Shop Safety

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MDWine

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Messages
2,690
Location
Manassas Park, Virginia, USA.
I'm sorry for your loss Tom, and my prayers go out for your friend and his family and his friends.

The Lichtenberg process is beautiful, and VERY SCARY in my opinion. We had a demonstrator do it in our turning club. They made it look easy, but the mention of how much electricity passes through it scared the stuff out of me. I just won't risk it. I unplug everything but the lights when I leave my shop... EVERYTHING! (Even the dang radio!)

I hope we can all remember to be safe, and do that mental check before/during/after shop time.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
8,206
Location
Tellico Plains, Tennessee, USA.
I'm sorry for your loss Tom, and my prayers go out for your friend and his family and his friends.

The Lichtenberg process is beautiful, and VERY SCARY in my opinion. We had a demonstrator do it in our turning club. They made it look easy, but the mention of how much electricity passes through it scared the stuff out of me. I just won't risk it. I unplug everything but the lights when I leave my shop... EVERYTHING! (Even the dang radio!)

I hope we can all remember to be safe, and do that mental check before/during/after shop time.

ME too, takes me at least 10 minutes to shut down the shop... going around to double check that every thing is off and/or unplugged.
 

howsitwork

Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
2,299
Location
Thirsk
Tom

really sorry to just catch up on this and my sympathies to his family. i strongly suggest to one and all to get an earth leakage breaker installed in your workshop supply. This could save your life! I'm not qualified to say exactly how it works but I understand it compares the incoming electric current with the outgoing and if there's any difference between the two cuts the power , as the missing current must have gone somewhere . We use higher voltages over here ( 240 v ) compared to your 110v systems but all my workshops have had these fitted whilst setting them up.

Only pain is if you touch the neutral wire even with the live power off the static charge you carry can be enough to grip the breaker and turn all the house power off ( at which point you become very unpopular with SWMBO ) 😯
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2017
Messages
3,032
Location
Wolf Creek Montana
Tom

really sorry to just catch up on this and my sympathies to his family. i strongly suggest to one and all to get an earth leakage breaker installed in your workshop supply. This could save your life! I'm not qualified to say exactly how it works but I understand it compares the incoming electric current with the outgoing and if there's any difference between the two cuts the power , as the missing current must have gone somewhere . We use higher voltages over here ( 240 v ) compared to your 110v systems but all my workshops have had these fitted whilst setting them up.

Only pain is if you touch the neutral wire even with the live power off the static charge you carry can be enough to grip the breaker and turn all the house power off ( at which point you become very unpopular with SWMBO ) 😯

I've never heard of the earth leakage breaker. I wonder if they have them in the U.S. Hey JT, you know about these? I'd like to know more about them. Thanks for sharing
 

jttheclockman

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
19,082
Location
NJ, USA.

howsitwork

Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
2,299
Location
Thirsk
John and Tom

yes having checked the link that's the thing I mean. Ian is SERIOUSLY WORTH FITTING one or more of these to your house and workshop. I have miniature breakers in both house and workshop and earth leakage protection or GFCI as you call it on incoming main supplies to both.
They're so good as I said even static from you touching the neutral wire with the power to the circuit turned off , can trigger a shut down. This knowledge has been found by trial and ear ache as SWMBO was watching one of her favourite programmes on TV whilst I was adding an additional light in the workshop and yes ALL the power went off 🤦‍♂️

I now do things like that having checked what she's doing first !
 
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