electrictim510

Customer said "I replaced the breaker and it still will not stay on"
I unplugged all the stuff in the house and reset breaker. Everything came on. Turned on the switch to front entry light, worked fine, switch next to it for the exterior light mounted to the house, worked fine, after switching the one next to it (pole light with receptacle) the lights inside dimmed a little so i figured short has to be out there. Opened the door and saw fireworks coming from the plug mounted on the pole. This is what I saw after opening it.

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"Understand one thing every one has a place in this trade, and no matter what your skill set I doubt you know it all." brian john

electrictim510

Cable underground was some kind of romex type wire that looked to be aluminum clad. Rarely see that.

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"Understand one thing every one has a place in this trade, and no matter what your skill set I doubt you know it all." brian john

dronai

Wow !!!

MDShunk

Probably lead sheath. I've really only seen it used for pole lights, street lights, and feeds to detached garages with a very light load.

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One reason not to give DIY advice:
Catch a man a fish and you can sell it to him.
Teach a man to fish and you’ve ruined a good business opportunity.

electrictim510

funny thing is; This stuff was installed 40+ years ago! It was a handybox with metal plate, set screw connectors, round metal box with plate, nothing about this install was weather resistant except the cable underground. Amazed me it lasted that long! Pole was in open yard with no cover at all.

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"Understand one thing every one has a place in this trade, and no matter what your skill set I doubt you know it all." brian john

wendon

Never know what you'll find!! I had a friend once told me every time it rained he got shocks off his screen door. Finally, I went over there and started tracing things. Took a long time but finally found the problem. On the opposite side of the house was a porch. When they resided the house with metal siding, they installed aluminum soffit in the porch area. Some hackster didn't bother moving the light box but instead just drilled a hole in the aluminum and stuck the wires through. Then he hooked up a porcelain fixture and screwed it to the soffit. Imagine what happened when the screw contacted the aluminum!!! It actually had burned a notch in the siding where the ground wire was contacting it!! It had been that way for a number of years!!

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Ive seen burnt up outlets, chard neutrals, and shorted wires.
Uncfesta

480sparky

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In winter, why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

stuiec

A little off topic I know, but my curiousity just got the better of me and I started typing just to see if maybe, just maybe I could type forever in this thread without using the second line I mean that would have to be some kind of accomplishment, and it is low risk (I have dependents after all) and hell, maybe I could even inspire others to reach for greater heights. Okay, this is 6 lines in the reply window. Here goes....

480sparky

Looks like just 3 lines to me.

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In winter, why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

stuiec

I didn't even get 1/2 way across on my screen Utter failiure

Podagrower

1 line with 4 words on the second line on my 17" laptop. Zoomed out to smallest size.

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http://www.theonion.com/articles/hur...ety-tips,8090/

macmikeman

Nice job. How long did that take you to create?

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Proof and exoneration http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...,7305052.story

480sparky

Mebbe 5 minutes.

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In winter, why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

Saturday Cowboy

I love Pi

Magnettica

Shockdoc

My first UG repair before I became a trade electrician involved a buried T box with splices.

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All these liberal laws has turned me into a right wingnut..

mcclary's electrical

B4t still does that as a professional!