Just electrocuted myself

[highlux]

Welcome to the world of the living dead.

Electrocution is death caused by electric shock, electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death.[1] The word is also sometimes used to describe non-fatal injuries due to electricity.[2] The term "electrocution," coined about the time of the first use of the electric chair in 1890, originally referred only to electrical execution (from which it is a portmanteau word), and not to accidental or suicidal electrical deaths. However, since no English word was available for non-judicial deaths due to electric shock, the word "electrocution" eventually took over as a description of all circumstances of electrical death from the new commercial electricity. The first recorded accidental electrocution (besides lightning strikes) occurred in 1879 when a stage carpenter in Lyon, France touched a 250-volt wire.[3]

[gore]

Even with a bleed resistor in a circuit, it's not a bad idea to assume a capacitor is holding a charge anyway. Personally I never trust a mere bleed resistor to guard my health or save my life. It's just another safety barrier, which is suppose to work, but still you measure and discharge. A bleed resistor can be faulty.

[highlux]

My first zap was at about 4. I saw my brother start the lawn mower....when done...I guess the kill switch was bad...he took the spark plug wire off to kill the engine.
Well...he went inside...I started the mower...and in a hurry to kill then engine...I grabbed pliers like he did...except I grabbed the spark plug by the tip...zzzzzzzzap. That thing grabbed me an shocked the piss out of me.   Then I got my ass spanked for starting the mower...which I could have easily gotten killed by.  I was too curious as a kid.


The worst...I did tile and stone work for 25 years. On a jobsite...we moved an island out of a kitchen to install travertine 18x18 tiles.  I had the wires from an outlet in the island capped off....and the breaker shut off as well.  Well last day on job...wrapping things up...installed the island.  Was rewiring the outlet.  I needed to strip a wire to make the last termination....no tool around that could do it...my helpers were grouting.  I was like...screw it...so I was gonna do the old teeth stripper on it.   POW.   Right in the FACE.  Felt like Mike Tyson punched me  in the mouth.   The customer had turned the breaker back on the evening before to run the garbage disposal that was in same circuit.  110 to the face.   Never stripped a wire with my teeth again.

[Delta]

Just put a bloody screwdriver across anything that looks like a cap!
Yeah, you might have to retire the odd screwdriver to prodding-only duties, and even destroy the odd capacitor, but you won't die.....

[Ian.M]

See https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/capacitor-discharge-tool-questions/
B----ring up a screwdriver is better than b----ring up your heart, but there is no need to kill caps and screwdrivers if you have applied a little forethought to the problem.  The only excuse for using a screwdriver is when you *DON'T* expect there to be any charge on the cap but are shorting it just in case.
?

[Shock]

B----ring

What does B----ring stand for?

Buggering which is slang for anal intercourse.

[Ian.M]

Its slang that in British Commonwealth English has many more meanings than the obviously obscene one.  Search Wikipedia for a reasonable explanation of it.

[grumpydoc]

B----ring

What does B----ring stand for?

Buggering which is slang for anal intercourse.

Thanks, new vocabulary got.

In Aus and UK English it is quite mild and normally used to describe something which is broken, possibly beyond repair. As in "that's buggered mate", or "you'll bugger it if you keep doing that". Whilst it does mean anal intercourse I do not think I have ever heard it in that context in everyday spoken English.

Buggery, however is an act of anal intercourse but its use is somewhat archaic, again I have almost never heard or used that word in everyday speech.

[Brumby]

Unless someone tells you to 'Go to buggery' ... that just means 'piss off!'  Nothing sexual involved.

[Brumby]

In normal Australian colloquial conversation, you'd be pretty safe to interpret use of any of the forms of the word 'bugger' as non sexual.

For example:

"Go to buggery" or "Bugger off" = Piss off
"Silly bugger" and similar = Silly person - often one who deserves whatever happens/happened to them
"Oh bugger" or just "Bugger" = An exclamation of disappointment.

... and so on.

In fact, if you did want to use it in the sexual meaning, it's highly likely you'd have to explain it.

[grumpydoc]

In normal Australian colloquial conversation, you'd be pretty safe to interpret use of any of the forms of the word 'bugger' as non sexual.

For example:

"Go to buggery" or "Bugger off" = Piss off
"Silly bugger" and similar = Silly person - often one who deserves whatever happens/happened to them
"Oh bugger" or just "Bugger" = An exclamation of disappointment.

