Electric Sludge

If you haven't realized it, this blog is going to be dominated by kitchen stuff for awhile. That is pretty much my life. I'll try to make it as interesting as possible though.

Last evening I progressed nicely with the demo. Small group got canceled which gave me a couple of extra hours to rip down ceiling and a few boards. Jonathan is coming over on Saturday to help with the floor and I'm hoping that I just spend Sunday tying up some loose ends and cleaning the place up a bit. I did however want to take the opportunity of no friends in the house to try to tackle what I'm pretty sure is asbestos insulated pipe.... remnant radiator lines in the ceiling and walls. I needed a little help from Jenn to hold the pipes up while I cut them with my massive reciprocating saw so I gave her the toxic dust mask and held my breath. As I was cutting these two particular pipes I was reminded of the story my HVAC dude told me of the black sludge that builds up at the bottom of radiators. Nothing bad, just a little gross, I guess from the minerals in the pipes and water over the course of 50+ years of use. I was reminded because these two pipes still had the residual sludge that began spraying and oozing all over me as I cut. Nonetheless, I cut away to finish the job as I quickly was blackened all over my arms and face.

On pipe two I got about halfway through and my hand started getting a tingling cramp. Reminded me of the numbness I would get after long motorcycle rides.... ahhhh the memories. No surprise, my hands have been about the only thing that have shown significant soreage through this process. I kept going and felt the cramping and then realized that I was close to the old over the sink light junction box and although the wires are capped off I was actually getting shocked.... bufff. I hadn't turned the breakers off. I went down quickly and shut the power off and went to town again. BUFFFF, shocked again, pretty bad this time. Holy Merph, the pipe is electrified. What's going on? Well, as smart people might have guessed, when the "make the lights flicker" electric saw gets watery sludge all over it it must allow current to flow through the user. BUFFFUFUFUFFFF. I quit for the evening after that.

I do not deny that I completely do not understand electricity. That's why I was a Civil Engineer, not an Electrical. My Freshman year at Purdue I actually scored in the bottom 5% of my class in the Physics class on electricity after the first exam. I managed to escape with a "C" and ran. Lovingly pursuing my tangible steel, concrete and wood structures. I worked for an Electrical Engineering company in college and did testing, calibration, and assembly. Quite fun because I got to solder, but shocked myself almost weekly because I would always touch the red resistor. Never touch the red resistor!!! That was 220 volt too. And for some reason, 220 volt is worse the 120, although everyone always says it's the amps that matter.... what the buff does that mean? I also shocked myself not once, not twice, but three times, when I was fixing my air conditioner just because I didn't shut off the breaker. You think I would learn after 2 times to shut the darn thing off.

So, questions:

1) What is the theory behind my shocking sawing last night? Does that mean the outlet isn't grounded? Shouldn't it have tripped the breaker when current started running through my body?

2) Shouldn't the saw have fried like the box fan I tried to dry out by turning it on in nine-seven after I hosed it off in the shower? Why did it keep working?