Hey Lex! Thanks so much for these videos! I just finished a electrical pre-apprenticeship course and today is my first day on the job doing a commercial retrofit! My nerves were fricken going nuts! But watching this video this morning really helped me feel calm! I can do this!
Hi! Just wanted to come by and say that I really enjoy your videos. I work with my dad in the US. He has his own residential electrical business, and I’ve been working on and off with him my entire life. While I don’t plan on making this my full-time career, it’s really peaked my interest in learning more about other women in the electrical field. Thanks so much for making this content and sharing your work with us all! ☺️
Thanks for watching! That's great that you get a taste of it and get to work with your dad! Even if you don't pursue it, learning how to take care of your own home is never a bad thing!
Great video! Love this kind of work, out with the old in with the new 😁 besides stepping back and looking at all the new shiny breakers is such a good feeling
An observation from a UK Sparky here, I noticed the mains cables at 5:50 were showing copper below the switch. That over here is bad practice, we are taught not to have any or very little copper showing when terminating cables anywhere. Minimises accidental contact risk if you are having to work in a live / hot board.
God you UK people trip so hard about how we do electrical in the us. Like that's nothing bro I've seen more copper exposed in switch and outlet boxes and those are tiny crammed spaces and I'm telling you your gonna have to fuck up really bad with stripping insulation to cause problems and in that panel I highly doubt any problems will arise beacuse all the wires are far enough away from each other to not cause arcing between them and there really isn't all that much insulation that was stripped off ya maybe the tiniest bit too much but again it's not a big deal and if your working in a hot panel and dont have electrically insulated gear you should reconsider working in an electrical panel it's literally an electrical panel like go figure you can shock yourself if your not careful maybe that's why only trained professionals should work on them really at all but especially if live. I know this comment was made a year ago but dude y'all UK sparkys piss me off more than my inspectors thinking your hot shit cuz you supposedly do things better.
Cold weather sucks lol Small cuts hurt way more then they should and wire isn’t very malleable. Hot weather is exhausting for me if I’m wearing a tool belt but I switched to a tote and now I don’t get tired at all.
I’ve worked in the cold of Colorado and the heat of Florida. Both are extreme and both are horrible. You get used to it but I can say I was exhausted after work in both states
Good job I have only came across one female electrician in my life y'all are awesome I love when I see woman on the job site hopefully more start to see there is good money in this trade and want to get some of the money too .
LOVE IT. THANK YOU FOR TALKING TO US. YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO MANY GIRLS. I PREFFER TO HIRE AN ELECTRICIAN GIRLS THAN AN GUY. GIRLS ARE MORE INTO DETAILS AND ARE PERFECT FOR SUPERVISORS AND QUALITY CONTROL.
Polaris lugs are a much better option when making a joint in a panel, that’s if your company will spend the extra money on them. My boss doesn’t like to buy them but I have a stash I’ve managed to gather over the years. Overall it looks like you’ve done a pretty good job.
@@LexElectric You’re very welcome. Best of luck to you in your career. I have truly enjoyed my career as an electrician, so far anyways, I hope you do the same.
We did consider that but would have to reconfigure all the breakers since they had to be laid out in a specific way. The engineer approved split bolts, so split bolts it was!
I'm doing the intermediate schooling in Ontario now..may be able to do a second job, there is a large workload, but not as bad as some of the guys on the job site made it out to be.
Lexi! You are so impressive. Can I ask, what training path did you go through in Ontario? Did you do a pre-apprenticeship at college, complete 3 years of an electrical techniques diploma etc.
You definitely have the Force, Padawan! ☝️😀 Although, perhaps not thence, as you must’ve had to follow some kind of strict lockout/tag out procedure, yes? To keep you from having the Force at that particular moment, yes??? Great video!
Yes we had a VERY thorough and strict lock out procedure. As well as the CDP feeding the panel being ripped in two and the disconnect being disassembled. Thanks for watching!
What's the easiest way to be electrician in the U.S.? I'm new here in California and wanna be electrician. Is it possible with 1 year of training to be employed? Is there such training?
