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This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Topic: Share your worst electrical nightmare!
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John Eickhof
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 588
From: Wendell, ID USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 02-01-2016 04:33 PM
The worst one I have worked on was 15-16 years ago, I received the typical Saturday nite emergency call from a triplex a Carmike house) in eastern Idaho around 7:30 pm. The manager was in a panic saying "we're completely down! the place is full of smoke! Lights have exploded and glass is raining down from the ceiling lights and lightning bolts are dancing around the booth!" I asked if the customers have been evacuated and the fire dept called? He said "not yet, I've got to get the movies going again" !! Some logic? I told him to get everyone out ASAP and get the FD in there to make sure the place isn't on fire, and make sure anyone injured is taken care of! I said I couldn't do anything til the next day anyway so forget tonite's shows! Long story short, I brought as many parts as I could the next morning, when I arrived, light fixtures were vaporized and others were blown out of the ceiling! Flourescent ballasts were gone with just molten copper left behind! They had AW3 platters, I opened the speed card doors and the cards in use were vaporized just black soot and copper splatters! Inside two of the H-20 lamps the fan motors were vaporized and just molten globs, two of the rectifiers ad no power input contactors left! Just molten metal!
one of the sound racks was smoked, all power transformers had vaporized! Plus other fried items like the xetron automations, the power transformers were just metal frames, no windings were left! Here's what happened: It was an older theatre with the main power room located upstairs between booths 2 & 3, there was no main disconnect outside the building! Apparently the power company had lost a transformer in the alley behind the theatre, they shut down all the mains in the alley but never went in to cut out the theatre mains! They live installed a replacement 5KV transformer and when they lit it up it had an internal short sending the 5kv into one leg of the three phase in the theatre! The manager said there were flames coming out of most of the booth equipment and arcs were dancing between the projectors and other devices!! He was afraid he would be fired for losing the shows so he called me first!! I was able to get the place running manually and had it all fixed in a couple weeks! Needless to say, the power company ended up paying my bills as well as the bills for all the lighting and other downstairs equipment that got smoked. Plus outside main disconnects were added to the building! Just another day in the service biz!!
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John Eickhof
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 588
From: Wendell, ID USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 02-01-2016 10:23 PM
I forgot to add that I chose not to ask the teenage manager how he disposed of his underpants! Sam's amplifier story reminded me of an occasion in Fallon Nevada in the early 1970's that was having arc lamp problems, the ballast resistors on one lamp had fried open, so after I replaced them, I had to set the voltage drop to the lamp, note that the booth was 1920s vintage with the genny in the basement three floors below, the start-stop switches were in the booth in a free standing frankenstein style rack with the 240V 3 phase sub panel,open knife switches and other exposed conductors. (I think Bob Koch may have done the install for RCA years before it was a 1940's vintage Roth Actodector from RCA with Brenkert Enarcs) Anyway, they had a voltmeter inline before the ballast, and a 100 watt light bulb that would lite to about 80% when the genny was up and running, I had to reach around each side of the rack to adjust the resistors in a bear hug fashion! Well, all I remember to this day is hearing a buzzing sound through my ears and the 100 watt bulb got real bright! Then I was on the floor a few feet in front of the rack! My arms had electrical marks and burns and were numb for days! The owner luckily had come into the booth just when I had become the field control supply! Later I figure what happened was caused by my left arm that touched the rheostat that controlled the field voltage to the genny, and my other arm that had found an open 240V bus!on the correct phase and since my body had less resistance, the field went wild on the genny! He was smart and quick to grab a broom and pry me away from the rack! Once the genny returned to normal field voltage and I had slammed down a couple shots of whiskey with the owner across the street, I remembered my basic electrical training and put one hand in a pocket and adjusted the ballast from one side with the other hand and the owner watching the voltmeter I had at the arc lamp. The owner told me he heard me moaning and when he entered the booth my hair was standing on end and the lite bulb was white hot and the voltmeter was pegged at 150 Volts ! (Should be around 85 volts!)I guess I really got the genny's field excited!!
I'm pretty sure I have a few less brain cells after that too! Plus the ones lost from the booze!
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