do you ever do something that makes you feel stooooopid?

[joeswamp]

I saw a documentary on the weekend about the making of the first large steel steam powered ocean going ship (whose name currently eludes me). When it was scrapped they found the bodies of two small children that had been sent into the space between the inner and outer skins to help with the rivetting, and then entombed.

Wow, I'm going to have nightmares about that one

 

[crewchief888]

ya mean like the time i...

crushed my index finger with an 8lb sledgehammer?
or
had a loader boom cylinder stop fall 6 ft off a tire and break my ankle? (again) and to top it off, i dropped a ir231 and caught it between my eyes.
or
pulling the engine out of an old JD grader, kept bumping my head on the cab door slide on the back of the cab... thinking to myself, "i'm really gonna hit that SOB hard one of these times"..
i did
took me off my feet and i landed between the tandems with my head split open, 14 stitches.. and to top it off, my leadman nearly passes out driving me to the emergency clinic

 

[Notch1988]

The latest was last weekend when I was putting the cab back on the chassis of my '66 GMC. I had the cab on my 2 post hoist and was lining up the chassis to it. It was a pain getting it lined up. Afterwards, I was complaining to a buddy about what a pain it was when he asked, "Why didn't you put the chassis on the wheel dollies you have?" I didn't want to talk about it after that.

 

[soob]

The first time I ever changed the oil in my car I drained the transmission instead. True story.

Lemme see...

I miswired an MSD ignition once, to the wrong side of the coil, so it was turning on and off 7000 times per minute. Couldn't figure out why they kept catching on fire.

Crossed battery cables.

Had a flipped car with a broken windshield, was going to take the dash out of it. Put a tarp over it, when it rained water pooled in the hole and the windshield collapsed and sliced a huge gash in the dashboard. Also, I flipped the car a few days before.

Locked my keys in the car with the engine running. That was a cool one.

Not really mechanicing related, but I was in a rush and decided to touch up my pants with a high-pressure steam iron--while I was wearing them. Had a burn the size of my fist on my leg.

Oh, the time I got pinned under a transmission. I knew standard transmissions were light (guess how I knew that?) and for some reason I didn't know automatics were heavy. So I thought I'd just push it to the side. Nope. It somehow got stuck between the floorboard and my head with my arms pinned between them. I was stuck, had to wait for someone to come along and help get it off me.

Lots of others, I'm sure.

 

[AeroNautiCal]

I was working on the clutch of a Yamaha trail bike and didn't have a locking tool for that specific bike to secure the clutch basket, so used a length of wood to hold it.

A piece of clutch basket flew across the workshop, and as I thought aw' ****! the customer just burst out laughing!

I offered to replace the clutch basket, and he said that as it would work fine as is, not to, he even insisted on paying when I said that I couldn't charge him after the 'mishap'.

Funnily enough, he went on to recommend me to his friends that rode motorcycles.

 

[caseyrod]

way to often.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I saw a documentary on the weekend about the making of the first large steel steam powered ocean going ship (whose name currently eludes me). When it was scrapped they found the bodies of two small children that had been sent into the space between the inner and outer skins to help with the rivetting, and then entombed.

I forgot the company, but during WW-II circus midget and other small people were conscripted to wok in aircraft factories, bucking rivet inside airplane wings.

 

[fomocoforrester]

Was it called the Great Western?

More likely to be the SS Great Eastern or the SS Great Britain - The Great Western had a wooden hull.

Anyway, I think those stories of entombed children are probably a myth as there seems to be little hard evidence, although many people did die in the course of ship building in those days.

 

[nkachur]

I have a couple of gooders:

1) Working on the engine of one of our heavy trucks, I forgot that the front axle was jacked up and went to climb down. Let me tell you I didn't think a tire could turn that fast, when I stepped on the top of the tire I never enen has etime to react before I was lying on the ground with the *** ripped out of my pants.

2) Was working over seas when one of the guys (he was pretty small and I was 6'6" and 270 lbs) asked me to remove a tire on a forklift for him. The tire was only slightly bigger than the heavy truck tires that I threw around all day. Well I rock it back and forth and it falls off the studs. I put my weigh against it and the tire doesn't even slow down. The only thing that goes thru my mind is boy is this going to ****. I am pretty sure that tire was filled with Calcium and when it landed on me it squished the tin of Copenhagen flat against my leg.

I am sure I will come up with several more good ones.

 

[racingtadpole]

More likely to be the SS Great Eastern or the SS Great Britain - The Great Western had a wooden hull.

Anyway, I think those stories of entombed children are probably a myth as there seems to be little hard evidence, although many people did die in the course of ship building in those days.

