/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>2452624
does the needle swing in magnitude if you leave it in and sample every five minutes? Maybe a loose neutral, maybe disabled load tap changer at your local sub, maybe you got an off centered tap on a refurbed pot. Most likely your cheap meter.

>>2030587
What city do you live in?

>>2030496
The lines aren't buried because of costs. In my neighborhood the distribution (12.47kV I think) are buried. There is a spot in south Houston where a 138kV transmission line is buried and passes under I-45. But it's much much cheaper to let the air be the insulator and not expensive shielded cables.

>>2030498
It definitely shorted. There are a few suspects for root cause but none of them are definitive. The high-side of the transformer had electromechanical relays so can't get any data there. The main breaker and the breaker for 25k horsepower motor each had microprocessor relays so we could determine part of the fault. When the bus shorted it completely dropped the voltage, and the motor became a generator and fed the fault from one side while the transformer fed the fault from the other. Extremely costly fault, but later in the year I'll post photos. Gotta wait for all the investigating and liability stuff to resolve.

>>2030501
Got it leveled. No drains or basin installed. I want to see if the levelling fixed it. Once this winter blast passes I'll have sod delivered.

>>2030400
>>2030444

Yeah I have. I've also seen life-long bricklayer's hands, and life-long carpenters hands. Dad was a carpenter and grandfather was a bricklayer. Old man is a little slower now in his golden years but he still gardens and changes his own oil and maintains his household and animals. When I was in the Army I knew a mid-twenties jumpmaster that could barely walk and could not run at all. Also knew crusty ild sergeants major that had spent twenty years in the rangers and could still max the 17-21 PT test. I can go on youtube and find examples of old grandpas doing whatever and you can go on and find examples of young broke dicks that got arthritis or whatever at 18 years old. You're going to get old, and your joints and vision and strength and flexibility will all fade. If you drink too much and eat too much and sleep and exercise too little you will break down very quickly. If you work trades you are not guaranteed to become a pot bellied beer guzzler gray faced piece of shit. That's all I'm saying. Don't be afraid of a good career because you think it will ruin you physically. Just take care of yourself and make money.

>>2030020
Trade work doesn't "breakyour body." Your own unhealthy fucked up lifestyle does that. There are middle aged tradesmen that are fit and healthy and there are middle aged computer programmers that are fit and healthy. And on the flipside there are total broke dick tradesmen and white collars and neets. Musicians sometimes die from overdoses. Would you ask "How long can I play guitar before heroin kills me?"

Just exercise (can't recommend deadlifts enough) and eat well. Put in Zyzz effort and be Zyzz, but in cramped, knee-busted, fat ass effort and be that. Either way you'll lie in the bed you make.

Get the job.

>>2023315
That's where I'm at. Maybe the plates reversed or maybe some contamination was inside that made a reaction when the electrolyte was added.

>>2023296
Pic is one of the dead cells. The far right cell is still full of electrolyte/acid/water and nominal voltage. Please note, these batteries have never been on a charger and have never had a load. Where the fuck did the acid go?

>>2023118
>>2022842
Phone posting so apologies for pic size and quality. But either of you have a hypothesis about this:

The customer has new battery charger, new batteries, and they were just filled with electrolyte (premixed from factory). The batteries are three cells per jar, 2V per cell, flooded lead acid, 1.215 nominal specific gravity etc. everything totally standard. I show up with my helper to begin the initial equalize AKA "freshening charge," and per OEM I go cell to cell measuring voltage. All are ≈1% of nominal except pic rel. The left and center cells of that jar are totally empty, and totally dead. 1.2V each. Now they had been filled, you can see the residue of acid on the walls and there is a 1/4 inch of acid at the bottom. No spilled acid on the ground. The bats are installed over a color indicating absorber. Initially I thought they were just dead cells and the rest of the string tried to charge them, heating them up and boiling out the water. But the acid is gone too. It's totally drained not just low. The jar is not cracked. The acid can not be found. I took it out of the circuit and jumped past it to equalize the rest of the string. Any ideas?

>>2020515
Jesus I'm retarded. You're 100% correct. I just put in 240 breaker too. Sometimes the brain farts and it comes out as a post.

