When I did it I was soo scared !
Went out and bought a very expensive 1000 volt screw driver set ,Than standing on a rubber mat with my other hand in my pocket and my last thought was ,I hope this guy knows what he's talking about .haha

I got zapped that way in 1971 and my work and flat mate at the time reminds me of it still. Next year our friendship hits 50 years.

Thats a good friendship that one !
The only shock Ive ever had was pulling the cap and lead out of a CRT. It was unplugged ,but that was before I learnt to short them to ground ....not a bad shock ,but a wake up call

I think I've mentioned here before that the worst and potentially lethal shock I ever got was touching a transformerless radio's chassis with one hand while I held the tap in my high school's chemistry lab with the other hand -- 240 volts straight across my chest. Fortunately I touched the radio chassis with the back of my hand and was thrown off it.

A schoolmate and I who were interested in electronics were invited by our science teacher to play around after school with some old radio chassis he'd found or been given. We powered one up (first bad idea) and there was a faint signal. The radio had a bit of wire for an aerial so I decided that "maybe it needs a good earth" (second bad idea). Wham! The look on the teacher's face is still clear to me now. I characterise it as him imaging himself standing in the dock in the Coroner's Court trying to explain why he encouraged 16 year olds to play around with mains electricity.

That was my one and only lesson in the danger of the 'hot' chassis. I haven't had a 240 volt shock ever since. High voltage zaps from spark plugs and playing silly buggers with that TV set yes, but I'm damned careful around mains voltage, and HT in radios.

I have a 'chicken stick' on my bench to deal with capacitors. One of my resto projects on the to-do list is a Heathkit 2000 watt linear amplifier. Said chicken stick will be in frequent use with that.

In school our science lab had a machine that produced static electricity at a large mushroom-shaped top cap. We were encouraged to stand there with hands on the top cap and see how long you could last after the machine was started up. I remember hair standing on end, arcs flashing through my shoes to the floor. Scary stuff.

In school our science lab had a machine that produced static electricity

When I was in lower secondary, our physics lab had a Wimshurst machine connected to two Leyden jars. At full crank it generated huge sparks. I would not have wanted to get across that.

The trick with electric shocks is time as much as it is the current flow. If the current flow is across your chest, like it was with me the time I lifted a 63cm picture tube that still had a static charge within then whether you continue to live or not will depend on that shock being in the milliseconds rather than a second or longer.

Everyone is different and some will withstand lethal shocks better than others will. The rule of thumb based on a law of averages is that 50mA delivered for 1 second is lethal. The voltage doesn't matter. If the current manages to pass through the insulating layer of your skin and zaps you, that is what kills. If you dip your hands in pool water for an hour them come out and grab the terminals of a 6 volt dolphin battery then your ticker is likely to feel it.

Based on the rule of thumb, this is why RCDs are usually rated at 30mA.

In hospitals, where things are sometimes more critical, RCDs can be rated at as little as 10mA and they need to be tested every year to ensure they not only trip but trip within a certain time, typically a few milliseconds. Earthing is a lot stricter too. In your home you are allowed 2Ω between the furthest point and the earth busbar in your meter box. In a cardiac protected area in a hospital, such as certain operating theatres and cardiac wards, this limit falls to 100mΩ between the furthest point in the room and the room's EP junction.

A friend of mine use to Run a vintage Record shop in Hornsby.
I got to know him a bit through my collecting of Records and classic cars , Anyway he bought a old 50s Juke box for his house and it had a few issues, So he attempted to repair it and he got a massive shock ,he was 34 when this happened and it gave him a Heart attack.
He come close to passing away ,which would of been very sad as at the time him and his wife had just had a buba.
It changed him in many ways ,The record shop closed down and I've not seen him since .
We all know electricity is deadly , but coronavirus has ended more life that shocks I'm sure and it's only been around for 6 months.
Pete

Robert that machine would have been a Vandergraph generator?
At tech college they had one and we used to fire it up and place a hand on the stainless steel ball at the top whilst forming a human chain of students, all with hair standing on end!

The name sounds familiar. I looked it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator

Ours was a similar idea, with the belt running from top to bottom, but a different model to those pictured.

Ian great idea mate. And yes it seems to come from the right channel more. So I turned it on and it fizzed and crackled and kssshed etc etc. I then turned it off took the 12ax7 out and then turned it back on and the noise was there for a moment and then went. So I need to chase that resistor down my friend.So are you a master at this and I am merely grasshopper. It definitely went away without that 12ax7 in. As soon as I put it back in it started back up. Whoo hoo. so disregard my comment on your post. Great post by the way. So I should try and chase this resistor down mate. Everyones comments have been extremely helpful. I will keep you posted.

Shane,
I have a box full of new Resistors that are on the 11 77 parts list , because I ordered way too many .
If you tell me ,what you need I will post it too you as you won't get them from Jcar etc.
Mica caps I don't have because I replaced my mica caps and only bought what I needed.

Pete

Thanks heaps Pete. So I'm going into it today and having a good look at the R17 and R19 270k RVYS in machine but I think you can only get RVYG so I'm not sure how that goes . I will also check R14 R16 R18 R20 R21 R22 R23 so basically anything that seems to be around or in sync with that 12ax7. So its into measure mode. I will let you guys know how I went.

Oh and its great to see everyone off task talking about electric shocks. My worst electric shock was from a 4 colour printing machine.415 volts not sure ampage but it was a 3phase. The boss was winding a hanger into its socket and kept winding it not realising he was winding it into the wiring of the motor whilst the machine was operating and I was just doing what a pressman does touching the machine and checking job and I went to touch feeder unit and bang at that time it through me back the motor was smoking the machine cut off and that was it. it was just a nasty jolt really. haha he didnt even say sorry. anyway it cost him $10,000 to fix.

Shane, don't be tricked by the old faded colour values of the resistors,plus some of those colours may no longer be used .
So download a resistor value calculator on your phone off Google, then you can just type the colours in and it will give you the values.
Only replace what's stuffed. I'm sure Ian will pop in and tell you what to look at .

Pete

he didn't even say sorry.

Nice guy, and dangerous to be around.