Story Time! How bad have you been shocked?

Hey guys.

So today another thread made me think of this.

How bad have you been shocked before?

So just to get this thread moving along. Ill share a few stories of mine.

My worst shock was when I was VERY young. Maybe 7-9 yrs old. (I'm 23 now). So anyways I was in my room playing with my power rangers action figures i got from Mc.Donalds and so on and when I was looking through my toybox for more action figures and I ended up finding a brass house key. Now I don't exactly know where the key came from but I was playing g with this key when I saw... an electrical outlet (120VAC 15A rated). Yep that's right. I stuck that sucker in there. Now I thought back then that it would make some COOL sparks like when you rub your feet on the carpet and I knew it would shock me a little bit. (I liked static shocks and thought they were COOL and still do). NOPE I was WRONG. I ended up sticking the key in the neutral side and I realized.. I COULDN'T LET GO! Screaming loudly my parents (and a family friend who was over) came running into my room. By that time I manages to get free but I was STILL getting shocked? (At least I remember it like that). I remember feeling the electricity through my whole body and even after I let go it didn't seem any better.

Anyway after that moment I was completely terrified of electricity. I was actually so scared that I didn't start getting into electrical related stuff until I joined this forum. Which basically helped me rid my fear of being shocked by HV sources. (Which do still make me nervous). But I am completely amazed and will still play with them in a safe manner.

You can see my avatar as of today it is an unballasted X-ray transformer jumping a 4.5 inch gap.

Probably some of my other bad shocks were being shocked with a 9v battery being pulsed through a microwave oven transformer. Not sure what the output was but it makes some pretty good arcs for 9VIN.

Anyways guys. Tell me your stories. I'm interested in hearing (and possibly learning from your mistakes)

I tried digging toat out of the toaster with a knife when I was young. That was pretty scarry as it was hard to let go.

The most interesting was at my uncels farm. I pissed on his electric fence that is designed to keep large animals in and predators out. Let just say I would not recommend trying it.

Would have made a good jackass episode.:tinfoil:

The worst one was when I was little (3ish) my sibling had a toy that used a 12V power supply, I unplugged that power supply from her toy and stuck the connector right into my mouth. It wasn't very pleasant, it probably hurt less than I remember though.

Second time was when I was 6, I was into taking apart anything electronical. My mom gave me a disposable camera that wasn't working to take apart. At the time I had no knowledge of what capacitors did... I ripped it open and started poking everything with my fingers until I hit the capacitor that was used to charge the flash. It made a REALLY loud pop, as well as some sparks. It left me with a nasty mark on my finger where I touched it.

Nothing serious compared to those two. I got shocked with a HeNe tube, but that felt like a strong static electricity shock.

Wow, in all honesty, I feel left out. Worst thing that happened to me, is being shocked by a HeNe. Although it's a bit different from the glass tube things, with mine, my PSU leaves a residual charge on the two prongs of my 1mW HeNe (for some reason it doesn't with the 4mW) and it arcs about a third of an inch (I messed with it after with a grounded screwdriver) and that was about it. I have a much better/juicier story if you want to get into worst burns.

I was 6 or so when I started the game "how long can you keep your finger in the lamp socket". Now I'm all grown up and am an IBEW electrician. The worst i ever got hit was in a college in a drop tile ceiling. I was adding three 277v florescent 4x2 lights to a live circuit while standing on a 6' ladder. The day before I bought new grips for my pliers so that I could work safer. Well as I was adding the neutral wire my left elbow was on the ceiling grid, my left index finger and thumb around the insulation of neutrals, and my right hand twisting the wires together with the pliers. The new grips were a different shape so the base of my index finger touched the metal of the pliers and "zZzzzz" I was locked on. I could think totally clear and Fast so as my life was flashing before my eyes I tried to let go of my pliers...didn't work. So I shook my right leg to see if that worked and it did. So I jumped off the ladder and landed on my feet to live another day
I was probly on the circuit with 277v going through one arm and out the other for about 3 seconds. I'm glad i was on that ladder or would have been toast.

So mine was REALLY bad.

I recently have started experimenting with high-voltage, having built my own ZVS driver and using a flyback transformer. I was powering it with 12V from my 18V 3A adjustable PSU. Let me tell you - it was horrifying fortunate that I was limiting the current to 3A.

Why?

