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Who says there is no such thing as a wire stretcher?
I am intentionally short on details.
YES - this is real
NO - this is not my house
NO - I will not tell you where it is
YES - I insisted it get fixed
NO - it is not fixed yet
The fun joke to play on the apprentice is to say 'you cut the wire short - I need you to go out and get the wire stretcher out of the van' of course there is no wire stretcher. The feeling of foolishness is what you get for cutting the wire too short.
This is an old farmer's house, and this is a Barbed-wire-fence wire stretcher used to pull the wire, used on the main feed between the meter and the residence. For those of us who understand the implications - this means there are no fuses to save you when you walk into a 20lb chunk of metal hanging about 6 feet off the ground with live voltage in it.
'This is perfectly fine' he told me. I pointed out that the first time it rains the bush will not only be wet, but will be a de-facto electrified fence guaranteed to fry children and small animals, and will likely do more damage than he cares to think about to his home and power service.
Although he understands he needs to fix the wire, the dispute is 'Why can't I just buy the 1 wire I need, instead of all 3?' In his mind, he only needs to replace the one that broke, even though the others are clearly quite bare. 'I don't need a new ground wire!'
This is Great Depression Trauma meets Freedom to Decide for One's Self meets Unbendable Laws of Physics meets Human Mortality.
I was there to install some new vent pipe on the water heater - you could smell fumes when the water heater tried to vent through single wall vent into 0 deg OA, the flue would get cool and backdraft into the space. Walking through the front yard I see this electrical mess and felt compelled to speak up.
I am all about the newest and weirdest thing for all y'all in H-talk land - but I hope nobody dies on this one.
See the video.
https://youtu.be/LJ9Eo-_ePfk
Last edited by numbawunfela; 06-27-2016 at 06:26 PM.
Hmmmm....smells like numbatwo to me.
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If he was able to rig that up live, then he is The Man!
It's an upside down world we live in.
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If you want to run yard lights, just throw a hook of 10 gauge over the line (or anywhere else on the stretcher or vise grips) for power and tie another #10 to a fence post for neutral. Clearly a ground wire would just be ridiculous. lol
It's an upside down world we live in.
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Or just lean a fluorescent bulb against it.
Originally Posted by
David Goodman
If you want to run yard lights, just throw a hook of 10 gauge over the line (or anywhere else on the stretcher or vise grips) for power and tie another #10 to a fence post for neutral. Clearly a ground wire would just be ridiculous. lol
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Originally Posted by
David Goodman
If he was able to rig that up live, then he is The Man!
No, he turned power off for this.
He needed a ladder to get up to where the wire was so he could replace it. He was considering towing the trailer around to the front of the property so he could put a ladder on it, as his tallest ladder was not tall enough.
For 77, he does pretty good. Pretty creative overall. I think he is still the man, just not the man who should do electrical. A little modesty contributes to a long life.
Hmmmm....smells like numbatwo to me.
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Looks like a ratchet to pull heavy cable. Im not sure wat dude would do without you on your porch scopen out his job lol
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It's like the same thing happens to everyone.
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I have seen it all... But never this...
Technically you can use the tool to stretch "electric fencing!"
CT
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you should show him the modern way to do it, 3 feet of # 10 wire and a couple of wire nuts ...
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All you need is a couple split bolts, don't be a nancy put some hot work gloves on and get up there and fix it for him.
Here the utility takes care of there drop they come put a "birdie" in, they got the fancy crimpers. In this case you'd probably be able to get them to run new triplex though.
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What is he going to do when he needs his vice grips?
"You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson here is never try"- Homer Simpson