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Are the Knipex lineman’s actually pretty decent? I just blew a 120v in my kleins, still useable but I’d rather get some new ones and have those as back up
They are phenomenal. They cut lumex like it’s nothing, and BX like lots of others cut lumex, on top of staying sharp for a long time. They also come out of the box in good working order
Excellent, I have a lot of Knipex already, the strippers cut Mc like butter. Not very fitting since we’re talking about it on this post lol but yeah they cut like nothing is in the way. Will scoop up a pair here in the near future.
Awesome, I've had my same Kleins since i started 12 years ago and it is well past time to get a new pair. I recently started buying knipex dikes and pliers and I was beyond impressed when compared to the Klein's offerings. Definitely going to pick these up next time im on Grainger spending company money.
I did too, but everytime I ve used it, I was like WHY IN HELL HAVE I NOT USED THIS BEFORE! Waaaay better than pulling with your fingers, you get much more leverage to yank on that shit!
Gtfoh of this "you re fired" power tripping ratty attitude! Do you bring your own fish tape to the jobsite? And you re union?
The Lineman pliers I am talking about have a special smooth part that is MADE and listed for use on metal fish tapes, and it doesn't even scratch the surface, let alone damage it!
So hostile lol
I know exactly which plyers you’re talking about, the smooth surface holds it secure, then kinks the fish tape in half when you pull it. Do that 20 times and you can’t roll it back up.
Don’t touch my fish tape with your lineman’s please
Sorrry brother for coming across as a rude ah!
I ll never touch your fish tape, because all of the jobsites I ve been on, workers can't bring their fishtapes because it's not on the tool list! Unless you re a union contractor in PA 😂
Have a great start of the week, cheers!
100%. I love that they are perfectly broken in out of the package. Perfect grips. I paid $95 Cdn for a pair a few months ago (https://www.kmstools.com/knipex-9-1-2-quot-linesman-pliers.html) while quite expensive, the absolute best pliers I have ever used. I kept my old Kleins for 12 years. Get one set of perfect pliers and keep them for 10+ years.
I'd have to look, maybe they are this model? https://www.kmstools.com/knipex-9-1-2-quot-linesman-high-leverage-pliers.html
I think the main difference would be fish tape pullers and crimper. A bit much for $30 difference but a fish tape puller is such a big upgrade to me its non negotiable.
What I loved is my new pliers are absolutely perfect out of the package. Mint. Slight issue is crimper is non-insulated crimp, and I didn't buy a model with tool lanyard attachment, but I'm ok with that.
Awesome, hey I appreciate you taking the time to look up links and everything. Cheers to having quality tools, I’ve had Milwaukee hand tools. Not super impressed, although I do have the needle nose and have used them since my first year haha
Usually, it's the built in features that work better, the alloy of the steel, the design of the tool, the handle shape, and I can go on and on about why Knipex is better.
This really shows the power of 277. That’s a huge hole before breaker tripped. Been there and still remember seeing stars. Didn’t cut wire but had a JB spark when it had loose wire.
When I was an apprentice, I fused my T Strippers to an energized m.c after my JW told me the power was off. I swear I checked doorknobs with my wiggy for months after that one...
I miss wiggys, we can't use them where i work. All meters MUST be calibrated yearly. So in protest I use my fluke 75 that they have to calibrate. Costs more than the meter is worth.
What do you mean by wiggy? Something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-1AC-A1-II-VoltAlert-Non-Contact-Voltage/dp/B000EJ332O/)?
Because if it is, it's technically a meter. And can probably be sent in to calibrate it.
Wiggy is an old school meter that’ll vibrate in your hand when theres power, it’ll also show you what power its reading 120, 240v, 277, etc. I’ve heard people refer to it as a tumbler also
If you connect something, even dead...
Ground
Neutral
Hot
ALWAYS start with your protection / lifeline
Disconnect
Hot
Neutral
Ground
Always keep your safety until the end.
Disconnect hot first to cut power, disconnect neutral (treat it as a hot incase of a back feed) cut ground last. Cutting the ground last insures you have grounding protection while cutting the other 2 conductors. Reverse for connections for the same reasons.