Iam from India 37 years old and i was completed my degree in 2008 and i completed my pgdma in 2018 i have experience in electrical field 15 years as a electrical contractor in India now i want to do my trade course as a electricition in Australia and settle in Australia madam please help me
Do you use torque drivers over there? One step (but not the only one!) towards cables not falling out. My preferred method is to tighten, wiggle, loosen, tighten to torque. I thought I tightened things tight until I had the tools to actually measure. Turns out many things need to be "it can't possibly be that tight" tight.
@@LexElectric Over in the UK the way most people do it is with a specific electricians' torque screwdriver but they have a limited torque range and they're expensive. I use a mechanics' digital one with a range from 0-20NM (enough to do up big cable lugs, electrician ones top out at about 5NM) with interchangeable bits and it works well for me.
There was a story in the US about who to assign blame in court after the Fire Marshall said fire was cause by improperly torqued electrical connections. Lawyer asked 2 master electricians the following question: Do you own a torque wrench. The one that said No got the blame. This wrecked an electricians career.
@@LexElectric Yeah - As soon as I heard/saw that you were just using split bolts on something other than the bond, the hairs on my neck stood up. If that's how you've been taught and that's what the foreman is taking liability for, fine. I'd recommend something else, like an insulated coupling/insulated splice since they'll have the engineered specifications for appropriate voltage and current on them and be more consistent than "enough wraps of rubber tape". Grind on!
Very awesome vid. I want to ask you a (# don't go there gender question lol) my younger sister is very interested in joining an electrical apprenticeship. She has the brains and workmanship. I want to ask you as a woman in the field do you have any issues on the job with discrimination? Or unwanted advances. I told my sis I don't think in this day an age that's too much of an issue but I'd like to hear you're insight.
Hey take a look at these they save quite a bit of time especially with the split bolts cable tray and making racks or installing strut straps. We use them in the refinery a lot
@@LexElectric lol i know but it does make life a lot easier maybe add a patreon account on your chanel so some of the JWs that post on here can pay it forward and help an apprentice out with money for tools also just a heads up if you ever struggle with passing your certification at the end of your apprenticeship try looking into jade learning for practice exams it really helped me out www.jadelearning.com/exam-prep/why-exam-prep.php
I was taught to terminate the active (hot) conductor first. The thinking is that the dangerous cable is out of the way and safe first. Each to their own 😄 Enjoy the videos 👍🏼
That's incredibly wrong and here is why: You've set up no safe path to ground so electrical shock from that 'hot' wire is much more likely to be deadly. You're better off working in the order of; ground, neutral, hots
Looks like good work! Anyone would be lucky to have you on their team. New apprentices can learn a lot from your work ethic and attitude towards the job. Here's the only feed back, you mentioned "working as if it's live" which I couldn't agree with more! But then you handled the feeders with your bare hands haha. Just some food for thought 🙂 If you need to handle them as such, ensure you're 100% on your lockout tag out procedure 👍🏻
@@kaceyjones7694 that's true! I guess I didn't explain how intense the lockout was. We had an engineer shut off the generator, lock it out with two seperate locks for two different people. And then we ripped out the starters and CDP's. So I'm 100% sure it was dead in this case, and I tested it before working on it. But, yes to your point, always good to act like it is live, but in his case, we knew it was dead as a doorknob.
@@kaceyjones7694 that was my logic, but couldn't articulate it, because again, I am still just an apprentice. Thanks for the explanation and the compliment!
@@kristenangelo6831 I was VERY lucky when I applied the hall was empty so I got in right away. We are in a bit of a lull now so hopefully when it picks up again you'll get in.
Thats the best you can shape those wires in ? Mine looks like a work of art the women always get the easy work try 4 inch galvanized nah they won't give you that work
Why do you gotta be like that? I was literally the only person on site beside the JMan so no, I didn't get the "easier" work. Just the work. And the wires looking amazing wasn't a priority since we were just swapping out the guts. But thanks for the comment it boosts engagement!
Honestly I’ve never worked with female electricians, maybe because I’m non-union. I have though worked with females in the past in factories and mills, the women did get the easiest jobs, and got paid the same.
I was in the electrician union! The guys I work with were complete bullshit! 95% wasn’t even doing shit! They were never teach me anything! If I was gonna do hands on of course I was slow. When class comes the teacher will randomly pick on you and you say I don’t know because I’m never taught on job site! I decided best for me to move on!