I stand corrected, it was the Eastern.
This is the blurb for that particular episode.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/seven_wonders_01.shtml#three

The wikipedia entry on the Great Eastern mentions that particular episode in relation to the bodies, and also claims it to be myth and rumour.

Was it true

 

[kald]

I have a couple of gooders:

1) Working on the engine of one of our heavy trucks, I forgot that the front axle was jacked up and went to climb down. Let me tell you I didn't think a tire could turn that fast, when I stepped on the top of the tire I never enen has etime to react before I was lying on the ground with the *** ripped out of my pants.

2) Was working over seas when one of the guys (he was pretty small and I was 6'6" and 270 lbs) asked me to remove a tire on a forklift for him. The tire was only slightly bigger than the heavy truck tires that I threw around all day. Well I rock it back and forth and it falls off the studs. I put my weigh against it and the tire doesn't even slow down. The only thing that goes thru my mind is boy is this going to ****. I am pretty sure that tire was filled with Calcium and when it landed on me it squished the tin of Copenhagen flat against my leg.

I am sure I will come up with several more good ones.

I had to laugh at 1. Lucky you only ripped the *** out of your pants.

 

[Toolhorder]

Today I was working on 2 similar Civics, one was waiting for an A/C reciever-dryer to complete the job and the other was waiting on a seat belt buckle. I kinda lost track of which was which and installed the new buckle in the wrong car. I cross threaded one of the seat frame bolts (which I had to fix with a tap and die, the hole and the bolt) and then I turned in the old part (warranty it was) when I realized what happened.
I had to swap out the buckle on the car again and then put it in the correct car. Really sucked and nobody to blame but myself. :/

 

[adam728]

Another for this thread

Today's been a bad day.

Doing leak down test on an engine, couldn't get anything but 0%. But, the thing also wouldn't turn itself over if I moved it from TDC, so I knew it wasn't getting any pressure to the cylinder. Pull the hose out of the head, sure enough, no air coming thru. Figured it was a long/short air connect mixup on the quick connector between the regulator and hose for the head.
Swapped, now now the male/female don't mate up.
Scrounged around for a new set, swapped. Still nothing.
Switch hoses between there and the head. Still no air.
Realized I was using hoses from the box of compression tester parts, and they all have a schrader valve in them. Doh! 4% leak down by the way....


Then, putting an EGT, O2, and wideband O2 in a new exhaust. Did a beautiful job, fish-mounted the bungs, welded em up nice (well, as nice as I can). Looked great. Then realized only 1 bung was in the right spot, switched the EGT (1/8th NPF) and O2 (M10 x 1.5).


Maybe tomorrow will be better....

 

[Garage5.9]

Was cleaning the inside of a exhaust from a 2 stroke scooter i had in a solvent tank. Basically i just let it flow in one end and out the other for awhile , while i was working. Blew it out with air and decided it would be a good idea to heat it up with my OA torch to burn off any solvent/oil left over. Well as i was heating the exhaust it was creating some interesting white smoke that would burn rather vigrously when i hit it with the torch haha. Long story short i continued doing this until the could kept getting thicker and proceeded to light the vapor one last time and there she went "BOOOOM" . Scared the **** out of me but no damage was done other than my pride from jumping back a few feet scared shitless but kinda laughing at the same time

 

[neonnblack]

I had a 90 celica a few years back, changed the plugs on it. Well i needed a small flathead to help with it and set it inside the airbox while putting the wires back on. Buttoned it all up drove it for a week or so while on the way home from work it kept pinning open WOT pulled off the side of the freeway, looked restarted kept pinning open. dad came with the highway road service in tow. take the intake tube off, found my little screwdriver jammed in the butterfly, quite embarrassing.

 

[Wilbur]

I am SOO glad none of this stuff ever happened to me.....

Smashing my thumbs....having wrenches slip and smack me hard are pretty much all the time events so I am not really sure I remember them anymore.


In a previous life logging....cut a tree on the edge of a pond....it fell into the pond (as intended)...leaned over to limb it a bit before getting it out of the pond and my hat started to fall into the water. Of course can't let a little water get on a cheap $2 ballcap....my right hand immediately grabbed for it...yep...grazed the bar....fortunately the chain was slowing as I had taken my right hand off the trigger....still about 20 stitches over three fingers. but it sure could have been worse.

