simple tester to avoid me electrocuting myself

[Shocker]

There is no sure way to find out whether the wire is live unless you chop into it.
So if its in the way, why don't you just axe(with wooden handle) through the cable. Chuck a bucket of water on it, making sure you don't get yourself wet in the process. The cable will then short out and blow the fuse its connected to.

Two jobs in one, first you find out whether its live or not. Second if it is live, you've just turned it off. Its a hill billy style to do it but it works.

 

[JohnD]

this is not a safe practice

some of the cables you could chop through will be distribution cables.

These give a very spectacular display if damaged, and they are liable to flare away indefinitely without blowing any fuse.

 

[plugwash]

good chance of blowing a hole in your axe if you do that.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I wonder why he calls himself 'shocker'?

 

[Shocker]

this is not a safe practice

some of the cables you could chop through will be distribution cables.

These give a very spectacular display if damaged, and they are liable to flare away indefinitely without blowing any fuse.

To be fair you would have to be a dumb f-er to chop through some 5-6 inch thick armoured cable.

I meant the cables that are obviously be installed by some cow boy.

 

[JohnD]

or the supply cable to a house

I've dug one up thinking it was a tree root

And I knew a case of someone putting a nail through one where it came down a wall and had been rendered over

a lot of distribution cables are much thinner than 5-6 inches and very rusty

 

[Shocker]

I wonder why he calls himself 'shocker'?

I call myself shocker because the lads at work use to call me shocker in my first year of my apprentiship. Due to the obvious reason i kept shocking myself. I even managed to weld a mains cable to a panel once just through the heat caused by the short, lol.

These days ive learnt my lesson and know how to go about things without harming myself.

 

[Shocker]

or the supply cable to a house

I've dug one up thinking it was a tree root

And I knew a case of someone putting a nail through one where it came down a wall and had been rendered over

a lot of distribution cables are much thinner than 5-6 inches and very rusty

I suppose i must be luck enough to come only come across cables roughly that thick.

 

[plugwash]

Afaict It's service cables to individual buildings that are really nasty, less than a couple of inches thick and often in very poor condition so easilly mistaken for other things (e.g. tree roots). Yet often backed by huge fuses because they are split off the mains cable with no protection at the split point.