I got shocked by the damn thing when it was on at full power. I don't want to say it blew me back, but I am glad that me getting shocked forced a convulsion strong enough to get me out of the arc. I have a little burn on my finger from it, and I probably had a good 15kV and 1 or 2 mA going through me... which is a LOT. 6mA (I believe?) is enough to stop your heart, so I was really lucky I wasn't powering it from my beefy supply that I was about to transfer it to.

My right arm (how I got shocked) was numb for about 4 hours. I felt my heart skip a beat.

I'll tell you, I didn't think I was going to die. Probably because it was over so quickly. But I'm lucky I didn't.

I got new respect for HV then =p Chicken sticks for drawing arcs, from now on!

I feel lucky listening to all the different stories. I've only been shocked by an HeNe tube, and by a disposable camera when i tried to make a shock toy out of it a looong time ago

The worst that I have been shocked was when I was moving a sprinkler wheel line and got hit by lightning. I had leather gloves on and rubber boots, I was watching for all the rain birds to be all on top and was getting ready to shut the motor off and lightning struck the other end. It knocked back about 15ft and I laid in a mud puddle for about 40 minutes before I could move, up to that point all I could do was lay there and listen to my heart beat. When I got hit it felt like someone had hit me across the chest with a 10 ft long 4 x 4. I your mind it is just like when the death star explodes. That happened in 86 and to this day I still have heart arrhythmia.

I have been shocked twice by all three legs on 480 V equipment and that still doesn't even come close to lightning! Now when I get shocked by 120 V it just pisses me off.

^^ Lightning.. you are the record holder for this thread

I got bit by an old oil furnace transformer 10Kv @ 23mA. Left a tiny pinhole
of a char mark where it leaped into my arm.. That pinhole sized burn later
grew into a much larger scab and healed. Hurt like an SOB. Think I was 12 at the time

00Giorge said:

The worst that I have been shocked was when I was moving a sprinkler wheel line and got hit by lightning.

Click to expand...

hahaha:worthy:

I got another shock that surprised the hell out of me, I was in the crawl space under neath the house running another phone line to the living room and had to strip my wires back and realized I had left my strippers upstairs so I thought I would just use my teeth. I got 2 wires striped and had just bit down on the green wire to strip it when the phone rang and HOLY CRAP! I didn't realize that the voltage goes up when the phone rings. Needless to say "lesson learned", use wire strippers! :beer:

QUOTE=JLSE;1074028]^^ Lightning.. you are the record holder for this thread



I got bit by an old oil furnace transformer 10Kv @ 23mA. Left a tiny pinhole

of a char mark where it leaped into my arm.. That pinhole sized burn later

grew into a much larger scab and healed. Hurt like an SOB. Think I was 12 at the time



[/QUOTE]


Yeah that's a nasty shock, I got one of those off of a 15 kv Jacobs ladder. Burns like a bitch!

^^

Remember these?



I got one, and loved, it, and in general a lot of things amused me when I was five I thought it would be cool to take off the tips, bend them around so little wheel could go on the outside too! Smart right? Lol

Unfortunately I had another genius idea. Not sure how, or why, but I decided it would be even better to power it, and electricity turns stuff on right?

The tips wouldn't fit into the socked, so I got some wire, put one piece in, connected it to the magnet rail, all good so far... Then I stuck the second wire in. While holding the first.

I really don't know exactly what happened next. Next thing I know my mom, father, brother, neighbors are all looking at me really worried

The socket was a 220v 30a, as I found out much much later. I was pretty scared of electricity after that. Now I think the fear is just down to healthy paranoia

Edit: 00Giorge - Getting hit by lightning you're definitely the record holder here!

00giorge Wins with the lighting story. I want to know how you got back from 1955:crackup: And yes 120v pisses me off too. I have been a electrician for 30+ years and been really lucky I guess. I have only been bit with 120v many times. The worst I got hit was working on switch outside standing in damp dirt. It went though my hand and out my foot. I got hung up for a few seconds. I do work with higher voltage sometimes 277,480 but, I try to make sure it's off when possible. Oh yea HeNe's get me sometimes.

LMy day job is installing electric gates. Any ways I was installing an inground faac( the motor sits under the hinge of the gate ) I went to strip 1 of 4 power leads ( 220 on a dedicated line) well I guess my strippers dug to deep . I can remember looking at my hand and thinking let go but i couldnt . Next thing I know my helper was tackling me. He said he heard me making a noise. He looked at me and and I was leaned over and shaking like fish. ......we have a standing rule when working with 220 . Tackle first ask questions later.

grgguy said:

......we have a standing rule when working with 220 . Tackle first ask questions later.

Click to expand...

:crackup:

Good rule...