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

I see that I am not alone in setting myself alight, slashing myself or getting tangled up in a power drill.
About the dumbest thing I managed to do was in my drive way and so wasn’t exactly an “inside the garage” event.
A friend of mine wanted to lower the front of his El Camino and we decided that cutting a coil off of the front springs was the way to go. We jacked the truck up and put it on the stands as we removed the front springs and cut off one full turn. After getting it all back together we decided that the truck wasn’t low enough so we repeated the drill and took off an additional one half coil. Still not low enough so another half coil and then another. Eventually we discovered the block of wood under the frame that was holding the truck up.
The next day I got to buy new coils and try again.

 

once there was a bird flying around in my shop
and I hate bird droppings on my car
so I trew a stick to it to chase it out
the stick hit a beam and landed on the windshiel of my 63 skylark and broke it
big bump

 

Had a 302 on an engine stand that had an L-shaped bolt sticking out on the backside of the main upright section. (the bolt was used to hold a tray that wasn't on the stand at the time)

The 302 was heavy side up (the heads were on top) and I needed to flip it over to look at the crank, etc.

About halfway through turning it over, gravity took over and quickly finished the job for me, pinning the fleshy part of my hand (next to my thumb) between the handle and the aforementioned bolt.

Excrutiating pain.....and I couldn't budge the engine. The was no one home, so I just stood there as this thing dug into my hand and just dealt with the pain.

I rolled the whole thing, with me stuck in it, over to my workbench and tip-toed to reach my crowbar and managed to lever it off of my hand.....extracted my hand and then sat on the floor for about 5 minutes trying to gather my wits.

My hand was all contorted, swelling and starting to turn colors, so I went to the doc....they took x-rays and declared that it was all soft tissue damage and that there was nothing they could do for it. It was back to normal in a few weeks.

 

At the risk of monopolizing this thread.....this is one for the books (and not for the squeemish)

I was in my dad's shop with him a couple years ago when I heard him yelp in pain from the opposite wall. He had four heavy steel wheels (without tires) stacked 4 high in the corner and had bumped the stack.

The top wheel fell off and landed on his big toe (he was wearing cloth loafer type shoes). The shoe starting turning blood red so we pulled it off and found that his big toe was nearly cut all the way through.

Off to the ER we went and a year later, a surgery, a reattached toe with a pin in it and he was walking around again.

Don't stack steel wheels 4 high.

 

Welding sunburn is pretty good... but welding with no helmet letting the nozzle sheild your eyes... BAD mistake... woke up at 3am my eyes felt like I had glass in them.... NOTHING would make it better that is the worst pain in my life... after that... I always have the helmet on...

Another one is using brake parts cleaner as wasp spray.... But still use it to this day it kills em in 5 seconds... just dont go killing wasps with brake parts cleaner and lighter... its a enlighting experience...

 

Blew the motor up in my Vette, put a old 283 in. Adjusted the clutch, not right yet, pulled back in the garage. Jacked her up ,adjust a little more, put her down, go to start her..... have blocked the wheels { emergence brake don't work, usually have her in gear } take one block out then second block out, car starts to roll out the garage. Slow motion too fast can't stop her, Phuck door is open, that stopped her...... Just got her back from the bodyshop......
1 should have had her in gear
2 door shouldn't have been open
3 should have stuck my foot, leg, what ever to stop her

 

Two paint cans sitting next to one another, one closed tightly, the other with the lid seated loosely on top. Guess which one I decided to shake?

 

Pull truck up to the top of the hill of the driveway to adjust the brakes.

Forget to chock wheels before crankin' on the floor jack.

Replace neighbors mailbox, landscaping & part of his fence

 

Changing the oil on an old 4x4......laying under the axle.........sneezed......thumped head off said axle......knocked myself about half loopy! Walked in the house and my wife busts out laughing due to the four inch long goose-egg across my face.

 

fix that thing!
what if you have an emergency?

