Fun day at the office

Wotok

Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
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756
I was escorting some LNs (Local Nationals) while they ran 12-strand fiber into this building. I saw them trying to get the can of foam insulation to work so they could seal the hole they made in the wall, bringing the fiber in the building.

A few minutes later, I look to my left and I see the guy place the can on the floor, grab a phillips head screwdriver and raise his hand to whack it. During this slow motion scene, I dodge to the right to avoid the impending disaster. I luckily managed to NOT get a damn thing on my nice new Gortex jacket! :p


Foam Insulation Disaster
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91002788@N07/sets/72157632226485051/with/8267058528/
 
I don't understand why they are all smiling. I would have walked right the hell out of there until every piece was scraped up. Assuming this has the stickiness of great stuff.
 
That urethane expanding foam is all kinds of nasty. I'd go and buy another can before messing with a jammed can.
 
After 2 seconds of initial shock, I think we were all laughing at how f'd up the whole situation was. Yes, that stuff was damn sticky on the floor. Took them a good hour to get most of that crap off the floor and ceiling.
 
Never underestimate blue collar cabling monkeys... no offense to them intended. Noob move.
 
We would fire a contractor for misconduct if they were caught doing something like that on one of our job sites.

Wow. What a moron.
 
Heh, yea, he had the can of spay foam on the floor, placed the tip of the screwdriver on the seal and slammed his hand down on the handle twice before it popped. Wasn't anything I could do but get the hell out of the way.
 
was the fiber unit salvageable ?

I didn't look at it closely. The guy said some of the moving parts were gummed up and not moving properly. Not sure if the foam got on any of the optics or not.


I was just told that more than likely they were trying to re-use an old can of spray foam; that if you don't use the whole can during its first use, it will get clogged up. So all that mess wasn't even a full can.
 
LOLOLOL OMG what a mess. It's everywhere. Right in the face too. That stuff is near impossible to take off. I got that stuff on my hands once, it took a week to get off. Basically had to wait till the skin cells die off. My hands looked as if I got a 3rd degree burn but it was the foam flakes.

What happened is I went to use a can that I had used before, and when I opened the cap, it had been leaking inside but the cap kept it from drying up, but when I released the cap the leak continued and all the caps contents plus the spraying fell right into my hands. Well I sorta freaked out and cupped my hands to catch it so it does not land on the floor and I walked to the garbage carefully to dispose of it. I had previously gotten a bit on my hands before and knew how bad it was so really did not want it to hit the floor but I pretty much sacrificed my hands for the week lol.
 
LOLOLOL OMG what a mess. It's everywhere. Right in the face too. That stuff is near impossible to take off. I got that stuff on my hands once, it took a week to get off. Basically had to wait till the skin cells die off. My hands looked as if I got a 3rd degree burn but it was the foam flakes.

What happened is I went to use a can that I had used before, and when I opened the cap, it had been leaking inside but the cap kept it from drying up, but when I released the cap the leak continued and all the caps contents plus the spraying fell right into my hands. Well I sorta freaked out and cupped my hands to catch it so it does not land on the floor and I walked to the garbage carefully to dispose of it. I had previously gotten a bit on my hands before and knew how bad it was so really did not want it to hit the floor but I pretty much sacrificed my hands for the week lol.

you can get that stuff off so easy, it's called gasoline :) it eats it like water and sugar :) just use a little bit and it comes off easy, then wash your hands with good soap, or fast orange.
 
you can get that stuff off so easy, it's called gasoline :) it eats it like water and sugar :) just use a little bit and it comes off easy, then wash your hands with good soap, or fast orange.

petrol? hmm i'll have to try that next time :-/
 
I think acetone also removes it ... I got some on my hands a couple projects ago, and it was a bitch to remove it without some chemicals. I'm sure the guy will figure it out.
 
I think acetone also removes it ... I got some on my hands a couple projects ago, and it was a bitch to remove it without some chemicals. I'm sure the guy will figure it out.
Just as long as the guy figures it out away from the project site... who knows, he may just try this out while taking a smoke break.
 
Just as long as the guy figures it out away from the project site... who knows, he may just try this out while taking a smoke break.

Knowing the intelligence level we might end up with a second set of photos of a LN on fire.
 
Good thing those morons have respect for the $15-30k fiber splicer they may have ruined.
 
you can get that stuff off so easy, it's called gasoline :) it eats it like water and sugar :) just use a little bit and it comes off easy, then wash your hands with good soap, or fast orange.

That's good to know, I had not even thought of that at the time. Gas is actually a wonderful cleaning agent for sticky situations. Great to get rid of tree sap too and it smells good. :D
 
I was told later that they grabbed some liquid soap or something from the bathroom and poured it on the floor. It apparently didn't mix well with the foam gunk and it was smoking a little. They still proceeded to move paper towels around with their feet trying to get it all up.

Glad I wasn't in the vicinity for that, but would have been another nice photo, rofl.
 
Good thing those morons have respect for the $15-30k fiber splicer they may have ruined.

It's not their money, why should they care?

Had a bunch of Koreans over here that pulled something stupid like that. They were working on getting cement put down for a new runway, and they found a bunch of cables underground. Eventually they figured out that they were ours and controlled one of the ILS setups we use. Then they asked us if they could cut them. :rolleyes: We told the translater to tell them no, that they're very important, and that they can't cut them. The second we left and were out of sight, they wrapped a tow strap around them and pulled them up and out with a bloody backhoe. Yay LNs...
 
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