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[Debs.]

Many years ago I received a 115 Volt shock from a seemingly innocuous American coffee percolator, which was still damp following washing.....I can recall the muscle constricting 'hum' in my forearms and not being able to release my grip on the handle......not a pleasant experience (even at the relatively-low U.S domestic voltage).

Seeing as our workshop/hobby interests often expose us to 'electrickery' in it`s various forms and circumstances; I was wondering if anyone here on the forum has been so unfortunate as to receive an electric shock at higher voltages?.....if so, how?

[Vamps]

Got a 240v shock when I was about 13 years old, used to do a lot of messing and managed to touch the two pins in a lamp, threw me off though.

When I was a Service Engineer often used to work on stuff live cos the plug could have been a long way or a long way down, the company eventually started putting a socket on the equipment so you could disconnect from the unit itself.

Had a few from HT leads over the years, and of course have tested some batteries with my tounge

[Weds]

3phase 415volts, when I put my hand into a motor starter thinking it was turned off, the isolator handle didn't work properly and it was still live, big lesson learnt that day.. Check for dead !!

[djm1964]

Seem to remember a sparkie telling me once " if it's Volts it jolt's ( you ) if its mills it kill ( you ) dont know if this is of any help. When I was a retain fireman , at our big local factory ( we had a little fire engine and all , good old fireman Sam ) we were tought to search a dark / smoke filled room with the back of our hands as if you go the other way ( palm ) and you grab a live wire , its hard to let go , whereas if its the back of your hand , it will " bite " you but your hand is repelled away . Hope this helps  

[Andy B]

......
Had a few from HT leads over the years,  .....

and you always know it's gonna get you!

[Vamps]

Seem to remember a sparkie telling me once " if it's Volts it jolt's ( you ) if its mills it kill ( you ) dont know if this is of any help. When I was a retain fireman , at our big local factory ( we had a little fire engine and all , good old fireman Sam ) we were tought to search a dark / smoke filled room with the back of our hands as if you go the other way ( palm ) and you grab a live wire , its hard to let go , whereas if its the back of your hand , it will " bite " you but your hand is repelled away . Hope this helps  

I was tought that at some stage in the past, thrown off rather than grabbing....

[Vamps]

Seem to remember a sparkie telling me once " if it's Volts it jolt's ( you ) if its mills it kill ( you ) dont know if this is of any help. When I was a retain fireman , at our big local factory ( we had a little fire engine and all , good old fireman Sam ) we were tought to search a dark / smoke filled room with the back of our hands as if you go the other way ( palm ) and you grab a live wire , its hard to let go , whereas if its the back of your hand , it will " bite " you but your hand is repelled away . Hope this helps  

I thought it was Amps that killed, rather than volts, in it's simplest terms :-/

[Mr Skrunts]

Mmmm, had a few belts from it in the past but the one that hurt the most was when I was young.

We had just had an extention built, so I must have been 11 years old.  to get things finished the trician was still there Saturday lunch time.  Mum and Dad had also bought a drop down light for the dining table and the sparky said he would fit it as he was finishing, anyways up he goes, my Dad gets me to hold the ladder for him and asks if he wants the power off.  "nah, will be fine, am used to it" was the reply.

30 seconds later I was sprawled out on the floor.  Seems as I pased him a screw driver from just behind him, he got a jolt and as he reacted he elbowed me in the eye and knocked me flying. :-/ :-/

[Turk]

Dodgy electric shower in my mates house. Jolted backwards and ended up sitting on the w.c.
A shocking experience and not just in the literal sense.    

[Andy B]

My daughter once put her fingers across the terminals of the lamp socket on a standard lamp. She was too short at the time to see into it and reached up, fortunately she was OK. The replacement fitting knocks the switch off now when the lamp is removed.

[largecol]

Many moons ago i was doing a YTS (remember those??) in a VW dealership and every friday the apprentices and trainees got the unwelcome job of steam cleaning and degreasing the workshop floor. Basically everything that could be wheeeled out, was, and everything else was lifted clear on the ramps while we walked metal-detector fashion cleaning the floor. Doing this would leave about 1/4 inch of water on the floor for a couple of minutes till it drained out. And as we were standing in it with steel-capped boots this was an ideal chance for the garage prankster to `accidentally` drop the live extention lead from the steamer into the pool of water as we worked. All you could hear were 3 loud bangs as we were thrown into the the air as we scrambled to reach the exit. I think i only touched the ground twice in nearly 15 yards!!! The dozen or so mechanics outside were p1ss1ng themselves laughing, whereas we were p1ss1ng ourselves literally in shock!!  None of us injured but i think it would have been jail time for the prankster in this day and age?  

[p j morgan]

i used to be in the licenced trade and remember one night one in the morning cleaning my cellar floor i had the hosepipe wash spillage down the sump i had 110 volt motors one was on the floor dropped the hose and i got the biggest belt it knocked me right across the floor thought i was a gonna .i needed another drink or two after that.wife says it should have been twoforty volts and she would have got a good payout.she loves realy

[immx]

When I was about 12 I had a plug socket in my bedroom that you had to wiggle to get to work. So out came the swiss army knife and off came the front of the socket! I found the loose wire, so far so good, I held the front plate of the socket in my left hand and went to tighten the wire with the screwdriver bit of the knife .......... No told me the front of thoses metal fronted sockets were earthed!!!!! and the loose wire was live!  

All I remember is hitting the bedroom door!

[Jimbob]

Had a bried 240 shock of an illegally converted cherry picker.

was meant to be battery, but someone had done a mains conversion.

trouble is it had a camping type SOCKET attached to it.
so 3 pin plug on one end of the lead, 3 pin camping PLUG on the other end.

I picked this up to move it and BANG, smarted a bit that did  

[Omegatoy]

had loads of them from wet washing machines to rewiring the shed with live cables, alwys managed to drop it sharpish!!
best one tho was when an apprentice mechanic, forst job when being taught how to repair bits , issued with an inch and a half round bar of steel 6 inches long, then a hammer, cold chisel, square and a large file, task is to chisel round bar into an inch square using aforementioned tools, BUT the vices were bolted to a metal bench and also mounted to the bench was a spark plug cleaning and testing machine this had a long HT kind of lead on it that clipped to the spark plug and then you pressed a button to ignite the spark plug to test it was firing ok !! so you can imagine the scene a newbie comes in starts the tedious process of chiseling and a few days later is used to us using the plug tester while he is using the file, lead clipped to bench, wait until he has a good sweat on then hit the button, the howls could be heard throughout the building!!!! it was only 50,000 volts!!!!!