Re: Wild caps...and shopping :)

["Metlicka Marc" <mystuffs-at-orwell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

also one piece of safety equipment that your compodrea requires is a dry
2" by 4", long enough to stay at a safe distance but short enough to
swing and maneuver.
when ever i have to do live high current buss work this is the first
thing i find. i let my safety man heft it and swing it until he feels
secure that he can knock, pry, wedge my writhing torso away from the
buss. it sounds stupid but if anything does happen, the first instinct
is to try to grab one and pull him off. then there are two people down.
they make fiberglass hot sticks with hooks on the end for this but they
lack the mass to knock one away. (old veterans words)
treat everything as if it was hot, hot gloves are a nice option here,
but good rubber gloves preferably with dry leather ones on top will
help.
to check for voltage the item is called a tick tracer or detector, these
come in lv and hv.
if a lv one is used sometimes enough v is induced into the line to get a
reading. a cheap voltage tick tracer held in the general proximity of an
active sub station will chirp out a warning and is a must, also a
"wiggy" selunoidal voltage meter is a good investment for checking the
lv side with. don't ever try reading the hv side unless you have the
right equipment!
i'm not sure in your case but i have seen upwards of 70v induced into a
line that was supposedly dead. rig yourself up a grounding lead with a
good brass welding ground clamp on one end,then clamp one end onto a
good ground point first and then use your wood or fiberglass rod to hang
the clamp on the hv line connector. this sounds like allot of work but
believe me it is good safety sense. when hanging the clamp stand
sideways and close your eyes when contact is made.once hung make the
connection  solid then do what you have to do. i've seen enough
induction into the lv side of a step down transformer that it would blow
a nice chunk of brass out of a grounding cable placed onto the hv side.
especially if someone may be welding down stream some ware. cap banks
are a little more on the tricky side, first ground the input side of the
bank. then touch to ground each terminal of the caps progressively from
there. again a small induced voltage down line will add up. now before
i'm caused of " fear mongering" these are just some of the things i was
thought in hv training and i "live" by them to this day. things happen
and i have seen 30+year veteran hv men do stupid things so take it slow
and be sure were all your tools and body parts are at all times, look
and try to visualize what might happen and go from there.
be slow, be careful, be safe,   marc