Shop pranks

[1967Impala]

Guy laying out of bead of weld sneek up behind and spray WD 40 into the arc you cant see the stream but the resulting flare up really shakes them up. done this and have been the welder .

Our shop has a no pass through rule (used as short cut through the plant) one day a bunch of higher ups all chatting and not paying attetion came through Did you know a 5lb hammer off of steel table will really wake them up and make them never come back.

 

[ZRX61]

Another trick is to save a spare of some small critical internal part of a major assembly. When your co-worker is almost done with re-assembly, slip the "critical part" onto their workbench then watch them sweat when they think they have to take everything apart...

15 or 17, but never 16, valve lifters in the parts washer or on the bench,

ditto pushrods, the mysterious one that appears just after you have the engine all buttoned up... or a carb float...

 

[justafurnaceman]

When I was working construction the guys screwed my bucket of tools to the plywood floor of a new house that we were working on. Nearly yanked my shoulder out.

The guys filled paper cups full of water and then put them in the commander's office. Every horizontal surface was covered. Took a couple of hours and a lot of cups.

When I was taking my physical test for EOD we had to wear the JSLIST (Chem suit) and do certain tasks. Running, carrying things, and other endurance challenges and then one for dexterity. I was required to pick up a group of coins that were on the shop floor and arrange them by size and then tell the sergeant how much money was there. I didn't have my glasses insert for the gas mask (which they knew) so I was running a little blind. I was doing great until I couldn't pick up one quarter. The chem gloves are awkward but not impossible but I just couldn't pick this one up. I even tried using another coin but no luck. After about 5 minutes the sergeant told me to leave that one alone as it wasn't going anywhere. They had glued it to the floor.

 

[Bronson]

I was working in an Experimental Aircraft hanger on Aircraft mods. My Buddy was a real joker. One friday afternoon, after I left, He stayed late and used some materials We had on hand to decorate Our C0-workers top box. He used pooky to mold a VERY realistic *****, and testicles. He stuck this to the front of the Guys box. It was so realistic, except for the green color....It had bulging veins and looked as if it were about to "wake up". He then cut up scotch brite and decorated the thing with a nice bushy pube collar....Sorry, this is a little graphic. So, He left it there over the weekend.
Any way, Monday morning, unknown to all of Us working Guys, the Boss brings an early morning group of VIPs on a special tour of Our Experimental Projects hanger, opened the door to the shop and all the VIPs got an eyeful of this very real_looking pooky and scotch brite "member" dangling from the top box. Needless to say, the Boss was not exactly amused.

 

[Bronson]

Before I retired, I was working for Bell-Boeing, and We were working mandantory overtime, 60 hour weeks. Sometimes , to relieve the stress, We would joke around a little...We used rubbing alcohol in a plastic bottle with a squirt tip, as a cleaner, for various clean up jobs. I was inside the fuselage, and one of My buddies was standing outside the aircraft, talking football . I was peeking out of a hole about 1 1/2 inch in diameter, where I was about to install a External Pyrotechnic Initiator push button. My Bud didnt see Me and I stuck the squirt tube up to the hole and directed a fine stream of rubbing alcohol right at His crotch. from about 3 feet away, I quietly drenched the front of His pants with alcohol, until all of a sudden , he jumps and yells, WTF!!! The other Guy says "What, You pissed yourself?" Everyone was laughing and pointing at Him, and I was inside the plane, laughing My *** off. Thing is, nobody realized where the stream came from, so for several days, every time someone stopped near My plane, they would mysteriously "have an accident". Of course, when they caught on, it was My turn......

 

[ozrkhist]

During my work stent at an aircraft paint shop we had a wing man that had a fear of snakes. When an aileron is raised on 1 wing it lowers on the other side. Frequently during a break someone would place a short piece of hose on "Heavy Duty's" aileron & of couse move the wing while he reached for it following our break. Much to our amusement Heavy would dance a nice jig while swearing at whoever he thought was responsible for the "snake" falling on him. The prank never got old & Heavy Duty would later retaliate by placing an acetone soaked rag in someone's seat. We worked 60+ hours weekly for that slave driver & needed an occassional smile. Heavy is still a great friends & the memory brings a laugh 40 years later.

