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

When doing my exhaust, I used jackstands for pipe supports, shimmed with folded shop rags. While tacking up the joints, I set one of the rags on fire. Stupid me was trying to blow the rag out with my welding mask still on.

 

over shortened the steering column,its not like i had another 1

 

I am in garage right now reading this thread, laughing my ass off at all this silliness that goes on in other garages, just a thought have a safety meeting where nobody works - nobody gets hurt !

 

welding in shorts......and tennies ......yup...not too brilliant.

Was doing just that on one hot summer day. There must've been a few paper shop towels laying, 'cause all of a sudden one caught on fire.

Like a dumbass, I stomped the hell out of it to put it out. The towel folded up around my sneaker and the fire crawled right up my left leg.

Nothing like the smell of burning hair.

I had to sneak in the house and put long sweatpants on before the wife caught wind of it....no pun intended. She probably wondered why I was wearing those on a hot day.

 

I got my new lift, a four poster a few years ago..Put my car on it for oil change, and normal maintenance...Finished and took the car out for a ride, put it in the garage when I returned home...Went to clean my mess and saw some liquid spots on the lift rails; funny if the car leaked or I had spilled something the front tire of the car would have run over it when I backed the car out ? I checked the car and anything else I could think of, I was lost..Thought about it for days....Then I saw an episode of Tim Allen show..His wife was telling another girl that when he takes his car out she puts some oil drops on the garage floor; drives him nuts trying to find where his car leaked...Bingo!...I haven't gotten even with the wife yet, nor have I forgotten....

 

I can't believe this has come back to life again. There is some funny shit in this thread.

 

That is priceless!

 

I like the fact you "did her" in yer shop BBBWWWAAAAAHHHAAAHHHAAAA!!!!

 

Ya Falcon! Geeeze...what are ya....heartless?

 

Removing a 1931 Ford Rear Transverse Spring. It was our first time so we jacked up the frame (off the rear end) thinking that would relieve some of the tension, then I started to removed the center spring bolt. My dad said maybe we should strap this spring down to the axle housing. I agreed, just in case we didn't relieve as much tension as we thought. I said let me get this nut started. Fortunately Dad stepped a way to grab a large ratchet strap because I started to turn the nut, the 80 year old bolt snapped in half.

Oh by the way, jacking up the chassis didn't relieve any of the pressure. It sounded like shot gun when it broke. Fortunately know one above the chassis looking down (where Dad and I had both been seconds earlier). The torque flipped the ratchet I was holding and broke my hand but nothing near as bad as it could have been.

 

Sooo..... many to tell. Putting in a new water pump motor assembly in a surface grinder in my Tool & Die shop, I flipped 220 breaker off for machine, not realizing pump motor is wired in on 110 20 amp. Kneeling in water, disconnect pump assembly from tank, grasp unit to remove. I was grounded perfectly, The worst shock of my life, pretending to be an Electrician, Hell of a task, to let go, when I screamed, I felt the electricity arcing in the fillings of my teeth. Afterwards, had an employee watch over me, as I felt real bad, chest hurt, etc. In a while I was OK, but felt bad for a few days. from that day on, I always check with volt meter to be sure of power is off. #2 I purchased a self darkening welding helmet when they first came out, very pricy at the time. Seemed fine used for a while, nobody told me you had to change batteries often, so... I tig a project for a few hours, everything seemed fine, 4-6-8 hours later, worst welding flash burns of my life, face and eyes. I have since bought different welding helmets , but, put new battery in almost every time I use it. call me paranoid. Have many race, hot rod garage stories of me being a "dumb ass" but, will save them for another day or thread. John

 

I needed this to close off a rough week at work!

I just wonder how long it took to clean the caca

 

In my 25 year Ironworking career which included much steel fab work I always told my fellow Ironheads "Perfect,is close enough!!" Haha and I have had men repeat that to me after I have not seen them in 20 years!