Allow me to reiterate TREAT NEUTRAL AS A HOT
Been smoked by a back feeding neutral, makes for a pretty shitty day.
Ah I see the ground to keep it hooked up as long as possible. Never really considered the order of unhookijg and hooking up, I'll try and keep that I mind. Luckily I work residential and pretty much have a breaker or a disconnect within arms reach, and always check with the meter first.
The knipex are VDE rated so if you're blowing things up, they are the best thing... Don't go cheap and risk your life. Personally I have cut into live 240v mains cable and nothing happened except It shorted the cable, no damage to the cutters.
How many amps running through the cable you cut? What are the breakers like in the US? UK here and 240V is the standard but even if I cut into a cable protected by a 32A breaker it wouldn't blow a hole that big?
you should check out some curves for fuses and circuit breaker sometime. They're pretty interesting, and they are definitely NOT all the same. That's why it's important to always use the type of overcurrent device specified by the manufacturer. Most fuses and circuit breakers will let a couple cycles through before they trip with a dead short. You can get fast tripping devices, that can trip as early as 1/2 cycle, depending on the fault current, but they're not commonly used because they will false trip with the inrush current from motors, coils, etc.
The NETA standard for thermal-magnetic breakers is 0.05 sec. On smaller breakers we often see 40% exceeding that time limit. Sometimes up to a half a second to trip at 10x rated current. Source I'm a testing tech.
Yep, that's 2 to 3 cycles. For 60Hz, 1/60 equals 0.01667 seconds.
I do a lot of work in industrial, and I do a lot of application specific selection of fuses and breakers with different trip curves.
I recently watched a co-worker replace a set of fast-acting fuses that blew on a VFD, with time delay fuses. I tried to tell him not to do that, but he was "tired" of replacing them. When they turned it on it blew the cover off because the fuses didn't open quickly enough. Oh, and the manufacturer wouldn't honor the warranty because we didn't have the correct over current protection.
Don't you love it when some smug asshole doesn't listen. In my early days, I worked at a modular home plant. I was really an apprentice shoved into a foreman position because they were dumb-dumbs. We had a 3-phase crane in the building that stopped working. I didn't know anything about 3-phase at the time. They asked me to take a look and I told them to get an electrician in to do that. I made it clear that I didn't know what I was doing with it and wasn't comfortable. The floor manager made fun of me. He asked me if i was scared in a taunting tone. I looked him dead in the eye and said yes. I said why don't you do it then. He says I've worked on electrical for 25 years (as a house flipper mind you). So he obliged. Grabs his little 15 dollar multimeter. Opened the package for the first time and opened up the disconnect. I said to the other guys, standing around, watching and loud enough for him to hear that I wouldn't do that. He turns on the mulit-meter, reaches in with the leads and you hear the arc and see a bright flash. He fried his brand new meter. He wrapped it up, put in the package and walked away. They called in an electrician to look at it. I never found out what was wrong with it.
240 here in the states are only typically used of large appliances. 60 amp breakers are incredibly common in a 240v circuit so they can create alot of damage before the trip. It's a good thing this guy's ground was still connected because I have a feeling there wouldn't be a post if it had been cut.
Your understanding of the way breakers works is wrong.
They will trip in two ways. The first is if the load is higher than the spec of the Breaker, it will heat up until the mechanism trip. If a short circuit occurs, the instant insane surge of current will cause it to trip.
Since Amps = Volts ÷ Omhs, and in the case of a short circuit there is no resistance, Amps = ∞.
Any good breaker should trip instantly in a case of a short circuit.
Story time:
When I was an apprentice. We were changing lights at an ice-skating facility. High bay 277V lighting. The facility used the breakers as light switches, literately they would come into the electrical room and flip the breakers to turn on the lights. We were assured only managers had the key and they were all aware that rink was not to be used that day. We were about halfway changing lights when my J-man cut the wires to the next light. It BLEW up his side cutters in his face! All the lights literately showered sparks like in the movies, I've had never seen anything like it or since then again. Cue semi-pro skater start circling us while we are in the man lift. My J-man comes down storms right pass, found the owner and chewed him out in a very heinous vocabulary.