 

[Toolman12]

I used too cut the head of a screw and stick the point end on the outside of the car in the area a co-worker was drilling in screws and then pretend to freak out on him when i saw it and told him that he was going to pay for the hole to be fixed i do this with the newbees makes them learn to check screw length. Have gotten a lot of laughs with this one over the years

 

[OldMechanik]

I put a back up beeper in my bosses truck once, it was good for a giggle.
Took the valve stem core out of a co-workers tire and put the cap back on just tight enough so as to leak a little air...he called in one morning late because he had a flat. "Gee that's too bad." was my response.

The guy who's tools I glued down put a big cardboard sign on the tailgate of my pickup that read: "Honk if you're ***** I like boys" decorated with some hearts.
I got home and ate lunch, only to notice it was there after grabbing the mail and looking to the truck while walking back up the driveway. Sheesh!

My dad told me about how when he was in Jr High all the boys were told by the PE coach that they had to take showers, if anyone was embarressed they should just wrap a towell around themselves. After showers one dude walked by with a towell around his head! Ha!!

 

[OldMechanik]

Oh and I forget exactly how, but there's a way to flip the display on the computer screen over...always good for a giggle on the parts counter.

 

[Norcal]

Oh and I forget exactly how, but there's a way to flip the display on the computer screen over...always good for a giggle on the parts counter.

Press "alt" &"ctrl" at the same time & use the arrow keys.

 

[Hawk Thor]

This might not be a shop specific joke but it work pretty well everywhere.

Take a screenshot of a desktop. Use the image as the new desktop background and hide all the desktop icons. Watch as the computers user flips out.

 

[MGMatt]

Pop the keys off the service writers keyboard and switch them around.

Jug of water set on the lift so as it goes up it dumps on the operator.

Run a wire from a spark plug up through the drivers seat cushion.

An extra bolt or two on the bench for a trans job.

Bubble wrap behind the tires. When the guy backs out of his bay...

Discreetly fill some ones pocket with spray white lith.

Grease under the drawer pulls.

Grease on the phone so when you put the receiver to your ear.

Crimp the air hose with pinch off pliers.

Put the service managers computer monitor on a timer so at 2:15 it would turn off.

 

[sr71]

working as a student one summer....had a fork lift driver that won quite a bit of money from the new guys by betting that he could pick up a quarter (off the floor) with this forks (not much of a trick once you see it done but interesting to watch ).. same guy liked to screw with my mig welder (pulled fuses...etc.) so one day as he was coming down the isle I built up a nice molten pile and pounded it with a hammer as he entered the zone....(no issue for me as I had on the gear but he got pelted with nice little molten beads...no damage but a few got in his boots (didn't bug the student any more than summer)

 

[BigAl62]

My buddies old boss used to be an aircraft mechanic before he bought an auto shop. He told us that there was one guy in the aircraft shop that pissed everyone else off all the time, so "someone" screwed a grease fitting into his tool box and pumped a 30 gallon drum of grease into it! He said it took the guy all day to clean it out and afterwards he would still find grease on stuff that came out of seams and such on warm days.

 

[Steevo]

We had one mechanic who was a real PIA and so full of himself that everyone wanted to see him gone.
One Saturday (his day off), he came in and put his personal cafe racer on the lift in his stall, worked on it all day, and left it there when he went home for the night. BIG MISTAKE.

We welded every other chain link together on his chain, up until the chain got so tight that we could no longer turn the rear wheel to continue.

We wired his turn signals to his brake light.

We filled his front forks with 90wt gear oil.

We removed all the bulbs from his instruments and indicators.

We're sure he came in on Sunday to finish up and go for a ride, but when we all came in to work on Tuesday (closed Monday), his bike was not there, and he said nothing to anyone about it.

It doesn't pay to be a jack-off to your co-workers.

 

[camarotoolman]

Back when we had metal lunch buckets, we would weld then down. Send the kid for a left handed wrench.

