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

Stupidest thing I've ever done in the shop? Well lets see, uh opened my tool box?

 

OH Yeah...

Also was building my OT car for A to B transport in HS. ('85 Camaro) Was putting on some 16" IROC wheels and had the front end jacked up. I ran to the tool box to get an impact and socket and dad was just sitting on the ground with his hand on top of the tire....with the wheel under the fenderwell....but not on the studs.

As I ran past the jack I brushed up against the handle with my leg and loosened it enough that it slowly went down....

....which caught my dad's hand in between the tire and the fender. I heard him make a sound but didn't think about it until I got back and saw him grimacing in pain with his hand on top of the tire. Then he spouted off, "JACK THIS MOTHERFUCKER UP!!!!!"

 

that one reminds me of the time i was using my snap on tmini torch solder gun to solder some wiring i was doing under the hood and as i would finish id putt he torch to cool off on the cowling well on one of those soldering and putting it down my dumbass didnt realize where i put the glowing hot torch and went to lean in and laid my forarm right on the torch. it burned like hell but it was quite funny after the pain settled in to see the 3 inch torch bit burnt perfectly into my forearm. lets just say i put the cover back on it now or lay it far away from where im working. geez was that a pain like no other especially when the blister popped and i had to work with my hands all oilly sweaty and full of all those painful things that can make an open wound sting like hell. it took a while to heal. never again will i make that mistake.

 

I was like 18... I had the garage door open {in winter} because I could only find one exhaust hose, so my boss comes over, and slams the door closed so hard that the top section of the door comes out of the tracks, folds down and slams his head between the top two panels! The guys were laughing so hard, I can't believe we didn't get fired!

 

The dumbest thing was lifting the car just a half inch off the jackstand. I just could not reach the nut. Car shifted side-ways and I was pinned under the car for 3 hours untill my wife came to visit me at the shop. 3 hours with a gas tank on your chest is a long time.

I was changing a cracked flywheel housing on a peterbilt with air-ride, had a bottle jack holding the engine up while the housing was off. I was on the phone when a huge crash occured. As the air goes out of the air bags. The truck rolls forward about 3-4 inches, the bottle jack didn't follow this movement. The turbo hitting the frame stopped the oil pan from hitting the floor. When it was back together and running no damage other than chipped paint and pride.

 

You guys keep reminding me of stupid stuff and close calls I've had. I have a cheap, 1/2" craftsman drill press that has a four step sheave belt drive on it. Once I was drilling a small pilot hole in a piece of steel and I finished drilling the pilot hole. After that I put a larger bit in the chuck and needed to slow the drill down.

I opened the top of the press and as I was reaching for the belt, my right hand got to the belt but the cuff of my left shirt sleeve tripped the switch and turned the drill ON! It immediately ran two of my fingers into the sheave and locked the rotor on the motor.

I was dancing around with the drill press until I got it cut off. That hurt SO BAD that I had to lie down in the floor to keep from passing out. Every time I stood up, I felt like I was going to faint. It took about 10 minutes or so before I was able to get up. I'm just glad it was a small HP drill press!

Damn, I've been fortunate to not suffer any life changing events due to my stupidity/carelessness in the shop.

I used to cut meat when I was in HS. Half the meat cutters I knew had at least one nub finger.

 

I was bagging the 38, had it on a lift, put a center jack got it up and was going to put jack stands under it. I reached over to grab a stand and I put my hand on the bumper, the hole thing just about went over the side. I was able to hold it and holler for my wife. Dumb move, just getting old I guess. Never happen until the 70's

 

When I was in HS, I was doing a transmission swap on my car in the garage by myself. It was about 2am on a school night. I got all the underside stuff buttoned up and was going to put the car back on the ground to top off the fluids and call it a night. The front tires were on those drive-on ramps and the rear was on stands. I removed the stands and was lowering the jack when the car started rolling back off the ramps. I was pinned between my little brother's '66 C-10 front bumper and my car. Somehow the super human strength thing came into play and I was able to push the car forward enough to slide my body to the floor before the bumpers kissed. Learned my lesson that day!

 

It was super hot outside and I was cleaning a '39 chev frame with one of those old old 1 hp aluminum bodied 6" grinders with an 4" coned wire brush. I was smart enough to put on a long sleeve shirt so I wouldn't get wire wheel "slivers" but stupid enough to leave my shirt tails out (it was hot out!) Next thing you know the wire brush grabs a hold of my shirt tail and winds me up like I am in a straight jacket at a mental hospital! Plus my finger was still on the trigger with the grinder trying to turn. I ran........until the extension cord came unplugged. After my buddy was finished pissing himself from laughing so hard he had to cut the shirt away with a knife to get me loose.

