Top tip

When messing around with mains wiring and insisting on working live...

Make sure that the wire you've currently got in the cutters is the one
that you think it is. If it's the ring main this is not a good thing.

Still, looking on the bright side, the cutters were about 15 years old
and had seen better days and the hole that was made in them make them
very good at stripping insulation.

 

*Snort*

And you're supposed to be an electrickery eggspurt, too.

Have we got a list for "First Suicide Bid Of The Year"?

 

By complete chance, I saw this yesterday, and laughed like a ****:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck

I love Wikipedia.

 

Is mains lecky fatal then? I have survived two thrilling bouts of
stupidity. Seven chances left?

 

gomez scribbled on the back of a napkin:

It can be. Especially if you've got a dicky ticker.

Dunno. Do you tend to cough up hairballs?

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

Absolutely not, I studied electronics.

And in this case it was complacency that caused the problem, well that
and sheer bloody mindedness.

Hardy a suicide attempt. An attempt at getting a Darwin award possibly
'cos whilst the screwdriver I was using and the pliers I was using were
insulated, the insulation on the cutters had worn off years ago.
Fortunately when they cut through the live's insulation they'd already
made good contact with the earth (because it threw the trip) and I
didn't even get a tickle.

I was quite impressed by my son who was sat playing something or other
on his PC about five feet from me, he just said "are you ok", shortly
followed by "what have you done, my PC's stopped"

 

<VVBG>

 

Still using fuses?

 

No, the trip thing in the consumer box flipped over.

 

Lucky you. It's possible you might have a breaker equipped box without
an RCD covering the power circuits.

Fwiw, I've cut RCD-protected cables a couple of times and the cutters
have survived unmolested, which makes me wonder if your RCD (if there at
all) might be buggered.

If you do have one, test it now.

 

It's a split box with an RCD on some circuits but not this one; I had
problems with a domestic appliance tripping the RCD so I took it off
that circuit.

In any case, if the cutter connection was from live to neutral then the
RCD wouldn't have done anything.

 

Firstly its not a poxy ring main! its a ring final circuit!
Secondly why feck about with what you dont understand, dont you know you can
only play with electrics these days if you give John Prescotts mates a large
wedge of cash!

 

I did pretty much the same thing about 2 years ago. The bang and shower
of sparks was most impressive.

Took the rest of the day for my sight and hearing to return to normal.

 

A few years ago, my FiL got a pipe/cable detector for Xmas. Later the same
day, he had some reason to drill a hole in the wall in the front room.
Almost immediately, there was a muted *BLAPP* from somewhere under the
plaster, and all the power went off...

 

That puts me in mind of a story I heard earlier today. I wonder if the
original orator would like to share with the class...

 

Burnt emerged from their own little world to say

An RCCB should. They are very sensitive. Just a few microamps difference
between the L & N currents will trigger them. Simultaneously cutting
through L & N mains conductors with a pair of snips should produce enough
variation to trigger the device e.g the energy used to damage your cutters
would not be returned through the device thus causing an imbalance in the
coils.

 

gomez emerged from their own little world to say

IIRC from my BTEC course 16 years ago, 50 milliamps at mains voltage
through your heart can be fatal.

 

**** off, you know-nothing ****.

 

Element leakage.

True. But as you cut the live the leakage through you would've tripped
it. Moot point anyway.

Fwiw, I've done the same for cooker and oven circuits, even for the UPS
dedicated circuit, to avoid nuisance trips.

 

I'm sure he would, with a bit of encouragement. Speak up! Stout fellow!