Mistakes that Could have gone Really Wrong.

[neonnblack]

I needed to de rust some things super fast one day and with an INCREDIBLE lack of judgement on my part, and i mean completely DUMB instead of using a charger with 6 or so volts i cut the cord off an appliance. I wired it neg a positive like normal directly to the part and the rebar. Plugged it in, fizzing immediately i said to myself "smart move this is gonna be great". Check on it ten minutes later and the cord is so pliable i could have pulled it apart by hand, and it burnt the ratchet inside that it was hooked to. another minute would have started a fire.

This one isnt garage related but i nearly **** myself. We rent large 30 foot box trucks at work to pick up things from our other stores on occasion and im the driver for it. Its a short ways to the other store so i take the easy (and longer) way normally and relax. Well there is part of the road that has a sign that says no trucks past this point with a picture of a semi, so i figured im not a semi im good to go. Went through countless times 20+ times in the times that i was driving. For that sake of story and the fact i dont remember how tall the bridge was so we'll say it was 13 feet 8 inches. well the truck is about 13 feet 4 inches tall. One day driving there i read the sign on the bridge then looked in the mirror at my truck height. I froze i was about 20 feet from the bridge and even though i never had realized the height before and came out fine, my brain couldnt process what was happening and i thought i was going to smash the bridge. then i went right through fine. I nearly **** myself, i stopped the truck after the bridge got out was going to look at how close i actually was, then realized i couldnt even if i wanted to i wasnt about to see how close to fucked up ville i was. I take the short fast way now.

 

[MadMechMaster]

My unit in Germany was being deactivated, and we were returning equipment to the depot.

I was parking a generator trailer in line and had to remove the gas cans. The pick up tube for the generator engine was simply a jerrycan cap with a tube through it and a long rubber hose to the fuel pump.

The starter batteries were situated next to the jerrycans and as I pulled the tube, it sparked on the positive lead and the dripping fuel flashed over. I blew as hard as I could and capped it back down while jumping off and started running before hitting the ground. Nothing more happened, but it took some time to calm down.

 

[Garage5.9]

Years ago I worked at a ski area on the lift maintenance crew. In the summer we had to do some repair welding on every chair on the lift (yup, boring). I was using a rosebud to preheat the spot and another guy was doing the stick welding. At some point, late in the day, I wondered what would happen if I filled a pipe sticking out of the ground (used during the winter to string maze rope) with Ac and O2 and lit it off. It went off like a 50 cal round - I mean LOUD. Unfortunately, the guy doing the welding had just flipped his hood up. It surprised him so bad he jumped about 3 feet backwards and fell over. Good thing he wasn't up on a ladder.

We spent 5 minutes laughing and the next half hour trying to figure out the best mixture for the loudest bang.

hahahah i can relate to this not because it was a mistake but because i like doing it. Ive never heard a .50 go off but i can guarantee this is louder than that. you will feel the air move past you

 

[DIC]

I've done so much stupid stuff I'm lucky to be alive..Guess thats why I don't worry about cholesterol.

 

[kingston123]

I have never done this type of mistakes, that's not mean i am perfect but my little mistakes are not gone much wrong so no one is important.

 

[GTVSaviour]

Done various things to cut and burn various parts of me - but luckiest actual escape (without knowing it at the time) was the garage floor itself.
I rent here in Brussels - and complained that the floor had a couple of holes and sounded hollow. I'd even spilled tea (I know - British!) and watched it disappear down the holes - so knew it wasn't too good.

Eventually got them to agree on inspection - camera bod showed up and it was the main run-off pipe had collapsed....... I was working on a thin sheet of concrete over a hole 15ft deep and entire floor space of the garage

I was pretty mad with the local building supervisry team as I'd been working under my various cars, including the LS400 and Jeep on that for ages before they did anything. Luckily it held.

2months repair work on drain and filling/strengthening everything - but desperately looking for a place for myself......

 

[MadMechMaster]

GTVSaviour, You have got to post pictures of that hole!

 

[dirttracker18]

While working under my motorhome I needed to jack up one side of the engine to make room to get parts through. I had my FIL jack up the engine which lifted the entire front of the motorhome slightly. Upon getting the part through I told him to slowly lower the jack back down, mainly so I could guide the engine back into place. Suddenly I realized I was beginning to be sqqueezed by the crossmember. I shouted to stop and jack back up!
The jack stand under the frame had moved over (likely I leaned on it while the weight was off) and the entire unit was on its way back down on top of me. Luckily my FIL had lowered it slowly enough to notice before things got worse.

