Things that terrify you on the bench.

[rrinker]

 My soldering station came with a stand that incorporates a place to put the copper ball, so mien goes nowhere. Still the best tip cleaning thing, beats a wet sponge any day.

 What truly scares me is high voltage. I'm glad US mains is only 120V, but even then - I NEVER work on anything without shutting off the breaker first. I'll let the pros be crazy and change out a wall switch without killing the branch circuit first. But what I really mean is tube voltage. It all stems from an incident when I was a kid, a neighbor down the street knew I was into electronics so when he moved away he gave me this huge box full of parts and a few complete items, including two tube radios, one AM/FM and one AM only. Plus this other circuit I never could figure out what it did. There were a few switches and potentiometers, and some large transformers. Just one pair of output terminals, and a lien plug. With my extremely limited test equipment, I couldn't figure out what it did. I forget what the output measured, but none of the controls made a noticeable difference other than what was obviously the main on/off switch. I no longer have this piece, but I suspect it was some sort of frequency generator.
 Anyway, the AM/FM radio was 100% complete and worked. The AM radio, the tuning knob was broken off. So I had it powered up and was using a screwdriver to turn the tuning capacitor. Holding it by the well-insulated handle. All was going well until my hand slipped off the handle of the screwdriver onto the shaft. Add that I was working in the basement, standing on the bare cement floor. I now had 400+V going through me. I couldn't move, it was paralyzing me. I could see, and hear - just a few feet away, outside on the patio, my Mom and some neighbors were talking, but I couldn't yell for help.  Only after a bit, I started shaking enough that I finally broke contact with the tuning capacitor and was able to move. It seemed like I was stuck there for an hour, it probably was seconds. The only good thing is it was my right hand, so the current was flowing nowhere near my heart. Ever since then - I am deathly afraid of working around high voltage equipment. Even jumpy when discharging the anode circuit on a CRT. And even after grounding it 3 times and triple checking that nothing is plugged in, I'm still jumpy if a wire brushes against me even though I know beyond a doubt that all capacitors are discharged.
 I learned the hard way about 120V AC. "Don't stick your fingers in a light socket" "why?" My grandmother had a floor lamp that for some reason had no bulb in it. Stuck my fingers in the socket - nothing. So I turned the switch on the side of the socket and tried again. Oh, that's why. I was probably 2 or 3.

[jgalak]

As for safety encouragement, if you buy a bottle of it from RS, then they send it in a massive box with about 30 pages of hazardous chemical data!

Yep.  I got my flux pen in a box big enough to put a soccer ball in with a print out of the full 50 page safety datasheet and a HUGE hazardous materials sticker on the box.  The solder they sent in a much smaller envelope with it's 20 page safety datasheet.

Heh.  I got a box from Digi-Key the other day, complete with dire warnings of "freight aircraft only" and "primary lithium batteries inside".  Giant box, tons of padding.  Inside (among other components), were the 3 CR2024 batteries I had ordered....

[Bear207]

...
 I learned the hard way about 120V AC. "Don't stick your fingers in a light socket" "why?" My grandmother had a floor lamp that for some reason had no bulb in it. Stuck my fingers in the socket - nothing. So I turned the switch on the side of the socket and tried again. Oh, that's why. I was probably 2 or 3.

I share the exact same learning experience - except believe I required more than one lesson in those earlier years. 
An electrician moonlighted for my parents oil burner service company.  He "taught" me all sorts of great things about electricity when I was far too young to appreciate the potentially deadly outcome....and my mom never was the wiser or the world would have been without one said electrician.  Nonetheless I built my first alarm system to track my parents movement in our large house using 120VAC and hand made switches in the floorboards / stair treads.  The house never burnt down and I removed all that wiring before I left for college.  My father knew all about it and got a kick out of it.  He also knew I was smoking at age eight....so he sure had a different parenting code than would be acceptable nowadays.

My fear is water, hate working with any sort of plumbing, always worried about leaks.  Electricity has my respect, not fear.  Shows you folks just how dangerous I might be aye?

Reference RADAR, I know a US Navy Seabee who was blinded for almost thirty days (with his entire company) when a RADAR installation was activated while they were inside the array in Alaska during WW II.  None of them suffered permanent physical damage, however, the emotional was another story.  Dennis did laugh when telling how all senior officers on that base were gone within twelve hours of the incident.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Not sure if I'm higher impedance than the average person or not, but I've had a few zaps and don't find them particularly memorable. Couple of 240v ones made me say "fuck" followed by "mmmm bacon" and I discharged a CRT through myself once and didn't feel anything other than a ting on my toe where it came out.

Regular AC doesn't scare me much anymore. The pump seems to take it and there will be something severely wrong when it doesn't anymore. Except one time. High summer, industrial building, thin wet soaked cotton overall. One leg, complete flank and buttocks and one arm in contact with structure. Other hand 'live'.
I felt shaken.
But the worst bite came from a fully charged professional photoflash unit (mains operated). Discharge to the heel of the hand. It bit. It stank. It took a long time to heal.

[paulca]

  I learned the hard way about 120V AC. "Don't stick your fingers in a light socket" "why?" My grandmother had a floor lamp that for some reason had no bulb in it. Stuck my fingers in the socket - nothing. So I turned the switch on the side of the socket and tried again. Oh, that's why. I was probably 2 or 3.