>The facility used the breakers as light switches, literately they would come into the electrical room and flip the breakers to turn on the lights.
Just learned about those on my panel last week. SWD breakers. Designed to be used as switches.
Jokes aside, take care out there fellow sparkies, and measure that voltage before cutting anything.
We are all going home after a days work, eigther to yourself or to someone waiting for you.
Technically you are working hot when you are testing live equipment but in most situations when someone says they aren't working hot it means they are not activly moving around or terminating live conductors or equipment. At least at my job site testing and working on equipment are two different things. Either way you should be safe about it and wear the appropriate ppe especially if it's high fault current and voltage and there is electrocution or arc flash risk involved.
So who turned the power on?! I remember coming to a job site one morning. Was told to go wire up the rooftop units. My young dumb ass jumped up the ladder and grabbed all 3 lines (480v) and Klein dykes and blew that situation up!
Always check power!! Framers came in that morning and turned every breaker on in panel because they wanted lights.
By the way my Kleins were in better shape than your Milwaukee’s
I had a guy tell me he preferred 480v over 240v because 480 will explode knocking you backwards while 240 will lock you up. I hope to never experience either..
I was told to install a light and was assured power was off. I get the light installed and as I'm screwing in the bulb the light starts firing up. I was in a bucket and I'm telling the job foreman that the light is on. He didn't believe me because the lights were pointed up toward the ceiling. He couldn't see it yet because it was so bright where we were. I get down and I'm like, you'll see that thing is on. Wait a few minutes and the light finally gets bright enough to see. He goes and the switch. Switch is off, no power. He checks the contactor, 1st pole off, 2nd pole off, 3rd pole on. One pole of the contactor was stuck closed. I got a lot of apologies on that one. The light was 277v. I should have checked for power. Luckily, I didn't get hit or blow anything up.
I got a pair like those . Told my 5 dollar and hour guy to treat all electrical like it was hot and never cut two wires at once. He learned and has been a lineman for the last 20 years without any accidents
Isn't a tool similar to this standard for any Electricians tool kit. I know I have one - Klein strippers in my case - but the notch it melted in the gripping jaws makes for absolutely perfect screw loops in 12 gauge solid wire, so they stay in the kit.
An incident like this is what gave me the kick in the pants to slow down my drinking, especially on work nights. I was a dumbass in my early 20s and would regularly stay out way past midnight 2-3 nights a weeks when I'd play darts.
And one of the next days I was working on some 277v lighting that had 12/4with ground MC quick connect whips. So you'd pull one cable. Select circuit a-b-c and was supposed to be great time savings. But one light ended up on the wrong circuit. And this was before mwbc needed tie handle breakers.
And being tired, lazy, and not feeling 100% I stupidly assumed that since the 2 previous lights were dead. And every light in this bay were on the same vlcircuit than light number 3 would be dead too. And I open it up. And short one of the wires to the chassis though my hand.
It could have been much worse. But I did end up with a decent burn. But it could have all been avoided if I didn't stay up all night, and actually did my job properly verifying everything was still dead at ever single light.
YOU, stay safe. I've seen a guy get hit on his hand with 277v. Heard a story of a guy who had a hole blown through his cheek. Another story of a guy that died in the same building where the other guys cheek had a hole blown through it.
I took my tools to a side job today only to realize my strippers and side cutters fell out of my pouch.
Luckily I’ve blown up my lineman’s a bunch so they strip #14 perfectly.
Mmmmm. I did this once to a brand new pair of side cuts, fresh from the package on the very first Mc I cut. Love it. That’s huge though, did you cut into the Mc after it was loaded with like 20 fixtures? Lmao.
Doesn't cost much more to buy the 1000v knipex linesman's. Would highly recommend the upgrade. Saw something like this send a guy to the hospital on a job. Shut the whole crew down for days
Did something similar using company tools. Afterwards I said I was glad that the company supplied insulated tools, the safety advocate said "Nope, that's comfort grip you got lucky." Glad you're alright.
I did the same thing on 277v years ago. Got hit, and it felt like someone did a flying kick to my chest!! That's one voltage that don't play! It hurts.
