DIY clumsiness thread

[Anonymous No.531155]

Today I dropped my rotary tool and almost cut a nut in two.

What clumsy shit did you do today?

[Anonymous No.531159]

not today but
i was planing shingles and the plane slipped and caught the side of my hand. not nearly as bad as almost losing a nut though

[Anonymous No.531160]

>>531155
The cool thing about rotary tool bits is that, unless they are those little saw blades or they hit your fingernails, they normally don't affect your skin hardly at all if they are not being pressed hard against it.

[Anonymous No.531161]

broke a valve cover nut on my R1200S, used the torque wrench in the wrong setting.
80 Euro repair at the stealership.
Just gonna stick with hand-tight.

[Anonymous No.531164]

>>531161
Check and RE CHECK before using anything with power settings. You my friend have learned the hard way.

[Anonymous No.531165]

Gashed my knuckle trying to start a chainsaw.

[Anonymous No.531190]

chiselling out a mortice on my lap watching tv.
hole in trouser, 19mm gouge in leg.
wound is still there 3 months later.

[Anonymous No.531196]

Dumbest thing i ever did:
was 15. Headphone wires were damaged and i could see the wire, so i figured id put some heat shrink tubing on it. Slid the tubing on(It was a tight fit, to get past the 3.5mm jack) and realized I cut too long a piece. Rather than snake it back and trim it, i figured id just cut it while it was still wrapped around the wire.
Line it up, careful... only want to cut that thin 'fraction of a millimeter' tube...
*Cue sneeze*
LITERALLY CUT THE ENTIRE FUCKING WIRE IN TWO.

Thankfully it was just a shitty, uncomfortable pair of 'street style' headphones.

Pic related... I think this was the exact set(May have been earlier version. This would have been around 2003)

[Anonymous No.531209]

You guys make me feel better already.
I'll post more stories when I think of them.

Keep them goofs coming :)

[Anonymous No.531235]

>>531155
left my multimeter unattended next to my guitar project. My 5 year old took a wire cutter and snipped a probe off.

[Anonymous No.531292]

I once was wearing a belt with a MAP gas bottle and torch holder and I went to stick the hot torch back in the burn tube and accidently poked it straight through my pants onto my leg. Had to pulled melted Nylon off my mangled skin. >mfw

[Anonymous No.531294]

>>531161
This is completely irrelevant but I have some R1200S parts around I need to unload, maybe you wanna buy some? Also I replaced the mag covers on one of those once, I started with a torque and ended up doing by feel, the gasket on those makes the tighten feel very misleading. This is after JB welding a hole in the leaky cover after laying it down.. twice.

[Anonymous No.531314]

My dumbest moment:

Owned a free standing lamp that had a faulty tip device, the kind that shuts off the light if it falls over. Things were repeatedly not working out right. I was working on one leg of the 120v feed and during my haze of frustration forgot to unplug the light when I tore it apart again. I snipped the wire with my dyke.

If it were not for insulated handles and breakers, I might be dead.

[Anonymous No.531317]

>>531235
I left my multimeter in the sun the other day, Screen went all crazy black and shit - Put it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
>Everything went better than expected.

[Anonymous No.531328]

Reinstalling an electric motor on an old school drill press. It attaches to a big plate on the back of the machine using 4 bolts. Put the bolts through to hold the motor up but got distracted and didn't put any nuts on. The press was still weeks away from being functional so the motor sat there the whole time just held on by gravity and friction. This is a floor standing press so its a good 4 feet off the ground. Finally get around to doing some work on it and that motor comes right off. CRUSHES a metal tool box that was next to my foot. I was wearing flip flops at the time.

[Anonymous No.531335]

>Be in middle school
>Just getting into electronics
>Decide to build a computer in a old canner and still have the scanner work
>Mount everything inside, only thing left is PSU
>"Hey 'friend', should I ground this?"
>"No"
>Didn't detect the sarcasm because friend was on other side of house
>Decide I didn't want the ground coming in contact, hot glue it in a corner where it can't touch.
>Plug in scantop, boot it up.
>POP
>Mushroom cloud growing under glass, looked really cool
>Smoke billowing out both sides
>Goodnight, sweet prince.

