Paranoia, Liability, OSHA

[k4kyv]

An interesting article appears in the 11FE09 Workbench column of Radio World.  The title is "Tinkering Brings Its Own Dangers: Tempted to 'roll your own'?  Consider the Liability Issues Before You Do".

What brought up the topic was a photo of a 110v power cord soldered to the terminals of a JS-dangling relay, which was used as some sort of AC power loss alarm.  In some cases these relays weren't even provided with a protective cover!

The article goes on to say, "In yesterday's world, tinkering was a perfectly acceptable way of solving problems.  But as we have gone from carefree days to a world of rules and regulations - and litigation - the tinkerer's days may well be at an end.

"The AC loss relay is a prefect example.  First off, it is a violation of the NEC to have open 120v voltages on a relay like this.  It is required to be mounted within a grounded metal enclosure. Just putting it inside a rack or cabinet does not cut it, and if OSHA would happen to walk in and find it, which has been known to happen, well, better get out your wallet. Worse yet, should there be a fire in the studio and an investigator find something like this, you are just giving an insurance company an excuse not to pay a claim.

"The same is true when, in the good old days, a switch went bad on a piece of equipment.  We just drilled a hole, mounted a new switch and bypassed the old one.  Not any more.  If this equipment has a UL label, you just violated it.  Again, you are giving OSHA and a fire investigator carte blanche in coming after you.

"There is nothing wrong with tinkering, but we must use common sense and make sure we are not violating codes or regulations.  To do otherwise, we leave our stations open for  legal complications. In bad economic times, insurance companies are looking at every way possible not to pay claims... kludges like the power  failure relay are just that and not an example of good engineering practice.  This kind of circuit is useful but best mounted on a panel, with a fuse and  line cord."

I suppose we should be thankful that our ham stations and homebrew transmitters are not (at least not yet) subject to electrical inspections and OSHA regulations.  While it is important to observe common sense safety precautions, some of these picky rules go way beyond the edge and to say the least, would severely stifle innovation.  No wonder we live in a plug 'n play world.  People are becoming afraid to take the cover of their plastic radio.  Hopefully, overzealous regulators will never reach the point of dictating how we build and operate our amateur stations.

A couple of examples of nitpicky regulations that come to my mind date back to when my daughter was a toddler.  (1) Her day-care was gigged by state health inspectors because they had some canned food stored on the bottom shelf in a pantry - the  shelf, which was about 18" high, was less than a quarter-inch below the prescribed minimum clearance from the floor.  (2) Once I had her with me when I went to a purchase a bottle of wine.  As soon as we entered the wine shop, as usual, the first thing she said to me was that she needed to go pee.  So I asked the clerk if they had any toilet facilities she could use.  He replied that he would be glad to let her use the employee restroom, but state alcoholic beverage regulations prohibited customers from using the toilet in a liquor store or wine shop.

[WA1GFZ]

gee Don,
CT. is short on cash. Maybe this is a good way to generate some bucks for our useless Gov. Schultz. Bust all the hams for J.S. and fine them.
Tom Vu, lock and load

[Ed/KB1HYS]

If the "Inspector" electrocutes himself on my JS'd Plate Supply would I still get a fine?

[W3SLK]

Don had quoted:

The same is true when, in the good old days, a switch went bad on a piece of equipment.  We just drilled a hole, mounted a new switch and bypassed the old one.  Not any more.  If this equipment has a UL label, you just violated it.  Again, you are giving OSHA and a fire investigator carte blanche in coming after you.

You think that is bad? Try working with some of this stuff that is 'explosion proof,' Class I Div 1&2. UL? Try FM approval and THEY DO come in and inspect regularly. But like all regulations be it Fed. or State, in the end they just prove an honest business is honest. Anything is legal as long as you don't get caught! I like to say that most of this ridiculous litigation hearkens back to the McDonald's coffee incident. The 'victim' pleaded she didn't know the coffee was hot! Dee-ta-dee! Now any enterprise has to go far and beyond to cover its a$$. Its either that or roll the dice because people are stupid!

[KL7OF]

I owned a company that manufactured wood burning stoves....The models that were UL listed were required to have a tag attached that said.."CAUTION..HOT WHEN IN USE"

[k4kyv]

I owned a company that manufactured wood burning stoves....The models that were UL listed were required to have a tag attached that said.."CAUTION..HOT WHEN IN USE"

I  still think the best one is the notice printed on those large opaque cardboard wind shield covers that you put in place in summer to reduce overheating of the car interior while it is parked in the sun, that read "Warning: Do not attempt to operate vehicle while this screen is in place".

[Pete, WA2CWA]

[Opcom]

Don had quoted:

The same is true when, in the good old days, a switch went bad on a piece of equipment.  We just drilled a hole, mounted a new switch and bypassed the old one.  Not any more.  If this equipment has a UL label, you just violated it.  Again, you are giving OSHA and a fire investigator carte blanche in coming after you.

You think that is bad? Try working with some of this stuff that is 'explosion proof,' Class I Div 1&2. UL? Try FM approval and THEY DO come in and inspect regularly. But like all regulations be it Fed. or State, in the end they just prove an honest business is honest. Anything is legal as long as you don't get caught! I like to say that most of this ridiculous litigation hearkens back to the McDonald's coffee incident. The 'victim' pleaded she didn't know the coffee was hot! Dee-ta-dee! Now any enterprise has to go far and beyond to cover its a$$. Its either that or roll the dice because people are stupid!

explosion proof. I work in semiconductors and a goal is to eliminate the inductor (a cause of sparkage) from buck and boost power management systems. As we know, inductors vibrate at the imposed frequency and in power circuits they can make a crack around where they are soldered, eventually producing a spark. It might take 10 years for this effect to happen. This is very real sh*t.

Speaking of hazards, I've been thinking about heat dissipating anode connectors for some MV rectifiers. They presently have ceramic connectors. Something makes me nervous about 5000VAC on metal right there where you stand with interlock bypassed to work on the rig.

[WB3JOK]

I owned a company that manufactured wood burning stoves....The models that were UL listed were required to have a tag attached that said.."CAUTION..HOT WHEN IN USE"

I  still think the best one is the notice printed on those large opaque cardboard wind shield covers that you put in place in summer to reduce overheating of the car interior while it is parked in the sun, that read "Warning: Do not attempt to operate vehicle while this screen is in place".

How about:



or



 

[KB2WIG]

change to "Run in front of moving ve hickel" ?

klc

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

We've moved on to sheep.

[WB3JOK]

Speaking of cows,



Yum! 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Beef Rings!

[k4kyv]

Speaking of cows,
Yum! 

Beef Rings!

The land of milk and honey must be full of cows and bees.

[wd8das]

>the tinkerer's days may well be at an end.

Bull. I'm so sick of this mentality.  That was one of the most foolish articles ever printed in Radio World. 

I'll "tinker" forever, at work and at home.  I earn a good living "tinkering". 

"Tinkering" does not equal "unsafe".

For example, the idea that one cannot replace a switch in a piece of equipment is simply absurd.

Steve WD8DAS

[W1RKW]

Just finished watching the movie "Astronaut Farmer".  Granted this an extreme case in fantasy land but then again....   You have a guy who wants to fly in space and goes above and beyond the means to do just that by being the ultimate rocketry tinkerer but is forced by the government not to do fly his rocket because of security reasons. They goes as far as threatening his life but he flies his bird anyway.