Bonehead Award of the year

[Bird]

My sister-in-law, 8-mo pregnant, was mowing wet lawn with a self-propelled mower. When the grass chute got clogged, leaving it running, she knelt down next to the chute, pulled up the black plastic guard, and started to pull the wet chunks out. About the 2nd handful, she got bit by the blade. Miraculously, it only blackened one finger nail. No cuts, no blood. Talk about a bruised ego. She couldn't believe her own stupidity, but blamed it on pregnancy brain. Still...

I did the same thing once about 1975, with the same results. I wasn't pregnant but I was bad sick, and yet needed to get the yard mowed.

One of my nephews was about 14-15 when he was mowin the lawn. He was pulling the mower back towards himself, slipped on wet grass, and his foot went under the deck.

One of my employees, a clerk in the auto pound, did that, but his lawnmower chewed on both of his feet, so he was off work quite awhile.

 

[MossRoad]

OUCH!

 

[sixdogs]

I had a neighbor years back that had a terrible mowing accident when he knocked himself off on a tree limb and the mower ran over his feet and legs. It was a mess with blood and lots of stitches. The good news was that he had screwed up and mistakenly put the mower blades on backwards just before the accident. Had the sharp edge hit his feet and legs rather than the dull edge, he would have probably bled to death out in his apple orchard.

 

[Travelover]

I did a dumb one yesterday. My wife asked me to install a towel bar in the bathroom of our new to us house. I drilled the holes and mounted the rack before I remembered the wall had a pocket door behind the rack. By some miracle, I totally missed drilling the door and the screws were short enough so they missed the door, too.

 

[dragoneggs]

I did a dumb one yesterday. My wife asked me to install a towel bar in the bathroom of our new to us house. I drilled the holes and mounted the rack before I remembered the wall had a pocket door behind the rack. By some miracle, I totally missed drilling the door and the screws were short enough so they missed the door, too.

Done that long ago... but the screws were long enough to scratch the pocket door.

I even thought the door was faulty until I realized it was me! :mur: What an idiot!

 

[rdinatal]

Current house, previous owners bonehead move...

We moved in and the wife wanted to nest. So, in the master bath all the old picture and towel hangers were removed, patched the walls, papered. Turned out great!

About a month later I smell sewer, very faint, only at certain times... WTH?!?! Took me a while to find it as one spot on the wall at eye level was getting discolored and damp. Since I didn't want to cut into a large wall and need to paper the whole wall the other side was in the toilet room, small wall. After cutting into the wallboard and looking in I found the the previous owner hung a picture and screwed into the upstairs bathroom waste pipe. Yep, I activated that time bomb by removing the screw. Pull the pipe away from the wall, a small plastic patch, some PVC glue and tie wraps to hold it, done! 18yrs later, still holding. Took longer to patch the wall back up than the actual repair.

-R

 

[Industrial Toys]

I'm in the security business but always willing to help a customer. He was having a tough time installing a shelf in his walk in closet. But the two of us, managed to screw that shelf to the pocket door good and solid! Not cheap hollow doors either!

 

[k0ua]

I have often wondered how many nails and screws are driven into one side of a piece of Romex, and might be energized and people don't even know it. They wouldn't know it unless they were well grounded and touched the screw or nail. Of course the screw or nail could have hit the Neutral or ground wire too. Just little time bombs waiting for some wet handed, grounded, hapless soul.

 

[screamin400]

Ever purchase magnetic signs for an Aluminum truck? Yup. Been there done that.

 

[Industrial Toys]

A friend in the glass business was once installing bathroom mirrors in a new high rise. Put a screw through a water pipe. A dab of silicone, back in with the screw and it was on to the next unit.

 

[duffer]

I did a dumb one yesterday. My wife asked me to install a towel bar in the bathroom of our new to us house. I drilled the holes and mounted the rack before I remembered the wall had a pocket door behind the rack. By some miracle, I totally missed drilling the door and the screws were short enough so they missed the door, too.

Wait until you hang a wet towel on the new bar, and pull it off the wall, because the screws didn't "bite" into anything solid

 

[MossRoad]

I did a dumb one yesterday. My wife asked me to install a towel bar in the bathroom of our new to us house. I drilled the holes and mounted the rack before I remembered the wall had a pocket door behind the rack. By some miracle, I totally missed drilling the door and the screws were short enough so they missed the door, too.

