Check this out, skip to 3:50 for the 'Electrical' part.

Max.

 

I love this video. Moral of the story: Never lick wires.

This guy says he KNID OF knows what he's dealing with. I look at the glass as being "Kind of NOT knowing what he's dealing with". Enjoy. There's reason why we hammer safety. Watch the whole video for a good side splitting laugh.

 

I love this video. Moral of the story: Never lick wires.

This guy says he KNID OF knows what he's dealing with. I look at the glass as being "Kind of NOT knowing what he's dealing with". Enjoy. There's reason why we hammer safety. Watch the whole video for a good side splitting laugh.

This guy knows exactly what he's dealing with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Sadaghdar
http://www2.ensc.sfu.ca/people/grad/msadaghd/

 

This guy knows exactly what he's dealing with.

Maybe so. But I'm sure going to miss him one of these days if he keeps playing with this stuff like it's not a serious matter.

 

Check this out, skip to 3:50 for the 'Electrical' part.
Max.

I think it's either extremely dry parody or just plain a fabrication. No way it's serious, too many things that can't work. The part about cutting the coat hanger wire with those flimsy Swiss Army Knife scissors kind of seals it for me. And cramming the stripped 16 Ga wires into the electrical outlet looks pretty unlikely.

 

Whilst I have replied to many posts from "newbies" warning of the dangers of live mains, high voltages etc. I can't help feeling a little hypocritical due to how I started out in electronics. My father had been a Radar engineer during WW2 and I can remember at about the age of 6-7 him showing me how to wire a plug, how to solder with an iron that we heated up on the gas cooker, telling me about the lethal potential of high voltage etc, but allowing me to play with old radios and ex WD equipment.
By the age of ten, I built an oscilloscope from scrap parts that was described in practical wireless magazine I think. I wound by hand the 1000Volt secondary onto an old radio transformer I had disassembled, It used EF91 miniature pentodes that had an ht of over 200V. I then made a variable power supply that went from about 90Volts to 400 at over 100ma. Spent hundred of hours over the next few years making things including a Top band CW transmitter with about 10Watts output into a long wire antenna. Played around with a neon sign transformer from a disused cinema, this thing weighed about 20lbs and the secondary was over 30kV!! Scared the life out of my mother when I made a Jacobs ladder about 8ft tall in my bedroom!!
Obviously I survived all this, then went on to a long career in electronics, a lot of it spent working on high voltage/power equipment for the military,
I received much high standard training, and now in retrospect, sometimes wonder if my survival as a child was mainly due to luck? I think I always had a healthy respect for electricity, and always considered the consequences before pulling the switch!
My point being, Are we too health and safety conscious now? I don't think so in reality, If I saw some going to put their hand in a fire, before making any judgement as to their Knowledge of the dangers of hot things, my first reaction would be to shout STOP! then educate them to the danger.
So, this dear friends, is what I think. We, as experienced engineers etc. by being part of this community, have a DUTY to point out the risks and make sure that the "newbies" are advised of any danger they may be in by persuing a given course of action.
One only has to look at the antics on some youtube postings to wonder why many more people are not killed by messing around with old microwave transformers and suchlike.
But, Should we ban all discussion on transformerless equipment? I really don't think so, because if they have enough common sense to post a question about it, then a blanket "not allowed" response probably means they will just write us off a boring old farts and go ahead anyway without having received the benefit of proper advice.
If they take the advice onboard, they may well continue to improve their skills and learning and be happy to know that they will not be dismissed in future when they have another query.

 

I had never seen either video, they were really good stuff.

Ron

 

Obviously I survived all this,

Everyone who didn't survive - raise your hand.

I, too, have had my share of electrical shocks. Most often from just forgetting about safety protocol, and things like thinking I can manage a live 120 VAC circuit without shutting off the breaker. I've burned plenty of screw drivers too. But like you, I, too, am lucky to be here. I just wonder how many more would be here to tell their story about how they didn't survive if they could only speak.

You may be allowed 100 serious shocks in one lifetime, with just one randomly placed fatal shocking. Hell, it could be your first of the 100. Or it could be the last. There can't be enough said about safety. Ignoring it just because others have survived is foolish. Those who haven't can't warn us. Maybe their family members can. But I personally knew a man who, while wearing a wedding ring, came in contact with aircraft power (400 cycle high voltage, and I don't remember the voltage). Welded his ring to the source and his body was the conductor to aircraft fuselage ground. And he can't tell you he survived. He didn't.

Just accept that safety is the safest thing to consider. Choosing to ignore it might not be fatal - this time. But who knows when you'll get that last one of your life.

 

Years ago, during my formative years, the magazine Popular Electronics was delivered to our house. Within this wealth of reading were stories of Carl and Jerry which I always enjoyed reading. I wonder how well this story and project would fare today:
“Dog Teaches Boy” from the February, 1959 Popular Electronics.
I actually built that project on a smaller scale and less a few parts. Really worked pretty well. There was always an emphasis on safety in the Carl and Jerry stories, even during the 1950s. I was pleased to find many of those old stories were archived. Anyway you can cook a hot dog placing it across mains voltage. I suggest stainless steel nails.

