In my defense, in over 50 years of DYI electrical work plus professional experience at work for 15 years, this is only the second time I’ve produced fireworks. The first time was working on ceiling boxes in my basement. Thought I had opened the breaker, but was mixed up and tried to weld my pliers to the metal box while working a hot wire. That taught me to always test for power, even if you are “sure”. The new proximity voltage sensors are awesome.
One of the home renovation shows I watched showed a lot of horror stories from bad contractors , and Frank the electrician mentioned several times that he has done the “Frankie Shuffle “ and that his hair “used to be straight” from when he found live wires that were not supposed to be live
I once had an old school colleague at work who recommended everyone ‘got a taste of 240V once a year’ so they remembered what it was like. I can tell you from experience that it really hurts, and I never want it again.
(we have 240V mains AC downunder).
Cheers
Curly haired Neil
I had that too in the UK. Used to re-magnetize slot car motors with a loop of wire and a fuse. Got myself a taste of the 240VAC occasionally.
Voltage hurts but it isn’t what kills you. Amperage is what kills you. And John I will admit to creating fireworks one time (that doesn’t count the number of times I electrocuted myself). I don’t even remember exactly what I was doing but touched one leg of the main to the neutral bus bar. Scared the you know what out of me and I saw stars for a few minutes when I closed my eyes.
Got the faucet and soap dispenser hooked up.
This weekend will be the floors finally. The last chapter in this saga.
Well, you might want to consider hiring an electrician AND a plumber if you are putting a faucet and soap dispenser in your electrical panel
I have a water proof panel. . . Bought it from a guy selling ocean front property in Idaho.
I guess I should stick to talking about one house project at a time. The kitchen only required a couple outlet replacements, a new light over the sink, and a new oven hood. All isolated with the breaker and double checked with a multimeter. And Dan just in case you are wondering all the outlets in the kitchen are GFCI protected even the none sink side. No dropping the toaster in the sink and lighting myself up.
That seems to take a LOT of the fun out of it…NOW where should I put that toaster
I have found more than enough ways to “put the fun” in my life with trips to the E.R/urgent care/hospital/doctors office.
Finlay warm enough to work outside again today. I pulled out the old wire and ran new. Before powering up I made sure the wire was not pinched! It’s alive!
Terrible choice of lights Jon. Now you’ll have to tear them down to take with you when you move.
But damn they do look great there
those look great and glad to not see smoke and flames.
Thanks Dave. I bought these 5 or 6 years ago. I was shopping at Lowes for work when I spotted them on the close out rack in boxes of 2 for $20. I had no idea how I was going to use them, but couldn’t pass them up. After opening one, I went back and bought the last two they had. Last summer I put two at the front door and last fall the one on the right in the above picture. The last two will go near the garage when I convert the roll-up to a double swing open door. The garage can no longer be used for a car since the oil tank was moved there years ago.
Ok Jon, dumb question , if yo I removed a heating oil tank from the garage , wouldn’t you have more room to put a car in? Anyway something west coast guy so never had to deal with heating oil it their tanks ,except a few I pumped out
Well, maybe. Being an early 50’s house, the garage is tiny. A modern full size car wouldn’t fit if it was completely empty. The oil tank was moved from underground by the previous owner as a condition of our purchase. A custom tank could have been fit in a crawl space, but was too costly.
My wife drives a little Kia Rio - It might just fit, but might have trouble opening the doors!
- Send wife on a 7-day cruise and hope you don’t ruin her kitchen in the meantime…
Seriously though Devon, it’s looking amazing!!
No actually I love having my wife around. She is very helpful and willing. We really do make these projects a team effort.
Well cabinets are done, floor is prepped. It’s time to start laying the floor.
My turn for see stupid house problems…
Garage lights and exterior lights on house just stopped working. Wife went to turn on garage lights and heard a popping noise and figured it was the bulb and told me to replace.
Replaced bulbs and still no power…
Pulled the switch to see if the switch was bad. Nope, shows good continuity. But no power coming to the switch.
So, test the next exterior light in the series (or what I think is the next light). No lights, no power up stream ( well duh that’s right if it’s all in the same circuit).
Go to the next what I think is the next down stream light. Still no power. Go to the next down stream light. No power…
Go to the panel and check each breaker. Yep all breakers have power going out.
There’s one more light (exterior light motion sensor by garage) that might be on the circuit but that’s on (and not turning off).
I hate house wiring because I have no wiring diagram to show what goes where and the panel just says “lites”. Oh and this is a house from the 70’s that had absolutely no overhead lights when it was built. All the interior light switches are really switch controlled outlets…
Is there a GFI breaker in the run Craig ?
I have no clue. I don’t think so but that was my guess as well.
I think the circuit is just 4 exterior lights and the garage lights plus some random outlets in the garage. But none of those are GFI