Another time my wife's company was having a big cookout party and they asked me to take pictures. Well the building they were in was half finished. The other half was exposed steel with the thin plating put down waiting for a cement pour. But that steel frame overlooked the parking lot where the cookout was and would give me a GREAT view of the party for some pictures. So I climbed over the barrier fencing....walked out to the edge and took some great shots. As I started to walk back across my leg went through the thin plate cutting my leg to ****! Suddenly I realized that the (quite a few) years the frame had sat waiting to be built (real estate slowdown in the early 90's) had allowed all the thin metal to rust. Now I am about 60 feet or more out in the middle of this "platform"....blood is pouring down my leg from the three cuts in it. And I have NO idea where the supporting trusses are under the metal. Talk about a loooooonnnnngggg gingerly walk back to the edge. Each step I was sure I was going to fall all the way through. And given how my leg had faired going through I knew it would be worse. But I made it back without (further!) incident. The good part wass this was a medical group so I found my wife and we got a Doc. My wife couldn't watch as she hates blood. I helped hold the cuts closed as she stitched me up with my beer (and her wine) on the counter. The hardest part was holding the cuts open so she could irrigate out all the rusty metal flakes. It took 60 stitches to get them all closed and I see the scars every day. They were worried I would sue them but hell I was the idiot that walked out on the steel framing.

I am SURE I have others but my mind is gracefully not allowing me to remember them all.....

 

[Cougar]

When I was about 17 or 18 I was working on an old truck with my dad, and we decided to jack it up and beef up its offroad capabilities. That truck was an injury mill. In one particular instance where I feel real stoooooooooopid, I was one-handing a 3lb mini sledge while trying to persuade something or another to move when the sledge slipped when it struck the punch and inadvertently crushed my right thumb and index finger. The worst part was that my index finger was sideways, so the nail tore my finger all to hell. Both instantly started swelling and I had blood blisters on the finger itself, as well as under the nail. I had hit the thumb so hard that it tore open, almost as if I had smashed a sausage or something.

When I hit it, there was absolute silence - you could have heard a pin drop in the garage, then I raised up, hit my head under the truck while extracting myself, and started dancing around in the garage. My old man (RIP) saw exactly what happened, and just as straight faced as you could imagine, deadpanned "Why'd you do that, Steve-O?" to which I said "Because it feels so damned awesome." before walking out the door and throwing up.

I could still move it, but the nail was throbbing, so I took a tiny little drill bit and drilled a pair of holes in each nail, then pierced the blisters with a needle. There was so much blood under the nail that it shot out a couple of inches - almost thought I hit an artery or vein or something. That was the worst part. It hurt worse than when I hit it, but afterward, I finally had a bit of relief - until the next day when my fingers were sore as hell for the next two weeks.

Thanks for the laugh Steve-O.

 

[Cougar]

I'm constantly reminded of things I've done or am doing wrong.
Glad I'm not alone.

 

[ZRX61]

Painting 2 cars.. one was a Cobra replica & just about finished, was carrying a fender from the other car past the deck lid & put a 8in long scratch in it. AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Then when i went to fix the scratch I used the wrong solvent to wipe down the deck lid & the 8in long scratch turned into a 12x6in blister.

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!1

 

[b-body-bob]

I've been very lucky, nothing like some of the carnage above. Mostly dumb stuff like leaving a claw hammer on the fold out tray of a step ladder, moving the ladder, and catching the falling hammer with my head.

The most recent thing I recall was while replacing my water heater, I shut off the cold water coming into it, then cut the water line on the wrong side of the valve. It's amazing how much water can come out of a 1/2" water line when it's cut in two like that.

 

[b-body-bob]

Ah sweet memories, just remembered the summer I was working at a tire shop. I was working on a split ring wheel, broke the bead, pried the ring loose, flipped the wheel back against my legs to beat the rim out of the tire, all good and well. Well this time I got in a hurry and didn't notice my legs were in the way of the rim. One big smack and the rim popped out of the tire, and caught me at about both knees.

Luckily I was trying to be one of the guys so I had a plug of tobacco in my mouth. I didn't swallow the plug but I did swallow a bunch of the juice. Last time I chewed any tobacco so I guess it wasn't a total loss.

 

[graybeard62]

How about kicking a cup on the shop floor and not noticing the the hitch sticking out the the vehicle until my shin caught it.

 

[ZRX61]

I forgot the company, but during WW-II circus midget and other small people were conscripted to wok in aircraft factories, bucking rivet inside airplane wings.

Boeing & Consolidated both did that. I think maybe Lockheed too.

 

[BIG Eric]

I had just bought a rear stand for my 2003 ZRX1200 kawasaki Motorcycle. No instructions (not that we needed them right) I lift the rear of the bike into the air. I was very impressed with how easy it was to use. Now time to lower the bike down I grab the handlebars, place my foot in front of the stands wheels so it does not move and give it a push slowely of course but just fast enough fo say s@#t as the handle of the stand smashes the tail light into a million pieces. Girlfriend walked out at that instand to see it explode and starts laughling. Thats when I realized that you can get mad at doing something stopid but it dosent help. From then on I have to laugh as hard as everyone else at myself when I screw up. I still feel bad about it but laughing makes it a little less stressful.