The main (get it) problem is you are using residential products for a commercial application.

Sorry if I am coming across harsh but you are flirting with a disaster.

Don't screw with making new parts. Everything in the box has been subject to the same conditions. New "blades" won't address the rest of the components. The way it's installed is also a problem, as are the site conditions around the installation.

It's not hard to find a good commercial electrical contractor. Any of the guys I've worked with could install a new service entrance for you that you'd never have to look at again.

How would the power company turn off the power? If they're only pulling the meter, the buss bars entering the center section from the left would still be energized.

If you could could get the system totally de-energized I would consider getting a circuit breaker like this:

https://www.superbreakers.net/qou3100.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsK7RBRDzARIsAM2pTZ_vx91 b5TT0RFhT0vwy7reKA0Oxj6IuSxZgH4vaj4kaYNo0wOWdwcMaA mwoEALw_wcB

And replacing the vertical buss bars with #3 wire connected to lugs bolted to the buss bars entering the center section from the right (meter) section. Of course you would need to fabricate a suitable method of mounting the circuit breaker.

Around here a licensed electrician can make a 'emergency repair', cut seal, pull meter and put it back in. He notifies power company, and they reseal it.

The power company sends a bucket truck and shuts the power off at the pole.

Don't be "that guy" who comes in with a Porsche with all kinds of cobb-job repairs done. Do it right. Get a licensed electrician and have them do it the proper way. God forbid you hurt yourself or do it wrong and burn down the building. If your insurance company saw this mess they would have cause to deny a claim.

My dad would have said "don't be penny wise and pound foolish"

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I know you can, as I can. But like I, self employed, the time you spend cuts into profit. You also won't get the part UL rated. ;)

Don't you rent? Why is this your problem and not the landlords?

I do rent which hasn't gone up in 10 years. I've put about $5K into my floor over the years and contrary to popular believe on this thread, I don't mind spending the money to fix this, I just want it done right and don't trust professionals because the few times I've used them I've been disappointed or feel ripped off. I mean it took me an hour to wire in a buck boost transformer for the compressor and was getting quotes of $700 to $1000 to do the job. $200, even $300 I could see. Any licensed electrician could have done it in 30 minutes at the most.

If you don't own the building, then this is a completely different discussion. You need to go to your landlord to get this fixed. You don't want the liability of working on his building and equipment without a license or permission.

Yep, that breaker is getting HOT under load and is cooking nicely. Time to pony up and get a pro in there with the tools, meters, and talent to solve this ASAP. Whatever you do, don't show these pics to a fire marshall as he will red tag your business in a hot minute. That is one of the best ways to have this happen that I know. Don't be that guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDc0I3723A

The possibility of fire is zero. Unless brick catches on fire.

You still don't understand Shawn. It's not just the breaker that is getting hot, it's the entire circuit that it feeds is getting hot. That breaker is the canary in the coal mine. It is letting you know you have a serious problem on that circuit and so far the source of the problem is being ignored. :rolleyes:

As long as there are zero combustibles anywhere in your building you will probably avoid burning down the neighborhood when you let the smoke out of this circuit. When 100A goes off it is pretty exciting and besides the damage to your business it may be enough to damage the transformer on the power pole as well. You will be on the hook for all of it and you can add several zeros to the cost of having a pro come in and sort this out right.

Choose wisely.

No, it's not the entire circuit. It's only the junction point.

Sorry my friend. This is a game I play and you simply don't understand. Your corroded breaker is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

No, unless it only gets how while I'm sleeping, the wire from the breaker to the inside breaker does not get hot. And of course there's not much e-, like 0V, running through it because of the poor connection.

Carry on then...

That's all I want to know. Other than the poor connection itself with the junk materials, what wiring malady on the floor would cause this, if that is even possible.

That's my number 1 question that I am fascinated by. Everything else is simple mechanics.

It's a high resistance connection where the circuit breaker slides over the details, and where the details are bolted to the bus bar, that's it. It will generate an increasing amount of heat as it's loaded, and at some point will stop conducting at all due to carbon build up. Nothing's being shorted, so there aren't high fault currents being generated.

Now if you're screwing around in there with conductive tools and short a phase to ground or phase to phase, that's a different story. The only short circuit protection would be the fuses on the primary side of the transformer on the pole. I would expect a noticeable fireball at the point of shorting and likely personal injury before those fuses blow. It's certainly not going to burn the building down. It's contained in a steel box mounted to a masonry building. I guess the pallet you're standing on could catch fire.

The materials weren't junk for the last 30 years.
You have decided they are junk after you cobbled together a dryer for a part time business.
Get the job done right.

