What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

[natemoore]

When I was a junior in college, I bought a Triumph Spitfire to restore. I needed my "Red Barchetta."

I had a really hard time getting the center oil ring compressed onto the piston, so I just assumed it was too long and I trimmed it to fit.

Sunday afternoon I had to report back to school. I drove back laying down what looked like a WWII destroyer smoke screen. It was appropriate though, since I was driving back to the Naval Academy.

Never did that again.

 

[DianneB]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Magnesium? I bet that got your attention!

With my Dad being a mechanic and dabbling with "stuff" all my life, it is hard to remember the "stupidest" LOL!

The most memorable would have to be preparing raw iron castings with an angle grinder, cutting off the sprues, removing flashings, etc. I was wearing an oxy-acetylene welding helmet so I could see the cut amid all the sparks, and wearing heavy clothes. I had been at it for awhile and started to wonder why my belly was feeling "prickly" but wanted to finish the work so I kept going until "prickly" became HOT! When I flipped up the helmet I saw that the stream of sparks had burned through my sweater, my shirt, and both were still ON FIRE!

(After extinguishing my belly button fire I switched to a leather welder's apron LOL!)

You boys aren't the only ones who have those "oh-oh" moments!

 

[mommicked]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

a friend of mine was welding plate steel underneath a heavy drill rig.he was sitting indian style,blue jeans, and a large ball of slag feel in his lap onto the end of an appendage in that region! when it struck him he jerked violently and hit his head on the machine knocking himself uncontious.he awoke to excruciating pain in his appendage and head wound, that required stiches.he said he must have been going into shock as he felt as if he was dying for a few minutes.he said it was months before he even thought of using his appendage again which was evedently permanently damaged.sorry if this was TMI!!another friend was doing a brake job. putting springs back on the truck drums w a pair of needle nose pliers,slipped and jammed the piers into his forehead actually penitrateing his skull!he was OK after a trip to the emergency room,no aparent brain damage.an oops of my own changing a fuelpump lying on my back gas ran down my arm to my armpit.if you never gotten gas there dont. it burns like fire and is hard to wash away,but underarm odor smells ok for a few days!

 

[rbh]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Don't weld with flip flops and shorts on???
big OUCH factor :redface:

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

One of them was while grinding on the outside of my van I didnt stop and realize that it GETS HOT on the inside too. It set the interior on fire and lucky for me I had a garden hose very close.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

a friend of mine was welding plate steel underneath a heavy drill rig.he was sitting indian style,blue jeans, and a large ball of slag feel in his lap onto the end of an appendage in that region! when it struck him he jerked violently and hit his head on the machine knocking himself uncontious.he awoke to excruciating pain in his appendage and head wound, that required stiches.he said he must have been going into shock as he felt as if he was dying for a few minutes.he said it was months before he even thought of using his appendage again which was evedently permanently damaged.sorry if this was TMI!!

I knew "Never eat at a restaurant named 'Mom's'! "...."Never play poker with someone nicknamed 'Doc' !" .... and "Never fry bacon while you are naked" !....but this one I hadn't heard....

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

A friend and I was un-soldering a 2" ball valve on a hot water heater where we worked. The line on the one side un-sweated without any problem. I began to heat the other side while he had a good grip with a pair of channel lock pliers on the other side. He tugged and pulled while I was heating up the joint. The solder looked wet, but not hot enough to let go. So, I cranked up the heat even more,,,,the dang thing just wouldn't let go. So, I get another tip and put on the oxy/act torch and put some major heat to it. Now my friend is squatting down facing the end of the fitting when all of a sudden,,,KABOOM ! the seal of the ball valve let go and the compressed air/steam inside it blew out right into my friends face. He looked like a cartoon character with soot all over his face with his hair all blowed back.

We both learned that day that you should have the valve opened or drill a hole in it for it to vent. The problem with the valve was that it wasn't able to be opened any at all.

 

[Brewman61]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Two things, both with my 1974 Buick Electra I had in high school.

