Blew a breaker at my shop and found a whole different problem
Three weeks ago on a Tuesday, I was running a 240v line for a new compressor in the back corner of my shop in Tacoma, and the main panel started humming loud enough to hear over the radio. I shut everything down and popped the cover, and that's when I saw it: a loose neutral lug that had been arcing for months, not the breaker I assumed was bad. I tightened it up, swapped the 30 amp for a new one anyway, and the whole building's voltage readings finally stopped wobbling between 112 and 128. What got me is that my clamp meter showed zero amp draw on that neutral, but the heat marks told the real story. Ever had a flicker or buzz that turned out to be a connection issue, not the part you expected to replace? I'm curious if anyone else has chased a symptom that pointed somewhere totally wrong.