What's the stupidest thing you're ever done in your shop?

We've all done it. You get in a hurry or you get anxious to finish something. Or maybe it's a day when it's too hot out or it's raining. In the end, we make a decision to do something in our shop that we end up wishing we hadn't done.

I was reminded of mine today while I was sandblasting a driveshaft OUTSIDE of my shop.

When I first bought my sandblaster, and had not tried it out, I reasoned that I could put up some welding screens to surround the work I was cleaning and that I could open the windows and use a fan to ventilate the shop and that the media and dust wouldn't get all over my shop. WRONG!!!!!

I ended up with the most God awful mess in the history of all my shops. It took me an entire day with a shop vac to clean it up and, to this day, there are things that I didn't move that have sandblasting dust and media under them or behind them.

Looking back, it's hilariously stupid.

At the time, it didn't see too funny.

 

Mooned a co-worker......

 

Let certain customers walk out without the beating they deserved.

 

My ex-wife.

 

Welding in shorts...

 

bought a new grease gun, pulled back the spring loaded plunger thing & filled it up with grease. I went to screw the cap with the hose onto the rest of the gun & accidentally hit the plunger release tab. Frosted myself like a cupcake with Lucas red tacky grease. I just had to laugh at myself & then clean up for a hour.

 

Hmmmmmm, there are so many to choose from! Probably the best was several years ago when I was buying and selling Halibrand magnesium wheels. Some times I had to polish a wheel to make it match a set to resell. Now these wheels are real magnesium, and that is flammable. On original wheels, the castings were fairly rough sand castings, so the have to be sanded allot to smooth them out. So I'm out there sanding, it's cold, and I'm amusing myself by sweeping all the dust together and lighting it on fire! A real fast, white hot burn for a few seconds. A couple of hours go by and I'm so concentrated on getting this wheel done, I forget my sweep and burn thing for quite a bit. Hmmm, fairly large piles of magnesium dust... probably still safe tough...A little fire... This going to be cool!!! FOOM!!! You see, what I didn't think about was the fact that my garage floor had been poured after the garage was built, and pretty much floated flat with a broom - lots of texture! See, magnesium dust falls into the texture, when you sweep doesn't come out real easily, and when I lit my still some what reasonable pile at least 423 smaller "spider" fires went every direction, instantly!!! Under the louver bench, under the work in progress car, under the tool box, under the shelves, under the motorcycles, under the walls... you name it! Got it out though, didn't loose any thing, and went inside and drank heavily for several hours...

 

Threw a small cup of lacquer thinner on the woodstove fire to get it going, I locked up and went home after I put out my pants and shoe! That was about 35 years ago, not that the time matters it was still stupid!

 

just spilled 6 gallons of 100 weight gear oil. Still cleaning it up!

I scared my ex girlfriend one time by spritzing my arm ( i was wearing 2 sweatshirts and a welding glove) with rubbing alcohol and started grinding right when she walked in. I turned around with my arm on fire and she screamed!

Good times.

 

Does setting yourself on fire while welding count?

 

"It's just one tiny bead of weld, I'll just do it quick and go inside"...I'd been cleaning the shop all day in shorts and sandals and relaxing out there when I noticed a vertical weld I'd missed on a table I'd made...flux core wire sometimes drops big globs if you're not careful...and sandals don't come off fast enough when the skin between your toes is being burned through by slag...lesson learned, 10 minutes to change clothes is much faster than a month of growing skin on your foot back...

 

it does for me!

 

That really hurts on the inside of the legs.

 

x2.

I have the ugliest ankle scars from the slag. And I never knew Steel Toe Boots could come off that fast

 

Moving a 3500lb lathe with no one else nearby. It tipped and pinned my arm between the lathe and the nose of a corvette. lucky for me a jack was under the lathe and I could reach the handle to take the pressure off. Learned my lesson!

 

Trying to gas weld a hole in a gas tank freshly removed from a friends' father's then-new '69 Coronet that we punched a hole in trying to flat tow a turbo Corvair home from a high school shop using a pipe, chain, and bolts.
It got my attention, and I got him a new gas tank!

 

Welding handle on lawnmower outside of shop and the grass caught fire under the gas tank and would not go out ,So I ran the mower down the street .Where if it blew up it wouldnt hurt anybody ,I run in house and get teakettle with water in it and go extinguish the flames ,Forgot fire extinguisher is hanging on shop wall.Fully charged

 

Now, THAT"s Funny!

 

We had a old icebox for storage . I got the bright idea to make more room by removing the freezer space . My Dad told me to keep my head out of the box as i went to cutting tubes. Glad i did the sparks set the gas in the tubes on fire and a flame came blowing out . Didn't get burned . When the flame went out we thought there was enough room in the box.

 

She was... errr is STILL the stupidest thing I've ever done. Doesn't make me look too smart either, does it?

 

Using an angle grinder with a wire brush attachment with one hand while holding the part with the other hand...caught the cord with the brush, the brush cut the cord and whipped it over one finger so hard I was afraid to look. Lost a good little patch of skin and bled like a mother, but I learned my lesson, it won't happen again.

 

catching a old car seat on fire while heating a bolt or fireworks

 

Drilling a piece of sheetmetal making a master cylinder cover... I thought, "I can run this through the drill press holding it with my bare hands."

Laid the webbing of my hand (between thumb and index finger) WIDE open. Rinsed it out, gauzed it up, wrapped it with electrical tape and kept on working.

 

now thats damn funny!!!!

 

...use my thumb as a cushion between a stubborn A arm bushing sleeve and a 4lb mallet...

 

Throttle stuck on my minibike when i cranked it.......... Guess which way it was headed.

 

Had a little wire wrong when I wired my shop.I had all of my florescent lights wired to the 220side.Man, did they ever come on quickly!But then they started to burn out for some reason.Ruined every single one of them.

 

At least your arm protected the nose of the corvette from getting crunched.


mR

 

Using a cut-off wheel on a right angle grinder to cut some old u-bolts off a rearend. No gloves. Busted a little hunk out of the cut-off wheel. (Now I tell my guys to stop, take the wheel off, and throw it away. Get a new one.) Not me, I think, I can cut till it smooths back out. The wheel shattered, cut half way through my left fore finger, before I could let go. That was easy 6 months ago, and I still can't feel my finger tip very well !!!!

 

Oops, almost forgot...

Replaced an alternator in the dark (with a weak droplight) in a freezing garage at 1AM for a friend... left an insulating washer off... BZZZzzzz...

That was a long time ago