Another time (it was hot this day to) I was on a creeper 1/2 under a car with my shirt unbuttoned and my buddy walks by with a 3' bullsnake that he had by the back of the head. He yell's "hey Art, my pal wants to say hi and lets that damned thing squiggle all over my bare belly. I hit the bottom of the car and the floor about 50 times in about 3 seconds................bastard!


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Sit down, shut up, and hang on!

 

These are great! Keep 'em coming!

 

I built an steel "A" frame gantry for my shop, about 10 feet tall and the same wide. After I got it assembled on the shop floor, laying on it's side, I had a challenge to get it standing upright. Improvisation is my middle name.

At the time I had a "Big Joe" electro/hydraulic forklift that was kind of useful, but limited in it's lift range. So I first raised the crossbeam of the "A" frame with my cherry picker, rigged a 3" square tube about 6' long on to the front of the forklift, chained in place, to extend it's lift, and placed the crossbeam on the tube.

Now at this point realized the whole thing was kind of unstable, but I just had to raise it about 5' more. I was afraid to to get too close to this contraption, so I was operating the forklift from short distance away with a shop broom to move the lift handle.

All went well and the "A" frame was about to pivot on the base legs into place when all hell broke loose and things went flying and there was a great deal of racket and clatter. At the instant that started I ran away from the rig and when safely out of range, turned to look and see the carnage. Well, the "A" frame was upright, rocking back and forth momentarily on it's base legs, but quickly settled down in place.

Fortunately the 3" square tube didn't hit anything important when it went flying and my heart rate settled back to normal. But never again will I attempt such a jerry-rigged deal. Hopefully...........

Ray

 

Hired a thief.

 

well how much time ya got? i'm a dumb mo fo in the shop sometimes, but heres a couple 'o good ones with the memory i got left !!!
going into the attic of the garage i used a alum ext ladder, put it through the hole in ceiling and climbed up. gettin what i needed i tossed it down and at that exact second the ladder slid completley out from under me ! (smooth concrete) right under the ladder was my beautiful 63 galaxie xl conv freshley done !
it was like a cartoon, the ladder was gone and i was still up in the air with nuttin under me !!!! I SWEAR ! well then gravity caught up i fell and i fell hard, right on the ladder that was resting on the top of the door of the '63. i fell about 9ft so when i landed on the ladder i bent the sumbitch at a pretty good angle ! (i still have ladder to this day to remind me) i then fell to the ground with the wind knocked outta me for what seemed like an hour ! thank god no one came by and saw it or ever knew about it for a long time, but i had some pretty good briuses to show for it.

 

Thinking that your basic Chinese engine stand is strong/safe enough to roll around a BBC, wrong, that thing will tip over like a drunk homeless dude and crush everything in its path..also three beers and jumping on your creeper like a skateboard was pretty stupid...also burn-outs inside your garage...

 

the next stupid trick i did involved a lot 'o beer and paint !
oldfart36 & i were painting flames on his truck and drinking (like every night we're together we were drunk) well the color came out real nice and we kept drinking, started the clear and we kept drinking, by the time the last coat of clear went on i had runs coming off the front of the hood that looked like waves on the ocean !!! well instead of stopping i says , '' dont worry about it, i'll just keep pourin the clear to it and it will run out smooth" WEEEEELLLLLLLLL that did'nt work out so well, we gave up finnally and just kept drinking, the next day i came out all hung over and almost threw up seeing all the clear i had to sand off that fuckin hood ! well it came out great in the end but we swore off beer when we're working in the shop on something we want to be good.

 

thought of another one. I was moving the top half of a toolbox off my workbench by myself and lost my grip on one side. I couldn't get my hand out in time and it chopped three of my fingertips 90 percent off. I butterfly bandaged them back together. Now it looks like i have 3 circumsized fingers. Yes...my wife digs it. No...I can't use all 3. sick bastards!

 

I have a buddy who cut his thumb with a skill saw. He says if given a second chance he'd tell them to leave it off. All the pain in the winter and it's useless, just gets in the way.

 

Slightly o.t. I put my index finger over the vent hole of a tea kettle to see how much pressure was in it. I don`t drink anymore

 

Had a car on the lift at work and had a ratchet on a stubburn rusty bolt pulling against it hard as I could, needless to say it broke loose and the end of the ratchet smacked right into my forehead hard as hell and left a big goose egg. My boss just laughed and laughed.

