Introduction:

I am Nathan Smith just wanted to introduce myself.

From Northern Colorado I am a Master Electrician with 20 years experience and currently in Afghanistan working as an Electrical inspector and QA auditor.

While here I am also working through my online classes so that when come home in the next few months I can pursue Home Inspections.

I hope to share my knowledge and advice to anyone willing to listen and hope to learn from all of you as I begin down this road.

Thanks in advance to all of you for the many questions I am sure I will have and hope that I can prove of assistance to you as well.

:smiley:

Welcome Mr. Smith!

Another professional is needed at all times. There are a few electrical studs on this message board and your experience will be most welcomed…

Welcome aboard the NACHI train…get in and hold on because it moves rather fast.

Nathan, welcome aboard. Thanks for your service!

Welcome aboard Nathan.

You say you are from “Northern Colorado.” Come visit our offices in Boulder when you get home.

Welcome Nathan! Thank you for serving sir.

Hi Nathan,

Thanks very much for your service to our country.
I’m imagine it will serve you well in starting up a business.

The main stumbling block to success IMHO is not having reasonable expectations for the first year and not having a good plan overall.

Can you share with us how you plan to start up and grow your business?

You’ll get a lot of feedback, mostly helpful.:wink:

Best,

Tom

Just to be clear, I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression here.

I am not in the military. I am a contractor working on a military base. I am just doing a job and do not deserve your thanks…

Seeing these young men and women day in and day out I realize just how easy I have it back in the States; and is these people with boots on the ground in the heat and cold; dry, wet; lonely and bleak environment away from everything they love, that make it all possible for us.

So if you think about it and want to help in a more personal way visit this site http://www.adoptaplatoon.org/

Anyway, thanks for the welcome and look forward to getting to know all of you…

That counts in my book. https://www.google.com/search?q=wwii+war+worker&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pKrUUtPyIIeMyAGvvoDQBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1317&bih=718#q=wwii+war+effort&tbm=isch

And there are a few in uniform that don’t count in my book.

Can we call you “Good Nate”…you’ll get it later.:slight_smile:

Gonna test you out with a question just because.
Had this on my last report and not sure of the answer.

My panels were old Wadsworth and the main feeds entered from the bottom with no gaskets.
Is this ever acceptable as I noticed the knockouts were not sharp but were molded inwards to make them smooth ?

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I will trust you on the “Good Nate” reference :slight_smile:

To answer the question: “is this ever acceptable?”

The short answer is… no

1st of all over time even the “smooth rounded” edges can wear into insulation. I have seen it first hand. However some may argue with the fact that this is how this equipment was designed.

The bigger issue I see however is that there is no adequate bonding between the meter housing and the panel that is sitting on top of it. Given the fact that no ground wire is run you are relying solely on the metal to metal contact for bonding purposes; which is both a code deficiency and could prove a very unsafe condition in the event of an electrical fault in the system.

I hope that gives you the answer you were looking for and I passed your test :slight_smile: