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Reflections on 150 days of work

Tomorrow is my 150th day of work as an electrician. Just to say that I have learned a few things in that short of time is dramatically understated.

I can now run pipe pretty well on my own, making fairly complicated bends in order to get from point to point in a way that is somewhat pretty. It is still gray metallic pipe, but at least it does not look like complete garbage. I’m not sure if I am…

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I washed my notebook but remembered to write down how to cut in new outlet boxes

I keep a daily log of the work I am doing on a small memo book that I keep in my pocket. The pocket is low and on the side of my work pants, so I sometimes forget to take it out when I change my pants. I accidentally washed my last notebook. It contained twenty-five days of notes. This was a huge bummer. Thankfully I remembered one of the last entries. It was a step-by-step guide to installing…

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Shocked by 277 and 120 volts

Last week I was shocked twice, once by 277 volts and once by 120 volts. Neither was my fault.

The first instance was when I was in a ceiling working on pulling wire into a 277 volt lighting circuit. I had tested the wires to see if they were hot using my “hot stick“. I had disassembled the wires in the junction box in order to remove an old light and install a new piece of conduit that would run…

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Never miss a chance to shut up

s a green helper, it is important for me to remember that I should never miss a chance to shut up and listen. I don’t talk much to begin with, but I should especially keep it to myself when I think there is a better way to do something. There isn’t a better way for me to do it, not yet. That is because I have been doing this job for a little more than 60 days. I don’t know what I am doing, so…

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Making and installing lighting wire "whips"

Making and installing lighting wire “whips”

One of my tasks a few weeks ago was to assemble something called “wire whips”. Made of flexible steel conduit, these short pieces of wiring can be used to connect to overhead lights.

1/2″ flexible metal conduit

To start, a connector is screwed down on each end. Then the flexible conduit is stuffed with the correct color wires for the particular installation. In this case, we were installing…

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Identifying circuit colors in three phase 120/208 volt panels (or how I learned the Rule of 6)

[aux_dropcap style=”classic” extra_classes=””]W[/aux_dropcap]e have been pulling a lot of wire lately. Each of the twelve rooms we are wiring have their own circuit, which means the wire colors are different with each pull. My boss kept testing me on which circuit number we were doing in a particular room and then, if I got that right, which color wire corresponded with that circuit number.

Phase…

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Conduit bending and installing immersion

On Thursday, the boss asked me and the other green helper to run four lines of conduit in one of the rooms we are working in at the hospital. The start of three of the runs were basic 90 degree bends, simple enough.

90 degree EMT conduit bend

After that we were stuck and the boss left us on our own. We could run the conduit up and over an HVAC duct and then down under the sprinkler system. Or we…

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