When I was in my early twenties a buddy and I were building a sub box for car audio using a table saw. As saw dust built up on the board it got hard to see our line so my buddy first tries to blow it off then just reaches over and wipes off the saw dust with the saw still on. We stared horrified at each other for a second until we had to guts to look. I am not sure how but he never touched the turning blade! He looked back at me white as a ghost and said "what the f%*k was I thinking?"

 

[D rock]

I have had a sandblaster for a couple months. I used my sandblaster for the first time the other day.

I lost the instructions. But knew enough to be dangerous. I youtubed it.

I knew how to load the media in the top, connect the air line and get it pressurized. Used it fine, what I blasted looked great when I was done.

Just didn't think about unpressurizing it when I was finished. I unhooked the air line, turned off the flow of everything. When I went to open the top it was whistling. I knew that wasn't cool, but wasn't thinking about what to do. Needless to say, about that time it sounded like a CANNON exploded and the top blew about 50 ft in the air.

Luckily I was outside, by myself so noone else could see my stupidity. It then occured to me to open the air valve and that wouldn't happen again.

If your gonna be dumb you better be tough...

 

[jveretto]

Worked with my dad as a kid. We has a worn out moto crane in the shop to rebuild, body, motor, tran and brakes. We we finished with everything except the brakes. Hard headed operator came in and insisted he was taking to a job down the road. Dad said I'm not through. Guy said he didn't care, he was taking the moto crane. I look at my dad, he looked at me. Dad grinned and shrugged. Out of the shop and down the hill. About half way down, we hear unsycronized gears grinding, loud cursing ad finally a loud crash.
We leasurely walked down the hill to find the moto crane on it's side, the operator sitting on the curb shaking like a leaf. We turned around and walked up the hill to the shop to call for a tow truck. Operator went to the office and turned in his resignation. Hope a reader here is not that operator. But then, stupid is still stupid I guess!

 

[coberg]

First post. A few months ago I went to my brother in laws to help him dispose of some unwanted shrubs with my 86 f250. As soon as I get there the front caliper locks up. Myself, my dad, my cousin and brother in law spend the next 3 hours getting the locked up, rusted up caliper off. I carry a plethora of tools on my truck and Im glad I did because this guy as no tools or mechanical experience. Needless to say he was no more than moral support.

On to the close call. The only jack I had was a high lift jack, and as this has sufficed in the past we saw no reason for further safety support this time. Any way with the tire off, dad gets under the truck with my handy dandy 2 lb sledge hammer and begins beating the bejesus out of the caliper in an attempt to break it loose. He stops to inspect his progress and sets the hammer down on the concrete driveway head down, handle directly under the front leaf spring. The truck shifts off the jack and rests on the handle of the hammer, 1/4 inch from his nose. He crawls out and says "that hammer saved my life."

I could right a book about the close calls I've had running equipment.

 

[89MustangGX]

One time when I was younger I decided I needed to change the ****** mount in my car. I knew a guy at a garage and managed to secure a lift after hours to do the work. First time using a lift. I was very careful and set it and got everything going. I used a pogo jack to support the trans while removing the mount. I needed just a little more space to get it out so I kept raising the pogo little by little. Just when I thought I had it enough, buddy comes out yelling. I had actually lifted the car off the lift by the pogo and it was teetering by it. I realized what was going on as it started to swing off the lift. Somehow I managed to steady the car and hold it up as he dropped the pogo down and brought the car back onto the lift. Scary!

Adam

 

[tyheuser]

Not quite the same as some of yours guys stories but still kinda falls under the same catagory. Yesterday at work I had a 03 ranger with a 2.3 come in with its serpintine belt off, checked it out and the balancer had came apart. Ordered the part got it there tried to break the balancer bolt loose holding the brake with the truck in gear and clutch slipped so I used a breaker bar with a socket on the bolt where it would hit the frame when I bumped the starter. Boom I break the bolt loose as ive done hundreds of times (say what you want it works well) to get the balancer off and realize it has a tone ring that needs to be lined up and has no cotter key. I look on alldata and the pos doesn't have a cotter key on the crank timing pulley either and I just threw cam timing out of wack and possibly bent the valves.The only thing that holds the crank timing gear in time is the pressure of the balancer smashing it against the crank with 2 friction washers. I ended up having to buy a special timing tool set that pins the crank, pins the pulley, and locks the backside of the cams, and had to remove the intake manifold and valve cover. Retimed it with the tools and all the cylinders had 200 psi so I was freaking stoked! Threw it back together and ran great all in all I lost a couple hours, but could of been alot worse if I bent valves, I could of even screwed up a rod or piston. I feel like I got lucky and wont remove a balancer that im unsure of without checking this first! Learn something every day

 

[HDawg 440]

First one, in college I had a bunch of oil, brake fluid, etc stored on my apartment balcony. One day the neighbor below comes up and tells me that my grill is leaking grease. I tell him I'll take care of it, knowing it's not grease from the grill. I find the leaking container, gather everything up, and start carrying it out of there. The first step inside the door, the bottom of the cardboard box I'm using lets go and gallons of oil dump on the apartment carpet! Long story short I **** most of it up using a rental carpet cleaner. Roommates were pissed but the apartment management never found out.