>>2020566
I use vector algebra and trigonometry almost every single day. But I have peers at work that know math is gay and they do much more with their hands. Both of us are masters of electrical power and control, but on a job I'll go test/program relays and he'll go test and tune/repair a highvoltage motor operated switch. Do not think for one second that either paths are easy. Pic related is from a couple weeks ago, I was assisting the linemen in dressing out and brand new ≈50+MVA transformer. The linemen were using a picker to lift 14 foot long GLASS high voltage bushings and lower them through a steel hole into a tank you can't see in. Also, the inside of the tank is full of steel and copper and the hole is tilted 20 degrees. The foreman tied two chokers around the bushing, then put a three-foot handled comealong on one choker and through an eye hole on the flange. It sounds confusing as hell, it was confusing as hell, but at the end when the bushing was lifted it was perfectly upright and a guy on the ground could pump the handle to make the bushing tilt 1 degree at a time. The lineman do very very little math, but they have to be very smart.

>>2020525
Sorry man, confused you for the EE that did comms. If you want to be a tradesman go be a tradesman. I don't care what your gay degree is, I just care whether or not you can test electrical machines. Whatever you do, don't be a loser.

>>2020570
Yeah but you'll have to travel for work. Alternatively, you could move to a less than ideal place and build a real skill set, a reputation, and a network. Then you could maneuver into getting hired at some forested nuke plant, a munitions factory, or any other off the path manufacturing facility. It's a five to ten year game, but then you get the sem-rural you want and you'll be well paid. I'm working at a more than semi-rural place right now, in fact it's 0502 and I need to be driving by 0500. The place is almost two hours from Houston.

>>2016687
No man, left side is one leg of 120V, right side is the other. Left and right voltages are 180 degrees out from each other. Check it with a voltmeter. Measure AC from left to right will give you 240V. Measuring AC from two breakers vertically aligned will read 0 volts. Well, maybe a few millivolts accounting for impedance of the breakers.

>>2014213
It will work, it'll just draw way way more current and trip the breaker trying to accelerate the motor. Then OP just needs a bigger breaker, then when he runs the dryer it will burn his house down and dry the clothes.

>>2020231
Because we'll all say that you have estrogen in your balls and it leaks out of your boobs. It's actually not that big of a deal, we haze and tease everybody. But seriously, why don't you work as an engineer for that tidy $50k or whatever, pass your FE, build speakers, home automation, tesla resonators etc at home. Go to the hands-on-relay school in Pullman, WA and then get a career in power or manufacturing. If you're not breaking 6 figures in four years something is wrong with you or your company. I wasn't bullshitting when I said $150k easy, but you do have to compete for it and earn it. Anon in this thread working towards his journeyman license already knows how to meg, hipot, and DLRO, and he understands controls. Now he's asking for books to get ready for tech school to go into robots or power. A kid like that will absolutely be making $150 plus a year in a few years and to him it will seem easy. Unfortunately some people think that if they pick up a BS in STEM they will make middle class wages automatically and it's not true. When I was young it was lawyers that were getting their wake-up call. Lots and lots of lawyers would pass Bar and then go into a soulgrinder for $40k while cheerful whistling bricklayer Larry was enjoying a stay-at-home wife, easy mortgage, paid off vehicles, a boat, and a deer lease. The lawyers and the engineers that put the time in broke off into the $300 and $400k's. You earned your degree, now go get a job and be the best engineer you can be. Become a master if electronics, or power, or automation and embrace greater and greater responsibilities and you'll be in the big money before you realize it. There was an I&E tech last time we had this thread that broke $200k and he was in his twenties.

>>2020154
Yeah I don't know where google or BLS or indeed get their numbers. I work with all sorts of tradesmen daily and they're all earning way f'ing more than what the stats say about Houston.

>>2020084
The reality is $150k easy bro.

>>2019458
Yeah there is work there. You can do electric for the apartments, there are always commercial job sites in Waco. The campus hires skilled students. Baylor is there (where I met my wife btw, just head over and ask one out) and Baylor always has renovations going on during the weekend. And seriously, don't be shy about grabbing a loan if you need it. Debt sucks but you'll be able to smash it.