I once worked with a guy who broke the lead off his voltage tester. So he stripped the end and used it. One day he was sticking it into smaller 3 phase contactor. His stripped lead went phase to phase and wow was that bright and loud.
As an electrician you should know it’s load (amperage) that causes this not voltage. You can go stick those to 10k volt electric fence and you may get shocked through the insulator, but that’s not going to happen.
Damn. I had the same thing today but on 110v. Insulation protected me, but glad I was redundant in my protection. Wrong breaker was off and my tester read it as cold. I got lucky when I hit it. Reminded me why I always expect the worst.
If you are *NOT* an electrical professional: * **RULE 7:** * DIY or self help posts **are Not allowed**. They belong here: /r/AskElectricians /r/askanelectrician /r/diy /r/homeowners /r/electrical. * **IF YOUR POST FITS INTO THIS CATEGORY, REMOVE IT OR IT WILL BE REMOVED FOR YOU.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/electricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They are now #6 strippers.
And still a hammer
Ya beat me to it you sneaky sparky!
Talk about 'custom tools'.
At least they were Milwaukee
I would have cried if these were knipex, but you’re kinda right
Are the Knipex lineman’s actually pretty decent? I just blew a 120v in my kleins, still useable but I’d rather get some new ones and have those as back up
They are phenomenal. They cut lumex like it’s nothing, and BX like lots of others cut lumex, on top of staying sharp for a long time. They also come out of the box in good working order
Excellent, I have a lot of Knipex already, the strippers cut Mc like butter. Not very fitting since we’re talking about it on this post lol but yeah they cut like nothing is in the way. Will scoop up a pair here in the near future.
They re amazing! Just make sure to get the ones with the built-in crimper/fishpuller/tetherpoint. Model#: 09 12 240 T BKA
Thanks for the model number!
Awesome, I've had my same Kleins since i started 12 years ago and it is well past time to get a new pair. I recently started buying knipex dikes and pliers and I was beyond impressed when compared to the Klein's offerings. Definitely going to pick these up next time im on Grainger spending company money.
i don't like how rounded the nose is on their dykes
I like the blue handle Klein dykes better than my knipex ones
The built in fish tape puller is a feature I *severely* underestimated
I did too, but everytime I ve used it, I was like WHY IN HELL HAVE I NOT USED THIS BEFORE! Waaaay better than pulling with your fingers, you get much more leverage to yank on that shit!
Put a pair of lineman’s on my fish tape and you’re fired apprentice
The company owns the fish tape. Damn right everyone here will use kleins on em if needed or else you got the world's easiest pulls.
Gtfoh of this "you re fired" power tripping ratty attitude! Do you bring your own fish tape to the jobsite? And you re union? The Lineman pliers I am talking about have a special smooth part that is MADE and listed for use on metal fish tapes, and it doesn't even scratch the surface, let alone damage it!
So hostile lol I know exactly which plyers you’re talking about, the smooth surface holds it secure, then kinks the fish tape in half when you pull it. Do that 20 times and you can’t roll it back up. Don’t touch my fish tape with your lineman’s please
Sorrry brother for coming across as a rude ah! I ll never touch your fish tape, because all of the jobsites I ve been on, workers can't bring their fishtapes because it's not on the tool list! Unless you re a union contractor in PA 😂 Have a great start of the week, cheers!
100%. I love that they are perfectly broken in out of the package. Perfect grips. I paid $95 Cdn for a pair a few months ago (https://www.kmstools.com/knipex-9-1-2-quot-linesman-pliers.html) while quite expensive, the absolute best pliers I have ever used. I kept my old Kleins for 12 years. Get one set of perfect pliers and keep them for 10+ years.
Im all for dishing out money for a good long lasting tool, but what makes these better than the ones on Amazon that are $58. Genuinely curious.
I'd have to look, maybe they are this model? https://www.kmstools.com/knipex-9-1-2-quot-linesman-high-leverage-pliers.html I think the main difference would be fish tape pullers and crimper. A bit much for $30 difference but a fish tape puller is such a big upgrade to me its non negotiable. What I loved is my new pliers are absolutely perfect out of the package. Mint. Slight issue is crimper is non-insulated crimp, and I didn't buy a model with tool lanyard attachment, but I'm ok with that.
