I'll try to keep this as "family appropriate" as possible...

Well, this saturday i acquired another TV from a buddy down the street. I've torn apart many, probably, 85-90 TV's, so i'm used to it.

Before i got it, he plugged it in at his house to see if it worked. Of course, he didnt tell me this...

I tore off the back, got to snippin' wires. I had it on my tailgate. I reached across to snip a wire, and my arm brushed the skinny tube top. I felt just a small "burning" on my arm, looked down, my zipper on my wranglers met the tailgate, and BAM.

Lets just say this, ever been kicked "down there" by a body builder? No? Neither have i. But i now have a good idea what it feels like!

It shot me back a good 6 feet. I have a burn mark on the top of my head, where it tried to reach the fish hook on my hat. And a burn, um, a burn somewhere else...

Lesson of the day: TV's, they'll put yer **** in the dirt!

I'm sorry man. I can't help but laugh just by the way you told the story.... I am however, happy you are ok and are with us to share more stories....

i guess the lesson learned here is, first item to be cut off when scrapping an appliance is the power cord......

Hope you are able to keep on working

The real lesson to be learned is; and I've stated it a couple times in different threads but always take an insulated screwdriver with at least a 6" or 8" shaft and short it across anything suspect to bleed off any remaining voltage because it may not bleed off by itself. Make a small ground strap with clamps and clamp one end to the screwdriver and the other end to something metal. Being I'm still an electronic tech, I know first hand about burns like that, if they don't kill you, they'll burn you down to the bone and you won't even know it for awhile. I'm just glad your still with us,,, Mike

Oh no problem at all haha. It was funny. And i followed all the rules (almost). I cut off the power cord first, then when i got the back off, snipped the red wire coming from the circuit board to the tube. I had a bad case of the sweats after, couldnt keep my heart rate down either. I tell ya what, it wasnt messing around haha. But all is good, just a bit..um, sore.

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Originally Posted by Destructo_d

I'm sorry man. I can't help but laugh just by the way you told the story.... I am however, happy you are ok and are with us to share more stories....

i guess the lesson learned here is, first item to be cut off when scrapping an appliance is the power cord......

Hope you are able to keep on working

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So basically take a long insulated screw driver, clamp one end to my tailgate, the other too my screw driver, and touch all the suspect parts? Good idea buddy. I thought i was being safe by using insulated snips and calling it good. I'll do that from now on, thanks Mike.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

The real lesson to be learned is; and I've stated it a couple times in different threads but always take an insulated screwdriver with at least a 6" or 8" shaft and short it across anything suspect to bleed off any remaining voltage because it may not bleed off by itself. Make a small ground strap with clamps and clamp one end to the screwdriver and the other end to something metal. Being I'm still an electronic tech, I know first hand about burns like that, if they don't kill you, they'll burn you down to the bone and you won't even know it for awhile. I'm just glad your still with us,,, Mike

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Hoss, yes you can clamp to the tailgate or even to a metal brace inside the tv chassis, the electricity wants to go to a metal ground even if it has to go thru you to get there. Vcr's and other electronic's like that are not real dangerous, because most of them run off of 8v or 12volt on the boards, but tv, 'puter monitors and anything else with high voltage has something around 10,000 volts running around, so you just have to treat them with a little respect. My tech that repaired CB tube type amps for me got himself popped right off his bench he was working at. He came back from lunch and forgot to take off his wedding band, and the next thing I heard what sounded like a 22 going off and it bounced him off a wall about 6 feet behind us. The spark jumped 5" across to his wedding band AFTER he had already discharged it once. Like I said, it is a hard lesson to learn.
PS; The clamps can be smaller ones like they use on battery chargers, in fact if you scrap one out, borrow the clamps and just keep it in the truck with you or your toolbox. Play safe boys and girls,,,

Ya'll have scared the pants off me. (figuratively speaking !) I've done 10 or 12 T.V.'s and monitors and have had no problems...I guess God was with me 'cause I took none of the precautions you all mentioned. I did hear the swooshing sound twice and I just left it for a while. And I've seen them in the dumpster with the rear of the tube completely broken open, but, obviously, didn't explode. Were these people just blessed, too? Or does this mean that these "accidents" are rare. I hope so, cause I'm scared to do them now, but I love that hunk of copper.

Dee, Like I said up in the other post,,

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you just have to treat them with a little respect

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What happened to Hoss is kinda rare. Thank god he can tell all of us about it,,,Or make yourself a groundstrap, you could even put a computer wrist strap on the g-strap and ground your wrist to your truck. Just make sure the wire or braid you use is large enough to do the job. He could probably do another 50 tv's and not have that happen again,,,

Wow. Glad you're ok dude! Sorry to hear about the umm...tool. Bet you won't ever let that happen again.

M688........thanks for the advice.....but could you please tell us newbies what the computer wrist strap and the g-strap are ?

the wrist strap and g-strap coming off it act as your grounding. It's used a lot in Computer manufacturing and repair in order to ground you so no "Static" electricity you make will short out the delicate components of the board. However, in this case, the shock would have left through his wrist rather than his...ahem.

Can't you just wait a few days before you start taking them apart?

It depends if the bleed off resistors are still working and still intact on the boards, do you want to bet your life on it???
Better safe than sorry, and it only takes an extra 30 seconds to make sure the voltage is gone. In a way, this high voltage is kinda like lightning; you don't play with that, do ya?

Will grounding to the truck actually work??
I thought the tires would insulate, rather than ground the connection.

Apparently the truck will indeed work. that is the reason that it exited his pp, because the truck was serving as a ground and that current wanted to flow there.

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Originally Posted by parrothead

that is the reason that it exited his pp

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Honestly probably the funniest sentence i've read all year. Props to you sir.

LOL...... oh man

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Originally Posted by parrothead

Apparently the truck will indeed work. that is the reason that it exited his pp, because the truck was serving as a ground and that current wanted to flow there.

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Good point...

But why do the tires insulate against lightning strikes?

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Originally Posted by Rusty Nuts

Good point...

But why do the tires insulate against lightning strikes?

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Because you are not touching that metal.

I'm looking to find a convenient way to discharge any built up electricity in t.v.'s, etc... I was wondering if it would work to install a wall socket in my shop that isn't actually connected to an electrical box? The socket would have wires that were grounded to something like a metal pole, or whatever. It would be easy to just "plug in" an electronic device and let any stored electricity discharge.

Would something like that work?