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

Tried to remove the rear end in my car without jack stands, not purposly. I got about 1/2" left on the ubolt threads, before it dawned on me... almost no grandpa!!!

 

Mis-wired a vertical mill, switched the neutral and ground. Then during the "why isn't the mill working" phase I laid one hand on the mill and the other on the lathe next to it. Three phase can put out quite the jolt.

I was making my girl friend a ring and was using a piece of cpo to shape the metal around with a torch. I had removed one glove to use a pair of pliers, and forgot to put the glove back on. I picked up the cpo out of the ring and then held if for a moment trying to figure out why it felt wet. Couldn't use the thumb, index and middle fingers on my left hand for two weeks.

Trying out the new mig on some trim holes, "just a quick tack or two I won't need a helmet". Of course the new welder was working great, so "I'll just do one more. Oh, one more". This went on for one quarter and door on my 62 Fairlane. Which turned into me going to the doctor in the morning and wearing an eyepatch for the weekend.

Has anyone else been beating on something in the vice only to miss and hit themselves in the dick with a three pound hammer?

 

Cut something off with the cutting torch then pick it up with bare hands, slow learner I have done that quite a few times. I also probably set my flanel shirt on fire 6 or 8 times a year welding.

 

Putting a 56 chevy body on a rotisery,my wife was asking me questions while i was trying to adjust the top that slides in the tube so the car will turn easy,grabbed the tube with my left hand and loosened the two large bolts with my right,the tube wieghs 45 pounds +,slammed down with my thumb beetween the other tube it slides in and the large bolt that is a stop,,,what do i do?,ripped my thumb away leaving all the skin and meat in place ,doc told me he never in all his years saw anything like that,,,

 

I seem to bounce my forehead off the upper frame of my enclosed trailer door jam once a month. Usually in front of the same people that see it done previously. Still trying to remember to pad that thing. (my enclosed trailer is my second garage)

 

lol (sorry, I shouldn't laugh).

Winner!

 

My perfectionist Dad taught me how to fabricate almost every part of Pre-war type sprints and midgets, He'd been doing it for a living, since before WWII.
When I was still "apprenticing", I proudly passed him a steel end wall I had formed for a tail fuel tank. Stupidest thing I ever did was ask him "Is this good enough?" He promptly threw it across the workbench and hit me in the head with it-(nicely opened up a good flow of blood) while he raised his voice and said, "There is no such thing as "Good Enough!" It is either RIGHT, or it isn't!" Forty years later that is still on my mind when I have the hammer and dolly working..

 

Some days I think the stoopidest thing I do at our shop is open the door in the morning! but really, it aint all that bad!

 

O.K. this is kinda hard to follow, but..... I had jacked up the front axle of my fenderless project to take off the passenger side tire which kept leaking down on me. Jack under the center of the axle had both front tires off the ground. I got distracted and kinda forgot about it. Later I went to get something out of the rafters above the truck that was jacked up..forgetting it was jacked up. I was going to stand on the passenger side front tire to reach the rafters, (hey, safety first!). As I stepped onto the top of that tire it, of course, rotated down and dumped me right on my chest on top of the tire which was flat luckily so it didn't hurt too much. As I was bouncing off the tire on the way to the floor I looked over at the 3' X 4' sheet of quarter inch glass that i had leaned against the drivers side tire after I had spend a couple hours practicing pin striping on it. I watch as the tire I had fallen on slowly moved to the right pushing the other tire out and tipping that sheet of glass over. When it shattered most of it went right under my '46 Chevy parked in the next bay.
I got up and realised I wasn't hurt and just laughed, wishing I had had a video camera running.

 

Ripped off my pinky finger while copper-buffing a studebaker grill that got caught in the wheel. I was 19 and it was the first thing I had worked on that morning (too groggy to be on a 10 hp anything.) The grill was unharmed and my dad finished buffing it the next day ( it was almost done.) I took some time off...He tried blaming himself for not watching me well enough, but it was my own stupidity.

