Today we have some great reader finds. I won’t give credit, largely to protect the guilty, err… innocent. But you know who you are. Actually, these were all found by people who were just as amused and disgusted at the same time as we all are. Thanks guys for sending them in. Keep ‘em coming!
Why try to cram too much into a work box?
This is a classic case of, “Why work hard if you don’t have to!.” I’m not exactly sure how the bolt is connected to anything structural, but I’m pretty sure that little metal dome is not rated for holding a Parnel. And really, trying to stuff all the wires inside the box? Waaaayyyy too much work. Let them all hang out. Keeps ‘em cooler, anyway. Nice work, to be sure.
You can use wire nuts for almost anything.
I love the art of this piece. The interplay of the yellow and blue wire nuts is stunning. The fact that someone took the time to do it is impressive. I’m not sure what exactly the little stub of a RJ-11 may have been plugged into, or how they managed to plug anything in while it was mounted in the wall, but it’s got creativity written all over it. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing there was a RJ-11 coupler somewhere in the mix here…
The safety of this device is unquestionable.
Unquestionably bad, that is. I can’t decide which I like more…the duplex outlet with only one leg attached, or the plug end with no backing housing, leaving the hot terminals right out there in the open for all to experience. I’ve seen a lot of sketchy electrical wiring in my day, but this one takes the prize for most sketchiest. I’m not sure what in parallel universe this may be considered safe, but it’s not this one. They could have at least used gaff tape to cover up the hot leads…
Thanks again to the folks who supplied these classical pictures. Again, if you have pics of some shady installations, please send them along. This falls under the scripture of “exposing their deeds to the light.” Mainly so no one else will try it! No go out there and install something correctly.
Cut the BLUE wire! THE BLUE WIRE!
I recognize that last one; they also found an orange extension cord with the female end replaced with a 1/4″ phono . . .
That last one reminds me of a dimmer panel I saw once. Essentially they built a patch bay to connect lights to dimmers as needed, and they had all male-to-male patch cables. If you plugged things in in the wrong order you’d have a standard male edison plug that was ready to zap anybody that touched it.
1/4″ to edison is far more common than it should be. People (who should be in another line of work) have used “adapters” like that so that they can use extension cords as amp cables. It works, but it’s soooooooooo not smart. Leads to fun things like speakers plugged into 120V 60Hz. Guitar amps plugged into speaker amps (all sorts of “interesting” results). And best of all, even more garish orange cables running across the stage!