[Anonymous No.531419]

drilling 1/2" hole with press
chuck slips off JT33 spindle
drill jams in hole
lazy, so slam spindle into stuck chuck
spindle and chuck now have built up metal in rings where they meet

had to sand off mating surfaces until it seemed ok

[Anonymous No.531423]

This was a few years ago...

>taking apart a 360 for RROD
>tiny little shit screw on the front strips out
>decide to just drill out the head
>too lazy to go downstairs and put it on the bench
>drilling with 360 just propped up against my leg
>tiny drill bit breaks in half in the middle of drilling
>drill is propelled into my calf muscle, with half the ragged bit still in it, spinning
>buried to the hilt in my calf muscle in a split second
>blood fucking gushes out of my leg
>ohgod blood everywhere
>girlfriend was watching
>freaking out and yelling at me
>pantleg completely red, sock saturated, felt faint for a little while

Long story short, managed to stop the bleeding. Until I found the other half of the bit in the floor I was convinced it had slipped off the screw and the other half was still in my leg... Once I found it I stopped panicking and decided not to go to the hospital.

[Anonymous No.531428]

I was making a trebuchet in middle school with my friend.
We were using braided metal cable for something on it, don't remember what. Long story short, we hadn't noticed the cable was fraying, it snapped when we launched it. I had to go the the hospital because it snapped across the inside of my leg and I was bleeding everywhere.

[Anonymous No.531432]

I was going to cook some eggs, and then I decided before I cooked some eggs I'd fix the LED display on the front of the stove, since someone got water in it years ago it's been scrambled ever since. So I just pry off the front of the stove, I think to myself "Will I turn off the power" and then I think "Nah, it's fine". And promptly shock myself. This continues for about 20 minutes, be poking around, moving things, fixing things and getting shocked many many times. Every time I get shocked I think "Alright, one more shock and I'll turn off the power", but I never did. I don't know why I was so against turning off the power. Eventually I got it fixed and made my eggs.

[Anonymous No.531442]

One for me, one for my girlfriend.

Today was rough grind day, so I was grinding out a few bevels. I squared my table with a teensy bit too much room. I was getting complacent and happy with how fast I was going... *TINK* *BOOM* Fucking grinder launched one of my blades through my quench bucket. Scared me shitless.


Girlfriend put a paper coffee cup on the stovetop, then ~thought~ she turned on the burner behind it... Nope. coffee cup bursts into flames, smoke filled house.

[Anonymous No.531454]

>>531442
When I work with my grinding wheels I always stand to one side instead of in front of it like most people seem to do. I was working on an aluminum rod on the steel brush wheel side of the bench grinder. It suddenly gripped the 4 inch rod, yanked it out of my hand, sucked it into the space between the wheel and the guard and launched it completely through a cheap closet door where it lodge in the drywall on the other side.

It was loud and I was really glad I wasn't in front of it.

[Anonymous No.531459]

>>531454

I work mostly freehand, above the tool rest, unless I'm doing full flat ground blades (which I was.) I usually don't let myself get too confident, that's when mistakes get made.

I've had a few grab-n-launches on the table saw, too... not pretty.

[Anonymous No.531462]

when i was 15 i took a handful of scalpels from my biology classroom for cutting stencils etc...
they were all individually wrapped up but apparently one had gotten loose and worked its way up into the top of my messenger bag i dont know how long it remained there.

one day on our way to smoke weed during lunch i grabbed my bag while sitting in the back of the car and it carved a deep gash into the palm of my hand, gushing blood

my girlfriend at the time wanted me to cover it in newspaper but i layed down the law and made her take me to the hospital. i lost some feeling in my pointer finger but it has since returned

[Anonymous No.531468]

>>531459
I had a grab and launch happen a few years ago
I took an old house fan and turned it into a very basic lathe with some free form tools, it grabbed the knife and shot it into the wall which bounced off (relatively low speed really) and stuck into an empty beer can in my dorm room.

was pretty lols but I was known as the mad scientist all through college after that

[Anonymous No.531470]

>>531196
I used to have the predecessor to this piece of shit: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/6625?crid=36
and I just used scotch tape, because there were constantly more and more places it was breaking open. It worked for quite some time, believe it or not.

[Anonymous No.531473]

>>531459
>I've had a few grab-n-launches on the table saw, too... not pretty.

