Having had a little acident I am in the market for a new watch.

I brushed past the battery with multimeter in my hand to measure a voltage. I wasnt really working on the car, just poped out to check somthing.

It arked and welded my watch to the battery tray and wouldnt let go.

The stainless strap glowed orange untill the pins in the strap melted and I was able to get it of. It dumped its full charge through my watch.

After getting back from A&E I have full thickness burns the size of a golf ball. And lesser burns to the size of a tennis ball on my inner wrist

I am told I will have at least a month to save up for a new watch before I can ware one again.

And no I hadnt got around to puting a rubber cap over the live terminal.

ouch and double ouch, can i suggest a 10 pound plastic strapped casio next time.

Yes Ti conducts

So do stainless watches, when you get your hand jammed between the alt b+ and the inlet manifold of a 205gti engine

ask me how I know..........

That got me one glowing hot watch, that I flung about so hard it came off my wrist and smashed to bits, leaving my wrist with a watch shaped cauterized wound, lol

I don't wear watches while working on cars now

I used to work in a strowger exchange, it does not take long before all jewellery is removed!

They showed us pictures of people’s fingers after wedding rings had arched out on the 50v power rails.

No digits left as flesh was vaporised leaving just bone.

be careful out there....

quote:

---

Originally posted by mark chandler
I used to work in a strowger exchange, it does not take long before all jewellery is removed!

They showed us pictures of people’s fingers after wedding rings had arched out on the 50v power rails.

No digits left as flesh was vaporised leaving just bone.

be careful out there....

---

Does Titanium conduct electricity ?

I think you may in a painful way have answered your own question !

Burns are my most hated injury, wishing you a speedy recovery.

ouch

quote:

---

Originally posted by mark chandler
I used to work in a strowger exchange, it does not take long before all jewellery is removed!

They showed us pictures of people’s fingers after wedding rings had arched out on the 50v power rails.

No digits left as flesh was vaporised leaving just bone.

be careful out there....

---

Lost count of how many PCB's Ive nacked with the ID bracelet I used to wear.
Cheers,
Bob

OUCH OUCH OUCH!! Hope you recover well. For next time - conducting electricity is part of the definition of a metal, so they all do. Beware!

Remind me not to have a metal battery tray strap within watch-size distance of a positive battery terminal

Ouch indeed!!

I use my phone to tell the time. Even thats got an ali back on it but its not round my wrist!


Daniel

These are the way forwards if you're a watch wearer, won't save you from moments of stupid, but won't conduct, and won't break.

Telco kit is 48V IIRC - as if a small place they can use 4x12V batteries as backup - I may be talking out of my backside however...

Yes, terrestrial copper telephone systems have between 48 and 50 volts DC on them.
On a slightly related note, my teacher at technical college was once employed by a forklift truck company and he was working on an electric forklift. The battery cover was off and the terminals exposed. We're talking batteries that can supply hundreds of amps here. He was doing some sort of repair on the thing and fumbled his screwdriver which dropped into the battery tray. The screwdriver vapourised in a flash of white and a mighty "BANG!". It scared the poo out of him but fortunately he only got hit with a few small spatters of molten screwdriver.
Phew!

I dont wear watches or rings any more. Started to wear a wedding ring, and used to wear watches all the time but i work with electricity and heavy machinery so the last thing i need is to be conducting anything anywhere, or getting my fingers crushed inside the ring.

When I first started in BT (was PO Telephones then!) the main telephone exchange had a display board with a great big spanner as the centrepiece... 3/4" one end, 1" the other... with the middle 12" missing. Someone had dropped it across the main supply busbar, which was capable of carrying many hundreds of amps. These busbars are made of 8 or 10 copper bars, 12" x 1", all bolted together. The spanner vaporised before the supply fuse went.

That, plus all the fried screwdrivers, plus the gruesome safety films, was a great incentive to remove all rings & watches before mucking around on the equipment racks.

The BBC engineering training department used to have a picture of a ring finger, complete with ring and a trailing ligament. Looked like a Tampax with a fingernail.

I had a freind arc his watch on a saxo alternator. Very painfull!

I also use my phone to tell the time. Much less risk.

quote:

---

Originally posted by David Jenkins
When I first started in BT (was PO Telephones then!)

---

The safety Seminar for the Engineering department at uni was all stuff like that. The bloke in charge said you weren't really an engineer till you'd lost something like a finger or a toe, and most of there stories were removal by mechanical means. He'd had two of his fingers sawn off and reattached but he had many stories of rings catching.

I don't do much that actually poses these kind of risk at the moment (Only because I don't have the space mind) but I always think its best to have a wall clock and have no jewelery and nothing in you pockets. put it all in your coat and hang it up as far from the work area as possible.

wow, that is bad, never thought about it,

i all ways wearing my watch, working on cars and as electrician.

my first view was i got a nice watch i will get my moneys worth.


now, maybe not so much

stu

I used to wear a watch but when working on washing machines i used to have to put my hands inside the machine and theres not a lot of room

After having to take my watch of a 3rd time because it had got stuck I stopped wearing one and that was 15 years ago

Just been back to have it re-dressed and it looks a right mess.