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

thanks for the tip! I'm sure that's not the last spray can she will get hold of, she's facinated with them

 

I may have a few extra old rusty 283 parts lying around

 

Another time I had my wifes new daily driver in the shop to get it out of the sun. I had a small screwdriver in my hand that needed to go back in the tool box on the other side of her car. Thought it would be a good idea to toss the screwdriver over the car and let it land in the open drawer of the toolbox, problem was I threw it with too high of an arch, and it clipped the 8 ft florescent light over her car, which exploded into glass shrapnel and landed all over her car, one large piece of the tube gouging the hood in the process. She was NOT impressed.

 

x2:d

 

Build a car...

 

Moved my CNC mill without the proper rigging. Totaled.

 

Reversed over a 4 litre can of primer. What a fucking mess

 

almost took my head off one day when I stood up too fast and hit my head on a rotisserie- bled for about 3 hours and I talked ragtime for a few -hit the damn thing square.
Have a nice scar to show off on my forhead though.

 

Needed a big washer in a hurry.
Grabbed a piece of plate and a holesaw.
So far so good
Now for the hole, smaller holesaw, start drillpress.
Started to think: "Maybe you should have deburre . . . . .
Split the end of my thumb in two, half way down the nail touching the bone.
Nowadays I clamp stuff, and keep my fingers out of the way

 

polished numerous rough aluminum castings on a bufing wheel for hours. When I finally stopped I realized I trashed the shop and there was black fuzz everywhere.

 

Fill a plastic 1 gal jug with oxyacetylene, light it off, blow out 34 windows.

 

this was yrs ago, had been REAL sick all night (lost 8 lbs overnight!), but my car was sitting at my parents house and they were moving, had to be out by 5pm that day. So I went out there, cause I still had to put the th400 in it, and put the new crossmember in, so I could get the driveshaft done on monday.
got under there, slide the th400 onto my chest, and go to bench press it up into the car (had done this 3 times already, makin the crossmember). Apparently bein that sick makes you weak. Couldn't budge the trans, and by that time, I was wedged in there and couldn't get it off either! So I laid there for an hour and 45 min til dad and my 2 brother in laws came back for another load, and they could get under there and rescue me. BiLs put it up in there for me so we could tow it out of there.

worked as a dealer mechanic at a chevy dealer in texas, and was not unusual for tools to get flung at the wall to vent frustrations. I was trying to do that one day with a screwdriver, but it slipped out of my hand. went almost straight up, hit a steel roof beam, accelerated to warp 6.2, went across the shop and stuck thru the open hood of a brand new Impala wagon (this was in 81). misssed another mechanic who was working under the hood by inches. After that, they put an old totaled car out by the back fence, and sledgehammer by the back door. we would go beat on that car if we needed to. they had to replace it about every 6 weeks.

 

GOT involved with old cars and hotrods 45 yrs ago

 

I love this stuff! Keep em' coming!

 

As a teenager, my car was down, so was using my mom's '79 Malibu Capri Classic station wagon that needed front brake pads. Got the pads, picked up my girlfriend to go out, told her had to stop by the shop to change the pads real quick! Promised we'd be out of there in 30 minutes tops.

Floor jack under the center crossmember, both wheels up, both wheels off, both calipers off, C-clamp to compress both calipers, old pads off, new pads on, calipers back on, wheels back on, jack down. Jack to jack - 16 minutes flat. I felt like Richard Petty's pit crew.

About two weeks later, I felt a pulsing in the brake pedal that got worse over the course of the day. The next day, it was worse still. That afternoon, pulled into the girlfriend's driveway and the pedal went to the floor! A quick peek underneath showed brake fluid all over the inside of the right front wheel.

Jacked it up, popped the wheel off, and I had installed one of the brake pads on backwards - metal-to-metal - and had worn through the rotor into the cooling vanes (pedal pulsing) until the piston popped out of the caliper and drained the fluid. Luckily, it happened as I was almost stopped.

How come I didn't hear it those two weeks? Air conditioning and LOUD music - I kid you not. It was a quick fix - new rotor, new pads, reinstall piston, refill and bleed - but it was a learning experience.



Other dumb thing I did was forget to put the drain plug in when changing the oil in my dad's Bronco. 5 quarts of oil looks like a helluva lot more than that spread out on the floor... Haven't done that since either.

 

I was checking voltage on a generator and my fluke had a broken lead. 460 volts, 3 phase, 15 amps per leg vs me. guess who won. Thank goodness for breakers. Would be nicer if they blew out a little faster though. That got cought on the security camera and my good friend and co-worker decided every one that came to our department should see the video of me break-dancing.