 

[KermitFrog]

Of course everyone with an aircraft background that get in an absolutely clueless newbie has sent someone out for '20 of line, specifically "Flight Line" or a Gallon of "Prop Wash".

Of course this is a lawsuit waiting to happen, but if we had someone we didn't like we would hold them down and put a harness on them then hook them to the crane (we had a 40 ton crane in our shop) and lift them up a good 10' and leave them there. Nowadays this is a little more frowned upon. Kinda frowned upon back then too.

Back in the Windows 3.1 days I swapped all the icons around, if they clicked on something a different program would open.

Not even shop related:
My wife and I used to work together in a military passenger terminal and someone called one day asking about seats on any aircraft, I told her to tell them we had one open seat on an F-16 - and she did it! (She was clueless as to what planes were what)

 

[USMCdodge]

I was working in an Experimental Aircraft hanger on Aircraft mods. My Buddy was a real joker. One friday afternoon, after I left, He stayed late and used some materials We had on hand to decorate Our C0-workers top box. He used pooky to mold a VERY realistic *****, and testicles. He stuck this to the front of the Guys box. It was so realistic, except for the green color....It had bulging veins and looked as if it were about to "wake up". He then cut up scotch brite and decorated the thing with a nice bushy pube collar....Sorry, this is a little graphic. So, He left it there over the weekend.
Any way, Monday morning, unknown to all of Us working Guys, the Boss brings an early morning group of VIPs on a special tour of Our Experimental Projects hanger, opened the door to the shop and all the VIPs got an eyeful of this very real_looking pooky and scotch brite "member" dangling from the top box. Needless to say, the Boss was not exactly amused.

I think these days people do a lot more ***** related jokes. sometimes we take the thick aluminum filler wire, bend it up with pliers to look like a *****, weld a hanger on it and hang it from someones belt look when they are welding.

 

[USMCdodge]

At The place i went to weld school, they had big bells that rang when it was break time. it was 2 bells side by side. so one day on our break we folded a piece of filler wire in half and taped it to the bells. It was epic.

KermitFrog, I send all the new guys to get grid squares and ID10T forms

 

[garboui]

We used to have air drops kicking around that pretty much only ever had air blow guns being used on. when someone would leave for lunch we would fill the air hose up with water. It was always a good laugh to see someone getting a blast of water coming out instead of what they expected.

 

[Plombob]

Weighing down the tool box is priceless!

I’d completely forgotten about this one. Not a shop prank, but funny nonetheless. I worked as a grocery clerk on morning crew in the “flagship” store of a big chain. One night we heard some grocery big wigs from Japan were coming to tour the store. One of the guys put a case of Raid Crack & Crevice Spray in the feminine section and dressed it up with shelf tags. An executive from our chain led the tour group and on each aisle he said “I like to call your attention to this item…blah, blah, blah”. The big wigs dutifully took pictures of whatever he was talking about and one guy was taking video. He walks down to the feminine section and says: “I like to call your attention to …” and freezes. He’s pointing right at the Raid. The big wigs snapped their pictures, the other guy is video taping. The exec was so rattled he couldn’t continue his routine.

 

[buffalobill]

when i worked at advance auto a long time ago, we had an assistant manager that was sort of a ****. we snuck up to his car one night and dumped in about 5 gallons of sludge, that was the remnants of gear lube, oil drained out of a 53 willys m38, and various other bs, into the gas tank. it was hilarious. he started coming to work and buying all sorts of parts for it, and the hardest part was when he would talk to us about his "problem", and we had to sit there and keep a straight face. I think the funniest part was sneaking in back and almost wetting your pants after he blew another 200 bucks on parts that he obviously didnt need, lol.

eventually he dropped the tank, and was all happy cuz he "fixed" it. he was all beaming around work, and thought that someone had tried to siphon his gas and dropped a rubber hose down in the tank and that the hose dissolved.

Once he got that car running, we went and did the same thing to his other ride, hahahaha. nothing like puttin one over on the boss!!