 

This thread is hilarious, glad to know I'm not the only one.
I can't beat the tractor/fire ant/nakedidity story, but at 16 I sure did show off my hardheadedness.
Working in a gas station doing wheel bearing service on a customers car. The boss is leaving for his usual lunch at the local watering hole and sees me blowing off the solvent from the wheel bearing cone with the air nozzle.
"Be careful" he says, "those bearing come apart if you spin 'em too fast." Yeah sure. Once he was outa sight I put the cone on my finger and spun the sh!t out of it. It exploded taking out the fluorescent lights in the lube bay and breaking my finger. Lucky it didn't take out my eyes.
Panicked, I ordered a new bearing from our local parts house, while I was waiting for the bearing I replaced the bulbs in the light fixtures. The bearing came and I had everything back to normal by the time he got back, but he saw the fluorescent schrapnel in the trash and rollers on the floor and he knew......

As a teen, Dad saw me in the garage barefoot with his electric drill (old Sears aluminum case) in hand and said, "Better go in and put some shoes on" Uh huh. I plugged it in and hit the trigger....AHHHH. He yanked out the plug. "What did I tell you?" I finally learned to listen to him.... around the time I turned 45!

 

3 days ago I was holding two little pieces together, barehanded, and got them all lined up to tack with the mig. What I didn't notice was ,I'd turned up the wire speed accidentaly and when I hit the trigger, the wire glanced off the steel and hit my finger. Since the wire hit the steel it arced and was now red hot and instead of pushing my finger it burned a hole and kept going about 1/2" deep before I could yank my hand back. What a surprise!Not much of a injury but really unexpected and very painful.

 

Stupidest thing I've ever done in my shop is like asking me what the brightest star I ever saw or the most beautiful flower was.
Too many options, way to hard to quantify. The 4 walls of my shop house a bottomless well of stupidity

 

Not exactly in the shop, but back in the late 70's a friend and I shared a shop we rented. We had a 63 Fury we had picked up with a grenaded 383. We had puled the 383 and had a 440 ready to install. We put the 383 in the bed of my friends 72 Dodge 3/4 ton beater (no tailgate, this is a important detail), and decided to go get something to eat. The next day we were going to drop the engine off at the local scrap yard. We pulled into the Drive-thru at Wendys, and placed our order. When we got to the window, while handing the money over my buddy dropped some of the money in the drive-thru. When he opened the door to get out and pick up the money, a empty beer bottle rolled out and broke in the drive-thru. Anyway the manager comes out and goes beserk. He starts screaming at us, calling us a couple of drunks and says he is tired of cleaning up after assholes like us. My buddy calmly puts the Dodge into reverse punch's it and then slams on the brakes. That POS 383 rolled out of the truck and right into the middle of the drive-thru lane. Then he drives back up to the window, and tells the shocked manager to "sweep that up with your f*****g broom". I will never forget that, looking back there and seeing that engine leaking nasty black oil all over his nice clean white concrete, and the look on this guys face. We drove past a few hours later and the motor was still there, and the drive-thru was shut down. Needless to say, it was quite a while before we took the old Dodge to that drive-thru!

 

Don`t even ask.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Borrowed a 60's era small block for my dragster, it was a pain in the ass to lean over the headers to pre-oil the motor, so i climb up on the back of the chassis to sit and am running the drill looking intently at the oil pressure gauge wondering why it is not coming up, this motor had the front oil pressure fitting open at the front of the block, i kept running the drill felt like it was pumping and no pressure on the gage , it did not sink in until the puddle was visible outside the frame rails, of course there were loads of tools and stuff under the car that was now in the middle of a giant puddle of expensive synthetic oils, what a mess

 

While helping an old guy run a power circuit in his garage, he goes under the house with a cordless Milwaukee 18v drill. It's got a nasty 12" auger bit to drill through the 2x4.
I'm standing in front of the wall to run the wire when that bit comes blowing through the wall and grabs my coveralls just under my armpit! I'm screaming and trying to push away from the wall. But pushing away is keeping his finger depressed on the drill and he keeps on drilling! In a mad effort i push hard away and rip my coveralls down to my crotch. He comes from under the house and hollers, "What the sh#t was that?!"....
After a few minutes we're laughing like hell and i end up with a bruise the size of a cantaloupe around my underarm. I get home with my coveralls twisted up like a cone shaped tit and ripped to my drawers. Wife says, "What the sh$t happened to you?"....