That's another tool I stand to one side on. So far, I've only had one piece get yanked, but it went into the sawdust bag under the table.

[Anonymous No.531475]

>>531468
Shit, there must not be any crazy people on your campus. Whenever I walk into the physics club room (I'm not a physics major but have lots of friends there), I can almost guarantee this one guy will be in there doing something insane. He almost set off the sprinkler system in the whole engineering building playing with Potassium Nitrate and sugar one time. You could hardly see in the room from his "small" batch. Bastard also told me one time "Dude, light this!" and so I pulled out my Bic, since I trusted him, and lit it... PHWOOOOMMMM, fuckin' fire launches up and barely misses burning my eyebrows off, and it was bright enough that I saw spots. Apparently he actually did singe my buddy's eyebrows with this one time. You'd better get competing if you want to be a mad scientist.

[Anonymous No.531478]

Went to cut a lexan sheet with a miter saw, decided not to clamp it, and the blade grabbed the sheet, pulling my left hand into the blade. Missing a chunk in one finger and one has no feeling on one side.

[Anonymous No.531515]

>>531475
Everyone has a better story than the last story told. That's how it goes. In the early 1980s, we used to set off DIY pipe bombs and shell bombs at school. No one cared so long as no one got hurt. Times have changed.

[Anonymous No.531636]

A couple of weeks ago i was trying out my first stock removal knife and was using an industrial benchgrinder.
I was working on the edge and didn't think of the fact that the fucker would get sharp so it cut through the sandpaper, right into the rubberwheel, and flew with the force of a thousand suns right into my right nut.
Luckily it was a fulltang so the handle was heavier and came first.

[Anonymous No.531644]

last thursday I was replacing the compressor on a frigidaire side by side (appliance repairfag here), brazed the filter dryer in place, set the torch down, for some stupid reason then attempted to bend the high side valve inlet down so it didn't stick out of the back of the fridge... since this comes right off the filter dryer it was hot as fuck, pulled my finger off of it quick, still managed a nice inch long burn pattern that looks very much like the profile of a pipe, and has some obnoxious blisters in the middle

[Anonymous No.531661]

I was soldering up some board when I went to put the iron back into the stand (I tend to jam it in there unnecessarily hard) But I wasn't paying close attention, so instead of the stand I jam the 750+ Degree soldering iron into my hand that just happened to be right next to the station.
Never again.

[Anonymous No.531666]

>>531661
This happened twenty years ago when I was very young and just learning to solder with a shitty old iron. It wasn't heating up at all so I figured it was broken and went off to do something else with it still plugged in. Later I grabbed the entire metal end in a tight fist expecting it to be cold. Nope. It fused to my skin so bad it was several seconds to get it off. I've still got scars from the burn.

[Anonymous No.531668]

>>531661

Had something similar

>>Late night/early morning soldering session with a 'gun type' soldering iron
>working on the floor (don't hate please)
> put soldering iron on floor
> not more then 2 seconds later, decide to push myself up off from floor by using right hand on soldering iron..

Yeah, i had that thing attached for a few seconds.. flapped my hand until it flew off..

I became a 'professional' after that.. a good work station was my next job.

[Anonymous No.531700]

I sprayed a couple of models with matt varnish yesterday and they've turned white. I might get away with it once I've toned it all down with a bit of weathering, though.

[Anonymous No.531712]

>>531292
>2013
>not wearing superior cotton all day every day

Molten plastic deathtraps, never again...

[Anonymous No.531715]

>>531700
Volpin pls go

[Anonymous No.531723]

>>531712
Linen master race.

[Anonymous No.531732]

Once I was setting up some kind of server at home, I don't really remember. I was excited for no good reason as usual (Mad scientist style). Something was running slow figured a needed more ram. Old pc so I have many spare parts. Find some better ram, not sure if they are compatible and too lazy/in a hurry to Google so I figured if it fits it must be compatible. Turn on computer and go do something else (Linux takes a while to load). Suddenly: "BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP!!!"from the internal speaker. The fuck is this, hardcore robot porn? Smells like burnt plastic and fried circuits, now my room smells like a bunch of robots had an orgy. Go to pc and try to turn it off. Can't because fuck you. At this point black smoke is comming out from the side. Jump under the table and flick the powerbar switch and check damages. Both Rams are melted unto the motherboard can't take them out. Ruinned a perfectly good, working pc.