>>2019236
Man I totally get it. I hope you can get into an industrial position. Industrial work is safer, pays better, and much more interesting.

>>2019413
Absolutely I do. Go on Amazon and order "Peter Selby Practical Algebra." It's the book with the blue cover. It starts with the number line and ends with calculating the area under a slope. Read through it and do every assignment with a spiral notebook. Then take it with you to TSTC and use it in college algebra. College Algebra is the big fucker for most students that weren't groomed for mathematics in high school or students that are older and going back to school. That book is all you need. Go to TSTC, take loans if you have to. Live in Sherwood Forest Apartments ($450 a month) and enjoy your last two years in the ghetto. If you enroll in electrical power and controls or in robotics and let me know here I will go there and meet you in person and buy your books. You'll know it's me because I'll walk in and say "which one of you retards is from 4chan?"

Nobody in my family went to college, so I
was very lost when enrolling. Don't hesitate to call the electrical department up and ask for help enrolling. Get to it.

>>2019412
Immigraniada by Gogol Bordello my friend. Try to make it over. What country are you from? I work with people from all over the world and maybe I can find a path for you.

>>2019223
Oceaneering has opening for "junior subsea technician." That is ROV work and it is well paid and a good step into industrial work. If you don't have a family then call Oceaneering and tell them you have a clean record, know electronics, and aren't afraid of travel.

Protip for interview: study up on telemetry (cameras, sonar), fiber communication for video, transducers, and things that ROVs do. Good luck my friend.

>>2019190
Tell them $35 an hour.

>>2019003
Because in five years the warehouse guy isn't make $40-$50 an hour with a take home company truck, bluecross insurance for $100/month, 401k, and all the other miscellaneous perks that skilled tradesmen enjoy.

>>2018661
Look at my thread about trying to fix my yard. I'm on my phone or I'd link, but ctrl-F "retard". I shovel and pick all weekend and never feel so much as a twinge in my back or knees. I do deadlifts and slow burpees and that's it. Mon wed fri I get out of the truck and go straight to my barbell and do five sets of ten deadlifts. Not crazy weight, no max sets or dumb shit. Just mark rippertoe classics. On tuesday and thursday I do three sets of twenty slow burpees. No jumping or loading and unloading spine. I squat, place one hand down at a time, one leg back at a time, do a push-up, and bring my legs back and stand up. Try it. From 32-37 I let myself go and put on a lot of fat, but regular exercise and gut health has made my joints/back invincible.

>>2018693
That was me. I was in the Army, then a bricklayer, then an electrician, then an electronics guy, then oil field, then a pot head, then university, then a body and paint guy, and then stumbled on to power and completely loved it. Just get in where you can and start working for now. This isn't a video game and you've wasted your character sheet if you choose unwisely.

>>2018546
It's showing the 30 degree lag between the Delta and Wye of a DYn1 transformer.

>>2018539
We have lots of engineers that are great technicians and love it because of the higher pay and informal work place. Once a year or so we get a guy that hasn't even passed his FE exam yet and loses his shit when he realizes that he doesn't know anything about power. Most EEs that we hire are cool guys though, some go into the office and do design, automation, whatever. Some stay in the field as technicians. And some aren't bad enough to get fired, but lets just say they spend a lot of time counting ground grids.

>>2018532
pic rel are the stones I'm bartering with. I've also pulled out every shrub and bush, chopped down and pulled the stumps of both trees, and dug up the main to the irrigation and capped it.

>>2018532
So now all of the footers, stones, edging, irrigation, romex, old decorative iron arches, doors, and flower fences are pulled out and piled. I have a roll-off dumpster coming next week and it's all going away.

I'm trading the flagstones to a landscaper in exchange for his crew coming out to level and grade the yard. The soil is mostly sand and clay. I plan on laying sod once the water is taken care of. Do you think I should install basins or a french drain? This is in Houston suburbs btw.

>>2018532
And had to dig out six heavy ass footers buried in the middle of the yard.

>>2018532
Boards bolted directly to studs? no problem. How many studs you want, Anon? How about 44? That's how many the next owner will have to grind off.