 

Was polishing a piece of stainless late one night and the buffing wheel kicked the piece into my eye.In a hurry and was not wearing my face shield it shattered my reading glasses( was looking for small scratches) and shattered my hard contact lens in my eye.sounded like a shotgun went off. Luckily I still have my eye and did not have any permanent damage.I learned a valuable lesson that could have been disastrous. ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION !!!

 

Put new brakes on my wife's Chevy Lumina a long time ago. Pushed in the caliper pistons, slid in new pads and put it all back together. Got in, started the car to take it on a test drive, put in drive to reposition the car and hit the brakes, pedal goes all the way to the floor and the lawn mower stopped me from hitting the garage wall. Next time, pump the brakes first. Had to explain why I needed a new lawn mower and her bumper was all tore up.

 

Cut my leg good with a sawzall Litterlly filled my boot with blood by time I picked up all my tools and tied a rag around it - before telling wife ( that one ended up with stitches )

 

while still a teen, working underneath a tractor, I need to knock a bolt loose with a 5# hammer at a weird angle...knocked myself in between the eyes instead, landed on my keester, sat there for a minute wondering why I was sitting on the floor. The funny part was that it didn't leave a mark nor did I have a headache, bolstering my hard-headed reputation once again

 

I left a young Irish setter we had just gotten in my old shop one day when I was at work,The dog ate the seat off my 1956 Harley-Davidson and chewed up the original manual for the bike.

I had recently paid stupid money for the manual and the seat was custom made..I wanted to kill that dog but I didn't.

When I opened the door and saw the mess I let out a string of words not suitable for print and he sensed my anger,,the dog bolted for the door and I never saw him again. HRP

 

Just reading some of these stories, reminds me of something I read years ago. When you are born, God gives you two bags. The first is "Experience" and it is empty. The second is "Luck" and it is full. The idea is to fill the first bag, before the second is empty.

 

^That's real good. I was drilling a bolt hole on an intake manifold. I really didn't have a good surface to work on so I just held on to it real tight. It went through finally and right into my leg. 1/2 chuck, low RPM, high torque Black and Decker, no reverse.
That sucker twisted my jeans into a very tight spiral with lots of meat in the folds.
I had to spin the whole shootin match backwards while doin the stupid dance.

Last week I thought the spring was unloaded and spent 6 hours in the ER and got a nice plate and six screws in my arm. I'm doin nuthin till March.
Last week I thought the spring w

 

Set hair on fire while welding, put hair out with the closest liquid. A BEER!

 

Having Given this thread some more thought,since the old grey matter ain't what it use to be,I did remember something a little more amusing than the dog eating the seat off my Harley.

I was alone in my shop and happy to have a day off so I decided to jack up the 40 sedan and get the car on jack stands both front and rear.

I needed to pull the drive shaft and replace the universal joints.

Since the weather was freezing outside I grabbed my old seldom used creeper and slid under the car,I removed the drive shaft and rolled out and proceeded to beat the old universals out.

I got them back in correctly and rolled back under the car,,slide the yoke back in the transmission with very little transmission loss,the rolled back the the rear and pushed rear of the drive shaft up in place.

I reached over to gram my wrench and this is were I realize I had left it on the work bench for some unknown reason..Damn!

I start to roll out and all of a sudden I fell a sharp pain to the back of my head.

Guys that know me know I have wore my hair a little long all my life,well this time my hair got wrapped around the wheel on the dolly..I couldn't go forward or backward or roll off I was stuck.

At that time there was no such thing as a cell phone and I laid there for a few minutes thinking it would be a few hours before my bride got home..what was I gonna do?

It was about this time I said to myself,,"your a dumb ass,pull out your pocket knife and start cutting"

That's exactly what I did.

What did I learn that day? Wear a stocking cap,forget the creeper,I don't like self inflicted pain and by all means,,SHARPEN THAT DULL POCKET KNIFE! HRP

 

Yup ^^^^^^^^

Long hair in the creeper wheel. Been there.

ONCE.