

And the light went out... I was a little shocked (emotionally, not
electrically) but obviously not a much so as my friend's wife who had at
that moment been stood in the doorway watching. I got a quiet, totally
terrified "Are you all right?"

Suicidal idiot beforehand had only gone and wired a standard 13A outlet
direct into a 45A cooker circuit rather than as a spur off another 13A
socket that was actually nearer!

It melted a whopping hole in my best cutters, but the insulated handles
were good and I never felt a thing.

Rob
Received on Thu Jul 01 2004 - 05:27:05 BST