Second one, in college I get a job working for a combo salvage yard race shop and the guys that own the place tell me to disassemble some struts. My question is "Where's the spring compressor?" and their reply is "We don't have one." So they tell me to just hit the upper nut with an impact wrench, and they assure me everything will be fine as they've done it before. So I stand the first one up, point it away from myself and let her rip. The thing went off like a gun. Spring flew up and hit the wall and ceiling of the pole barn. I'm like, "Well, I guess they consider that safe." Against good judgment I do the second one the same way, make sure I haven't eaten a spring, and turn around to see them doubled over laughing their asses off. They said they couldn't stop me before I did the first one, then it looked so funny they couldn't stop me from doing the second one. In any event they did show me their non-spring-compressor method of disassembly which I have used a number of times. Lay the strut on the ground, then crouch down next to it with its top mount at your hip and the business end of the strut pointed behind you. Hit the nut with the impact wrench and all the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy in the form of the strut body sliding across the concrete. I would not recommend this to many but yes I have done it.

The last one was yesterday. My routine for lifting my cars is to get the front on ramps, lift the rear with a jack and put it on jack stands, then lift the front with the jack and put it on jack stands. I have my daily driver in the garage and my weekend car in the driveway behind it. The daily is on ramps and I put the jack under and begin raising the rear. I'm making good progress then the car rolls right off the ramps and naturally I back up... into the other car. Right before getting squashed I jump out of the way. Near code brown, no damage to me, and only a scratch to one car's bumper. Turns out the jack wasn't rolling on the garage floor so as it lifted the car the motion of the mechanism pulled the car off the ramps. Attempt #2 involved blocking the brake pedal so the front brakes were on and preventing the car from moving. Lucky.

Chris

 

[napalmv8]

A couple of years ago my garage was occupied with car on summer tires and there was about 40 cm of snow outside, so if I manage to drove outside it could be very hard to return back to garage. I needed to fix some electric problem near starter motor on my 81' Volga-24.
I asked a friend with empty garage to fix it there. Drove into it, shut the engine off and put car on 1st gear instead of parking brake (it is common practice here).
While fixing problem, I occasionally shortened starter motor coil with positive wire from battery with wrench Starter began cranking engine and as car was on 1st gear it began rolling =)
Thanks God, nobody was standig on car's way =) Volga drove through garage doors uprooting them from walls
Friend was very "happy"
The rest of day I spent cutting/welding/ restoring doors Fortunately car was not damaged during this incident

 

[blackdart66]

While helping my foxy sister in law move after her husband passed away from a stroke. She and I were the only ones in the old house..........we passed very close to each other at one point......we stopped, looked intently at each other......the moment passed.....sigh.....

Never got another shot.......

My favorite ! lol

 

[ROB_IN_MN]

First post. A few months ago I went to my brother in laws to help him dispose of some unwanted shrubs with my 86 f250. As soon as I get there the front caliper locks up. Myself, my dad, my cousin and brother in law spend the next 3 hours getting the locked up, rusted up caliper off. I carry a plethora of tools on my truck and Im glad I did because this guy as no tools or mechanical experience. Needless to say he was no more than moral support.

On to the close call. The only jack I had was a high lift jack, and as this has sufficed in the past we saw no reason for further safety support this time. Any way with the tire off, dad gets under the truck with my handy dandy 2 lb sledge hammer and begins beating the bejesus out of the caliper in an attempt to break it loose. He stops to inspect his progress and sets the hammer down on the concrete driveway head down, handle directly under the front leaf spring. The truck shifts off the jack and rests on the handle of the hammer, 1/4 inch from his nose. He crawls out and says "that hammer saved my life."

I could right a book about the close calls I've had running equipment.

What did you think was going to happen? a high lift jack and beating the hell out of the car with a hammer??

FFS buy some jack stands. That's automotive 101. Your dad is lucky to be alive.

most of the posts in here are honest mistakes, but this is just stupid.