The smoke

Sometimes the smoke in an electrolytic capacitor comes out in a concentrated gooey state, often preceded by a loud bang.

Did you ever put tantalum capacitors in a power strip? That makes a great noise. Turn off the power strip, shove a small tantalum cap into one of the power sockets, and wait for some poor sucker to turn the strip back on: BANG!, and a puff of smoke.

Tom

 

That's very nasty. The guys used to like to smack a yardstick down on the table behind me when I had my hand inside of HV gear. They liked to watch me jump.

Tom

 

I've known about magic smoke for years.

 

This crosses the line into horseplay. Having grown up in an environment with lots of power tools, heavy machinery, and firearms, and where horseplay was considered a serious character defect, and a major cause of serious injury among teenage males, I have zero tolerance for horseplay in the workplace.

 

Another one that may cross into the realm of horseplay is to take a high voltage capacitor, charge it up, and toss it across the room to someone while yelling "Here, catch." They won't catch it a second time.

Tom

 

I pulled a similar stunt on a terrified student by using a large diode. As you're aware, depending on how you bias the diode, it will easily block the voltage.

I stuck the diode in the lab power port - properly biased of course - and with our safety glasses on, I flipped the switch. My lab partner flinched and ducked under the table as ... nothing happened

So I turned the bench power switch off, and flipped around the diode. I then ducked under the bench with my terrified lab partner, reached up for the switch, and ....

CRACK!!!

The leads were still in the receptacle. Everything else had made an instant transition to Smoke. Funnily enough, my lab partner spoke with the prof, he got a different lab partner, and I was assigned a cute perky redhead with a chest to die for, which had been my sinister plan all along ...

Did I mention we got the highest lab grades? Probably because we spent so much time together, in many different positions urgh hurhum I mean locales

 

You haven't been around engineers much, have you?

 

ound:

Ever do evil "experiments" involving the bathroom urinal and a large capacitor?

 

I'm sure if the HV equipment was "live" the entire room of engineers would have been deadly serious. But with all routine safety precautions, expect engineers to act like a bunch of 10 year olds: after half an hour, even farting noises become the norm!

And to that guy at the radar site we scared the hell out of, we sure did appreciate you didn't grab a 16 and start shooting at us. And we sincerely hope that we didn't give you a brain tumor from all that energy we pumped into the air ....

 

I am an engineer. But the rural environment full of farm machinery, logging equipment, and firearms came first. Unfortunately, not all Darwin Awards are caught by the person with the 'winning' genes.

In a quarter century, only one officemate was a serious prankster, having been raised and educated in a completely different (and much less hazardous) environment on the opposite coast. At first he didn't understand my objections. But after pulling a stunt intended to put me in momentary fear of an assault, in a region where lethal force is a legal option to stop violent assaults, I responded ... "don't ever do that to a gun owner." Suddenly he understood. His other horseplay also ceased.

He was one of numerous acquaintences who came from backgrounds opposing civilian gun ownership, yet simultaneously enjoying pranks putting people in momentary fear of injury or assault. But he was a fast learner.

 

I didn't know you had a Mitsubishi Bob?

 

We wouldn't get on at all at work.
One of my work mates is still wondering who put all the pages in his legislation manual up side down.

 

A funny little story from the Apollo space program: For the moon walks, the astronauts had checklists on wrist bands which clearly spelled out each task. Before the launch of Apollo 11, the guys on the ground "edited" the checklists and added some photos of naked women. So here you have Neil and Buzz, with all of the world listening, and the ground controller tells them to turn to step whatever, and what do they find staring back at them but a photo of a naked woman. The conversation went something like "Roger...ah...I like the looks of that procedure."

Tom

 

Same here. Last place I worked we used to have Nerf gun wars all the time.

 

Yes, in that environment, safety comes first

But in a boring lab environment, it's healthy to blow off a little steam. You'd be surprised how all that tomfoolery - Tom are you listening? - actually contributes to a much better working environment, and even some genuine breakthroughs

And despite whacky fun in the lab, all the engineers I personally know are deadly serious around firearms, tanks, field artillery, tractors, and chainsaws

Actually, the Geneva Convention should make it illegal for a left handed person to even *touch* a chainsaw. I once watched a lefty try to operate a chainsaw, it was scary.

Made me appreciate having "normal" dominant hand assignment

 

Something tells me if we were in the same shop, our exploits would become legendary, and we'd always be keeping each other on our toes