Excellent question! I have not seen/tested your circuit under load but the most common cause of this: Undersized wiring on an inductive load. Add a little more resistance due to age, voltage drops, current rises, things begin to heat up in a bad way. I have seen 60A HVAC circuits burn down in similar fashion and we had to replace everything back to and including the main panel. Ugly and expensive.

Heat and corrosion are not your friends here so it is beyond time to get an experienced set of eyes on this job and get it sorted. JMHO

[quote=javadog;9842473

i would get rid of the landscaping in that area. That has been part of your problem, thus far. You have a moist little micro climate where you don't want it.[/quote]

+1

I imagine there are a lot of folks that say the same thing about Porsche repair shops until they have to bring their car in on a flat bed with extra damage from their DIY repairs.

If you look at the very first picture in this thread, you can see that the connection that is now a problem was already corroded. You need a new box, and you need to figure out if the wires running out of the box are sufficient for your load, although they probably are.

I would use a pro, and I would get it inspected and approved. There are liability reasons for the above, and even though I know a lot about electricity, that is the reason why I would want someone else to do this job and have it inspected.
Also, If I were renting a place, I would consider this to be at least partly the landlords responsibility as regards repairs, unless I were intending to upgrade the system.

That box is literally toast. I had a similar problem in my house, and I replaced the box and upgraded to a 200 amp system, at which time I upgraded the system in my shop to 100 amps. I never looked back.

This could all have been done some time ago, and done right. I'm pretty sure that at some time in the recent past, that screw was red hot, as in RED hot. Electricians are usually licensed and insured, as are inspectors. It is in their best interest to use their knowledge and experience to do a good job for you. They have seen all this 100 times.

At some point I would have to ask myself, ''Well, since I didn't foresee THIS, what else don't I know ?''. Aside from having good connections, code compliance requirements have changed over the years. You want to be in compliance, inspected, and have a trail of liability heading away from you, unless you have the kind of insurance that will cover you in any foreseen or unforeseen instances heading into the future.

New work needs to be inspected, and you need a new box. That one is toast. Done, dead, deceased.

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''This Parrot wouldn't move if you put 4000 volts through it. It's bleeding demised...''

Be sure your home (fire ) insurance is paid up.

Yes, because Sooner or later....

A couple of notes...

The line wires look to be the same size as the load wires, so the pole fuses are likely 100 Amp, the code applies to the service provider too.

You might have an unbalanced load, I would guess the center phase sees close to 100 Amps regularly. You could address that with some rewiring, but I don't think it's worth the effort. You know how to fix it.

You have proper sized conductors and a working breaker (I think). The risk of a fire is minimal.

You could do a few tests with a clamp on ammeter, you may have outgrown your 100 Amp.

So not barefoot on a wet copper plate that's sitting on bare ground while using the plug in blade for an interchangeable screwdriver?

Don't forget the battery clamps on my nipples. ACDC, gotta love it.

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Thank you! I disconnected the center blade today. While I look for an electrician, it would be easy to make a 4 gauge wire connector with terminals that would bolt to the bus bar and plug in to the breaker. But won't have time for that this week so just going to leave it as is and start the search. Many thanks for your and dad's continued help.

It's almost been a month. Did you get an electrician to take a look at this breaker/box?

No, I ended up making the 4 gauge jumper that has worked perfectly, and will continue to I'm sure. Was checking every day, now once a week... it hasn't gotten hot or corroded or anything. But I am going to TIG together a new breaker to bus bar attachment and have it either cadmium or silver plated. The aluminum one I took off is absolute garbage. I'll probably make 2 other breaker to bus bar attachments this summer to replace the other two aluminum ones though they are fine, no corrosion, no sign of getting hot.

In this end, this was a very simple problem: the aluminum breaker to bus bar attachment was junk. Making a new one with solid clean connections has solved the problem. Definitely don't need a new breaker box.

coming up on a year later and my repair has worked perfectly.

It was failing under the oppression of Obama.

Now that Trump is making America great again your breaker can thrive.

Remember that when it's time to vote!

:D

Lol! :D

There are lots of sprays you can use to prevent corrosion.

And some you can spray on live wires.

Maybe it is all the equipment you have installed in the place. You still don't know what the problem was, so you can't possibly know if you have fixed the issue.

In reading through this thread, I have come to the conclusion you don't have as much sense as I had thought.

You do realize that if there is ever a problem or someone gets hurt, this thread will hang your ass, right?

No corrosion in a year. Clearly the original poor quality materials are what failed, and continued to fail. My high quality repair will outlast the rest of the box.

You have the approval of at least one electrical engineer.

Your solution is better than another cheap aluminum box from Mexico.

Thank you. If I had time, I would rebuild the whole thing. But it's been working for a year so I'm going to leave it alone for now.