... and so on.

In fact, if you did want to use it in the sexual meaning, it's highly likely you'd have to explain it.

Agree - none of the above would cause real offence to a Brit. We tend to use "sod off" a lot as well which is really just "go away" - perhaps fractionally stronger.

However, invite a Frenchman to "va te faire enculer" and you might well get punched - it's mostly translated as "f*** off" in dictionaries but really means go and sodomise yourself and it is (AIUI, still far from fluent in French) much stronger than the Brit/Aus usage of "bugger".

Funny thing language.

[eugenenine]

So what then do you call the green thing you pick out of your nose?

[mackrc1]

Can confirm, touching 240V mains is not nice.

[briselec]

I don't know, which one I hate more, DC or AC... I guess the one, where I had the least resistance/capacitance against at that moment, they both suck 

Definitely DC. I've been zapped a few times by 240VDC fire alarm systems and it feels like your flesh is burning from the inside. Not pleasant.
AC feels much nicer.

[SeanB]

So what then do you call the green thing you pick out of your nose?

Booger, slightly different spelling. If you ever watched Harry potter movies there is a reference there as to the taste.

[dom0]

I don't know, which one I hate more, DC or AC... I guess the one, where I had the least resistance/capacitance against at that moment, they both suck 

Definitely DC. I've been zapped a few times by 240VDC fire alarm systems and it feels like your flesh is burning from the inside. Not pleasant.
AC feels much nicer.

The soft clipped AC of modern mains has this tube-sound quality to it. 

[gadget73]

The last time I shocked myself was with 330vdc from an operating tube amp.  This particular amplifier uses a voltage doubler, which basically uses a pair of electrolytic capacitors wired in series to make it go.  Total B+ is 660vdc, so the mid point is 330vdc.  I'm using Nichicon snap-in caps mounted topside where the original electrolytic cans lived.  The outside can of those caps happens to be connected to the negative lead.  This was not mentioned on the datasheet, and frankly I never thought to check for it.  I reached across the amplifier to do something and laid my hand right on top of that capacitor.  It was not pleasant.  I have since insulated the cap, actually using part of the original 1964 cardboard sleeve that was there to keep the same thing from happening.

[rrinker]

 Worst that ever happened to me, years ago I had an old tube AM radio that I was given, along with a box full of electronic parts. The tuning knob was broken so I was using a screwdriver. While standing on a bare cement floor. With no shoes on. My had slipped from the insulated handle of the screwdriver to the metal shank, and I was effectively paralyzed. I couldn't move, I couldn't yell for help. I could see other people outside on the patio through the windows. It seemed like it was there for many minutes, but likely it was only a few seconds, until the shaking of my hand broke contact with the tuning capacitor. That was very scary. To this day I'm not super comfortable around HV even when taking all proper precautions.

[gadget73]

A lot of those low end tube tabletop radios were hot chassis.  One side of the power line went right to the chassis as B- and it developed the plate voltage with a simple half-wave rectifier off the other side of the line.  They're safe enough when used in their original box but if you get in contact with the chassis it can be quite dangerous. 

[BurningTantalum]

I got my first shock when I was around 10 years old- I had pulled apart an old radiogram and installed the guts in a redundant cupboard at the top of my wardrobe, with the control knobs poking out of the side. I boxed the speaker into a case and stood it on top of the cupboard. It all worked so I stood on a 3-legged stool and removed the mains wires from the temporary terminal block, then attempted to straighten the wires with my fingers. I came to on the bottom bunk bed (with my brother in it)
I can honestly say that I have reached the age of 59 without another shock, having always had a job that had 'electric' or 'electronic' in the job title- I don't include belts from engine ignition systems.
Six months ago a friend was moaning that her PVR had died, so I suggested that she drop it round for me to have a look at. She appeared with it a week ago so I took it into the workshop, removed the cover and was amazed by the state of nearly all of the electrolytics. I was just about to poke about with my finger and I asked how it could possibly have worked to the point of failure in this state, when I realised that the unit was warm. It turned out that it had been plugged in and ON for the last 6 months ! Everything in her house stays ON all the time, even if it is dead, apparently.
Another lesson learned by Mr BT. I nearly spoiled my unblemished record.

Regards, BT