While we are sharing our 'near death by electrons/magic' stories...
This one is comparatively low voltage but still resulted in serious
mid-term effects to me.
At age 9 I designed and built my first AC/DC power supply and after
confirming it worked I decided to cover the back of the PCB (pre-drilled
copper with cuttable tracks) with electrical tape to prevent accidental
electrocution.
Unfortunately I [accidentally] decided to do this while the power was still
connected, and figured it would be a good idea to press the tape down
firmly using thumbs across the low voltage transformer input (240AC/UK).
From what I can remember taking the entire 240 across my body was pretty
awful, but I was somehow able to pick myself up and stumble downstairs so
my Mother could take me to hospital.
It took a few weeks to fully recover the ability to control my hands and
have suffered from an occasional heart murmur since that time.
Even with low voltage please be careful!
On Mon, Apr 9, 2018, 9:06 PM David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Steve,
>
> It's so sad to hear of this fatal mishap involving your son's friend and it
> is a stark reminder of the inherent and very real danger associated with
> our
> hobby of choice. It would behoove even us more experienced "old salts" of
> this hobby to take heed as well and to make sure that we always exercize
> extreme caution when we are working/playing with the potentially lethal
> voltages that are often present when running these types of circuits.
>
> I recall having a 'near miss' with an energized pole pig a number of years
> ago and it really scared me. I had energized it to do the typical arc
> drawing and when I had finished drawing said arcs, I had neglected to
> de-energize the transformer and was moving around dangerously close to the
> HV bushings, having carelessly forgotten they were still energized!
> Fortunately, I did not approach them close enough to get zapped, but once I
> realized what I had done, it really shook me up to think that I had allowed
> myself to get that careless around an energized pole transformer (and with
> other people nearby)! It did teach me a lesson to ALWAYS be very vigilant,
> methodical and extremely cautious when working (or playing) with high
> voltage and I can't recall any such additional near misses since that
> incident. Carelessness can literally get you killed!
>
> Be safe,
> David
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve White" <steve.white1@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Tesla Coil List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2018 10:37 PM
> Subject: [TCML] Deadly MOTs (warning)
>
>
> > This message is mostly for newbies and other people inexperienced with
> > high voltage, especially MOTs.
> >
> > We often read warnings about the potential dangers of MOTs but I have
> > never heard of anyone actually being killed by a MOT. That has now
> > changed. About 2 weeks ago a friend of my son was killed by a MOT. He was
> > 30 years old. I don't know all of the details but he had made some sort
> of
> > wood-burning tool that he was using to burn images on to wood as art.
> > Somehow he touched the HV terminal of the MOT and it instantly killed
> him.
> > I had no idea he was trying to do such a thing because unfortunately he
> > never consulted me about it. I have known him since he was a teenager and
> > I can tell you that he knew nothing about HV or even electricity. He
> > probably got this idea from the internet. MOTs can be put to many useful
> > purposes (I use them myself) but you must know what you are doing and
> > understand the danger.
> >
> > So the lesson to take from this is to heed the warnings about the safe
> use
> > of MOTs in HV projects. These warnings are real.
> >
> > Steve
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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