 

That would be in my yard and two bumper jacks to change a rear end in the '55 Ford (I was 17). I had a dawg that had dug a little hole under the rear for a place to lay out of the sun, the jacks started to go and I slid into the hole.

3 hours seems to be a magic number, my mom and my wife came home from shopping. Started shouting for me to come and unload the car. When I said I couldn't they went and got the fella from across the street to help them get me out.

He gave me my first set of jackstand after that, made from model A axle bells. So I ended up with a pair of jack stands, a bruised shoulder and a major lecture about using bumper jacks.

 

Stupidest thing I ever did in my shop? Proposed to my first wife. Seemed like a good idea at the time........

 

She never let you forget did she? LMAO

 

used a coil spring compressor which had a tag "warning do not use an impact wrench" Hey, i'm smarter than any warning label, I went straight to my impact wrench, and it worked great for a few seconds until the spring compresser twisted inside the coil with my finger jammed on the trigger of the impact wrench, inside the coil spring. I couldn't let go of the trigger because that finger was smashed against the spring with the force of the impact wrench holding it there. Finally I was able to rotate my whole body enough to get my wrist, hand and bloody fingers out of the bind and let go of the trigger. Definitely should have had my membership to the gene pool revoked that day.

 

Anyone that's had a British car with wire wheels and knock-offs can relate... or maybe not.

While hammering a knock-off on my MG, I missed and hit myself in the shin. My friend laughed his ass off, and I was pissed.

So I kneeled down this time, swung all pissed off at the knock-off, and popped myself in the nuts.

It hurt so bad, and I was so pissed, I just couldn't stop laughing. My friend lost control and sprayed beer out his nose about 20 feet.

Shit that hurt.

Moron.

 

did somebody say my ex - wife ? Man , and i thought i was stupid.
MY SHOP OR YOURS ?

 

Maaaan I don't think I woulda told that brother.

Just makes me cringe to think about it.

 

I just finished sandblasting a header and collector for my car.

I pick up a spray can of high temp stove paint and sprayed the collector.

Sweet.

I wire up the header with bailing wire and hang it off our gooseneck trailer to paint.

I get almost all the way done painting the header when I think, "Man this paint sure is going on weird... and it's shiny..."

I picked up the can of gloss black spray paint that was right next to the high temp can.

@#%#^%$^&%^&#$%@

The header earned its pilot's license and flew about 60 feet into the sandblasting area.

I have yet to go back for round two, but that will be tomorrow after I re-sandblast it.

Moron.

 

Decided to sell a old Miller flat bottom v drive boat project that had fallen by the wayside. When I bought it I was told the motor had just been rebuilt-440 dodge. The boat had been setting for 3 or 4 years so I thought I would see if it would fire up before running any ad's. Hooked up a portable gas tank from another boat to the fuel pump, ran a hotwire to the coil and jumped the starter with a screwdriver, It would crank over but not start, pull the coil wire, hit the starter, my internal volt meter said it has plenty of spark, H'mm lets pull the fuel line from the carb and see if the fuel pump is working. Hit the starter, the gas shot out of the line directly into the top of the carb - low and behold the motor starts, next the gas squrits over the carb onto the distributor and apparently a little votage leakage was present cause next we had a fire! All happed real quick but seemed like forever before I got the wire pulled off the coil. any how somebody got a good deal on a boat trailer with a slightly charred boat.

 

And in flip flops too

 

My son and I were working to replace some old front shocks on an OT truck. One of the lower shock bolts was stuck and I was lying under the truck pulling on a large breaker bar when the socket decided to slip off the end of the bolt. (A word to the wise…. Never pull downwards towards your face). The breaker bar came over and hit the left side of my nose. I heard a loud (to me) snapping sound and then my eyes started to swell. I slid out from under the truck and asked my son if my nose looked like it was broken. He said "yep" and that it was pointing towards my right ear. So I asked him to get some surgical tape, 2 pencils, cotton gauze, and some ice in a zip lock bag for me. When he returned I put the 2 pencils up my nose and straightened it out with my 2 hands. Snap, crackle, pop, done. Then I packed it with some gauze, taped the nose in place and put the ice on my face. We went back to working on the truck an hour later. This was the 4th time I had broken my nose, BUT you should have seen the look on my son's face when I did the pencil trick.