[Anonymous No.531754]

>>531732
You cannot plug an incompatible DIMM into a motherboard, each specification has its own slot layout. If the DIMM went in then it was compatible. You probably shorted something because it doesn't seem like you know what you're talking about.

[Anonymous No.531755]

>>531715
>Volpin

Huh?

>The googles

Oh.

[Anonymous No.531756]

>>531754
hmmm Are you sure?
I'm talking old pc here like P2

[Anonymous No.531765]

Craigslist belt sander for 25$ fuck yeah. Works fine.

hey I'm bored and I got an air compressor, lets clean 20 years of dirt off of this.

keep fucking with it until get a piece of dirt lodged in the motor just right to short it. Welp now I get to really clean it.

tore it down and cleaned the motor and replaced the switch wiring because etf was this guy thinking, two bare wires hanging out in there?

bearings for the belt were also shot on one end. Gonna degrease them and try to clean them on the shaft, then put some new lithium grease in thrre.

had a grrab and stop with a knife I was polishing on my grinder. Jesus christ that could have killed me.

[Anonymous No.531767]

>>531756
you'd have to try really hard to get the wrong ram in the slot. If its so old it might have been an AT power supply which is old as dirt and you could install the power connectors backward and have quite spectacular failures.

[Anonymous No.531776]

>>531767
A lot of times the new ram is much shorter than older ram slots. So, installing the wrong ram is actually easy to do when it is like that. I've seen people do that before.

[Anonymous No.531779]

I. I guess so. Really wasn't prepared for people to be that dumb.

[Anonymous No.531784]

>>531779
I've had people bring in PCs with PCI boards stuck in RAM slots. Or PCI-e boards stuck in ancient VESA slots.

They are just ignorant, which is easily fixed with a little knowledge.

[Anonymous No.531857]

>>531462
>my girlfriend at the time wanted me to cover it in newspaper but i layed down the law and made her take me to the hospital

It's like you're living in The Ramboe Feature Film

[Anonymous No.531868]

Dropped a wrench in a car battery that was just long enough to connect both sides, kicked it over and it fell out before almost lighting my boat on fire. The battery survived but the wrench is warped now.

[Anonymous No.531872]

wearing the new jacket i got yesterday i put my arm ontop of a hot soldering iron. jacket was synthetic, but luckily i didnt get burned too bad.

[Anonymous No.531873]

>>531767
i think so-dimm ram fits neatly into an old sd-ram slot, you could nearly fit two in one.. thats awesome.!

[Anonymous No.531962]

All of my jeans have a cut on the right knee from my knives slipping while doing wood carving. I've been lucky to miss my leg each time, but the blades went through the denim like nothing. I need to get a book and learn all the safe holds...

[Anonymous No.532029]

Started a batch process on my linux server that dragged it down to an unresponsive crawl for four hours during peak work. Could not stop process.

[Anonymous No.532034]

>>531868
>car battery warping a wrench
You're full of shit.

[Anonymous No.532061]

>>532034
Not really, they put out a LOT of current when you short them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbGcSjRAyxs

[Anonymous No.532103]

>>531155
Wasn't today but
>At work renovating a kitchen
>Moving stuff out of said kitchen before we start
>See this old bottle, think nothing of it
>Accidentally spill contents of bottle
>We were in a small kitchen and the bottle was holding kerosene, turned out to be an old lamp
>Kitchen smelt like shit
>Almost got high cleaning it up
>Everything around it was soaked
>Dry it all off, place the dried objects on a wooden desk that belonged to the owner of the house
>After about 20 minutes all this white shit starts appearing on the desk
>Panic
>Scraping and scrubbing to try and get it off
>Won't come off
>Boss sees, calls me an idiot nearly hits me
>Clean it the best I could, still all white
>Thank god it was my last day on the job

[Anonymous No.532119]

>>531294
Don't need any parts right now.
Also I live in the Netherlands, guessing you're from the US, shipping would be a pain.

[Anonymous No.532123]

I have a cheapo radio shack 3-volt 500mA power supply that I use for breadboard circuits. It has a non-polarized plug and so I figured it would be fine to plug it in upside-down. LEDs, transistors seem to work normally, but for some reason I was finding it impossible to get my CMOS chips to work.

