Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you've ever done?

Piedmont3 · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I didn't do this, but I was in the shop at the time.
when we were kids (15...16...17 years old we were trying to build an engine for a race truck(at least to beat the other guys on main street on weekend nights)... We were using the farm/ag shop of one of our friends. one of the little brothers, 13 or 14 years old, grabbed the grinder and was grinding on something he had squeezed in the vice. His big brother walked over to see what charlie was grinding on.. it popped as he got close. I was under the truck trying to bolt up the transmission. something hit me in the heel of the boot...
We nearly skinned charlie when we found out he had been grinding a .22 caliber rimfire shell.. and I still have that pair of boot with the chunk missing from the heel. If I could have caught him that night I would have torn him apart. I see his big brother occasionally and we still laugh at that story.
Stupid lucky kids.

Piedmont3 · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I didn't do this, but I was in the shop at the time.
when we were kids (15...16...17 years old we were trying to build an engine for a race truck(at least to beat the other guys on main street on weekend nights)... We were using the farm/ag shop of one of our friends. one of the little brothers, 13 or 14 years old, grabbed the grinder and was grinding on something he had squeezed in the vice. His big brother walked over to see what charlie was grinding on.. it popped as he got close. I was under the truck trying to bolt up the transmission. something hit me in the heel of the boot...
We nearly skinned charlie when we found out he had been grinding a .22 caliber rimfire shell.. and I still have that pair of boot with the chunk missing from the heel. If I could have caught him that night I would have torn him apart. I see his big brother occasionally and we still laugh at that story.
Stupid lucky kids.

Bird · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Jeff, from the time I was 11 years old, Dad & I both did a lot of hunting for small game with .22 rifles. My youngest brother, 6 years younger than I, had seen us pull the lead out of "duds" and dump the powder out and burn it. He had asked both of us what would happen if you hit a .22 shell with a hammer, and of course, we told him and also told him to never do it. He was probably 6 or 7 years old when we were visiting our grandparents and we heard a "pop" outside, then heard him yelling. I went running out there to find him bleeding like a stuck hog from his right arm. He had found a .22 shell, wasn't strong enough to pull the lead out, so he laid it on the concrete drive and tried to chop it open with a hatchet. We have no idea where the lead went, but it turned out that he had 2 pieces of the brass laying right against the bone in his right arm; one above the elbow and one below. By the time we got to the hospital, saw the x-rays, and the doctor started probing to get those out, Mother was nearly hysterical, and little brother laying there with the doctor probing, says, "I'm hungry!" It was about lunch time. And that ended Mother's hysteria. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Of course we asked him why he'd done that when Dad and I had both told him not to, and he said, "I didn't hit it with a hammer; it was a hatchet."

Bird · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Jeff, from the time I was 11 years old, Dad & I both did a lot of hunting for small game with .22 rifles. My youngest brother, 6 years younger than I, had seen us pull the lead out of "duds" and dump the powder out and burn it. He had asked both of us what would happen if you hit a .22 shell with a hammer, and of course, we told him and also told him to never do it. He was probably 6 or 7 years old when we were visiting our grandparents and we heard a "pop" outside, then heard him yelling. I went running out there to find him bleeding like a stuck hog from his right arm. He had found a .22 shell, wasn't strong enough to pull the lead out, so he laid it on the concrete drive and tried to chop it open with a hatchet. We have no idea where the lead went, but it turned out that he had 2 pieces of the brass laying right against the bone in his right arm; one above the elbow and one below. By the time we got to the hospital, saw the x-rays, and the doctor started probing to get those out, Mother was nearly hysterical, and little brother laying there with the doctor probing, says, "I'm hungry!" It was about lunch time. And that ended Mother's hysteria. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Of course we asked him why he'd done that when Dad and I had both told him not to, and he said, "I didn't hit it with a hammer; it was a hatchet."

Piedmont3 · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Bird.
Are you sure your little brother's name isn't Charlie....
Because that sounds like what he said that night, Something along the line of I thought you had to hit it with something to make it go off.. I just wanted to see what was inside it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
If I could have caught him I would hace shown him the inside of that shell.. I would have stuffed him in there so he could have a real good long look. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif.
I'm just glad it is a funny memory instead of one of us being hurt or worse.

Piedmont3 · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Bird.
Are you sure your little brother's name isn't Charlie....
Because that sounds like what he said that night, Something along the line of I thought you had to hit it with something to make it go off.. I just wanted to see what was inside it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
If I could have caught him I would hace shown him the inside of that shell.. I would have stuffed him in there so he could have a real good long look. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif.
I'm just glad it is a funny memory instead of one of us being hurt or worse.

catsco · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Great reading, everybody.