Was having trouble getting a replacement freeze plug to seat, plug kept letting go, engine overheating. In frustration, I pulled the radiator cap off of the smoking hot engine, and a really large gusher of hot coolant shot straight up out of the radiator- several feet into the air. Thankfully I didn't have my face near that part of the car. But when that coolant made it's re-entry it landed smack on top of my head, and I wan't wearing a cap. Made a mad dash into the house, turned the shower full blast cold, and jumped right in.
Scalded my scalp but didn't do any serious harm.

Second, I was replacing the timing chain in the same car. I was short of tools (and brains, then) and couldn't get the crankshaft/harmonic balancer bolt loose cause the engine turned. I recall hearing an old trick to pull a spark plug and run some good sized rope into the cylinder to stop the piston enough to loosen the bolt. Didn't work till I shoved a LOT of rope into the cylinder. Got the desierd bolt loose, but couldn't get the rope back out.
Ended up pulling the intake manifold and head- greatly adding to the length of time to do the job, and the cost of extra gaskets.

 

[scipper77]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Well this isn't that bad but last year I bought a brand new riding mower. I put stabilizer in the fuel for winter but ended up using it some more.

One winter day after a big storm I was snow blowing and decided that I would start the mower up for a minute to get some fresh fuel through the lines/carb. My thinking was that this would prevent varnish/build up in the fuel system.

What never crossed my mind was that it was 10? out and the mower had 30 weight oil in it. It started up with no problems but then it started to smoke and the smell was just horrible. I shut it down after 30 seconds but the damage was done.

In the spring I changed the oil and when it started it smoked a little at first and there was a faint smell of that horrible odor. As the summer rolled along the mower has now stopped smoking and "seems" to run like new again. Maybe the rings had to reseat again after some scoring occurred.

It just kills me to know that I did years worth of damage to that new engine for just 30 seconds worth of not thinking things through!!

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Just a few weeks ago:
While troubleshooting a bad coil on my F250, I left a good one unplugged after replacing the bad one.
Started the truck and still had a miss, all be it on a different cylinder.
Took another couple hours to find the error of my ways.
I was begining to wonder if it was possessed.

 

[Red_BOFUS]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

While not really mechanical it is the blunder of my life.

As an instructor at SOTG, we were running some WM?s through CQB, using live fire, grenades and all. My student dropped hers at my feet; I was just able to get here through a door and my upper torso. Below the knee has never been the same, but back in the single days it got me some free beers and a few sympathy dates.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

an oops of my own changing a fuelpump lying on my back gas ran down my arm to my armpit.if you never gotten gas there dont. it burns like fire and is hard to wash away,but underarm odor smells ok for a few days!

I know that feeling. I got gas in my ear canal wile doing a a fuel pump. It put me on my knee's with pain. I was lucky and managed to not have any hearing damage.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

During high school I was working on the rearend of my truck, tightening a bolt somewhere or another, when the wrench slipped off and my thumb/thumb nail were parted by the thin inner fenderwell hanging down Luckily it was only 1/2 way sliced off, grew back fine.

One of my friends used to use lacquer thinner to get his wood stove lit, pile in some wood , slosh of lacquer thinner, then throw a match in... One day, after sloshing the wood with lacquer thinner, he found the match box empty. A couple minutes later he returned with matches, struck one, tossed it in and WHOOSH... Stove belched out a huge flame and caught him in the face, singed eye brows and hair, crispy looking skin. His nickname for a while was Barbecue

Might not be mechanical, but SS's soldering story made me think of it...

 

[Bill Kilgore]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

1.
1983
Buddy of mine had a mid 70's Cutlass Supreme
SB V-8
He drove up to baseball practice one evening sounding like a crop duster.
Asked what happened, said he installed a new set of plug wires.
When asked if he had the order correct he replied "Yeah I took 8 old ones off and I put the 8 new ones on"
Fortunately one of the players dad was able to get everything in proper order.

2.
About 3 months ago I was working on my 200 hp Mariner.
On muffs in the side yard.
Plastic flywheel cover removed to look at starter gear.
Installed some new tie wraps around coolant line leaving t-stat.
Used neddle nose pliers to get real tight.
Placed needle nose pliers on top of flywheel.
Fired right off.
Flew right off.
Missed me by 90 degrees or so.

