Important

Saturday night I was welding in my heated garage installing the disconnect switch on the xjpopcan buggy. All of the sudden the welder stopped and I noticed that the garage tv and cable box was out. I thought, man that's odd, they can't be on the same circuit. Grace comes out of the house, "What did you do?! Half the house doesn't have power!" I checked the garage electrical panel and the house panel, no popped breakers.

I pulled the cover off the panel in the house. Lost a leg. Pulled the meter cover and found that I lost a leg.

Called Indiana Michigan power. The were there in less than an hour. The drop to the house had a bad spot that blew out. Lineman said that it was from a tree that I cut down last year. He backed his truck up all the way into my back yard. Those trucks don't look that big until you see them up close.

Replaced four feet of my service with these great big butt connectors and had me back going in no time.


Thankfully the power company picks up that bill...

mac 'the joys of home ownership' gyvr
yeah, I can't wait to get the electrical done in my place. It has like 6 breakers for the whole house right now, and a hodgepodge of NM-B, MC/BX, knob+tube, and just plain hillbilly wiring. Since I'm gutting it down to the studs, I will be installing a separate subpanel for the second floor (to minimize the number of runs of cable I have to do up through the first floor walls), adding home automation, full networking and cable+audio wiring, 220V welder outlets on the front and back of the house plus in the basement, etc etc... it's gonna be a blast.

Say hello to the dude........a deep fried cheeseburger! :D


2010-12-07_18-51-57_617.jpg
for some reason the meat looked purple on my cellphone when I saw this post last night, I was like "ummm wtf is that."

Looks decent. I was sorely disappointed by the BK quad stacker I had last weekend, it was tiny. I prefer the triple whoppers.

I didn't even think about that :yelclap: How much is a plane ticket over there!?:dunce:
dunno, but good luck driving the XJ you buy home :roflmao:
 
During my days at Michigan Tech there was a prof that was barefoot all winter long and some other goons that insisted on shorts. Usually the CS majors that did that :)

Salt is the only thing that really stops me from wanting to ride all winter.
 
Odd, the same thing happened to me a few months back. I thought I lost power, then realized lights were still on in the kitchen. Sure enough, every other breaker was out. Checked the lines in the panel and had 0V on one, 120V on the other. I had never heard of that happening to anyone; I called Dad and he had never heard of such a thing either. Same deal as you, I called them out and they were there, pronto, but it took them half the night to replace the broken line in the ground. Somewhat coincidentally this happened not too long after doing a lot of welding, but I somehow doubt my <20amp 110V MIG did that kind of damage.

Also, since then my electric bill has been nearly double (kWh, not just $), but I've been waiting to be sure before I call them and bitch about it. I think they replaced my meter so I'm wondering if I got a bad one. Just something to watch for the next few months.

And yea, those International trucks are sweet (I'm guessing, that's what my REMC sent out). Did you offer to trade the lineman an F-450 for it?

I wanted to take a picture of it in the back yard, but it was really dark, it was impressive. The ground is frozen and it still left some ruts. It wasn't a crew cab so I wasn't interested in a trade :gee:

My dad is an electrican, I called him and he is the one that suggested that I lost a leg, I thought that might be a possibility but had never seen it happen. The odd thing is that not one breaker tripped. My service drop is over head so no digging in the ground. The blown out line was easy to see with a decent amount of light. They replaced 4 feet of the drop and that was it. The meter didn't get changed.

My welder is only a Century 145, still 220v...but just a little guy...

yeah, I can't wait to get the electrical done in my place. It has like 6 breakers for the whole house right now, and a hodgepodge of NM-B, MC/BX, knob+tube, and just plain hillbilly wiring. Since I'm gutting it down to the studs, I will be installing a separate subpanel for the second floor (to minimize the number of runs of cable I have to do up through the first floor walls), adding home automation, full networking and cable+audio wiring, 220V welder outlets on the front and back of the house plus in the basement, etc etc... it's gonna be a blast.

