No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

Jack the Lad wrote:
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.

Nonsense!


Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.

Sometimes you just *have* to work on live circuits, sometimes there just
isn't a choice. It isn't that dangerous.


Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

See above answer.

--
Grunff

On 05/02/2004 Jack the Lad a wrote :
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

You are very much mistaken, live working is very common. It is
sometimes the only way to work and is an essential part of fault
finding.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (Lap)
http://www.ukradioamateur.org

"Jack the Lad" wrote in message
om...
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.
I presume you haven't worked on triac circuits with a cro?
This is where you have to remove the cro earth lead and wear gloves to tweak
the controls.
Try it, it's fun

"Jack the Lad" wrote in message
om...
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.

Here's another one for you. Many moons back, my old chap used to do small
scale theatrical lighting. The dimmers were - galvanised buckets full of
salt water connected to 240V live.
Shovels connected to the bulbs. Dunk the shovels = brighter lights.
Safe as houses, the shovels had wooden handles

In message , Jack the
Lad writes
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

What?

I plumbed my new CU in live last year, no other option really

Where's the problem ?
--
geoff

anyone wrote on Thursday (05/02/2004) :
Here's another one for you. Many moons back, my old chap used to do small
scale theatrical lighting. The dimmers were - galvanised buckets full of
salt water connected to 240V live.
Shovels connected to the bulbs. Dunk the shovels = brighter lights.
Safe as houses, the shovels had wooden handles

Works equally well at 11Kv

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (Lap)
http://www.ukradioamateur.org

geoff wrote:

In message , Jack the
Lad writes
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

What?

I plumbed my new CU in live last year, no other option really

Where's the problem ?

Good question. The 'leccy that did my extension added a new ring (spare
way in the CU) and swapped a type B MCB for a type C on the downstairs
lighting without turning the power off.

Due to a misunderstanding between him and my builder he only brought one
type C MCB 'coz he didn't know we have separate up- and downstairs
lighting circuits. He offered to cpme back and fit the other one but
asked if I was happy to fit it myself (to save hime making a 40 mile
rould trip) if he sent me an MCB. No problem - with the power off - but
now I'm wondering if I can/should do it live. The CU is an MEM
Memera2000 http://www.memonline.com/mem2.html (scroll down for a "cover
off" view). Having pulled the front cover off mine it seems I don't need
to get my fingers any closer than 50mm to the hot stuff. What do you
reckon? Should I do it live or not?

Good question. The 'leccy that did my extension added a new ring (spare
way in the CU) and swapped a type B MCB for a type C on the downstairs
lighting without turning the power off.

Due to a misunderstanding between him and my builder he only brought one
type C MCB 'coz he didn't know we have separate up- and downstairs
lighting circuits. He offered to cpme back and fit the other one but
asked if I was happy to fit it myself (to save hime making a 40 mile
rould trip) if he sent me an MCB. No problem - with the power off - but
now I'm wondering if I can/should do it live. The CU is an MEM
Memera2000 http://www.memonline.com/mem2.html (scroll down for a "cover
off" view). Having pulled the front cover off mine it seems I don't need
to get my fingers any closer than 50mm to the hot stuff. What do you
reckon? Should I do it live or not?

If you have to ask you're obviously not confident\experienced\daft
enough. Don't do it live.
...

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd.

Lurch wrote:

Good question. The 'leccy that did my extension added a new ring (spare
way in the CU) and swapped a type B MCB for a type C on the downstairs
lighting without turning the power off.

Due to a misunderstanding between him and my builder he only brought one
type C MCB 'coz he didn't know we have separate up- and downstairs
lighting circuits. He offered to cpme back and fit the other one but
asked if I was happy to fit it myself (to save hime making a 40 mile
rould trip) if he sent me an MCB. No problem - with the power off - but
now I'm wondering if I can/should do it live. The CU is an MEM
Memera2000 http://www.memonline.com/mem2.html (scroll down for a "cover
off" view). Having pulled the front cover off mine it seems I don't need
to get my fingers any closer than 50mm to the hot stuff. What do you
reckon? Should I do it live or not?

If you have to ask you're obviously not confident\experienced\daft
enough. Don't do it live.

Yep, that's exactly what I thought. Thanks for confirming it :-)

..

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd.

"Jack the Lad" wrote in message
om...
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.

Rubbish. Brushing a suspect cable with the back of a finger is a well-proven
way to check whether it is live or not. Just make sure you're not standing
in an earthed bucket of water at the time.

Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

It is an extra safety level, just in case the circuit you isolated isn't the
right one. I've worked on a 3-phase supply that I though was dead before
discovering that one phase had an extra connection to the incoming main. As
I was standing on 6mm thick rubber safety matting at the time, I didn't get
a shock, even though I was working on a brass terminal with an uninsualted
allen key.

Colin Bignell

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:54:18 -0800, Jack the Lad wrote:

No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a live
circuit unless he has a death wish.Therefore,he should switch off the
supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to be
1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots to use?

How do you think they joint cables in the street ?

Dave
--
And you were born knowing all about ms windows....??

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 16:20:58 GMT, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

On 05/02/2004 Jack the Lad a wrote :
No electrician worth his salt would insert/tighten/remove cables on a
live circuit unless he has a death wish.Therefore,he should switch off
the supply and check that the circuit is 'not live' before commencing
work.
Why then do I see electricians screwdrivers and pliers which claim to
be 1000 volts fully insulated,or are these made purely for the idiots
to use?

You are very much mistaken, live working is very common. It is
sometimes the only way to work and is an essential part of fault
finding.

Do us a favour and give us a demonstartion.

--
Phil Kyle - Usenet Legend.

http://philkyle2003.reachme.at/

"If Harry would just shut up half the
problems on this group would go away,
He brought the trolls here from
local.yorkshire in the first place!! " - wemfish