Was drilling a hole in the wall of our office with a hole saw when the bit got stuck and twisted the handle on the drill directly into my nuts. Also cought on tape and it became nessasary to show every one.

We used to play jokes on each other from time to time and they thought it would be funny to lock me out of the shop. I was in a bad mood and wasn't having any of it so I pick up a 3 foot long 4x4 and proceed to knock off the door knob. That would have shown them what's what, except that I missed completely and smacked my shin with that 4x4 as hard as I could swing it. Once again cought on security cam for everyones amusment.

A buddy of mine was working on his van and went for a test drive with the engine cover off. On a turn his tool box dumped over and he reached real quick to grab a wrench that fell out. Stuck his hand straight into the fan blades and split his middle finger down the middle to the second knuckle.

 

Let my wife see what hidden in the corner

 

Rustford you made my day!

 

Many years ago working on my boss 302 ford powered dirt modified running on alcohol. Heated the oil pan to drain the 50 weight out of it blew the alluminium valve covers off the motor and buldged the canton oil pan out round . Pieces of the valve covers are still stuck in the cieling. Now that was stupid.

 

You should've kept a copy of those videos so you could post them here, or on youtube. You could be famous!

 

Not paying attention to my grandson...eight at the time....when he asked me a question while I was busy.....I wish I had noticed the rattle can in his hand...before I kinda shuffled him off and said OK. On a positive note, he has a future as a graffitti artist.

 

Stupidest thing? Being proud of my first fiberglass resin job, chin spoiler for a Mustang. It was nice untill I found out and I glued it to the work bench.

 

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at this, rings true.

I have dipped the slurry off the top of a pot of 900 degree babbitt and deposited it on the table and grabbed it to throw it out . How'ed that go for ya'-----NOT TOO GOOD ! Worst part was my buddy was standing right beside me and admonished me for being so stupid and didn't I know that would be hot? I got the last laugh when 20 minutes later he did the same thing----- Dumbass!

 

I actually did laugh out loud at this one.

 

...was trying to finally get rid of that 5 gallon bucket of waste gear oil at the waste management place in our area. Set the bucket in the back my van. Got distracted by either wife or kids (can't remember, but does it really matter). Finally got back to the task at hand. Hurried to get rid of the waste oil, forgot to tie it to something. By the time I got there it had tipped over, the cap of course came off and it emptied its entire contents onto the carpet. It smelled great!!! Spent a day removing seats, carpet and insulation, cleaning everything with detergent, scrub brushes, pressure washer etc. Never did get the smell out. Wound up selling it the next month for $500 after just painting it 2 months prior for $2500. That's the way we roll...

 

Hey Norton... I've got a pic just like the one in your Avatar at home. Took it back in '99 on a small road near the airport between Isla Vista and Santa Barbara, CA. Same car?

 

In my high school mechanics shop class - we each had to rebuild a lawnmower motor. I was in to cars, not lawnmowers, but did it as I had to. When it was time to ream the valve guides I put the disassembled bare block/head in the vise. Now this vise was one of four big ones (one per corner) on this metal shop table. There was an electricle cord hanging from the ceiling in near the center of the table, which I plugged a drill in to. Not knowing there were 2 sizes of reamers to use, I simply put one in the drill. The larger one. Can you see what's about to happen? Pushing the drill with the large reamer a bit in to the first valve guide, it was a tough push - but I did it - locking the bit in the guide, and this promptly pulled the drill right out of my hands, and it spun around in a circular motion, looking kind of funny, as I had hit the "on" lock, so the drill just kept running & spinning above the block until it loosened the block right out of the vise, and then the whole block and drill were bouncing around up & down every which way on that metal shop table - banging and making some pretty good noises until it finally unplugged itself. I was laughing so so hard, until the shop teacher blew in - just a little baffled and mad at the same time.

 

Built a supermodified. And I'm doing it again.... stupid, stupid, stupid....

 

I worked for a guy who had a candy vending route. One cold day he backed into the shop to load a machine in the pickup. As it would take a bit to finish the work on the machine he pulled the door down to the cab of the truck to limit the wind blowing into the shop. Well the machine got loaded and tied down to the the rack but the door was never raised. The bottom section of the door was torn off in seconds.

But his partner pulled the best one. He had a couple of 70's Ford econoline vans as route trucks. One day one broke down, he jumped into the pickup to pull it in with a chain. The van driver hooked the chain and said "OK". Off he went but the driver was not in the van. He pulled it about 3/4 of a mile, the van tracked perfect, no wobble or bobble, right up till the first red light. He jumped out to scream at the drive but no-one was there. =)

 

Now that's funny.