[Elecraft] (Slightly O/T) Intermittent nips when soldering

[Terry Schieler]

David,

When I built my house in 1997 I had it inspected by the County as required.  Four years later, while replacing a kitchen receptacle, I found that the receptacle did NOT have the safety ground attached to the ground terminal.  The wire was in the box, but not connected.

I then took the little LED tester to all the outlets in the house and found almost half were not grounded.  I redid them all myself and had it re-inspected.  The County had "no explanation" as to how the inspector missed all that.

No recourse from my builder as he was, at that time, in prison on unrelated matters.  ;o)

You made the right move here.  Now that you have invested in the tester, check all your outlets for proper wiring.  Never assume that the electrical contractor actually DID the work he was paid to do.  

73,

Terry, W0FM



-----Original Message-----
From: David Dietrich [mailto:kc9ehq2003 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 4:25 PM
To: don at w3fpr.com
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] (Slightly O/T) Intermittent nips when soldering

Hi Don,

Well, it is the outlet.  I just heard a pop and some pyrotechnics from my outlet!!!!  I bought the AC line tester at Wal-Mart.  I first plugged it in at my power strip on the desk.  It showed a n open ground.  I then tested it at the outlet at the surge protector.  OK.  I then removed the surge protector, and plugged the tester into the main outlet, and that is when I had the pop and pyrotechnics.  Thank God I was wearing shoes and only touching the tester, and the circuit breaker tripped!!

As for my workbench, it is made of MDF board.  I hope I did not kill any components from this issue.  However, I was able to power up things for the initial power on tests.

I am ceasing all work down there until I can get an electrician to check the outlet and wiring.  This house is only 22 years old, so it should be up to code.  We had it inspected when we bought it, and the inspector found no problems with the electrical.  We know the builders cut corners when they built this place.  I hope they didn't cut any with the electrical.

Thanks & 73,

David
KC9EHQ