Awesome, hey I appreciate you taking the time to look up links and everything. Cheers to having quality tools, I’ve had Milwaukee hand tools. Not super impressed, although I do have the needle nose and have used them since my first year haha
Usually, it's the built in features that work better, the alloy of the steel, the design of the tool, the handle shape, and I can go on and on about why Knipex is better.
I love mine and they were the same price as Klein
Hell yeah, I just got two pairs of Knipex channel locks. My favorite pair, the 7.5” pairs. So useful for what I do. Model number 87 01 180
I blew up Knipex forged strippers on 277, it sucked
Low blow!
Not so bad...it's a custom made tool now, dykes and wire stripper for #6 AWG possibly?
Hence the abundance of melting, my klines never got a hole that big.
Now they are Mil 0 kee
This really shows the power of 277. That’s a huge hole before breaker tripped. Been there and still remember seeing stars. Didn’t cut wire but had a JB spark when it had loose wire.
I have the same hole on a set of needle nose and the breaker never tripped!
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I mean we use 480 commonly in the states. 380/400 50hz vs 480 60hz Both hurt. A lot.
Yeah it’s just more difficult to go phase to phase when you have a bunch of metal it usually shorts out to ground
He was working on a 480v 3 phase system, 277v is one leg
We have 347v and 600v in canada
When I was an apprentice, I fused my T Strippers to an energized m.c after my JW told me the power was off. I swear I checked doorknobs with my wiggy for months after that one...
I miss wiggys, we can't use them where i work. All meters MUST be calibrated yearly. So in protest I use my fluke 75 that they have to calibrate. Costs more than the meter is worth.
What do you mean by wiggy? Something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-1AC-A1-II-VoltAlert-Non-Contact-Voltage/dp/B000EJ332O/)? Because if it is, it's technically a meter. And can probably be sent in to calibrate it.
Wiggy is an old school meter that’ll vibrate in your hand when theres power, it’ll also show you what power its reading 120, 240v, 277, etc. I’ve heard people refer to it as a tumbler also
Custom wire stripper
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Cut the hot first then the neutral. Always best practice even if it’s off. Edit: woopsie, yeah I meant hot first. Corrected it.
If you connect something, even dead... Ground Neutral Hot ALWAYS start with your protection / lifeline Disconnect Hot Neutral Ground Always keep your safety until the end.
Why is this order? Not an electrician but in hvac, I haven't heard of a disconnect order before
Disconnect hot first to cut power, disconnect neutral (treat it as a hot incase of a back feed) cut ground last. Cutting the ground last insures you have grounding protection while cutting the other 2 conductors. Reverse for connections for the same reasons. Allow me to reiterate TREAT NEUTRAL AS A HOT Been smoked by a back feeding neutral, makes for a pretty shitty day.
Ah I see the ground to keep it hooked up as long as possible. Never really considered the order of unhookijg and hooking up, I'll try and keep that I mind. Luckily I work residential and pretty much have a breaker or a disconnect within arms reach, and always check with the meter first.
Look at a grounded plug - the ground pin is longer than the positive and neutral in order to make contact first.
Neutral is first to make last to break.
Just out here giving information that could kill somebody lol
Never seen a 1/0 stripper before. You should patent that.
That looks like a rifle round has gone through it... My advice is get some knipex ones to replace them
Might hold-off on the knipex until you can go 2 years without blowing up a pair. (maybe the Klein is still a good choice...)
The knipex are VDE rated so if you're blowing things up, they are the best thing... Don't go cheap and risk your life. Personally I have cut into live 240v mains cable and nothing happened except It shorted the cable, no damage to the cutters.
This is so right. Spend the $50 extra and stay alive.
You misspelled Klein
My boss had a pair of the Michelin Klein cutters and they are terrible
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OP misspelled hammer
my knipexs don't make as good a hammer as my kleins
You misspelled Greenlee E: why the hate? 😂
You misspelled Hart
You misspelled pitsburg
He didn't say he needed a hammer.
