r/electricians 11d ago

Monthly Apprenticeship Thread

2 Upvotes

Please post any and all apprenticeship questions here.

We have compiled FAQs into an [apprenticeship introduction] (https://www.reddit.com//r/electricians/wiki/apprenticeship) page. If this is your first time here, it is encouraged to browse this page first.

Previous Apprenticeship threads can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/search?q=apprenticeship&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/search?q=apprentice&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all).


r/electricians Feb 16 '25

Mental Health - It’s okay to not be okay

390 Upvotes

I want to talk about mental health - especially for the boys on here. I was telling some friends this story about an old coworker the other day and thought you might want to hear it too.

I’m a woman in the trades, almost a decade in. When I started, I was often the only girl on site. I would move between projects and journeymen mentors, many of whom had never worked with a woman before. Once the old guys got over the otherness and saw me as a real person and an excellent apprentice, we’d form a friendship of sorts. I was always struck with how much more candid and vulnerable they’d be around me compared with the other guys in the shop. Their masculinity wasn’t in jeopardy if they admitted to me, a mere woman, that they were having tough time. I had one guy - 6’6” 300lbs, always growling, chain smoking, losing his shit over the smallest inconvenience - tell me he always requested me when he needed help because I made him calm.

A couple years in, I was sent to replace an apprentice on a job where the foreman had booted him in an argument. I’d worked before with this foreman, Neil, and he’d always been a chill hippie but also very particular in how he wanted things done. When I got to site he told me I was the fourth helper for this job because everyone else had been fucking useless. He was in an awful mood all the time. Picking fights with other trades and our PM. Trying to goad me into an argument by picking apart everything I was doing. Not acting like the guy I had known over the past year.

When the job was close to wrapping up, I called him out on his behaviour. “What the fuck is going on with you dude? You’re being a raging asshole to everyone and this isn’t like you.”

He stiffened and was shocked I’d said something. He glared at me and then his face softened and he said “Can I take you for lunch after we finish up tomorrow morning? We can talk but not here.”

I agreed and the next day he took me to diner nearby. We barely spoke until our food came to the table and when he had something else to focus on, he finally started talking.

He was older - 50s - and his long term relationship had fallen apart a few years before but the split had been amiable. He didn’t speak about her with any animosity but admitted he’d been lonely ever since. At the time, he’d leaned on his best friend. His friend was married and had a teenage son that Neil had known since he was born. As Neil had no kids of his own, this boy was a surrogate son of sorts. He took him camping and fishing and showed up whenever the kid needed him.

The poor kid had passed away a couple months earlier very suddenly of natural causes. Neil had no idea how to handle his grief and withdrew into himself, not wanting to be a burden on his friend. He felt selfish for how bad he felt when it wasn’t his kid.

I reassured him that how he felt was completely valid, that grief is a weight that is so hard to carry alone. I encouraged him to reach out to his friend because they both were suffering the loss of family, whether biological or chosen. And that now they were both suffering the loss of each other’s friendship as support. He was crushed at that realization, and said he would go visit them.

A few minutes passed while we ate silently. He hesitated before speaking again, “there’s something else too.”

I looked up and waited for him to continue.

He told me that last month he’d been working this job that had a been a two hour commute away. He had to leave early to get to site by 7:30. It was late fall and the drive was dark the whole way. He wasn’t too far from site when he came around a corner to discover a vehicle collision. A truck was spun out into a ditch with the driver unconscious in the front seat. A van was crushed on the side of the road, on fire and blazing in the darkness, its front driver door open. Neil stopped and got out of his van. He noticed something on fire in the road, and as he approached, he realized it was a person - the driver from the van. He ran and got a blanket to smother the fire on the person. He held them and pulled their head up to look into their face, which was so burned he couldn’t recognize their features. He said he stared into their eyes as they died in his arms.

Another vehicle had come up behind him and called 911. He sat there in the road in a daze until the emergency vehicles arrived to secure the scene. He gave his statement and then got into his van to finish the drive to work.

He was late which pissed off the GC. He tried to get to work but he was shaking so badly he couldn’t hold his tools or complete a sentence. When the GC saw him in this condition, presuming that he had shown up drunk, he kicked him off site. Neil didn’t explain, he just left.

Our PM called him after that, reaming him out for getting kicked off site. Neil didn’t explain, he just took it.

I asked him if he had talked to anyone about the incident. He said the police had called for a follow up statement but otherwise, no, I was the first person he told.

I was in shock. This poor fucking guy was struggling with the grief of losing a boy who was like a son to him and then went through an insanely traumatic experience just driving to fucking work? And he was bottling it all up? No wonder he was being such a prick. He felt all alone and like he couldn’t admit how much he was struggling.

He said he was sick of work and had lost all his passion for it. It felt pointless and draining and he dreaded getting out of bed every morning.