Pretty close to my first shock.  Took the bulb out and stuck my fingers in the light socket.  Then when nothing exciting happened I figured I'd turn it on and repeat.  Still nothing happened.  But at age 4 my inner engineer proposed that the pins in the light fitting needed to be pushed down, as they would be by the bulb.  FLASH, black residue up my fingers.  My parents, sleeping in the bed beside the lamp woke and went into near panic mode.  I wondered what all the fuss was about.  It hurt, but was just a quick jolt.

[IanMacdonald]

Changing large CRTs. Fortunately a thing of the past.

One time was swapping out a 42" job with the help of an apprentice when a guy came into the workshop and started an argument with him. Just had the thing off its mounts and in our hands, the worst possible time for this to happen. Guy who came in was so stupid he couldn't see the hazard he was causing, and if it had imploded he'd have been worst off as he had no face protection.

[katzohki]

I was once shocked with 4000 VDC, but I agree with Dave. That AC stuff can F right off

[Mr. Scram]

I think a crocodile on my bench would terrify me a bit. Not the clips, a proper hissy snap snap one.

[tggzzz]

...so he sure had a different parenting code than would be acceptable nowadays.

Not entirely, fortunately...

I taught my daughter about electricity with (a) a old Zerostat and (b) the back of her hand lightly touching an electric fence.

I sent her up in aircraft (alone) before she could start to drive a car.

We backpacked around India, not knowing where we were going to sleep the next night.

My brother made fireworks and the like with his grandson.

Both have survived and are great people.

[bd139]

Sounds like a good and memorable childhood

You have to expose your children to risks, new and insane experiences regularly. It's the spice of life.

My nan gave me matches and newspaper and said go and make fires in the back garden. I burned her shed to the ground. That's parenting 

[Peeps]

When I was younger I blew a cap up inches from my face and it forever made me terrified of reversing the polarity on them. I ran panicked from my desk assuming I was covered in acid but stopped when I realized I was fine. 

Since then Ive had a few moments with rapidly discharging caps usually due to a slip of a probe and the flash and bang are always extremely jarring.

[sarel.wagner]

My Girlfriend on the bench..... That means I have done something bad , or I am soon going to 

[Fludo]

Big angry DC filter caps in power supplies, rotating shafts and baggy clothing, exposed conductors, my girlfriend nagging about how much of a mess it is.....

[jeremy]

I think you are all missing the most important one: when you knock a DIP40 off the bench, it lands pointy side up and you accidentally stand on it, hard. Fortunately surface mount has solved this problem...

[paulca]

and you accidentally stand on it, hard.

At least twice as you'll initially recoil in pain, but put your foot back down with it still attached.

[iaso]

Having been zapped by 240 volts on several occasions. I would say...240 volts,

Also, my cat when I'm soldering, she loves to jump on my bench, and as my bench is in a room without a door it's not always easy to ensure she doesn't bother me.

[Nitrousoxide]

Ironically it's not whats on the bench, but the lack of a said bench.

Hoesntly, working with a cramped desk and a large test jig is a nightmare. I think I've spent more time pulling probes back onto the table than attaching them to test points. 

[Cliff Matthews]

Yes been there with the flimsy bench (or none at all) but on flimsy projects, this one left me amazed as to how our beloved Mehdi-boom still lives..
https://youtu.be/lT3vGaOLWqE?t=456

[sixtimesseven]

Everything high power high voltage (kV's). If youre lucky you'll die on the spot.
If your unlucky you keep going. But the current will find the lowest resistance path trough your body which usually are your blood vessels - And burn them from the inside. You can live for days but unless the damage is contained to non essential parts of your body you will die from blood poisoning eventually.

Source: My sister just finished med school... Our family dinner stories now sooner or later always drift towards horrible ways to day 

[drussell]

Yes been there with the flimsy bench (or none at all) but on flimsy projects, this one left me amazed as to how our beloved Mehdi-boom still lives..

Uhh...  Because it is all staged BS? 

You can't see the video editing and effects?   

[Cliff Matthews]

Yes been there with the flimsy bench (or none at all) but on flimsy projects, this one left me amazed as to how our beloved Mehdi-boom still lives..

Uhh...  Because it is all staged BS? 

You can't see the video editing and effects?   

Well since I help identify "good candidates" for Electronics YouTube channels, I thought it was real and so did others on the forum..
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/electroboom-sinking-to-new-low-in-safety-what-to-do/

[Neomys Sapiens]

I think a crocodile on my bench would terrify me a bit. Not the clips, a proper hissy snap snap one.

I think that would be mutual. Poor thing is not exactly well disposed for managing steep vertical gradients.

[paulca]

So, having started this thread about the copper wool ball....

"Frodo" has a new kennel:

[tggzzz]

So, having started this thread about the copper wool ball....

And back to the topic, one thing that frightens me is the shards of solder in such brass balls being spilled over the bench - and into whatever I'm working on.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

I agree, the cat.
Especially when he tries to drill or grind Beryllium.
He is for the most part, isolated from the lab by a heavy duty screened door. He tends not to whine as much if he can see and hear what's going on. (From the other side that is.) To many things to kill all 9 lives in here.
Pictures soon.