The closest I ever came to being fearful of my life due to electrical shock was during the summer on Midway Island. I was changing out a transceiver in the cargo bay of one of the planes like shown in my avatar. The cargo bay consisted of an aluminum tray on which we had to lay in a prone position with equipment racks on either side.. If you can imagine Midway Island in summer, it is very hot and HUMID. Being saturated in sweat, and a large contact surface made matters worse. My arm happened to touch a 28V DC bus bar that ran along side the area. I felt my entire body tense and only heavy concentration allowed me to retract my arm from contact. On that day, I gained a very large respect for what I had previously considered to be a safe voltage.

 

Referring to post #20:

It is possible for a faulty soldering iron to have 120 volts (U.S.) on its tip, but the solder is not a ground. It's as harmless as a can of tomato soup.

 

Good to hear that reassurance, #12, and on a lighter note, I will now be able to relax and fear not, when confronted by a looming can of tomato soup.

 

I really must disagree wit #12 about any exposed source of 120V being as safe as a can of tomato soup. It all depends upon the proximity to ground. If the user is grounded and holding the solder, the solder will become the source of a severe shock or worse when touched to the defective iron. In my opinion, the defective iron should be repaired or discarded!

 

Bill your earlier description of what a 28-volt line did to you in the bellly of that aircraft greatly added to the respect and caution with which I will regard any situation where live wires or charged caps exist.

Though my soldering iron is brand new and without obvious defect, I will nonetheless continue my habit of holding my solder wire with a glove, to protect against the extremely improbable event that Murphy's Law might rear its head later, when my tools have a few more miles on them, and my guard may have dropped some.

 

monster_catfish,

I think wearing gloves to hold the solder to prevent electrocution is a bit far-fetched. But to prevent lead poisoning is more realistic, if you're still using Sn/Pb solder. The lead is what is going to get you and not a can of tomato soup except back in the days when cans were sealed with lead solder.

 

Bill B... I didn't say an exposed source of 120 volts was harmless. I said a handfull of solder was harmless. Bite your tongue!

ps, happy 4th of July

 

No doubt I do have a clumsier grip with that glove on, Mr.Chips, but having done precious little soldering in recent years before now, I guess errring on the side of caution will have to be my layman's excuse for going to that incovenient length.

Dang, you shouldn't have mentioned the lead posioning, because now I'm considering the use of a respirator, while I scramble to order non-lead solder wire. Naw, just kidding about using a snorkel, though I'll admit the thought did cross my mind just now.

Ordering non-lead solder right now. Much obliged for that timely reminder.

 

Happy 4th of July guys. Take in a good fireworks show if you can.

 

The most recent electric chairs, in states that use them for capital punishment, deliver 2,640 volts AC at 5 amps supplied by transformers with a 208 VAC primary.

 

I don't sweat soldering irons. They are in the same class as an electric stove, the tip is thoroughly insulated from the AC wiring. If you are really worried about the risk then get a solding iron with a grounded plug. They are numerous and only slightly more expensive, and most temperature regulated irons fall under this category.

 

I rarely hold solder. When soldering components, just wetting the tip seems to suffice for most general-purpose soldering work. That is, unless a bigger blob is needed.

 

That's a good way of ending up with a poor joint. If you transport the solder to the joint on the bit of the iron, by the time it gets there the flux will generally have boiled away, and the solder may have started to oxidise.

http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm

The normal way of using cored solder is to apply the iron and feed in solder just as the part gets hot.

 

I how hoping Bill Marsden would weigh in on the solder question. Those words of wisdom are noted.

 

Adjuster is absolutely correct. The proper way to solder is to heat the joint first then apply solder to the joint - not to the iron.

 

I don't sweat soldering irons.

This has a double meaning. "To sweat a soldering iron" means to prepare a new tip before first use. With an inexpensive iron that has a tip made of copper, one would first clean the cold tip with emery cloth. After warming up the iron, a generous amount of solder is applied across the entire surface of the tip in order to form a film of solder all over the tip. Excess solder is removed by wiping the tip with a dry rag. You should end up with a nice shiny silver looking tip.

Do not "sweat" a tip that is not entirely copper, You will end up prematurely wearing out the tip.

 

if your conserned about the solder iron giving you a shock, you can test it faily esily.
1.you will need a DMM, probe leads, the suspect solder iron
2.take the + lead put it in the grond pin (the round pin) of a 3 prong outlet, take the other clip it or hold it to the iron tip plug the iron in. see if there is any reading unplug the iron and the + lead of the meter.
you may get some reading other than 0.00 you could get a reading of aprox 1 v or less due to the inductance caused by the AC power of the iron. if you get a reading lik this you can probly ignore it. however if you get a reading of 100-120 ish there is a problem with the iron. however any voltage over a few volts at the tip the iron should be fixed or discarded.

 

sorry for the necropost, but I ran across this page and remembered this old post.

I think you'll find it's already happened to someone in the navy i think he was, he dug the probes in to see his internal resistance and well, died....

To me this sounds like pure gobbledygook. Do you have any credible references to this story.
By the way. In order to get proper measuremnts on the skin electrical properties you need to use biopotential electrodes. The current flow in the human body is due to ion flow, not electrons. A biopotential electrode is a transducer that senses ion distribution on the surface of tissue, and converts the ion current to electron current. The skin conductance is only linear if the current density is less than 10uA pr cm^2 of skin

Not sure if the darwin awards website can be considered a credible reference but it makes for fun reading
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-50.html

EDIT: I see I wasn't the first necroposter. Electronics whiz just revived this 2 days ago.

 

Sorry to 'resurrect' this but just wanted to share. I'm a very lucky boy to be alive. when I was 11 it was a sunny day and my tape recorder wouldn't reach outside so I decided to extend the AC cord. I distinctly remember separating the live and neutral wires; then looking at socket because I realised I had been dumb BEFORE the shock hit straight across the heart. I was violently shaken for what seemed an age and remember having to think hard to let go whereupon I was blown 6 feet across the room completely stunned. Years later as a tree surgeon we would always take the risk with the uncovered LV wires (UK 240- 440V and up to 70amps I was told )literally pulling the branches of the wires on a dry taking care not to knock the phases together. A tech had told us LV would never 'jump'-this is 'normal' practice from what I had seen from the more experienced. I refused to work the HV as there was no quick buck in certain death (for me anyway). Recently when I made my first AC guitar amp I was checking the circuit according to instructions and swear I could feel the electrical field - radiating into my face. Maybe it was just nerves.... I don't mess around now and I'm partly on here because I want to understand how to be safe with dangerous things.

 

That's pretty heavy, Tree! Wow.

I was a newbie 20 year old, and decided to "fix" my parents' trash compactor. The motor in the back had gotten jammed up with cigarette butts and paper. Unplugged it and took the cover off, and I suppose what I must have touched would be a big cap in there! (BFC). I 'came to' across the room, with little memory of how I got there.

I 'knew' a lot of principles of safety, but did NOT take the time to find out what components I might encounter in that project. The instant I got zapped, I knew there was a huge cap in there...a little late, tho. Learned a major lesson there! I haven't been careless like that for the last 20 years...