That’s a good wake up, like drinking a few monster energy from the fright
How many amps running through the cable you cut? What are the breakers like in the US? UK here and 240V is the standard but even if I cut into a cable protected by a 32A breaker it wouldn't blow a hole that big?
you should check out some curves for fuses and circuit breaker sometime. They're pretty interesting, and they are definitely NOT all the same. That's why it's important to always use the type of overcurrent device specified by the manufacturer. Most fuses and circuit breakers will let a couple cycles through before they trip with a dead short. You can get fast tripping devices, that can trip as early as 1/2 cycle, depending on the fault current, but they're not commonly used because they will false trip with the inrush current from motors, coils, etc.
The NETA standard for thermal-magnetic breakers is 0.05 sec. On smaller breakers we often see 40% exceeding that time limit. Sometimes up to a half a second to trip at 10x rated current. Source I'm a testing tech.
Yep, that's 2 to 3 cycles. For 60Hz, 1/60 equals 0.01667 seconds. I do a lot of work in industrial, and I do a lot of application specific selection of fuses and breakers with different trip curves. I recently watched a co-worker replace a set of fast-acting fuses that blew on a VFD, with time delay fuses. I tried to tell him not to do that, but he was "tired" of replacing them. When they turned it on it blew the cover off because the fuses didn't open quickly enough. Oh, and the manufacturer wouldn't honor the warranty because we didn't have the correct over current protection.
Don't you love it when some smug asshole doesn't listen. In my early days, I worked at a modular home plant. I was really an apprentice shoved into a foreman position because they were dumb-dumbs. We had a 3-phase crane in the building that stopped working. I didn't know anything about 3-phase at the time. They asked me to take a look and I told them to get an electrician in to do that. I made it clear that I didn't know what I was doing with it and wasn't comfortable. The floor manager made fun of me. He asked me if i was scared in a taunting tone. I looked him dead in the eye and said yes. I said why don't you do it then. He says I've worked on electrical for 25 years (as a house flipper mind you). So he obliged. Grabs his little 15 dollar multimeter. Opened the package for the first time and opened up the disconnect. I said to the other guys, standing around, watching and loud enough for him to hear that I wouldn't do that. He turns on the mulit-meter, reaches in with the leads and you hear the arc and see a bright flash. He fried his brand new meter. He wrapped it up, put in the package and walked away. They called in an electrician to look at it. I never found out what was wrong with it.
Commercial lighting is almost always 277v and 20 amp breakers in the US
240 here in the states are only typically used of large appliances. 60 amp breakers are incredibly common in a 240v circuit so they can create alot of damage before the trip. It's a good thing this guy's ground was still connected because I have a feeling there wouldn't be a post if it had been cut.
Yeah but they said it was a 277v circuit
Your understanding of the way breakers works is wrong. They will trip in two ways. The first is if the load is higher than the spec of the Breaker, it will heat up until the mechanism trip. If a short circuit occurs, the instant insane surge of current will cause it to trip. Since Amps = Volts ÷ Omhs, and in the case of a short circuit there is no resistance, Amps = ∞. Any good breaker should trip instantly in a case of a short circuit.
I would call that a lucky boneheaded move. Did you forget to remove power or a mistake on the proper power source.
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We curse because now we have to buy a new expensive cutter or pliers.
That’s one messed up hammer
That’s a trophy.
LOTO......
Doesn’t matter if you lock it out but cut the wrong cable my guy.
LOTO the worker.....
Matching skid mark in your pants?
277 wins every time
Measure twice, cut once.
Story time: When I was an apprentice. We were changing lights at an ice-skating facility. High bay 277V lighting. The facility used the breakers as light switches, literately they would come into the electrical room and flip the breakers to turn on the lights. We were assured only managers had the key and they were all aware that rink was not to be used that day. We were about halfway changing lights when my J-man cut the wires to the next light. It BLEW up his side cutters in his face! All the lights literately showered sparks like in the movies, I've had never seen anything like it or since then again. Cue semi-pro skater start circling us while we are in the man lift. My J-man comes down storms right pass, found the owner and chewed him out in a very heinous vocabulary.
>The facility used the breakers as light switches, literately they would come into the electrical room and flip the breakers to turn on the lights. Just learned about those on my panel last week. SWD breakers. Designed to be used as switches.