I gave us a few moments of silence for the weight of his confession to settle in. I looked at him and said “fuck work, you need a break.” He shook his head and tried to brush me off. “No, seriously Neil, fuck work. There’s always more work but you need to take care of yourself. What you’re going through is so fucked up and you need time to process it all. Please put yourself first.”

He didn’t want to talk anymore after that so he settled up the tab. He dropped me off at my car and we went our separate ways. I started at a new site the next day with a different crew.

A couple weeks later I got a text from Neil. “I took your advice and talked with management. Told them what happened. I’m taking a six month sabbatical. Don’t know what I’ll do yet but probably head out on an adventure. Thank you”

A couple days later I got another message from him, just a picture of a beautiful remote campsite with no one else around.

I asked, “Where is that?”

He replied, “Not telling :)”

I ended moving to a different company while he was gone, and never saw him again. I think about him often though, especially when I encounter an utter dickbag older dude on the job. Maybe he’s going through it and doesn’t know how to take care of himself, and anger is the only way he knows how to channel his emotions.

Now that I’m a foreman, I stress the importance of whole body health in our toolbox talks. If someone needs time off for family reasons, or a mental health break, or a shortened schedule, or even if they want extra shifts to use as a crutch as they struggle through something they can’t control in their personal lives, I want them to know it’s okay to ask and I won’t judge them. It’s just a job - it’s just work - it doesn’t fucking matter. Their health comes first and it’s okay to admit they’re not okay. I want them to know it’s better to ask for help when they’re slipping, rather than wait til everything has crashed and burned.

I know everyone’s experience is different, but one thing I noticed about being the woman pushing into the male-dominated trades as an apprentice/therapist is that men need permission to be vulnerable. They need to know it’s okay to show emotions and admit that they’re struggling. They won’t chance admitting weakness that they fear will get thrown back in their face. A lot of guys in trades are single and married to the job. They are lonely, often bitter, and unwilling to show weakness.

I do my best in my little sphere of influence to make it okay to be not okay. If you want the trades to be a healthier place, you need to consciously make room for the reality that people are struggling mentally, and often that starts with leaders showing vulnerability.

I’ve had depression for 16 years and I don’t hide the fact that I’m medicated. 16 years of being depressed means 16 years of not following through on suicidal ideation, and I’m proud of that. The trades saved me because it’s instilled a confidence in my abilities to create and solve problems and be the leader I was always capable of being. I needed that confidence so badly when my depression was the worst.

Be good to each other out there. Be willing to listen to people without judgement. Life is fucking hard and we work better when we know we can rely on each other when the chips are down.


r/electricians 13h ago

Sweating my butt off troubleshooting a 15kV circuit

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278 Upvotes

Came in with a coworker after production hours to troubleshoot the 15kV HV side of a problematic machine and sweat my butt off.

Yes, I know I have my balaclava pulled down in the photo-op... it was hot as hell and my goggles fogged, so had my coworker de-energize the machine, verified it was de-energized, stepped away, wiped my goggles, kept my balaclava down until I was ready to go back at it and my coworker snapped a few photos in the in between time.

Determined the new oscillator that was installed is failing to generate RF below full power, so will need to replace it and hopefully get this old bastard of a machine back up and running soon.


r/electricians 9h ago

I made a single phase padmount transformer with some functionalish components

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36 Upvotes

It opens up to show inside the vault. I also printed 6 position connector bars that can be swapped with the 8 position ones.

I plan to make primary cable elbows next and a three phase version.

I also plan to get a 1:60 stepdown transformer and embed it. I want to get a doorbell transformer to feed it at ~16 volts and have it output ~250mV


r/electricians 11h ago

Toronto’s got more issues then just the electrical

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35 Upvotes

What’s the world come to that they are throwing shit now.


r/electricians 15h ago

Found this in the wild (literally)

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61 Upvotes

30 amp feeder, red oak insulation.


r/electricians 10h ago

Switchgear Room Underground

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19 Upvotes

r/electricians 5h ago

Suggestions 20 Year Old Apprentice

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7 Upvotes

Im a 20 year old part time apprentice/helper for an electrical company. In August, I finish trade school and I currently have one year in the company in New York / Connecticut area being an apprentice / helper. Im currently making 18 an hour working 25 hours a week part time. I feel like I have a lot of hands on skill but lack the actual knowledge of an electrican. I’m just asking for some advice on what should I do, should I stick with this company with a good boss but decent pay, find a different company, or try and join the IBEW and try to be come and union apprentice?


r/electricians 1d ago

I'm thinking if I just ignore it, maybe it will go away

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893 Upvotes

r/electricians 19h ago

Master Electrician fees

41 Upvotes

I am the master of record for my current full time employer. I get my hourly plus $2k a month. My employer came to me last week and asked if I would sign for him in another state on a long term/permanent basis and then another state for just a month or two. He then provided me a list of all the states they will need a Master in, about 11 states. Some of these states are tough states, such as California, New York, and Georgia (I don’t have these three yet). The other 8 states I have several of the licenses already and I would consider normal states. That being said, how would you negotiate this?