Then, just now, I noticed the problem.

For whatever reason, when the polarity is reversed, this wall-wart produces an ABSURD voltage potential between itself and (I think) the house electrical ground. I'm not talking a little bit of ripple, I'm talking my multimeter reading 40-50 volts AC between my body and either of the power supply leads. And that was apparently enough to fry my CMOS chips just by inserting them into the breadboard.

I really need to get a proper bench supply.

[Anonymous No.532168]

Not today but I have dropped a few beads of solder on my limbs before, that doest heal well.
Very nearly stabbed myself with screwdrivers before. Actually I am pretty clumsy in general, usually actually stabbing myself once or twice before I learn not to do something.
Anyway. happy tenth birthday of this site all you /diy/nosaurs, you have helped me out on more than a few occasions. You guys are great and you should be proud that you help people out all damn day. Have a good one.

[Anonymous No.532258]

Like others, these didn't happen today.
>DIY kid since babby
>9 yo
>reading light switch is wonky
>unplug, take apart, adjust
>plug in, test, no worky
>repeat four times
>fifth time, forget to unplug
>grab the switch, touch contacts
>crush the plastic cover of the switch
>just manage to unplug with other hand
>throw away the crushed switch and put in a new one
>palm tingly and muscles sore for two weeks

>13 yo
>rearranging furniture
>push the heavy work table along the wall
>crunch says the surface-mount power socket
>finish rearranging
>alone at home, turn power off from main switch
>get tools, a new socket and flashlight
>put on headphones and listen to music while fixing the socket
>suddenly lights turn on while I'm holding the leads with both hands
>folks came home and wanted some light
>find me, turn off the mains and take me to a hospital
>finish fixing the socket after coming back home
>always left a large note at power switches about any repairs after that

Since then, people have considered me the most careful person they know of.

[Anonymous No.532262]

>Be 24 working on Ampeg SVT
>weld screwdriver to chassis draining caps without a bleeder

lolololol did it.

[Anonymous No.532269]

>>531190
>>531328
>>531423
>>531644

Stuff like this during almost every big 'project'. It's always absentmindedness or laziness that makes me screw up. I'm secretly scared shitless by things like the tablesaw, mitersaw, or lathe. It keeps me on edge so I have yet to screw up on those. But that day is probably coming too.

[Anonymous No.532273]

> when the polarity is reversed, this wall-wart produces an ABSURD voltage potential between itself and (I think) the house electrical ground

you probably have a small capacitor between one of the 120V lines and the output voltage. i had a unit like that once which gave me shocks. dunno why they put that cap there, but I've seen similar circuitry in stereos, where they connect a 2M resistor between 120 and chassis ground.

[Anonymous No.532280]

Be farmer, cleaning out old wardrobe used to store odds and ends. Accidentally stab myself with old syringe. Take a look at syringe bottle - Sheep Footvax. Know from vaccinating sheep this is horrible stuff. Here's' what it says on the bottle:

"This product contains mineral oil. Accidental injection/self injection may result in severe pain and swelling, particularly if injected into a joint or finger, and in rare cases could result in the loss of the affected finger if prompt medical attention is not given."

[Anonymous No.532309]

>>531155
the other day I was fixing some dudes computer and the case caught my middle finger and tore a big hunk of skin off. Had to spend half the commision in the guys bathroom applying pressure to the communist preacher.

[Anonymous No.532314]

>>531423
Reminds me of when i tried to remove a external 2.5mm drive from the enclosure sled.
Was pulling it with my thumb against the thin sheet metal slide... Sata connector is relly in tight... Until it gives!
Thumb slides down the sled, and a 1 1/2" slit, about half a cm deep, rips open on my thumb.
Go to emergency room since it looks like it'll need stitches.
Wait 4 hours in waiting room, thing clots almost perfectly without stitches, and end up only needing a tetanus shot.

[Anonymous No.532319]

>>532309
>>532314
I find they have improved cases a lot during the past decade. Nineties PC cases were a deathtrap.

[Anonymous No.532369]

Rented a shithole from the worst kind of slumlord. When I got there, the medicine cabinet from the bathroom was sitting on the kitchen floor for some reason, and a shitty 1970s brass wall sconce had been screwed into the stud and wired into the hole where the mirror would have been. Well that was weird.