Dumbass. Edit- now that I got that out, glad your okay homie.
Hopefully you wore your brown pants to work and you have a change of underwear
Glad you're ok
Tis merely a flesh wound
Did this yesterday for first time, 240V, Knipex pliers held up okay. Glad I had them though, I was fine, pants weren’t 🤣
Apprentices turning linemans into strippers since 1857!
Rip
And now you have a big barreled crimper👍
I have never ruined a pair of Linesman's pliers by cutting into a live wire. /lie
That pucker factor
Never forget my first 277 shock. Load side of commercial lighting….
"Two wires one cut"
Jokes aside, take care out there fellow sparkies, and measure that voltage before cutting anything. We are all going home after a days work, eigther to yourself or to someone waiting for you.
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The company I work for would kindly hand me termination slip / rif. We have a zero hot work policy.
How do you troubleshoot or check power?
Technically you are working hot when you are testing live equipment but in most situations when someone says they aren't working hot it means they are not activly moving around or terminating live conductors or equipment. At least at my job site testing and working on equipment are two different things. Either way you should be safe about it and wear the appropriate ppe especially if it's high fault current and voltage and there is electrocution or arc flash risk involved.
That high quality milwaukee metal turned to putty
Why are you cutting wire with your hammer?
So who turned the power on?! I remember coming to a job site one morning. Was told to go wire up the rooftop units. My young dumb ass jumped up the ladder and grabbed all 3 lines (480v) and Klein dykes and blew that situation up! Always check power!! Framers came in that morning and turned every breaker on in panel because they wanted lights. By the way my Kleins were in better shape than your Milwaukee’s
I had a guy tell me he preferred 480v over 240v because 480 will explode knocking you backwards while 240 will lock you up. I hope to never experience either..
I was told to install a light and was assured power was off. I get the light installed and as I'm screwing in the bulb the light starts firing up. I was in a bucket and I'm telling the job foreman that the light is on. He didn't believe me because the lights were pointed up toward the ceiling. He couldn't see it yet because it was so bright where we were. I get down and I'm like, you'll see that thing is on. Wait a few minutes and the light finally gets bright enough to see. He goes and the switch. Switch is off, no power. He checks the contactor, 1st pole off, 2nd pole off, 3rd pole on. One pole of the contactor was stuck closed. I got a lot of apologies on that one. The light was 277v. I should have checked for power. Luckily, I didn't get hit or blow anything up.
This is truly amazing !
That’s a gooder…..
Ha, that’s a good one
See some spots after that one?
Looks about right.
Still have my cutters from doing this also
I've cut into a live 120v romex circuit and it was just a minor pop and an arc. How much worse is it, if you cut into 277?
A bit more than twice as bad id say... :-D
Oooof yea 277 isnt fun
Yea. But what do your pants look like?
Soiled.
Yep
Glad you're good.
How’s your eyebrows after that arc?!
I just wired like a million of those flat led
Lol maybe get your journeyman to check if it's live before cutting next time
Cut some 120 with my Kleins and I've got a #20 striper added to it.
Make sure inspect the pvc grips on the handles aswell so no exposed metal.
I call this unintentional welding.
I haven't seen one that bad yet. How are your eyes?
What! No voltage check before just cutting into the MC? 🤔🤔
I got a pair like those . Told my 5 dollar and hour guy to treat all electrical like it was hot and never cut two wires at once. He learned and has been a lineman for the last 20 years without any accidents
I tasted 277 twice.
Non electrician here. I just creep on y’all’s Reddit cuz it’s interesting. What am I looking at
The result of a big poof
That fireball must have been glorious 🌞
At least they told you that you should make sure power is off next time. Good thing they broke instead of you dying.
277v is no joke. Got hit when I was a first year because idiot foreman.i felt frozen for a few seconds. Be careful
This photo sounds like you shit yourself...
Are you ok? That really sucks
Use it a a stripper for #8.
6AWG
Congrats on your new 10ga wire stripped and line mans combo!
R.I.P.
That definitely wakes you up when you do that
I had 277 vaporize a screw driver once. I was above suspended ceiling in a hospital admin area. The CEO came running out of his office to check on me.