BTW, I got the finger put back on, but it's kinda goofy looking and 1/4" shorter than before.

 

without a doubt the most stupid thing I ever did in my shop was to fall through the roof of the office I was building while putting in insulation. fell about 8 feet head first and broke 4 ribs and messed up my shoulder.

could have just as easily broke my fucking neck.

 

I was pissed off about a project and decided to clean up, I pulled the retracting cord on trouble lamp hard enough to pull it and the bracket off of the the ceiling mount and straight down onto the cherry factory black and gold pinstriped pre-unit tank on my triumph T140D Bonneville.... I sold the bike 15 years ago and it is still one of my top ten stupid moves

 

Allowed my wife to put some stuff in it "For just a little while" 10 years ago!!!

 

Got a few too many of those stories...

I was welding under a buddy's truck, and couldn't get my head under it with my helmet on. I was just putting a couple tacks on an exhaust hanger, so no big deal.I took it off, rather than jacking up the truck. While I welded. there was a loud pop, and a piece of slag fell towards my left eye! I couldn't get out of the way, but fortunately I got my eye shut in time. Singed off my eyelashes, and put a blister on both lids.

I was working on the collumn shift linkage on an older car, about 20 years ago and it sure seemed like it was in Park. I cranked it up, and it didn't move even slightly, so I opened the door, got out, and went back to the front of the car to do something. I didn't close the door for some reason. A minute or so later, as the engine warmed up and started idling a little better, the car started moving backwards...fast! I couldn't get around the long door in time, and it smacked hard against the door frame of the garage. Fortunately, it hit in the jamb area and only dented the skin, rather than ripping the door off and smashing it into the fender.

 

I think the stupidest thing i've done is i jacked up my first car (74 mgb) to lower it.. jacked it up and put jack stands under the axle.. and undid the axle u bolts.. after the last nut was undone.. the car crashed down about 4" needless to say i needed a new pair of underpants after that... course i was 16 and wet behind the ears.. least the car didn't turn me into a pancake with strawberry sauce.

 

I was building some new windows for the garage and decided to use some thick glass I had been storing for years. It was used as shelving in a pharmacy. I scored the glass but it wouldn't snap off at the score line. I clamped the glass on a table and leaned a little harder, but no break. Finally if took a rubber mallet,looked the other way and tapped, then tapped harder... It was tempered glass and shattered into a million litttle cubes. Nobody was hurt, but I'll be finding pieces of glass for years.

 

I was tig welding in my T shirt, hey WTF they all do it on TV, I'm going along and Hey I smell chicken, I go out side, look around, ask my wife hey is some one grilling chicken or pork? I don't smell it out here she says, OK. I go back in the shop and start up again and wipe my brow with my shirt, hey son of a bung, that's me I smell like freakin chicken. Had a nice little tan. Not anymore don't want the cancer.

 

Funny..I thought i was an only son

 

regular ball peen hammer sbc in engine stand taking out cam berrings

 

Agreed ( in a bar one night ) to let this rather large tited, blond to keep a boat in my garage for a few weeks.
Still got it, the boat, that was 9 years ago.

 

An I'll bet her ex is still looking for it.

 

This ones real dumb. Well its my buddies birthday and new years eve. He asks me to make him an acetylene bomb. i say ok. well the first one is a dud. So i go back into my tool shed, whitch is a shipping container with a door and vents on one side near the front, and window in the back by the tanks. I fill the second garbadge bag and turn off the tanks. The next bit i have trouble with I remember thinking that i needed to get out as i turned around, then the bag disapeared, then there was the green/blue flash. Then there was the boom and pain, i turned and ran into the tanks and wall. Spun around and ran out of there straight to the fridge where there was beer. then continued to run toward my house. I stoped because my side hurt and my dick was stinging so i jamed my hand in my pants and all was fine. My side was messed up i think from my shirt hitting me, was bleeding a bit. lost all my eyebrows. My friends ran up a minute later asking if i was ok, i couldnt really hear them. I went to bed soon after. It took weeks for my hearing to come back, and several days to go back in the shed. To this day i dont know what set it off, i think maybe my cell phone. But yes folks i set off an acetylene bomb in my hand inside of a metal shipping container. Nothing in my life has ever scared me as bad, rattled me for weeks. thought i was a ghost. STUPID STUPID STUPID.