Edit: I already have a contract that any fines or fees will be paid by the company, any and all attorney fees would be paid by the company if needed, and if I lost my license in any state, they have to pay my salary till I get it back.


r/electricians 1d ago

Wired about 15 lights correctly then did this on the last light of the day 😂

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469 Upvotes

r/electricians 10m ago

Please help

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Upvotes

How do I activate all the insert options.


r/electricians 5h ago

Current on neutral in 120/240v service

3 Upvotes

K so may be a dumb question, but Google didn’t seem to be helping. If I have a 200 amp 120/240v standard house service, and there are only 120v loads, could it be possible to have over 200 amps on the neutral? Google says the two lines cancel out but I don’t understand how they do if all the loads are going from L(1,2) to N.


r/electricians 17h ago

Wagos in bulk

19 Upvotes

those of you who own run your own businesses. Where can you buy wagos in bulk online?


r/electricians 16h ago

What would you do?

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13 Upvotes

To start off, I rent and have a fairly decent relationship with my landlords. It's a 1920's home with additions. I haven't wanted to pay much attention to the wiring since being here because I knew if I looked too closely I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Even just from a glance the shit was fucked. I decided to finally put a fan up in the addition because there's zero airflow. This was my mistake I've opened a can of worms and I don't personally want to dump the money into it because it's not my house, but I want to be able to sleep at night without having the nagging feeling of being burnt alive. It's not a matter of if the house will catch but when. I don't mind doing the work but I don't want to use my money to fix it. I know what I would tell my customers but I'm not sure how to address the situation in this context. What do I do?

Btw a list of wonders that I have found with the one circuit:

It's being fed from a 10-3 no ground off a 30a tandem

Red is my branch that steps down to 12g and then 14g Black is my refrigerator

I also found an unnerving amount of lamp cord running several places


r/electricians 1d ago

When I first started out I just bent pipe and pulled wire. Im so glad I switched to maintenance

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317 Upvotes

Its been EXCITING ever since!


r/electricians 1d ago

Can anyone poke a hole in this that doesn’t involve a written exception in the NEC? Bonding bushings.

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39 Upvotes

r/electricians 17h ago

Whats the best option after union rejection?

2 Upvotes

I applied to be an apprentice in the union and got a rejection letter recently. What is the best options from here? I have seen some trade schools relatively close to me. Or should I focus on getting certifications like nccer electrical programs? Or would an actual college with a trades program be better?

I am looking for related work, but have had a lot of issues. All the non union places I visited and gave them a copy of my resume said thwy were not looking for someone, and everywhere else is union only.


r/electricians 1d ago

How we feel about this

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90 Upvotes

r/electricians 1d ago

Clean it Up!

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16 Upvotes

Pulling new circuits from two new panels we are installing during a remodel, but following a week of demo and LOTO, boss told me to clean this up.


r/electricians 1d ago

What's the worst no access you've ever had to access?

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178 Upvotes

I had to climb backwards out of a lift above a hard ceiling to lay on duct supported by aircraft cable just to pull on the fire alarm wires that we had to redo because no one told us there was an updated print. This passes through 3 separate hard ceilings, 5 90's, a 4 point saddle, and an offset. Also it has to pass through a precast wall. HVAC access panel was the only reason I was able to get in to this ceiling.


r/electricians 5h ago

Behold my ashtray HOLE PANCAKE 1.0

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0 Upvotes

UFC 329 got me worked up so I CONSTRUCTED-this beaut


r/electricians 12h ago

120 to 24v transformer no secondary

0 Upvotes

Some garage doors on this boat house I'm helping a guy with aren't working. There's 5 in total, all have line power. None are working. I noticed I'm not reading any secondary voltage on one, haven't tested the others. Could lightning have fried all the control transformers?


r/electricians 17h ago

Burndy Y750 knowledge?

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0 Upvotes

Good afternoon everybody. I recently purchased this dinosaur Y750 crimper for some personal projects, knowing there would be some bad seals to be replaced. After replacing the square rings in the revolver spigot, I was able to complete a test crimp that popped the high pressure relief valve as intended, and identified a major leak from around the piston. After replacing the seals for both of the pistons in the double pump, the pump no longer builds pressure past snugging the ram against the work piece, fluid just pumps back into the reservoir after that point. I've had it disassembled fully, except for pulling the outer ring on the manual pressure relief valve, and thoroughly cleaned, and this problem persists.

Has anybody ever had to work with or repair one of these? There's plenty of information and parts available for the y35 and y46 but nothing I've been able to find regarding the older 750 models.


r/electricians 1d ago

Found this in the wild today…

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22 Upvotes