 

[Agent1320]

when i worked at advance auto a long time ago, we had an assistant manager that was sort of a ****. we snuck up to his car one night and dumped in about 5 gallons of sludge, that was the remnants of gear lube, oil drained out of a 53 willys m38, and various other bs, into the gas tank. it was hilarious. he started coming to work and buying all sorts of parts for it, and the hardest part was when he would talk to us about his "problem", and we had to sit there and keep a straight face. I think the funniest part was sneaking in back and almost wetting your pants after he blew another 200 bucks on parts that he obviously didnt need, lol.

eventually he dropped the tank, and was all happy cuz he "fixed" it. he was all beaming around work, and thought that someone had tried to siphon his gas and dropped a rubber hose down in the tank and that the hose dissolved.

Once he got that car running, we went and did the same thing to his other ride, hahahaha. nothing like puttin one over on the boss!!

Down here you'd get shot for doing that ****. What an *******.

 

[RVDan]

Down here you'd get shot for doing that ****. What an *******.

This!

 

[Agent1320]

I'm all for having a little fun with friends and coworkers, but actually causing damage to someone elses property and forcing them to spend money to fix the damage is grounds for a serious *** kicking or worse.

Between me and my gearhead friends and coworkers, we've all done or been part of most of the pranks listed above. It's all in good fun. Nobody gets their feelings hurt. Nobody has to spend money to fix the 'problem', we never did anything to anyones vehicles that caused any damage. It was just a friendly cycle of pranks. No Harm, No Foul.

One guy was sort of a newbie to our group. He worked as a parts guy at a repair shop with a friend and fellow car club member, so he started hanging around us. We didn't know him all that well, but we thought he was alright so he got in on some of the pranking and wound up taking it a little too far. He went to the workplace of one of our buddies and loosened the lug nuts on one of the wheels of his truck. When our friend left work, he got about a mile and a half before the wheel came off and he slid off the road and flipped the truck. Our buddy was ok, but the truck was totalled. The prankster went to his house to apologize, telling him he didn't know the wheel would come off. Then he got his *** kicked all over the front yard, lost a few teeth, and two days later was arrested and tossed in jail for Deadly Conduct. Never saw that ************* again.

 

[X1 Mike]

hate to be a downer but a shop isnt a place for pranks, too much can go wrong.

Hate to be a downer but no one likes working with you.......

Most of the pranks listed so far are the harmless sort which just lightens the mood. It's funny but the places I've worked that pranked the most we worked harder, longer hours, and generally had a tighter knit group of guys. Our only rules were, be safe and don't damage anyones property.

Prussian blue is one of the best assets for any prankster. A little dab on the saftey glasses goes a long way. Some smeared in the gloves of a sandblaster go a hell of a long way.

Also can't forget the can of sardine juice hidden under the bottom drawer of the toolbox.

 

[Agent1320]

I don't know what prussian blue is, but Never Seize gets the job done around here!

 

[X1 Mike]

I don't know what prussian blue is, but Never Seize gets the job done around here!

Prussian blue is also called die spotting blue, it's used to show high spots when you rub two pieces of metal together. It is hard to feel if you even touch it so if you get a little on the bridge of your nose you eventually itch and then it ends up everywhere.

 

[garboui]

another one i just remembered was the grease wars. he who leaves toolbox and mess out gets a nice coating of grease inside and out.

 

[BBDakota]

Not a shop prank but a guy I work with told me on a previous construction job, He was working four or five stories up. They had these full body suites they had to wear for protection. On day when they had important visitors on site and the big wheels was walking around on the ground, he filled one of those suites with insulation, let out a yell and tossed it over the side. They called perametics before they knew it was a prank, launched an investagation and he had to find a new job! But damn it was funny as he was telling it!

 

[kmkalf]

we got a mouse or 2 in the shop so they bought mousetraps, one day we set a trap under another guys cigarettes and put other stuff around it, when he went for his smokes the trap went off- never did get him, a day later i had to leave the break room and had a bag a chips i left on the table, they put the trap under the bag and i must've got about 5 handfuls of food before the trap went off, my hand went flying as a reaction while the bag and the trap landed on the floor.

