LOL! Yeah, carrying a 2x4 was a sure sign of a knowledgeable electrical technician.
And the leaves-contacts on those blade type switches would lose their shape after a while and not make a good connection. Causing heat that would make the connection even looser causing more local heating and a looser connection...
I remember one plant with grosses of repairable blade fuses and a jar of Vaseline to be used for some of it’s switchgear.
Talk about poor installation design, I worked at a new industrial laundry that had clothes dryers in an ‘energy-efficient’ no-leak building. LOL! Had an air source for the dryers installed within a week!
On the ship I saw several controller doors on the Chillers go flying off. They pulled about 1200 Amps at on start up. Same problem really. But on the ship I wasn't the electrician LOL.
BTW at the nursing home we had gas dryers. The washers were the pain. The detergent would eat you up if you weren’t careful.