(WARNING BURNED SKIN)Don’t bypass capacitors

[Braeden P]

I was working on rc car today the leg on the capacitor broke so dumb me decided to just rip it out and bypass it so I twisted the 16 gauge steel wires together and it went to white and melted in half a second could not get my finger out and got burned pretty bad.

 

[kb58]

Yup, respect thy stored energy.

My brother was messing with his car battery while wearing his wedding ring. Yup, got welded across two contacts and couldn't pull away. Makes yours look like nothing.

 

[Braeden P]

Yup, respect thy stored energy.

My brother was messing with his car battery while wearing his wedding ring. Yup, got welded across two contacts and couldn't pull away. Makes yours look like nothing.

ouch

 

[kb58]

I was working on an unplugged appliance and got across a cap charged to 350 volts. To this day I don't know how I ended up 8 feet back from the bench. Always short out any large capacity caps. If the voltage doesn't get you, the huge release of current through the shorting wires sure can.

 

[Flyinfool]

It was not stored energy in the capacitor that got you. The capacitor on your RC car is connected direct to the positive and negative terminals of the battery, so by twisting them together you created a dead short across the battery. The burn will heal quickly, you are lucky that you did not get a lithium battery fire. Lithium battery fires are very hot and very hard to put out. To remove the capacitor simply remove it completely, but expect electrical gremlins with it out, it is there for a reason.

 

[Braeden P]

It was not stored energy in the capacitor that got you. The capacitor on your RC car is connected direct to the positive and negative terminals of the battery, so by twisting them together you created a dead short across the battery. The burn will heal quickly, you are lucky that you did not get a lithium battery fire. Lithium battery fires are very hot and very hard to put out. To remove the capacitor simply remove it completely, but expect electrical gremlins with it out, it is there for a reason.

that is what i tried to say that it was not the cap but the battery, me and my friends tossed some in a fire they shot like a rocket and burned red it was really cool, now time to find new wire and a cap

 

[Rex Walters]

I once worked with a guy that kept charged electrolytic capacitors (big ones from datacenter power supplies) sitting loose on his desk. Inevitably someone would pick one up out of curiosity and shock themselves — he'd say something to the effect of "that's why you don't play with other people's stuff."

I'm still surprised he wasn't sued, arrested, or at least chewed out by HR. I once considered turning the tables on him by bribing someone he didn't know to clutch their chest and gasp "pacemaker..." before falling to the ground.

Your short and burn also reminds me of the nichrome-wire fuses we'd make for Estes model rockets when I was a kid. It's amazing I survived to adulthood with all the crazy things we used to do (said rockets, Jacob's ladders made out of furnace transformers, broken thermometers to get at the mercury, hairspray potato canons, ...). That little burn would have been trivial to hide from my parents. (laugh)

 

[Flyinfool]

Oh that brings back memories.
Back in high school the science teacher knew that I always come in and messed with the experiments for the day. So one day he had several charged leydens jars on the bench. Of course I had to mess with them no knowing what they were. When the CRACK and yelp happened I could hear the laughter from outside the classroom in the hall. So of course since I always leave others things as I found them I figured out how to recharge the jars. A few minutes into the class he picked up a jar thinking it was now discharged and got nailed right in front of the whole class. Of course he could not say a word to me, just a dirty look.........I was LOL.

 

[Winegrower]

Very timely...I'm making a 500,000 volt supply right now...trying to stay focused. One goof...presto. But it's low current.

 

[Rex Walters]

Heh. Since we are into high school stories, here’s mine:

My HS shop elective was electronics. They taught us how to do basic TV repair (back when their were picture tubes and things you could repair).

The teacher taught us the proper safety procedure for measuring the plate voltage: one hand behind your back, carefully slip the probe tip under the rubber hood, take the reading. Lots of warnings and horror stories (“The most common injuries aren’t actually from the electricity but from your muscles contracting and yanking your hand out of the enclosed space, cutting yourself open on anything nearby”).

My turn comes. TV on the bench against a cinderblock wall, back removed, power on. Heart in hand, I very carefully sneak the tip under the hood ... and at that exact instant, the freaking FIRE ALARM went off, with, of course, the klaxon about 18 inches above eye level on the very cinderblock wall I was facing.

(Laugh) To this day, the worst jump scare I’ve ever had. Everyone swore up and down it was a scheduled drill triggered from the office, but I never quite believed them.