BIG DUMMY Accident

[Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi all,  

I thought I would share a little mishap that occures to me yesteray
while running my 10 kVA pole pig coil. I had been running it at near
full power with screaming 8 to 10 ft. streamers filling up my little 12
x 20 ft. shop and observing this from ~13 ft awy behind a grounded
alum. screen shield. Then I had the bright idea to turn the variac down
so the output was only 2 or 3 ft. (about as low as I can go and keep 
the SG firing reliably) so I could "safely" walk up closer and observe
the RSG action at a closer glance. I then proceeded to do that and
walked up to within about 5 ft. of the spark spouting coil. Then, I bent
down to look at the firing SG and everything was hunky-dory for the 
first ~15 secs. or so. Then, all of the sudden, I was viciously attacked
by a train of streamers on my right shoulder blade. The electricity ran
down my legs and thru my feet out of my exposed toes to the concrete
floor. It was quite painful and unpleasant but I was okay. Thankfully, the 
power was low, but boy did I feel like an idiot!! 

I decided to share this with the rest of you coilers to let you know just
how dangerous our hobby can be when we get just a little complacent,
and I'm preaching to myself more than anyone! Lethal voltages are dealt
with on a regular basis with this hobby and if we're not careful, we tend
to get complacent and complacency can kill you when dealing with high
voltage. Have fun everyone, but lets KEEP IT SAFE!!!

SAFER Coiling in Memphis,
David Rieben