Ron

 

Hello,

I often refer to the attached PDF or the following page:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/safety.htm

Bertus

 

Check this out, skip to 3:50 for the 'Electrical' part.

Max.

... what the .... ????

 

... what the .... ????

What? The snippers on your Swiss Army knife can't cut nails? Yours must be counterfeit.

 

What? The snippers on your Swiss Army knife can't cut nails? Yours must be counterfeit.

For that you need a genuine RadioShack Leatherman. Handles live electric wires and Mil-Spec chain-link fencing like butter.

Accept no imitations.

 

Years ago, during my formative years, the magazine Popular Electronics was delivered to our house. Within this wealth of reading were stories of Carl and Jerry which I always enjoyed reading. I wonder how well this story and project would fare today:
“Dog Teaches Boy” from the February, 1959 Popular Electronics.
I actually built that project on a smaller scale and less a few parts. Really worked pretty well. There was always an emphasis on safety in the Carl and Jerry stories, even during the 1950s. I was pleased to find many of those old stories were archived. Anyway you can cook a hot dog placing it across mains voltage. I suggest stainless steel nails.

Ron

Could you imagine the rate of electrolysis going on in that salt nitrate stick (aka "hotdog")

Hydrogen, chlorine, sodium hydroxide and a variety of nitrogen-based products from the nitrite salts and sulfur products from the sodium metabisulfite preservative. Yuck. I guess "yuck" until enough mustard and/or ketchup is applied.

 

Could you imagine the rate of electrolysis going on in that salt nitrate stick (aka "hotdog")

Hydrogen, chlorine, sodium hydroxide and a variety of nitrogen-based products from the nitrite salts and sulfur products from the sodium metabisulfite preservative. Yuck. I guess "yuck" until enough mustard and/or ketchup is applied.

Yeah, and if you read the story take a look at the current per hot dog. Ten hot dogs draw about 16 amps as they get warm. So we get about 1.6 amps per dog at 117 volts. Some serious salt there. Plus all those other things you mentioned.
<OFF TOPIC> Hot dogs only get mustard as a condiment, never ketchup. Hamburgers only get ketchup and never mustard. I have been trying to explain that rule to my wife for almost 30 years. I guess it's just thet NYC thing in my blood. </OFF TOPIC>

Ron

 

<OFF TOPIC> Hot dogs only get mustard as a condiment, never ketchup. Hamburgers only get ketchup and never mustard. I have been trying to explain that rule to my wife for almost 30 years. I guess it's just thet NYC thing in my blood. </OFF TOPIC>

Hey! ... what about the mayonnaise? ... surely you're in tha habit of adding it to both!?

 

Years ago, during my formative years, the magazine Popular Electronics was delivered to our house. Within this wealth of reading were stories of Carl and Jerry which I always enjoyed reading. I wonder how well this story and project would fare today:
“Dog Teaches Boy” from the February, 1959 Popular Electronics.
I actually built that project on a smaller scale and less a few parts. Really worked pretty well. There was always an emphasis on safety in the Carl and Jerry stories, even during the 1950s. I was pleased to find many of those old stories were archived. Anyway you can cook a hot dog placing it across mains voltage. I suggest stainless steel nails.

Ron

I made one of those death machines in grade school too using barbed wire staples and a slab of wood. It went straight into the trashcan at home unused.
http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~lecturedemonstrations/Composer/Pages/64.24.html

 

I made one of those death machines in grade school too using barbed wire staples and a slab of wood. It went straight into the trashcan at home unused.
http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~lecturedemonstrations/Composer/Pages/64.24.html

This is classic from the link:

This demonstration illustrates in a rather tasty way the phenomenon of resistive heating. The apparatus on the right in the photograph above places the hot dog across the AC line when the knife switch is closed. Because a considerable portion of a hot dog’s mass is water and hot dogs also contain various salts and other water-soluble compounds that can act as charge carriers, hot dogs — at least those fresh from the package — conduct electricity. Thus, when you close the knife switch (assuming that the apparatus is plugged in), a current begins to flow through the hot dog. The inductive pickup connected to the multimeter allows you to monitor the current flowing through the hot dog. This is a 1000:1 dividing transformer. You must use a range of 20-mA or greater, and there is a zero offset of about +0.026 A on the 20-mA scale. (That is, 0.026 mA × 1000.) Alternatively, you can wire the circuit directly through the multimeter, but note that is has a 2-A maximum.) The current rises as the hot dog heats up, then, after the water has vaporized at least to the point where the hot dog can no longer conduct electricity, the current drops precipitously to zero, signifying the end of the cooking process. As the hot dog cooks, you may notice a darkening of the skin, and towards the end you will probably hear a gentle sizzling sound.

You have to love the reference to the knife switch. Interesting that over all the years the link shows about 1.153 Amps and in the story I linked to the current was about 1.6 Amps. While obviously the current will vary depending on the composition of the hot dog the numbers are relatively close all things considered. which takes us back to Gopher's post detailing what is in a hot dog.

Ron

 

Hey! ... what about the mayonnaise? ... surely you're in tha habit of adding it to both!?

Never could adjust to mayo on a burger or hot dog. I do like mayo just not on burgers or dogs.

Ron

 

You have to love the reference to the knife switch.

Always go Kosher with that hot dog.