Whats the worst thing youve ever done as an apprentice?

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grimysparks80

grimysparks80

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Everyones done something stupid as an apprentice. (or at least thats what i like to tell myself.)

My worst mistake was in my first week with a new electrician at the company. I was with him to show him the ropes. was a really nice guy and even joked about how he was my apprentice for the week.
We went to skegness to wire a heating system. The plumbers couldnt get it finished that day and we couldnt commision so we arranged to go back the following day to finish off.
In the meantime i wired the immersion so the customer would have hot water that night.
all good so far and the new sparky was real pleased about an early finish.
We had just pulled up outside my house to drop me off when the phone goes.
Plumber cant get the immersion working.
He looked at me and said any idea whats wrong.
I said "oh no" and pulled the 15A rewireable fuse out of my pocket, where id put it so no one could turn it on while i was working on it.
The electrician was not very happy anymore and we drove the forty miles back to skeg in an uncomfortable silence.
I dont think he ever really forgave me for that.
 
grimysparks80 said:
Everyones done something stupid as an apprentice. (or at least thats what i like to tell myself.)

My worst mistake was in my first week with a new electrician at the company. I was with him to show him the ropes. was a really nice guy and even joked about how he was my apprentice for the week.
We went to skegness to wire a heating system. The plumbers couldnt get it finished that day and we couldnt commision so we arranged to go back the following day to finish off.
In the meantime i wired the immersion so the customer would have hot water that night.
all good so far and the new sparky was real pleased about an early finish.
We had just pulled up outside my house to drop me off when the phone goes.
Plumber cant get the immersion working.
He looked at me and said any idea whats wrong.
I said "oh no" and pulled the 15A rewireable fuse out of my pocket, where id put it so no one could turn it on while i was working on it.
The electrician was not very happy anymore and we drove the forty miles back to skeg in an uncomfortable silence.
I dont think he ever really forgave me for that.
Click to expand...


Back chatting the foreman, and being introduced to the joys of being a labourer for the durassic spark who ran the stores. All week, up and down the stairs delivering material for the teams. Still he bought me a pint at the end of the week, and I learnt a very important lesson.
 
On my first day with a certain firm I pulled in a load of three core to wire a ring. As soon as I cut it I realised what I had done and tried to hide the evidence under a floorboard...was quickly found out and got a load of stick for it... should of just come clean :(
 
no the sparks were wondering why i was burning out the masonry bits though!

I used to also put a 20mm grommet in every hole in every backbox! i used thousands of them for a period of time!

Looking back now i still laugh at myself!
 
kev123 said:
I can beat that! i used to drill the wooden noggins and put in red rawl plugs! haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Click to expand...

oh that is classic, fair play to owning up to that one :). when I first started I couldnt get my head round what drill bits to use on what surface and i kept getting caught using metal bits on brick work... that never went down well :)
 
worst job i ever had was re-brushing a DC motor. the motor was the size of a small van and had 144 brushes in 12 banks of 12. each brush was the size on a 10's smoke packet. then they had to be bedded in using a comm stick. came out of the motor room looking like a coalman.
 
Southern Spark said:
On my first day with a certain firm I pulled in a load of three core to wire a ring. As soon as I cut it I realised what I had done and tried to hide the evidence under a floorboard...was quickly found out and got a load of stick for it... should of just come clean :(
Click to expand...

Done exactly the same mate. Left on a job, first couple of weeks, told cable was in the front room of house. I didn't know the difference between 3 core and 2core. Anyway pulled a whole ring in with 3core. Went home feeling all smug, I'd done my first ring!!! Next day boss wasn't impressed but found the funny side.

Only thing was he had another lad on trial and I thought thats it I am a gunner. Good job he was even worse!!! He left 3 or 4 unessessary holes in a bedroom wall on the same job trying to route a cable, soft lad!!!
 
I was working at a school once during normal term time and we had a contract to do the supplies for portakabin! Was left to cleat up an swa whilst boss went to shop, anyway I got inside and noticed a bit of steel trunking lid was lose so hit it with my hand and boooooooom! I thought a bomb had gone of! Anyway it shut the whole school down for about five minutes! Boss got back and once we were left alone he just laughed at me and said you will learn not to be heavy handed with steel trunking!
 
aged about 18 we we were using the heating engineers shed as a tearoom and had a quick cup of tea and a game of cards at 3.00 pm
at 3.06 pm in walks the heating guys boss and feels the kettle to see how long we had been sitting.he goes mental and tells everyone "no cards at teatime boys"
Bearing in mind i didnt even work for the man, he turns to me and gives me the immortal line
AND YOU! JUST REMEMBER YOUR A GUEST IN ANOTHER MANS HUT!! pure class that man
 
Was on a breakdown of a forging press foot pedal burnt out and it took the 6 amp control fuse out.
So i go up to the landing where the press C/P is and the open the PLC panel up make sure all ok in side it on opening the PLC panel inadvertenly knocked the E-SB in when opening the door and with out knowing.
So after telling the press crew all ok to start up it wouldn't so after going over the complete press a PLC panel for a bout 2 hrs suddenly dawned on me why it wouldn't start E-Stop Button still in.
Just one of those things:furious3:
 