 

[Alan Douglas]

There have been some pretty elaborate gags staged where I work; some stuff you'd never get away with now. We had a machinist who used to sing loudly while working. A klaxon and storage battery up in the roof trusses, with a relay triggered by push buttons in an adjacent room, eventually cured him. I had my bench wired with a Ford spark coil, raised on insulating blocks, energized by a microswitch behind the drawer lock, so when I turned the key.... Telephones with remotely-operated relays inside, to change the touch tones just enough so they would get a wrong number. Spark coils wired to door knobs. We filled the supervisor's Jeep with wood chips (we did put a plastic liner in first, that he couldn't see right away). We had a rather egotistical secretary, who occupied an office cubicle made of free-standing panels. We moved the walls inward two inches each night. This went on for so long that we had to remove an entire 3-foot panel at one point. She never noticed, until she had to walk sideways to get past the file cabinet and thought she was gaining weight.

 

[CCer]

My Uncle told this one, from His Engineering office. Maybe 40 years ago. A fellow employee bought a new economy car. He soon began bragging about the wonderful gas mileage of his new car. Then the others in the office began to sneak around and add gas into his car. After a while the mileage became phenomenal. Then they began to remove some gas, then more and more. He began to bug the dealer, because he lost the amazing fuel mileage. Dealer couldn't find any problems. Everyone left the car alone. No one ever 'fessed up to him.

Nothing is as simple as just turning wrenches.

 

[Nova_Guy]

At work in the USAF we wet peoples BDU hats and put them in the freezer. Helps cools off hot heads. I have also saw Leatherman and Gerbers zip tied to chairs if they're left laying out. We have also froze them in gallon jugs of water.

 

[porcupine73]

A friend who worked at a dealer detailing shop was telling me what they liked to do was tie junk to people's cars. He had an old pickup truck, and they took a bunch of old floormats and tied them together with about 20 foot of rope, and tied it under his bumper. So when he left, he was dragging this junk behind him. He didn't notice it at first since it was getting dark outside. Then he said at a stop light someone pulled up next to him and said 'hey you know you're pulling a bunch of floormats or something behind you'. So he stopped to check it out. Then he said after that he always backed over these big pricker bushes at the edge of the parking lot to keep them from doing it again.

 

[X1 Mike]

My Uncle told this one, from His Engineering office. Maybe 40 years ago. A fellow employee bought a new economy car. He soon began bragging about the wonderful gas mileage of his new car. Then the others in the office began to sneak around and add gas into his car. After a while the mileage became phenomenal. Then they began to remove some gas, then more and more. He began to bug the dealer, because he lost the amazing fuel mileage. Dealer couldn't find any problems. Everyone left the car alone. No one ever 'fessed up to him.

Nothing is as simple as just turning wrenches.

Absolute classic

 

[bibman]

Grab a guys keys when they're not looking and make a few small adjustments on the grinder...

 

[ZRX61]

Piece of sharpened aluminum welding rod in place of the tungsten in someones TIG while they are at lunch...

 

[dtt454]

a guy i work with told me this one.. he used to work at a landfill, they found a big stash of gay **** mags in the landfill, dug them out, and took them to the bosses office, and stuck them in his filing cabinet at all random places before some meeting with corporate. then during there meeting boss goes to get his stuff from the cabinet and

 

[oldgoat]

We used to put grease under the car doorhandles. One guy had some missing fingers so he missed it and his red head wife got it instead. It didn't help that he was laughing his tail off at her.
When in the Navy we would send the new guy for relative bearing grease or waterline. Of course each shop would send the poor soul on to another place. Sometimes they were gone the better part of the work day.
At one time we would light the shop rag a guy would have in his back pocket. Sometimes it took a little while for them to figure out where the smell and smoke was coming from.
When in welding school we would heat up a guys project that he had completed so he would come in to pick it up and get a burn or we would crank up the amps on the welder so that he would blow a hole in the project.
Bosses daughter had a little Vega so we put it up on some concrete blocks so the back tires were just barely on the ground.