Have You Ever Been Shocked Working On An Amp

[Structo]

I thought this might be a fun though shocking poll.
The other day I was working on my amp measuring voltages after I had blown a tube and my right hand with the positive probe in it briefly touched the DPDT switch that I have my OT primaries on 430 vDC that gave my an OH S**t moment.

[gearhead]

I learned the hard way where the filter caps drain to when you power down. LOL.

[tele_player]

Many years ago, I got a startling shock poking around in a Fender amp - unplugged, but caps weren't drained.

I'm more careful now.

[skyboltone]

Once in the morning does it.

[dartanion]

ONCE WAS ENOUGH!!!

I accidentally touched the tip of my thumb across the standby switch terminals....ZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My whole arm tingled for about 2 days.

[Lonely Raven]

I've only serviced a few dozen amps, scratch built two, and kit built two. I've been lucky enough to avoid shocking myself. Though once, I somehow managed to weld an aluminum chassis with my soldering iron! I must have left it plugged in while tweaking the circuit and Bzzzzz, welding time!

No damage except for a chunk of the chassis melting.

I guess that would have hurt.

[Allynmey]

ONCE WAS ENOUGH!!!

I accidentally touched the tip of my thumb across the standby switch terminals....ZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My whole arm tingled for about 2 days.

Same here! Allen Old Flame

[Structo]

I've only serviced a few dozen amps, scratch built two, and kit built two. I've been lucky enough to avoid shocking myself. Though once, I somehow managed to weld an aluminum chassis with my soldering iron! I must have left it plugged in while tweaking the circuit and Bzzzzz, welding time!

No damage except for a chunk of the chassis melting.

I guess that would have hurt.

Yep, haven't done that one but maybe we should put a big red flag on the AC cord sort of like the ones on the ATV's.

[dave g]

I was building a 6G15 reverb unit the other day, and testing it through an old budget tube amp from the 60's I had laying around in my basement. The power cord for the amp did not have a modern 3-prong plug, and I happened to get the polarity wrong when I plugged it in. The reverb unit did have a proper 3 prong plug, so when I tried plugging a cable from the output of the reverb into the input of the amp...ow

[Normster]

Mine was a pretty mild shock. Cheap standby switch that wasn't grounded to the chassis. I reached behind the amp to throw the switch and ZING. Now here's the stupid part. I couldn't believe it happened so I reached back and did it again!

[skyboltone]

I've worked with guys who test to see if a light socket is hot by sticking their thumb in it. I've been bit more times than the mailman at Michael Vick's farm.

The worst one by far was off an open neutral in a 3 phase 480v lighting circuit while leaning across a sheet metal duct in a hot sweaty T shirt. That one sent me to the bar for the balance of the day.

500VDC thru your fingers ain't gonna kill you. Keep one hand in your pocket.

[gearhead]

Hmm, wonder if neoprene stretchy gloves would work?

Have got a whole box of em; couldn't get the smell of tapping fluid off my hands for days and drove me nuts.

[Structo]

Those gloves probably aren't thick enough for B+!

[skyboltone]

Those gloves probably aren't thick enough for B+!

And sweat inside the glove may increase conduction area. A bad recipe.

[Structo]

Probably what I am going to do is buy an extension for my probe.
I bought some nice probes last week from Probemaster.
They have a screw on extension that might keep the hand out of the danger zone.
http://www.probemaster.com/shop/product ... cts_id=204