I was given the job of wiring the lighting circuits in a flat,the first time i had been left to my own devices,and it made me feel quite good as an apprentice that they trusted me to do it.
Finished wiring the circuits and left the job waiting for the plasterers to go in.A couple of weeks later me and a spark arrived on site to second fix,only to find out that i had wired the whole of the lighting in twin RED.
For some reason i was never paired with that spark again.
 
bozobro0 said:
I was given the job of wiring the lighting circuits in a flat,the first time i had been left to my own devices,and it made me feel quite good as an apprentice that they trusted me to do it.
Finished wiring the circuits and left the job waiting for the plasterers to go in.A couple of weeks later me and a spark arrived on site to second fix,only to find out that i had wired the whole of the lighting in twin RED.
For some reason i was never paired with that spark again.
Click to expand...

a few feet of black sleeving, job's a good 'un.
 
This one surely qualifies as the stupidest thing I did as an apprentice and I hope the story does not put me on the wrong side of the moderators.
I'm in my final few weeks and everything is looking good for me being kept on as I've worked damned hard, not made any major screw ups and I've passed all the exams after studying hard.
Now the boss is a bit of a grumpy old bugger and I've never been to his house, I didn't even know where it was.(this will become relevant soon dear reader) O
ne friday night I went out with the lads and got talking to this stunning young lady who I thought was way out of my league. Luckily she disagreed and we started seeing each other. After a while the relationship became sexual and we used to like "enjoying each other's company" in some unusual places.
The last time we "enjoyed each other's company" was in the garage at her parents house (Obviously I had not been introduced to them at this point) when her mother opened the garage door so her dad could drive the car in.
Imagine my surprise when my boss got out of the car with a look of abject horror on his face...maybe I should have done some research when she told me her surname but you know what it's like when you're a young lad, full of raging hormones with a stunning girlfriend.
Needless to say I did not get offered a permanant post when my apprenticeship finished. I thought I was pretty lucky to be allowed to finish it.
 
Hi, it's my first day on the forum........
when i was an apprentice i was working on a 14 story building in central london and was asked to change the lamps in the lift, only problem was i needed to keep it at a floor and the keyswitch was broken, my boss tells me over the radio to go up to the lift motor room and turn it off, so i go up thereand walk into this big room with loads of MCC panels and changover switches i found the panel marked for the lift i wanted and was greeted with two very large red isolators
one marked generator isolator and the other marked lift isolator, i looked at the two and decided that i didn't want to touch the generator, so i turned off my isolator.
it went real quiet
in fact the 11kv ACB opened cos it had started the generator when i shut the isolator and 5000 employees were in the dark for 3 seconds while the generators ran up,
it was a long walk back to the office (16 flights of stairs down), i thought i was a gonner for sure, 2.5 years of training down the toilet.
when i got back the office was empty, about 10 minutes later my boss comes in a bit red faced and i thought i was for it, he said "you pulled the wrong button, you'd better get in that kitchen and make a brew before everyone gets back". That was it no reaming or shouting, i learned the most valuable lesson that day about cause and effect,
 
i now know that if the generator isolator is not opened and the main isolator is opened the PLC for the lift calls for the standby generator to supply power, the BMS then sees that the generator has started and is on load so it tells the ACB to open to prevent the generator being back fed by national grid when power is restored, it was a system fault that took DALE a few months to sortout, i guess they were lucky i found the fault!
 
so has nobody ever gone through a ceiling from the loft? luckily i didnt fall, just my knee went through and held on to the joist and it was a new build and hadnt been decorated so wasnt too bad but still. :)
 
I had a very near miss at a multi million pound house. I was on a second fix, the kitchen ceiling was mega high so we had to use a tower scaffold to wire 30 downlights. I had two to go, and my snips fell out of my pocket. Missing the £6000 pound worktop by inches and landed on on my winter coat and didn't even mark the £120 a m2 floor tiles.
 
kev123 said:
no the sparks were wondering why i was burning out the masonry bits though!

I used to also put a 20mm grommet in every hole in every backbox! i used thousands of them for a period of time!

Looking back now i still laugh at myself!
Click to expand...

That made me chuckle.. A grommet in every hole.... Ha ha class
 
was up a scissor lift a few years back lamping up the new fittings,had a big box of tubes and after fitting each tube threw the cardboard sleeve over the side and lad on ground got rid,all was going well until I got distracted and ended up throwing about 4 tubes over the side before I realised what I was doing.
 
I was crawling through a very tight loft once with 3/4 of a roll of 1mm, the roll fell off one of the joists and dropped all of 3" where it promptly dissapeared through the fiberboard ceiling. It was the first time I'd seen it and was amazed you could poke you finger through it if you tried.
I think there is a lot hatch in that position now.......
 