As with most of you, this brings back a memory of a stupid thing I accidentally did. It's pretty funny now.

In 1977 I was driving from Denver to North Platte, NE to visit my girlfriend. I left Christmas Eve as it was getting dark, and have little recollection of the trip other than as I was feeling very drowsy, I noticed that the road was really rough.

As I 'woke up', I realized that I was driving 75 mph in the frozen grass of the median, and was approaching a headwall with a culvert.

A quick swerve to the right, and I shot across the highway and off the North Platte exit.

Whew! This was in a Fiat 128!

Back then I was young and foolish. Now I'm older. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark H.

catsco · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Great reading, everybody.

As with most of you, this brings back a memory of a stupid thing I accidentally did. It's pretty funny now.

In 1977 I was driving from Denver to North Platte, NE to visit my girlfriend. I left Christmas Eve as it was getting dark, and have little recollection of the trip other than as I was feeling very drowsy, I noticed that the road was really rough.

As I 'woke up', I realized that I was driving 75 mph in the frozen grass of the median, and was approaching a headwall with a culvert.

A quick swerve to the right, and I shot across the highway and off the North Platte exit.

Whew! This was in a Fiat 128!

Back then I was young and foolish. Now I'm older. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark H.

AL_Josh · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I worked for a fire sprinkler company for a year and we ended up doing some pretty stupid things. Our crew foreman was notorious for sending us out in the field with equipment that would just do the job and sometimes it just would not do the job.He would send us out with a 8' ladder to do a 14' ladder job.

One of the things was at a saw mill were we were running a system. Most of the sprinklerheads were going over equipment and we could not use manlifts. But, there was an overhead crane. We rachet strapped a 24' walkboard to it and brought the controller up with us and used it as our work platform. I did participate in that one.

The next one was where there was a drop ceiling and we had pipe running near the roof. The ceiling to roof distance was probly 15 feet and the ceiling was 20' from the floor. We had a scissorlift and a 14' jack ladder. In case you do not know what a jack ladder is it is a a frame ladder that has another ladder coming straight out of the top so it looks like a big peace sign with no circle arround it. We once again rachet strapped it to the manlift gaurdrails raised the manlift up till the top of the ladder reached the ceiling and then climbed the ladder to the roof to work on the pipes.

The third thing I saw was another one of the guys rachet strapped a couple of 4x4s and a 2x12 to the basket of a 80' manlift.It looked just like a diving board. The place where we were working was a new building that the top 15' of metal was not on the walls and we were going through the gap to reach the top of the building to run our lines. well he could not reach far enough in in one spot. SO he made the diving board so he could reach. It stuck out about 8' from the basket on the manlift. He put his safety harness on and tied off to the basket walked out and hung the pipe.

The rachet straps that were used were the heavy duty ones. I think back and say to myself that we must of had some good guardian angels watching over us.

I have come along way since then. I am married now and would never do anything like that anymore.

Sorry for being so long winded.

AL_Josh · May 25, 2006

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I worked for a fire sprinkler company for a year and we ended up doing some pretty stupid things. Our crew foreman was notorious for sending us out in the field with equipment that would just do the job and sometimes it just would not do the job.He would send us out with a 8' ladder to do a 14' ladder job.

One of the things was at a saw mill were we were running a system. Most of the sprinklerheads were going over equipment and we could not use manlifts. But, there was an overhead crane. We rachet strapped a 24' walkboard to it and brought the controller up with us and used it as our work platform. I did participate in that one.

The next one was where there was a drop ceiling and we had pipe running near the roof. The ceiling to roof distance was probly 15 feet and the ceiling was 20' from the floor. We had a scissorlift and a 14' jack ladder. In case you do not know what a jack ladder is it is a a frame ladder that has another ladder coming straight out of the top so it looks like a big peace sign with no circle arround it. We once again rachet strapped it to the manlift gaurdrails raised the manlift up till the top of the ladder reached the ceiling and then climbed the ladder to the roof to work on the pipes.

The third thing I saw was another one of the guys rachet strapped a couple of 4x4s and a 2x12 to the basket of a 80' manlift.It looked just like a diving board. The place where we were working was a new building that the top 15' of metal was not on the walls and we were going through the gap to reach the top of the building to run our lines. well he could not reach far enough in in one spot. SO he made the diving board so he could reach. It stuck out about 8' from the basket on the manlift. He put his safety harness on and tied off to the basket walked out and hung the pipe.

The rachet straps that were used were the heavy duty ones. I think back and say to myself that we must of had some good guardian angels watching over us.

I have come along way since then. I am married now and would never do anything like that anymore.

Sorry for being so long winded.