 

set fire to the shop welding to close to a bucket of solvent, o yeah it was in a plastic bucket, thank god the water hose was close. Cliff

 

I was drilling a hole with an old two handle,metal, 1/2" drill. It was a huge warhorse drill from the 40's or so. I also had an extension bit on. Well the bit locked up, the drill motor twisted instead,pinned me against the wall. I couldn't get my finger off of the trigger. That old motor proceeded to drive me into submission. I don't remember how I got out of that one.

 

Wow, I can relate to almost every post and "accident". I was building an addition on my garage and was air nailing the roof rafters together. Instead of standing on a piece of plywood on the lower section of the rafters, I leaned over between the rafters to toe nail the boards, HOWEVER, I missed and shot myself in the stomach. Good thing I had some insulation as it did not do any damage, other than a puncture wound....

 

Rotating wheels in a shop. The shop gun was old and the anvil was worn to the socket was very loose. The R-F switch stuck and I was holding the gun with the socket pointing up. I freed the R-F knob and blipped the on switch, the socket shot off the end of the gun and went out the garage door window. HOWEVER, the boss walks in just after it happened and announces that the garage door guys were coming to replace the old doors. THEN, he looks over and sees the hole in the glass then to me with and "empty" impact gun and starts laughing. Nice timing.
I could write a book.....

 

I was helping on of my race ar sponsors out in a shop they were dismantling. I was moving some pallets with a forklift and heard a loud scream from another section of the warehouse. Two other guys and myself ran into the drill press room to find a FNG pinned to the wall by a railroad tie that he had been drilling with a 1" bit. The bit had caught in the tie (cresote) and spun and hit him in the chest and pushed him against the wall. The boss (Bob) walks up and reminded him that he was suppose to clamp the tie to the press upright before drilling so it would not spin. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later...broke three ribs. To this day I have a bolt in my drill press pad to keep parts from spinning if the bit gets caught.....

 

I have the ugliest ankle scars from the slag. And I never knew Steel Toe Boots could come off that fast [/QUOTE]


So, I just got a visual of you welding in shorts and steel toe boots! Too Funny!

 

Ran all 4 wheels of the 35 up on ramps to get it high enough to get the floor jack under so I could lift it higher and get it on 4 jack stands. I was in kind of a hurry, usually the main ingredient for disaster. Stuck the floor jack under the pumpkin at an angle to the car and as soon as the rear wheels cleared here comes the Ford, backin up and goin left. Forgot to chock the front wheels. I'm in flip flops trying to get enough traction to keep from ramming the workbench. I was pinned between the bench and the car - if I let it go, fender and bumper damage, if I drop the jack, fender damage. Can't push forward cuz the ramp in front is jammed under the wheel. I felt like Ozzy Osbourne hollering for my wife SHAROOOOON!

 

Got a new one this weekend. I was running a side-grinder on the inside of the driver's side door to get the rust off. I flipped my safety glasses up to get a better look at an inside corner, when a rusty sliver of steel came flinging out of the side-grinder and caught me square in the eye. Needless to say a $100.00 later with antibiotics and a trip to the optometrist's office, I was sent home with a bloody red eye. It still works, but boy does it burn!

 

Well it was not my shop but it was my first car and I was 19 , I jacked it up in the rear put the jackstands where I thought it looked OK in front of the rear end (when it was only jacked up in the rear) , took the rear wheels off ...... forgot about that and started to jack it up in the front , took the wheels off the front , jacked it up some more more to put the jackstands in the front , the car started to slide off the rear jackstands , the jack tipped over and the car is now laying on the floor , ops !
well nobody was hurt and I got some learning on how not to jack up a car !
Wolf

 

Blew the end out of a 275 gal, (3/4 full) oil tank in the garage.
You talk about a mess!

 

Oh I got another one , I was 20 , at work they were moving to a new location and I was alone in one area looking at a expanding bolt in the floor left from some machine that had been bolted there , hmm wonder what happends if I take the 20ton overhead crane and try to lift that out , it made a shooting sound so loud thru the whole series of shops connected , it took a 1 1/2 foot wide cone of concreet out of the floor , I quickly put the pieces back , people came running asking me what that was , I said I havent heard anything ! my goodness , that was close to 30 years ago , I never told anyone , but man I laughing so hard thinking about it !