We had a job in the admin office of the pit to fit a new false ceiling and then new 60x60 4 lamps fittings. So start Friday and finish by Sunday night for cleaners. Though a big office the immortal words of "job-and-knock" was used and away we go.

Foreman arranges the Admin staff to have an early night on Friday and at 4pm off we go. Old ceiling down, all old lights down, new PVC conduit been run and wired and it's about 4am Saturday morning.

In come the false ceiling contractors and we lend an hand and ceiling finished Saturday Evening. Now just a matter of lights in and down the pub for the last one, Sunday off being paid double bubble luvvly jubbly

Was given task of bringing down any rubbish. The office was an old storehouse and so had high ceilings, hence why false one wanted, so there was open girders above it and loads of space. I was told go up and bring down any rubbish and unused material while the lads finished off.

So with an arm full of half used single cable drums, pockets of saddles, screw boxes , box lids I'm crawling along this beam.....and yes slip, down I crash through the ceiling bringing down about 10ft x 6ft of ceiling, and of course a light that then proceeded to short and take out not only the local MCB but the main one that was locked away.

So there I'am laying on this desk total darkness, total quiet and all I hear is "If that **** is not dead he soon will be"

So calls to the deputy Engineer for Key to main switch room, calls to the Ceiling contractor to come back to repair ceiling, and we finally finished about mid afternoon.............................. needless to say I was not too popular
 
Was working installing some lights with a sub-contractor who was on price for the job and I was given to him to help him out. Anyway a couple of hours later all done, just got to nail the floor boards down, now as I am being rushed as the bloke I am working with wants to get home.

Just putting tools on the van and about to leave when the home owner comes out and says there is water leaking from one of the lights. So go back in had have a look and sure enough there is.

So start taking floor boards back up and woosh. Yes i had put a nail right through a water pipe. Took about an hour for the plumber to turn up and fix the leak. Then another hour to wait for the light fitting to dry and be put back up.

Needless to say I wasn't the most popular person that day.
 
Mine is a bit different.

One of my colleagues was wiring up a piece of equipment and he got a fan back to front.
A passing director picked up on this and reprimanded him.

I pointed out that the fan was not going to have a positive effect whichever way it was wired and should not be in the design.

Turns out this director was the one who asked for it to be put in.....

It is not like I made him look stupid in front of colleagues....

Ah ****,
 
was clipping a large SWA cable with cleats and screws. I was using my new yankie screwdriver which used to have a sprung type spindle so all you had to do was push and it would turn and screw in the screw. That is until it slips out the slot of the screw and springs out and smashes through the window we were clipping by.
 
In my early days as an Inst Tech at a certain NW Chemical plant, I'm calibrating a pH probe, need to inform the process controller so he can manually over ride it to keep his chemicals in order, I forget to tell him. Readings all over the show. Go to get my cal sheet signed, needless to say he's extremely P!$$ed off, took him hours to stablise his process!

Lesson learnt!
 
As an apprentice I was on Chelsea harbour in London when the electrician in charge died of a heart attack. None of us apprentices had ever seen a dead person before or knew what to do with one so we decided to load him into the back of the van and drive him 185 miles back to the yard. None of us had a driving licence! We didn't half get a lot of grief over that. I cringe every time I think about it.
 
Was in a loft above bedroom being redecorated at that point in time....not much space and getting cramp, saw piece of chipboard, which I placed between the joists to sit on, wiring up a ceiling fan, chipboard snapped in half after a minute or so when I re-positioned myself. Needless to say I heard a 'what the **** are you doing up there?!' I pulled some rockwool away only to see an angrily irate painter looking at me through an arse shaped hole in his lovely painted ceiling and dust everywhere. oops, luckily it was laughed off and forgotten about.....eventually
 
Luckily I've not managed anything too bad during my 3 years (So Far) I guess the worst was when I said to my supervisor 'Am I ok to wire that cabin ?' he said yes and off I want, Got it wired, Only for one of the office staff to come out and say it was meant to be another electrical firm wiring it. It was a breakdown of communication, Not my fault, Well thats what I told the gaffer anyway
 
I think the worst thing i did was plug an extention lead in when my supervisor was terminating the other end, i thought he said "plug it in" but he says he said "dont plug it in", needless to say he wasnt very happy with me
 
I started a bit early in life and was messing about with a motor at home. I was about 13 at the time. I had jammed in some wires into my bedroom socket and didn't have anything to hold the wires onto the motor so held them on with my fingers. One hand on live and one hand on neutral actually pressing the bare copper onto the lugs with my fingers. I can tell you it hurt a bit and had to use my foot to get myself out of the predictament.

Oh and yes i have fallen for the charged up cap in the pocket routine, hey ho - those were the days.
 
I was a perfect apprentice……. HeHe…….. NOT!

I don’t even know where to start.

Tripping all three 11KV incomers to the works was the worst of them, it was an accident. Honest!
Even the works manager was trying to keep a straight face as he gave me a b*ll*cking.

Setting fire to the motor test bed must come second.
 

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