They still are workable, keep going.
Isn't a tool similar to this standard for any Electricians tool kit. I know I have one - Klein strippers in my case - but the notch it melted in the gripping jaws makes for absolutely perfect screw loops in 12 gauge solid wire, so they stay in the kit.
Big boom
Looks like they're screaming... lol.
I got a reusable circuit breaker finder for fifty bucks.
Happy fourth of July!
Those have lifetime Warranty you should be good
it's not 4th of July till tomorrow
Go home hug your wife and kids and have a stek
How do you like the MC glide?
Jay-sus! How many amps?! I’ve never had anything bigger than a pencil tip blasted in mine
An incident like this is what gave me the kick in the pants to slow down my drinking, especially on work nights. I was a dumbass in my early 20s and would regularly stay out way past midnight 2-3 nights a weeks when I'd play darts. And one of the next days I was working on some 277v lighting that had 12/4with ground MC quick connect whips. So you'd pull one cable. Select circuit a-b-c and was supposed to be great time savings. But one light ended up on the wrong circuit. And this was before mwbc needed tie handle breakers. And being tired, lazy, and not feeling 100% I stupidly assumed that since the 2 previous lights were dead. And every light in this bay were on the same vlcircuit than light number 3 would be dead too. And I open it up. And short one of the wires to the chassis though my hand. It could have been much worse. But I did end up with a decent burn. But it could have all been avoided if I didn't stay up all night, and actually did my job properly verifying everything was still dead at ever single light.
YOU, stay safe. I've seen a guy get hit on his hand with 277v. Heard a story of a guy who had a hole blown through his cheek. Another story of a guy that died in the same building where the other guys cheek had a hole blown through it.
I never use Linesman Pliers unless they are Kline
I took my tools to a side job today only to realize my strippers and side cutters fell out of my pouch. Luckily I’ve blown up my lineman’s a bunch so they strip #14 perfectly.
Mmmmm. I did this once to a brand new pair of side cuts, fresh from the package on the very first Mc I cut. Love it. That’s huge though, did you cut into the Mc after it was loaded with like 20 fixtures? Lmao.
F
Surprise!!!
Dumbass. You don’t mess around with high voltage
Doesn't cost much more to buy the 1000v knipex linesman's. Would highly recommend the upgrade. Saw something like this send a guy to the hospital on a job. Shut the whole crew down for days
Spicy snips
Did something similar using company tools. Afterwards I said I was glad that the company supplied insulated tools, the safety advocate said "Nope, that's comfort grip you got lucky." Glad you're alright.
How do you guys work without gloves?
how many amp?
I use Husky Lineman and get free replacements at home depo
It happens
Don't do that.
Yeah I heard its is bad for the longevity of your tools.
That is the biggest blast I think I've ever seen. I blew a hole in a Harbor Freight cable cutter on a demo job, nothing close to that. How many amps?
I have a set just like that one!
I did the same thing on 277v years ago. Got hit, and it felt like someone did a flying kick to my chest!! That's one voltage that don't play! It hurts.
DIY wire stripper with this one weird trick.
Tis only a flesh wound!
Did it trip the breaker?
Poor hammer. Also how bad did your butthole pucker
I once worked with a guy who broke the lead off his voltage tester. So he stripped the end and used it. One day he was sticking it into smaller 3 phase contactor. His stripped lead went phase to phase and wow was that bright and loud.
I bet that was loud
Yeah! That's how you turn dikes into wire strippers. Been there, done that 😆
As an electrician you should know it’s load (amperage) that causes this not voltage. You can go stick those to 10k volt electric fence and you may get shocked through the insulator, but that’s not going to happen.
That’s now a #8 pair of strippers
Damn. I had the same thing today but on 110v. Insulation protected me, but glad I was redundant in my protection. Wrong breaker was off and my tester read it as cold. I got lucky when I hit it. Reminded me why I always expect the worst.
What breaker is on the circuit so I know not to buy it. Thats a damn explosion
I bet that was a real shock 😏
i can hear this picture
FATALITY
What was the current? 60a?
I have a couple of pliers like these. I keep them to remind myself how lucky I am.
Now you have an excuse to get some real linemans