Didn't work very well, so I took the light down and just put a lamp in the bathroom. Set the medicine cabinet back into its hole so we'd have a mirror. I didn't secure it because it stayed pretty well on its own, and I didn't have screws to hold it. Not worried, it'll be fine.

One day, the water, which barely works at all, totally gives out. Do my best to clean out faucets and everything, but nothing works. Call landlord because this is his responsibility. Turns out all the old galvanized water lines need totally replaced, so he sends some people to do it.

I forget about the cabinet when they go to run the lines to the bathroom. Guy working on the sink bumps something, and the cabinet falls out of the wall directly onto his head. Ran to the hospital in a hurry with a big gash in his head. There were blood-covered pieces of mirror everywhere.

Guy got some stitches and was fine, but he didn't have insurance to pay for it. The rest of the crew finished the job without him. Next time we had a problem, the landlord had hired a different company to do repairs. I don't really know, but I suspect it was because of the injury.

So this guy had to get a bunch of stitches that he had to pay for himself and probably lost work because of me. :(

[Anonymous No.532398]

>>531636
Oh. All. My. Fuck.
My balls hurt from reading that.

[Sky No.532435]

Well. It may be because I am female, but I was helping my dad with his tools, and i hit my nephew in the face with a wrench .

[Anonymous No.532459]

I have an old belt, it's pretty 80s /fa/. It's got one of those buckles with a clamp on the back to hold it to the belt, and that end of the belt was getting frayed so i was like LOL TIME FOR SUPERGLUE.
I don't know what the fuck the belt is made of, i thought it was cloth, but it caught on fire.
It Pissed me off at the time because it's my favorite belt, but i saved it and looking back it was pretty cartoonish.

[Anonymous No.532461]

>this whole thread

[Anonymous No.532474]

I mostly have fun adventures with super glue. Things like fixing small tears in my pants with it (and forgetting it was an exothermic reaction leading to my pants nearly catching on fire), losing fingerprints for about a week at a time, and chemically peeling off the varnish from desks.

[Anonymous No.532479]

>>531155
i mutilated my right ring finger with a hilti gun. thank god i had a cats paw, or else i would have been stuck there till help showed up.

[Anonymous No.532481]

I don't know if its exactly clumsy in the traditional sense but I started to make an L shaped desk without plans or anything really in mind aside from being an L.

It was an enormous clusterfuck and a waste of perfectly good lumber, which I kept buying and throwing at it hoping something would come of it.

I then fired up sketchup and cranked out a simple but nice desk design that won't take more than about 40 in wood and misc hardware. Always work with a plan, or at the very least, an idea.

[Anonymous No.532517]

>>531155
Too bad you didn't.

[Anonymous No.532525]

>>532459
Cyanoacrylate (the most common super glue) creates an exothermic reaction on contact with cotton. The more you know.

[jim profit No.532533]

>>532474
I got a first-degree burn on my finger because I spilled a bunch of superglue on myself and was too stupid to wipe it off.

[Anonymous No.532537]

>>532525
Well shit.
I did not know that.

[Anonymous No.532568]

mine is shit story
>be 16 y/o me
>open door
>no get on flor or dinno
>dx package is arrive
>hooray
>grab scissors and pull them across top of box
>open box and also open 2 cm deep cut in wrist
scar is still there

[Anonymous No.532586]

Not me, but a freshman at my school was using a piece on a stationary disk sander in the metal shop, and it popped out of his hand and sliced his nose in half. Stupid bastard made me have to finish my final project with a hand file.

You'd think nobody in that shop had ever used a tool with blood on it before. It was a perfectly good disk sander and they took it out of the shop!

[Anonymous No.532609]

>Almost snapped my finger in a mouse trap
>Boiled a moldy sink rag without knowing the toxicity of the mold spores I was releasing into my apartment
>Burned myself all day trying to sterilize bottles for homebrewing
>Almost accidentally flipped the 115/230V switch instead of the power on the computer I was building

I'm always going full retard.

