Hole in gas pipe!

[gassafe]

Got my HVP mag thru the door this morning, it has a article on the gas explosion in Manchester recently... Page 8!

The fitter apparently damaged some electric cables when soldering nearby... He wrapped the damaged cables in insulation tape as best he could by the looks of it... But the cables apparently been arcing to the gas pipe and caused a big hole to be made on the copper pipe ... I never thought a copper pipe could have a hole made in it like that before!!

 

[Killy Bing]

Hit a cable and your drill bits ballsed isnt it!

we had a mig welder that wasnt working right but was still used for an hour or so before being looked at.
it had a split off the transformer unit that arced and burned an inch ovel in the 13mm steel casing.

the unit had a dedicated earth so it just kept going.

 

[gassafe]

Hit a cable and your drill bits ballsed isnt it!

we had a mig welder that wasnt working right but was still used for an hour or so before being looked at.
it had a split off the transformer unit that arced and burned an inch ovel in the 13mm steel casing.

the unit had a dedicated earth so it just kept going.

i did hit a cable once & it did indeed melt the end off my bit lol... It's all beginning to make sense now lol!

I guess the gas pipe must have been earthed too or it would have electrocuted the owner already?

Must be why we gotta keep the gas pipe 100mm away from electric switches... Or is it 150?

 

[Killy Bing]

i did hit a cable once & it did indeed melt the end off my bit lol... It's all beginning to make sense now lol!

I guess the gas pipe must have been earthed too or it would have electrocuted the owner already?

Must be why we gotta keep the gas pipe 100mm away from electric switches... Or is it 150?

First cable i hit was a 10mm shower cable, drill bit was in pieces on the tip.
nice big bang too


Dedicated 10mm earth within the first 600mm of the meter and before any tee.

surprised it didn't murder the boiler pcb though?

 

[zeebeedee]

When I was an apprentice I seen some fella grab a cable he was told was dead. He was on ladders running it down the wall when the end caught a copper pipe. He was thrown off the ladder 5 feet across the kitchen. The flash and bang where unreal. When the dust settled and we knew he was ok someone pointed out the pipe and wall. Hugh black mark the wall behind the pipe and the pipe itself was burned to hell!

 

[Killy Bing]

Who is daring enough to clip some 15mm pipe to a wall, earth bond it to another bit knocked into the ground as an earth spike and see how big a hole they get when they tap abit of 4mm to it!

 

[Nostrum]

I've seen a sparky drill through a buried lead incomer before the house 100a fuse. When the electric board came out they said the next fuse was 400amp on the supply! They had to join it live under the floor and it cost my old boss a fair whack to sort out.

sparky was in shock after, went white as a sheep and thought he was going to collapse. The flat wood bit he was using was reduced to a stump, luckily the drill (makita 18v) did its job and saved his life without a doubt.

 

[Killy Bing]

Also, then you put a machine bucket through them it warps and twists the metal, if a tooth hits it then it fuses the tooth to the bucket.

 

[Roger Welton]

When I was at sea one of the apprentice sparkies had it in his mind that because the tools were insulated he could work on live kit, which was fine until he cut a 660v supply to a pump, he was fine if a bit shaken, he took out the breakers on that board which in turn blacked out the ship (no fuel pumps = engines stop!) and his cutters were in a right state they were later mounted in a fram and hung on the wall in the 'leccys workshop.

 

[lame plumber]

power company was replacing a 3 phsae board in a block of flats I looked after, as the inhabitants had kicked the cover off as they left! I arranged with the estate agent not to have anyone move in on the day concerned, so of course 3 families were moving in. Someone threw the front door open, knocking the sparks over as he held onto one of the phases, which landed on the neutral phase, and a large explosion occured. I was outside the door which was shut and saw some of the flash, he emerged a few seconds later somewhat ashen, and tried to kill the prat who booted the door open. I was interupted pulling him off by the shop manager on the ground floor winging that something I'd done had caused a flood from above. Off I went and started ripping up the 1st floor to find the leak, didnt bother turning off the stopcock as I needed an instant way of finding it and hey presto 10 mins later found a smal hole in a copper pipe. The fact the 2 phases had crossed lead to all the earthed pipework going live, andleccie looking for another earth which became some old iron pipe and where it arced it blew out a neat hole. Made a hell of a mess and sw power had to cough for all the damage

 

[IDCHAPPY]

power company was replacing a 3 phsae board in a block of flats I looked after, as the inhabitants had kicked the cover off as they left! I arranged with the estate agent not to have anyone move in on the day concerned, so of course 3 families were moving in. Someone threw the front door open, knocking the sparks over as he held onto one of the phases, which landed on the neutral phase, and a large explosion occured. I was outside the door which was shut and saw some of the flash, he emerged a few seconds later somewhat ashen, and tried to kill the prat who booted the door open. I was interupted pulling him off by the shop manager on the ground floor winging that something I'd done had caused a flood from above. Off I went and started ripping up the 1st floor to find the leak, didnt bother turning off the stopcock as I needed an instant way of finding it and hey presto 10 mins later found a smal hole in a copper pipe. The fact the 2 phases had crossed lead to all the earthed pipework going live, andleccie looking for another earth which became some old iron pipe and where it arced it blew out a neat hole. Made a hell of a mess and sw power had to cough for all the damage

Sounds like a Benny Hill sketch :lol:, glad noone was hurt though

 

[stevetheplumber]

ive drilled through several cables worst one was six cables running down the wall right where the flue was going luckily on circuit breakers so didnt even bugger the core bit
ive melted a couple of sds bits doing it

 

[Destroyer2813]

Also, then you put a machine bucket through them it warps and twists the metal, if a tooth hits it then it fuses the tooth to the bucket.