 

After doing some rough out work on a job, I left a 3 lb steel heel dolly sitting on the fender of a car, jacked it up in the air, and proceeded to remove some parts from the underside with an air chisel...The vibration caused the dolly move to the edge of, and finally OFF the fender, and it fell about 4 ft, nailed me in the, OH YES, JEWELS...My buddy saw this happen from across the shop, he thought it was funny as hell, I think I puked...and limped for a couple days...Not sure, but might be why I never had kids...

When I was young and just learning about cars, I was sent underneath a 911 to remove the bumpers...I didn't jack it up, just started in my feet sticking out, head under it as far as i could get..I had set my new toy, an air ratchet, above me and reached up to unplug a wire, layed my head back down on the ratchet, which set it off, and it bounced my head off it, and into the bumper, which caused me to recoil back into the ratchet, which went off and bounced my head into the bumper, which caused me to recoil back into...you get the picture...

Stoopid enough for ya?

The kind of things you do only ONCE!

 

You guys are slaying me! Some of you are lucky to be alive and/or functional!!

I had my 64 Catalina in a rottisserie, one of these cage types that you roll over, and I had to climb up in the trunk, which was 4 or 5 ft off the ground. I stupidly used a stool to climb up into the trunk.

As I was attempting to get down, I put one foot on the stool and as soon as I put my weight on it, it slid out from under me. I fell a good 5 feet onto the concrete floor, banging my knee, my shoulder and wrenching my wrist. As I lay there in excruciating pain saying, "Oh God, I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying", I finally realized that I was in too much pain to die. Then, I started thinking, "Oh, God I've screwed up my shoulder, my wrist and my knee all in one accident. I'll be immobile for months, maybe for life."

I lay there for about 5 minutes and finally was able to get up. Slowly, I realized my motor functions were still present and accounted for. I hurt for days afterwards. That's a hard fall for anyone but for a 56 year old man, it's a killer. I was very lucky I didn't maim myself for life.

 

1989 was carrying one end of a bare 440 block into my shop . A friend was on the other end. I slipped on somethng and fell backwards on another 440 block sitting nose down on the floor. The approx 1 x1 inch piece that stick out beliow the starter on that block bounced accross several ribs on my left side about 3 inches from my spine and eventually was completely burried in my back. Have never recovered. It has not healed or mended and is a mess inside. That is why my Dragster roll bar is so big. Flexibilty is a thing of the past and discomfort is available just in a flash if you allow yourself to dwell on it. Working on my projects to the amount I can takes my mind off of it.
Never planned to be this way. Just one second of carelessness at the wrong moment and "poof" yer a mess for life.
Don

 

I was cutting off old bumper bolts with a torch back a few years ago (like 38 years ago). I was lying on my back just under the bumper when a nice size red hot went into the cuff opening of my work shirt. It traveled down my arm and burned an exit hole in the elbow area of the shirt. Everyone around could hear me cussing and banging my head against the underside of the bumper as I tried to get it out. Word to the wise. Never use cheap/short welding gloves.

 

The engine in my truck had low compression on all cylinders. Called a machine shop I had used before, and was quite a bit more for the machine work plus rebuild kit, then I wanted to put into the thing. Figure, I'll try putting new rings, bearing and gaskets in it, since I wasn't having any luck finding a used 302 for it around here, and didn't trust the junkyards, who wanted quite a bit for an engine will a bizzillion miles on it. Got everything in and tried fireing it up. Must of not gotten the fuel injectors in right, and she backfires, and lights up, big flame getting bigger and bigger till she's almost to the rafters. Of course I have no fire estinguisher.
Book to get the garden hose to try to put it out, and procede to break it where it screws into the faucet as I am hurryidly yanking it to the garage. Ohh friggen great. So I try to push the big pig truck outside so it can burn to the ground, but at least save the garage (and most likely house, since it is close enough). Can't budge the thing, as the flames are now nice and high about to the rafters. Ohh great, I am going to sit here and watch the truck and garage burn to the ground. Then I see I have a five gallon pail full of water and degreaser I was cleaning parts in. Dump that on there and puts most of it out, and fill her up again to finish putting out the flames.
All the plastic vaccum lines and parts are now melted, and the wireing burnt up. Then awhile later, I finally found an engine for it, and I get it for only 200 bucks. If only I could have found it before doing all the forkin around, money spent on the other engine, and going thru that adventure.

