Re: Safety Questions (fwd)

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Safety Questions (fwd)
From: Tesla List <mod1-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 22:20:55 -0600 (MDT)
Approved: mod1-at-pupman-dot-com


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 18:38:53 -0500
From: "Barton B. Anderson" <mopar-at-uswest-dot-net>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Safety Questions (fwd)

Jim,

Tesla List wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 98 22:29:42 EDT
> From: Jim Monte <JDM95003-at-UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Safety Questions
>
> Hi,
>
> Suppose you want to discharge a capacitor and use a long insulator, say
> a piece of PVC tubing, to insulate yourself from the cap.  You don't
> really know until after it's too late whether the insulator will be
> adequate.  There may be conductive "junk" on the surface.  It occurred
> to me that it would be much safer to ground the end of the tubing that
> you are holding.  That way, the short is directly to ground rather
> than through you if the insulator fails.  Is there a flaw with this
> reasoning?  Is this typically done?

Whenever I go to make adjustments, after powering down, I discharge the
cap. I too use a 3/4 inch pvc tube about 3 feet long. On the contact end I
have a 5 inch piece of hard copper tubing which is inserted into the pvc
about 1 inch. Bolt hole drilled though. The bolt holds the copper tubing
securely in the pvc and serves as my contact point where I clip RF ground
to the bolt. This way, the path of discharge is not towards me, but to RF
ground.

> To prevent current from passing through a person's chest cavity, how
> about wearing two watches with spring-type metal bands, one on each
> wrist, and connecting them with a conductor tucked inside the person's
> shirt to keep it out of the way?  I admit that this sounds a little
> strange, but it also seems like it might make a difference.  Comments?

hmmm.... Wouldn't want to be the test-pilot. But, one can never be too
safe, unless additional measures such as this hinders physical coordination
and creates another safety hazard of higher probability. Again, wouldn't
want to be the test-pilot.

Bart