Watched a driver do exactly that on site digging trench for water when electric was already in the meters rushing around then bang he found the cable his boss was not impressed

 

[Roger Welton]

Feature in GasEngineer mag about this story.

 

[tamz]

Cored through an incoming cable that was dropped in the cavity while standing in the pouring rain.
Put every house in the street out, fkd a new 48mm core bit and a £600 bill to make me feel lucky :lol:

 

[AWheating]

the site im working on now had overhead cables at 11,000v running along the side of the land. About 2 months ago a bloke in a wagon came on site to collet some scaffolding and he use his lorrys crane via its remote control. He hit the cables and sent the 11,000 volts through his wagon and himself. Heset himself of fire. His wagon on fire and took out the entire village. all his tyres burnt away lucky for him he did not die.

 

[stevetheplumber]

if you want to see it before your own eyes do the following
remove top from an immersion heater
set multi meter to ohms instead of volts
test for live by putting one lead on the live terminal and touch the other on the cylinder
instant sprinkler system
not that i would ever do anything that stupid

 

[Roger Welton]

I good meter should have a fuse to prevent this

edit to add

not that i've had to replace in in my meter

 

[gassafe]

if you want to see it before your own eyes do the following
remove top from an immersion heater
set multi meter to ohms instead of volts
test for live by putting one lead on the live terminal and touch the other on the cylinder
instant sprinkler system
not that i would ever do anything that stupid

thats amazing if that works lol!!

 

[Killy Bing]

thats amazing if that works lol!!

Will blow the chunky fuse inside the multimeter doing it.

dont do it with a cheap one because they have a coil instead of a fuse that quite literally blows to pieces !!

imho always buy a multimeter with a proper fuse!!

 

[gassafe]

I bought a fluke 116, it only arrived yesterday... I'm not risking it ;p

 

[Killy Bing]

I bought a fluke 116, it only arrived yesterday... I'm not risking it ;p

Nice!!
i have a 117 and 323.

think we are sorted for a while!

get the magnetic strap for the back, so handy just hanging it on a boiler casing

 

[tamz]

Here is a true story

A couple of mates of mine during the miners strike were desperate for some cash so decided to go out to an old mine and cut out scrap cable.
Unfortunately one of them whacked through 3" thick cable with a hacksaw that turned out to be a plenty volt still live cable.
After the other one had put out the flames on his mates hair and clothes and checked he was still alive (just) he put him in the wheel barrow and pushed him home.
As he couldn't ring an ambulance and say we were cutting out old cables at the pit he decided to pull the cooker out and cut the cable sit his mate in the corner behind it with a pair of uninsulated pliers in his hand.
I don't think the ambulance men believed it but they took him away and patched him up.
His hair grew back again about 6 weeks later and he doesn't touch electrics :smile:

 

[kirkgas]

Cored through an incoming cable that was dropped in the cavity while standing in the pouring rain.
Put every house in the street out, fkd a new 48mm core bit and a £600 bill to make me feel lucky :lol:

Hope you quoted more than £125, unless this happened in 1981

 

[tamz]

I never made any money out of that one anyway Kirk

 

[gassafe]

Nice!!
i have a 117 and 323.

think we are sorted for a while!

get the magnetic strap for the back, so handy just hanging it on a boiler casing

Yep, iv ordered one of them too... Not cheap for what it is, but I like my tools nice long leads on these fluke meters too

 

[buckley plumb]

was talking to a guy on a course a while back whos mate died feeding copper pipe under floor it snagged so twisted and pushed and the open end cut a shower cable on an old consumer unit .I now when pushing pipe under boards solder an end cap on - made me shiver

 

[Roger Welton]

was talking to a guy on a course a while back whos mate died feeding copper pipe under floor it snagged so twisted and pushed and the open end cut a shower cable on an old consumer unit .I now when pushing pipe under boards solder an end cap on - made me shiver

Makes me shudder just thinking about it

 

[gassafe]

Makes me shudder just thinking about it

More reason to stick a piece of hep down the floor instead!

Soo many dodgy electrical joints hidden under the floors these days

 

[WHPES]

Had it happen to me when pulling a cable out the way. The cable was an old rubber covered type and part way along the length the insulation had perished and turned to powder so when it was pulled, the wires touched each other. Made a terrible flash and bang and burning rubber smell.