I spent over $2500 on supplies and my dad donated his time (well to store the willys) for three weeks before I moved it to set the garage up. The house needs some updating...but I don't spend much time in there :)

mac 'priorities' gyvr
 
Speaking of power outages... I seem to have an electrical gremlin in the house I am staying at. Had a few too many things plugged into an outlet/power strip. Turned on the microwave and the whole room went black.

I cant figure it out. Its an old style non-GCFI (spelling?) outlet with no built in safety features. AND the breaker didnt blow.

Cher"runnin his room on extension cords"bear
 
Try turning the breaker on and off. Are you sure the power strip didnt trip or is bad?

edit: saw you said whole room went black

Speaking of power outages... I seem to have an electrical gremlin in the house I am staying at. Had a few too many things plugged into an outlet/power strip. Turned on the microwave and the whole room went black.

I cant figure it out. Its an old style non-GCFI (spelling?) outlet with no built in safety features. AND the breaker didnt blow.

Cher"runnin his room on extension cords"bear
 
Time for some more ice fishing. Tonight through tomorrow evening. Did great over the weekend catching eight northern pike. Walley tonight and tomorrow. BRING ON THE COLD!!!!! :D
 
Speaking of power outages... I seem to have an electrical gremlin in the house I am staying at. Had a few too many things plugged into an outlet/power strip. Turned on the microwave and the whole room went black.

I cant figure it out. Its an old style non-GCFI (spelling?) outlet with no built in safety features. AND the breaker didnt blow.

Cher"runnin his room on extension cords"bear

You sure it is not fed from a GFCI? Look of a GFCI in the room, and check to make sure it is not tripped.

Check the breaker, make sure you have AC on the output. They can go bad and not trip.

Depending on the amount of overload I have seen poor connections arc and fail, check the wire under the screw on the breaker, make sure it is not burnt. You can also check all the connections on the circuit from the panel to the room. I have also seen a wire that was nicked during installation burn through in an overload.

Rev
 
I had an issue similar in my old apartment. They installed a GFI in my bathroom but wired it incorrectly so the kitchen, dining room, bathroom and hallway would trip when you tripped the bathroom GFI
 
I see one leg outages several times a year.....usually in a commercial 3 phase system, but it does happen.
The one that sticks in my mind was St. Louis, during a storm, the building lost a leg somewhere on the 500' underground run. Sure am glad we only rent there.

Rev
 
takin off tomorrow evening for Keystone to go skiing for a few days...A very well needed break from the office. :thumbup:
 
takin off tomorrow evening for Keystone to go skiing for a few days...A very well needed break from the office. :thumbup:

Going skiing huh? Who are the guys you are sitting between..........:D
 
I see one leg outages several times a year.....usually in a commercial 3 phase system, but it does happen.
The one that sticks in my mind was St. Louis, during a storm, the building lost a leg somewhere on the 500' underground run. Sure am glad we only rent there.

Rev

i've seen three phase loose a leg a few times...but not a regular 220 drop...until now...

mac 'two legs are better than one' gyvr
 
Check the outlet its self. they go bad.
I have had to replace one here and this house is only 5 years old.

I have seen a lot crazy electrical stuff, I have seen a 480 volt pump box completely submerged, the box was still energized but the overloads had tripped.
I have lightning strike a structure and do no damage except to a small diode on a computer board deep in side the control panel.
The best one was a remote building was fed 120v from a transformer that dropped 480v to 120v. the lady who worked in the building (scalehouse) said something was wrong with the lights in side some worked some didn't.
I checked out things and noticed there was 300 volts from ground to neutral.
and 120v from hot to neutral. I was afraid to even touch the door knob to run as fast as I could from that death trap! Why her TV and scale, etc. didn't blow up is beyond me! The transformer had gone bad and grounded out.
 
If i here this "napa know how" commercial on the internet radio one more again im gonna punch a old man in his bad hip....
 
Heh.... for me, it's "Napa, no how." The local Napa dealer back home took us for a ride on hydraulic fittings quite a few years ago. Discovered after the fact that it would have paid us to take another 3 hours, and 70 miles on the road to get the hose made, and we still would have come out money ahead.
 
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