 

Just finished the body work on my 50 poncho and I was using a grinder on another project, I turned around to grab my gloves, with the grinder in my hand still in the on position and I tripped over the cord and dropped the grinder on the fender/hood of my pontiac.Clearly, I must have fell asleep during shop safety 101.

 

Ive got an Acura integra in my shop while Im doing body work and painting it for a "buddy". Thats pretty stupid in my eyes, as my 56 buick is sitting out in the cold while this takes shape. Did I mention its an ACURA? Damn ricers!

 

mmmm...I did a few of these.

1)-I was grinding some body rust off a badly rusted car when I dropped the grinder onto the ground..I picked it up and went right back at it. Well, the disc went pfooof!! and went all over the place..I found bits embedded in the floor(old 2X12 planking) and up in the rafters..and a piece of it in my cheek. Now I know why one uses full face protection with these things.

2)-Was doing some spray painting...found that it was spluttering and such. Think...mmm...there must be summat in here..fiddle with airgun..get paint full in face...Next time aim away from face...d'oh

 

built a few cars, and probably going to build a few more..pretty F-ing stupid eh?

 

Was cutting the exhaust off a car with a torch,and one spark caught the gas tank on fire....SCARY!!!

 

i did EXACTLY that last saturday........

 

After bringing a junk '53 Merc into the shop, I drained five gallons of old gasoline into a plastic bucket, which I placed outside around the corner from the door. A friend came in then, and asked if I would weld a bracket up for him that had cracked, so I removed the car from the shop and began welding on the steel.

I had both front and rear doors of the shop open, as it was over 100 degrees that day and there was a light wind blowing through the building. I hear this FWHOOMP! sound, and saw a cloud of black smoke billowing beyond the building, and saw that a spark from welding had blown into the pail of old fuel. I didn't have an extinguisher handy, but I was able to extinguish it before the pail melted by setting a metal oil drain pan over the top of it.

---John

 

Mine usually have to do with touching things while they are still hot. Welding, grinding etc. Its not a huge thing, but it happens more often than I'd like to admit.

 

Okay, I was one of the "first responders" on this thread over a year ago with a story about damn near setting my shop on fire with magnesium dust. Got another...

Many years ago,3 or 4 of my friends and I shared my tiny 1 and a half car garage for not only our personal and joint projects, but some customer stuff as well. Practical jokes, drinking too heavily, (which mysteriously leads to driving topless '48 Plymouths for long stretches) summer long water fights and other entertainment always ensued... Nearly 24/7!

One summer, ken was having a hell of a time keeping turbo 350s in his '36 Chevy sedan daily driver/work truck. Coulda' been the aircraft carrier sized trailer he dragged behind it most of the time, but who am I to judge! Anyway, it's mid summer, 110 or so, the '36 is on jack stands about 20" off the ground and Ken is busy underneath for the umpteenth time pulling the trans. ElPolacko, Tom, and myself are leaning against my louver bench drinking gin & tonics and basically kibitzing. I go back in to mix another round of G.T.s and as I walk through the door, I spot a toy my mom gave me for my cat called a "cat dancer", basically a small black "cush ball" on a 4' long thin wire. Now, Ken is deathly afraid of spiders... Oh crap, This is going to be funny!!! I walk out the door with everybodies drinks and cat toy tucked under my arm, quietly giggling to myself and pass out drinks and assume my lean against my bench. As Ken works diligently (shirtless) I take the "cush ball" on a wire, and slowly set it on his chest. He slaps it away. A couple minutes later, do the same, only a bit higher. Same result. Moments later, again, but this time high enough that he can see what it is... He apparently saw the biggest damn black widow ever concieved! His reaction was to scream in a high pitched siren noise like a small girl, and at the same time sit up... Under the car! Clang! Down. Scream, clang! down. At the third go 'round, he went silent... Out cold!!!!