[Anonymous No.532610]

>Working for radio station
>setting up remote broadcast
>new piece of equipment
>its a zephyr
>dial the spids
>tried to warm boot it
>screwed something up and wont connect to station
>pack it up and start to walk back to van to grab the back up
>drop the new zephyr
>broke
>broken everywhere
>grab money from wallet and throw it away
>punch myself in the face until i have a black eye
>tell boss i was mugged
>didn't have to pay $10000.00
>still have job

[Anonymous No.532611]

>>532610
I threw away the wallet with my ID and debit card, not the cash

[Anonymous No.532614]

I've done stupid things like dropping and rupturing containers of fermenting fruit juice all over and just guessed which wires I was soldering to which connections and watched as smoke billowed out from whatever it was I was "fixing." Never anything actually life-threatening or expensively destructive yet, but it's only a matter of time. Oh, and burning holes in tables from DIY incendiary adventures. I have so many scars and always have at least one open cut/burn at any time just from everyday tasks I think people are afraid for me whenever I express interest in going into any big DIY activities. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have any free time anymore...

[Anonymous No.532640]

>>532369
should've got a bunch of money from workers comp or sued everybody.

[Anonymous No.532647]

>taking apart old disposable camera for shits and grins
>uses a AA battery to charge flash
>flash is the type you push a button to charge instead of the lever you flip
>unknowingly push button, take out battery, mess around with circuit board
>suddenly board is on the ground and my index finger is numb

And that was the day my finger met a 300v capacitor.

[Anonymous No.532681]

I was putting some screws into a plastic shelf for my sister with my yankee screwdriver, *something everyone should have* when I drew it back it slipped and being fairly impatient I had already started to push it forward again but caught the edge of my finger. I've got a 8'th of an inch slide out of my left index that stings now.

Go buy a yankee fucking screwdriver.

[Anonymous No.532703]

>>532103
YOU IDIOT!!!
why didn't you burn it?

[Anonymous No.533194]

>>531209
Today's nincompoopery:
Painting someone's house. I see a spider where I'm about to paint. I stick it to the brush and fling it away, brain not computing the fact that there's paint on the brush as well. Their bushes now look like explosive bird diarrhea.

[Anonymous No.533211]

>>532103
That white stuff is the clear coat/varnish being dissolved and raising up off the wood. It is also a bleaching effect.

The best course of action is to wipe it down completely allow it to dry completely then match a stain for it to stain it with to cover the mess up. If it needs a light sanding due to raised places do that before staining.

It is fixable, but takes time and patience. Sometimes you need to strip the entire object, sand it and restain it and seal it.

[Anonymous No.533289]

>>532647
oh god, thats how I learned about capacitors too. It was the start of a long and beautiful relationship.

[Anonymous No.533291]

>>531314
perhaps, but you would have probably been fine, it sounds like you may not have even been shocked without the insulation and even if you were it would most likely not kill you.

[Anonymous No.534327]

>Working on my first woodworking project.
>Putting in some finish nails to hold the table top down.
>Last nail
>bring the hammer down full force directly on the side of my thumb.

I held every single nail in up until that point with a pair of pliers. Hit every nail square on the head. Dropped them and was too lazy to pick them up so held the last nail like a man and fucking missed.

[Anonymous No.534330]

>>532640
I thought the same, but they never took any photos, and nobody ever came to take a look at the place. If he sued anybody, I doubt he managed to get much out of it. Then the landlord hired another company that was well known to screw people over, and started making my life miserable. Eventually the changed the locks one day while I was away and forced me to abandon the place. I had to break in to get my stuff back.

[Anonymous No.534384]

>>534327
What type of wood did you use for the desk?

[Anonymous No.534400]

>>534384
Its made up of everything/anything I had in the garage. I had pretty much zero budget but wanted to build something. The legs are, I think, Douglas fir. There are some 2x4s, and pine 1x4s, and the top is a piece of 1/2" plywood. I only had one piece of plywood so the other side will have to wait til I have more money to burn, also need some threaded rods to attach the two sections once its upstairs and in place.

Its not pretty but its fairly sturdy and I had to start somewhere.

[Anonymous No.534403]

>>534400
well done. It looks great.

[Anonymous No.534429]

>>534327
Did you work from plans or not?

