Home Distiller

Hey BC, glad you are OK. Very glad you posted this. Takes courage to document a mistake.

I worked with an electrician years ago and we had to service a commercial kitchen. I was just a kid trying to impress the very well respected journeyman electrician. We were working on the main feed into the building and had taken the cover off the panel. I got a little too close to the main feed and he gave me a quiet, firm caution on what happens when the human body makes contact with a direct line feed. I was close enough to initiate an arc.....

He got quiet and real pale in the face. Will never forget it. I learned more about electricity in 30 seconds than I have in the rest of my life.

We all like to DIY and this is a good safety moment reminding us to slow down and take a pause.

I'm late to this party but I had to relate this: I worked at GE's General Products Control Division. Just inside the entrance was a water cooler. Above it was a hung a nicely framed 9/16 open end wrench with a wedding band neatly welded to it. Story had it the assembler was working on an uninterruptible power supply chassis when he shorted the wrench across the terminals of a bank of VERY large capacitors. That wrench and ring hung in mute testimony of what can happen in the most brief moment of inattention.
Experience is the best teacher, but also the harshest.
I've had my moments, too.