Drop it in, Checked wiring over, doesn't look like any is damaged, just missing insulation to tape up, and fix vacuum hoses and had spare parts to replace the rest. Engine runs great, been running the truck for about 6 months now. Just have to someday chase down a check engine light, getting an egr code, but could be anything with all the wires and vaccum lines that were burnt and patched together.

Another time I was painting a car, and my gun was acting up. My base gun is set up like a conventional siphon feed gun and wasn't thinking, having used the old conventionals so long. Problem is my base gun is a pressure feed, and will shoot a nice stream without air hooked up, and I point the thing right at eyeball and pull the trigger trying to figure out what is up with the thing. Get a nice stream of paint right in my eyeball, and have to blindly find my way into the house to flush my eye with my eye stinging like mad. After flushing my eye, and taking out my contacts, I sit down for awhile. Go back out to the garage with an old pair of taped up glasses, determined to finish the pos, cause I am tired of looking at the thing. Now I have some sanding to do, because when I threw down my gun after the little incident, I know had splatters of paint drops all over the fender and door. I did finish painting the dang thing, even though it ended up being a late night.

One time I was carrying a door for a mustang, heavy as heck with the glass still in it, outside to do some blasting on the inside. Have a big hole in the yard back by the garage, and of course i step in the thing and trip. Don't want to let the door just fly, specially with the glass in it. Tore all the skin off the inside of my hand right below the fingers. Pretty gross. Had to call mommy and ask her to pick me up some neosporen and bandages so I could wrap myself up.

Just a week ago, was grinding welds under my car and had a spark fly right in my ear, way down the hole. Pretty tender down there. Put in ear plugs after that.

When I was young, A friend of mine asked me if I could buff his black escort, since he took it thru the car washes with the big brushes too many times. I was cleaning the buffer pad with a screw driver and it catches and tears it right out of my hand, and sends it 100 miles an hour toward my friend. Just missed hitting him by a few inches, and would have been right in the jewels. That could have been bad.

 

So....What happened to the blond?

 

radiused the rr wheelwells on my sons shoebox ford and was welding the conduit to the qtr and wheelhouse, all goin real good and having lots of fun, didn't really pull the rr seat out first........so at some point when welding i looked up and couldn't see the ceiling for the thick black smoke.............shit.............jumped up and looked in the open drivers window and could only see thick black smoke and some flame thru it all in the rear seat, i mean it was thick smoke, so i ran up the drive and grabbed the hose and running back i discovered in best cartoon fashion that the hose lacked about 5 feet from reaching in the garage! so i started flooding warter in the window opening from a distance but things weren't gettin better. sucked it up and went in and removed the seat while its burning, throw it out in the yard and hosed it down...... 10 minutes later it had flamed up again. i mean the shit they stuff these seats with must be made out of gasoline! on top of it all, i was the only one home and the only thing i could think while its happening is how stupid this is goin to be, me burning down my sons car and our garage all at once. did i mention my paint bench was just on the other side of the car? you see, sometimes its a series of the stupidest things......

once again i got lucky. but its goin to get me in the end i'm sure, this is some dangerous shit we do

 

kind of a 3 stooges type thing i did . working on a OT truck trying break loose a stuck bolt using a big ass breaker bar pulling toward me. the bolt broke loose and i ended up with a gash and big bump on my forehead . it bled a BUNCH