 

[fat fanny]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

In my opinion this is the best when I was working at a rental equipment store owned by my parents niebor as a kid he had a UD flat bed 24' and it blew a serpintine belt on the highway and just so happens we kept a spare in the cab so while I was changing it on the highway and the cab was up I finished and pushed down the cab started her up and took off @ 55 mph someone cut me off and I hit the brakes and don't you know it the cab started tipping forward @ around 50 mph and really freaked me out all I could do was hit the brakes and when I did and the rig came to a complete stop the cab slammed down and locked (what I should have done before taking off) man that woke me up quick to paying attention to what I was doing and taking my time. Think about that experience if it happened to you

 

[DianneB]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

While not "the stupidest", definitely the funniest (for others) was many years ago when I was much younger and still married. My husband and I rented a rural property on a major highway.

One day while hubby was away I needed to cut some heavy steel in the vice the shop with the oxy-acetylene torch. Since the workbench was wood, I set up a piece of sheet metal to stop the slag from going behind the bench or laying on top and starting a fire. As was good practice, I was wearing a shirt buttoned up at the neck and outside of the jeans, jeans outside of boots (all to prevent sparks from getting inside).

As I was cutting I saw a ball of white hot slag the size of a golf ball form on the bottom of the piece I was cutting. When it fell, it bounced off the sheet metal and went straight INSIDE the jeans pocket! Perfect shot - no ring, all net! I KNEW this was going to HURT and the nearest water was 100 feet away at the house so I dropped the torch on the cement floor and started toward the house as I kicked off one boot, then the other. No sign of the slag .... off came the socks .... no slag ... so I continued across the yard shedding my jeans .... still no slag .... maybe stuck to my shirt? So off came the shirt .... still no slag. Well it HAD to be gone so I stopped, wearing nothing but panties and bra in the middle of the yard, fully exposed to the highway :redface: (It is a wonder I didn't cause an accident!) It is funny how modesty disappears in crisis LOL!

Realizing the slag was gone and I didn't get burned, I started working my way back to the shop, picking up my clothes one at a time and shaking them out, and wanting to get back under cover of the shop to regain my modesty, when I noticed my husband sitting in the truck at the end of the driveway - he had seen the whole thing. When he came in with a big sxxt-eating grin he just said "Having a good day are we?" I said "Awe shut up!"

 

[sasto]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Stupid blunder?......Never......The Admiral will tell you, just ask ME.


Probably was pulling the vent line off a 125gal. holding tank which was pressureized. That was about 10yrs. ago and I can still taste it.

 

[i386]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Stupidest
Checking compression on a '69 Evinrude 33. Screwed in the long threaded adaptor instead of the short one. Bumped the starter. Piston came up, hit the tester, stripped the threads for the spark plug and did who knows what internal damage. Now there's about 1/4" slop in that piston. I replaced the power head. One day I'll tear the old one down and see what I broke.

Stupid
Sold my saddle bags from my motorcycle. While replacing the special saddle bag bolts with the standard bolts that go in the rear fender, I snap a bolt. No problem, grab the EZ Out and git-er-done right? Drilled into one end of the bolt out the other and right into by back tire. Psssssssssssssss

 

['96 Charger]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

Did a lift on my back seat for a subwoofer enclosure and was tightening on of the bolts with a swivel handle. Socket slipped off the bolt and thrust my (at the time) 250lb body forward causing my left kneecap to lock up in the wrong position. Most people don't know how much willpower it takes to unlock a locked up knee. I fainted while leaned up against my truck, somehow got in the house, and called into work. I just recently got that knee built back up how it needs to be.

On a good note right before the incedent above I had one of the best afternoons of trout fishing of my life. Caught over 40 in just over 2 hours and wooped up on the old man that was camping up on the Little Red. He still outfishes me occasionally but those occasions are few and far between

 

[HOLYSMOKES]

Re: What's your stupidest mechanical blunder?

In my younger years ( I was 20 ) I was using a pedestal grinder to break the sharp edges off a piece of 1/4" flat stock steel I had just cut. Well, there was a plate that was 90* to the open face of the wheel and it had a gap in it. Right then and there is where I learned you DONT EVER WEAR GLOVES around a grinder. The wheel "sucked" the steel through the gap and pulled my hand with it. I ended up cutting off my thumb. lesson learned