Stupid Things I Have Done

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Here's a great stupid thing I have done (is the OP giving out prizes?). A couple years ago a friend stops by asking for my help. His F350 7.3l diesel one battery terminal broke, he had bought a new terminal but how to attach it? He's only 2 miles away so I throw tools I thought I needed in a box & we headed out. At his home I unhooked his charger on it and hacksaw cut old broken terminal off, removed 1" insulation and thoroughly cleaned copper stranded cable.
Then fluxed it, my idea was tin it then solder it to new terminal. So I get out my propane torch (remember he had battery on a charger? )...I lit torch and we leaned way over, he held cable while I started to... "BOOOOMMM!!!!"!!!
The battery disappeared! We were deaf! 100% deaf! I yelled "LET'S WASH OFF WITH WATER" as I pointed to spigot. "WHAT???" He replied, discovering I could now read lips.
He got the idea when running to spigot. Battery acid is nasty, luckily didn't get much on us. I asked for baking soda by pantomime like I was cooking something pointing to a Coke can laying nearby, then pointed to my arm & hammering a nail. He ran in house & brought some back we washed off with.
We found the battery, what was left other side of his yard.
Anyway our hearing returned, some of it, and he bought another battery and a cable with ends on it. He's never asked for my assistance again!

 

[scootr]

I met a man who was missing his ring finger. Said he used to be a house painter.
He was up on a ladder when he fell and grabbed for the gutter to save himself... Well, he missed the gutter but his wedding ring caught the nail head and he hung there until they got him down... unfortunately they could not save the finger. Ouch!

 

[Yander]

Here's a great stupid thing I have done (is the OP giving out prizes?). A couple years ago a friend stops by asking for my help. His F350 7.3l diesel one battery terminal broke, he had bought a new terminal but how to attach it? He's only 2 miles away so I throw tools I thought I needed in a box & we headed out. At his home I unhooked his charger on it and hacksaw cut old broken terminal off, removed 1" insulation and thoroughly cleaned copper stranded cable.
Then fluxed it, my idea was tin it then solder it to new terminal. So I get out my propane torch (remember he had battery on a charger? )...I lit torch and we leaned way over, he held cable while I started to... "BOOOOMMM!!!!"!!!
The battery disappeared! We were deaf! 100% deaf! I yelled "LET'S WASH OFF WITH WATER" as I pointed to spigot. "WHAT???" He replied, discovering I could now read lips.
He got the idea when running to spigot. Battery acid is nasty, luckily didn't get much on us. I asked for baking soda by pantomime like I was cooking something pointing to a Coke can laying nearby, then pointed to my arm & hammering a nail. He ran in house & brought some back we washed off with.
We found the battery, what was left other side of his yard.
Anyway our hearing returned, some of it, and he bought another battery and a cable with ends on it. He's never asked for my assistance again!

 

[MossRoad]

Yikes. I would bet that I'm wearing a heavy cotton flannel shirt of one variety or another more often than almost anything else, when out in the shop welding. The rest of the time I'm wearing denim or Carhartt coveralls, both of which come with tags citing their own flammability.

When I was a kid in grade school I won a science contest. The experiment involved flame retardant flannel pajama material. I bought a couple yards of it from a fabric store, cut it into equal squares, and then held one over an open flame at a measured distance and timed how long it took to ignite. As I recall, the first one didn't ignite, but more-like melted after quite a few seconds. Pretty impressive. I recorded the results, then washed all the remaining squares. I repeated the experiment with one of the once washed squares. It took a little less time to start melting, then ignited. Repeated the wash and test routine multiple times. After only about 6 washings the fabric lost all of its flame retardant ability and would ignite almost immediately.

 

[MossRoad]

I needed to change a mandrel/spindle on my riding lawn mower. I dropped the mowing deck and turned it up on its edge. It has small wheels all along the edge so it was resting on those on my concrete shop floor. I was on my knees, holding one end with my knees, the other end was leaning against a workbench. It was a little wobbly, but I thought it was stable enough. I wedged a 2X4 block against the blade to prevent it from turning while I removed a lock nut on the other end with a ratchet and socket. No one ever accused me of being patient and it was very slow going. It was kind of a struggle so I thought I would work smarter, not harder. I replaced my ratchet with a 3/8” socket adapter in my Dewalt 20V drill. Boy howdy, we’re cooking now. Well, kinda. The drill was struggling, but it was slowly working. Then the mower deck slipped, rolled a little on the wheels, the 2X4 fell out, and I grabbed at the decked with my left hand. With nothing holding the blade, the drill spun it pretty fast. Mower blades aren’t very sharp, but those big mulching wings on the top of them are. Cut two fingers good. The nail on one finger was cut all the way through. The ER doc sewed right through the nail. That was about 18 months ago and today it all healed View attachment 834807

YEOWCH!!!

Glad its healed up for you.

 

[WinterDeere]

Remember your high school old shop class metal lathes, with the enormous T-handle chuck keys, the size of your forearm? I guess the shop teacher liked big keys that were less-likely to disappear between classes.

Anyway, one day I'm setting up something in the lathe, 9th grade shop class. Two kids at another lathe behind me started goofing off, and I got distracted, turning around to see why the teacher was yelling at them. I forgot I had that prybar-sized chuck key in the chuck.

Anyway, I turned back around and instinctively hit the start button, thinking I was all set up and ready to go. That enormous chuck key flew out of the chuck and actually embedded itself into the hard maple floor of the shop, which was like a basketball court floor. The only thing that saved me from having it embedded in my crotch or thigh was that I was setting up to do a sanding/polishing operation, so I had the machine in reverse, rather than forward. So, the chuck key was thrown away from me, rather than toward me, and thankfully no one was standing at the next machine in the line.

 

[Jim Shooz]

Not uncommon....Kid on the lathe in front of me setting up something in the chuck, leaned over and his body touched the start lever. Jammed his index finger between the chuck key and the lathe bed. Lost his finger.

 

[paulsharvey]

 

[Jstpssng]

7th grade shop class, I was making the obligatory pump lamp. I don't recall exactly how, but as I was driving the base on the drill press it started spinning and tore up the backs of two fingers.

 

[scootr]

I put an aluminum threshold in a chop saw. Held it tightly and eased the big carbide toothed blade into it. I had done this many times before. I had no idea this new chopsaw (not mine) had a radial slide action. Well the blade jumped forward kicking up the threshold which smash 2 fingernails so badly I had to drill holes in the nails to relieve the painful swelling.