Nice! :laughing:

 

[Travelover]

Wait until you hang a wet towel on the new bar, and pull it off the wall, because the screws didn't "bite" into anything solid

Oh great. Now I have something else to worry about...lol

 

[sixdogs]

Wait until you hang a wet towel on the new bar, and pull it off the wall, because the screws didn't "bite" into anything solid

Oh great. Now I have something else to worry about...lol

Wait until you put a hook on the back of a door and since you forgot (I'll do it later) to put the door stop on, the hook pokes a hole in the plaster wall behind the door. I've even done it more than once to make sure I got it right.

 

[Mainahs70]

We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.

Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 ft. into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works..


The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.

Months late but have to say this is best post I have seen on TBN. Initially reading on bus from Logan Airport and wifey wondering why I was almost pissing myself. Had to shut laptop so passengers wouldn't have to endure me bellowing out... next day finished finished reading and wifey new why i was crying.... Thank you so much..... :laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[Travelover]

Recently moved into a new house and found a box for an unknown underground wire with a blank cover . Inside the wires were disconnected and wire nutted off. I kept wondering where that wire lead to. Yesterday my wife found the other end in the middle of the circle drive next to a tree. The previous owner said she used to have a light mounted to the tree. I see this as a great opportunity to install an outlet there to plug the weed whipper into. I get my wire tracer out and sure enough it is the same wire. So I mount a GFCI protected box on a stake and hook up the wires. Flip on the circuit breaker and ZAP, it clicks off. I'd neglected to do a resistance check - it turned out the black and ground wire have a dead short - probably happened when the new driveway was put in.

So back to square one.

 

[erkme73]

Recently moved into a new house and found a box for an unknown underground wire with a blank cover . Inside the wires were disconnected and wire nutted off. I kept wondering where that wire lead to. Yesterday my wife found the other end in the middle of the circle drive next to a tree. The previous owner said she used to have a light mounted to the tree. I see this as a great opportunity to install an outlet there to plug the weed whipper into. I get my wire tracer out and sure enough it is the same wire. So I mount a GFCI protected box on a stake and hook up the wires. Flip on the circuit breaker and ZAP, it clicks off. I'd neglected to do a resistance check - it turned out the black and ground wire have a dead short - probably happened when the new driveway was put in.

So back to square one.

I had a similar situation with the house we built. The electrical contractor added an outlet about 5' off the floor in the living room for future TV mount. Apparently when they hung the drywall, they managed to short the black (hot) and ground together. He suggested two options to pass inspection... 1) tear open drywall (which at this point was finished/textured) replace wire, or 2) swap the black and white wires at both ends (the cable was only about 6 feet long connected to the nearest standard receptacle. That's what I did. I wrapped the white/neutral wire on both ends with black tape and used a white marker to ID the black as neutral. I also separated the ground coming from that TV outlet so it is effectively ungrounded. Works like a champ, passed inspection, and no issues.

Obviously that would preclude NOT having a GFCI in line as the neutral and ground circuit are bonded at the screw - but seeing as it is the only affected receptacle, I'm ok with it.

 

[kneedeep]

Very interesting thread. I thought about contributing some of my mistakes, but then decided:

(1) I ain't gonna tell on myself, and
(2) TBN might not have enough capacity for me to list all of them.

I am in this club!

 

[duffer]

So yesterday I'm rinsing off my PTO broadcast fertilizer spreader. I have the PTO engaged at idle speed to disperse the water at the rotary unit. Works great.

I needed a little more hose to get to the other side of the spreader, so I yanked on it, and the hose caught the rotary disk. Yanked the hose out of my hand, tore the nozzled right off the hose, and wrapped around the driveshaft on the spreader about 6 times before I could shut the PTO off. (I know, I know, I shouldn't have the PTO on when not of the tractor...but that's why this is labeled "Bonehead" award).

Luckily nobody got hurt, lost about 6 feet of hose, and cost me $2.50 for a new male fitting for the end of the hose. And increased my faith in God that I didn't get caught up in it !!

 

[Travelover]

...........Luckily nobody got hurt, lost about 6 feet of hose, and cost me $2.50 for a new male fitting for the end of the hose. .........

I don't think my underwear would have been salvageable.