[Anonymous No.534451]

Was playing around with China Fright 6011 welding rods and caught my workbench on fire.
>"Hurrr, I'm not going to need my welding plate to see how good these rods are"

Oh yeah, they're fucking terrible, surprise surprise.

[Anonymous No.534466]

>>531155

reminds me of when i was younger how i *attempted* to build an oxy-hydrogen torch

what a dumb idea that was

>science class
>teacher shows us the old oxy-hydrogen balloon demonstration
>"if we apply electricity to water and add an electrolyte we can extract hydrogen"
>balloon is filled and explodes violently
>i spend the rest of the class observing the setup
>go to library and get babbys first science book
>get home and use what i learned to construct the device

FYI my parents weren't home till late at night

>some time later the device is complete on basement floor
>old red plastic gas can with a dozen or so bolts sticking thru the plastic shell
>6 feet aquarium tubing glued in to top with a needle air nozzle attached to end
>cut up pieces of extension cord connected to bolts
>extension cords converge on a bridge rectifier
>AC side of rectifier has an old lamp cord with the goofy switch in line plugged directly into outlet

time for its premiere

>pour water in
>add a handful of rocksalt
>flip switch
>bubbling noises
>bring lighter to nozzle
>3 2 1 ignition
>tube glows like a camera flashbulb
>huge gust of wind water and shards of plastic propel me backwards
>hearing gone
>laying on floor
>the explosion was so bright an image of the basement is burned in my eyes.
>huge mushroom cloud rising to basement ceiling
>the entire ceiling is soaked in electrolyte as am i
>smoke alarms going off

luckily i was not injured and thank god the house didn't burn down

mfw later that weekend my dad was trying to figure out how one of the basement window assembly's got in the garden.

[Anonymous No.534469]

Cut about 6mm deep into my finger with a retractable knife while making this..

[Anonymous No.534506]

>10yo
>soldering a transformer
>plug it in on 230v for test
>decide to add solder to a 230v terminal and forget to unplug it
>big ass spark that leaved holes everywhere in my wooden desk and destroyed my soldering iron tip
>Dad : "Why did the electricity pop out ?"
>"I have no idea."

[Anonymous No.534509]

>Be 20
>Doing some DYI work with friend
>Using heat gun
>Heat gun on on highest setting for ~20 minutes
>Friend needs heat gun
>Think nothing of it an pass him heat gun holding the handle
>He thinks nothing of it and grabs heat gun by the nozzle

>Severe burns
>Agony
>Hospital

[Anonymous No.534516]

>cutting veneer for craft
>blades jumps into tip of finger
>cleaned, sealed, bandaged

i was holding blade on an angle and not vertical
don't do work while tired

[Anonymous No.534520]

Not me but my installer (I owned a kitchen business). Puts new bit into drill driver, doesn't notice drill is set to highest speed. Fixing panel to side of cabinet, braces panel with hand and goes to predrill pilot hole thru cabinet into panel.

New bit is sharp, installer pushing drill hard, drills through cabinet, panel and into his hand.

Missed blood vessels, nerves and tendons through sheer luck. Said worst thing was having to reverse drill to get his hand off the panel!

[Anonymous No.534522]

>>534509
Fuck. It's like that one time when you drop your soldering iron then try to catch it, then learn that when you drop your soldering iron, you don't try to catch it.

Best rule with any tool I find is the same rule you use with a knife. Never pass it to anyone unless you are (safely) holding the business end, so they are free to grab the handle.

Also, not clumsy, but plenty dumb.
> New to arc welding
> Building base for catapault.
> Kneeling/working on wet grass.
> "Hmm, sticks almost gone, time for a new one"
> Grab stick, feel tingle
> Drop the handle, nearly have a heart attack once I realised what nearly happened.

[Anonymous No.534533]

>>534506
got shivers down my spine reading that

[Anonymous No.534557]

Funny I should discover this, something just happened today. Not sure if it applies, but...
>Friend got a new second Ford Fiesta (or something along those lines)
>It's a real beater, half the parts have been frankensteined off other cars
>Battery dies after sitting in my driveway for 3 days
>Go to jump it so we can drive it to his garage
>Battery is some wierd thing we've never seen before
>Positive and negative caps are right next to eachother
>No insulation on either of them
>Go to jump it, just as my friend leans out the window and yells at me right before I slap the second aligator clip on
>The ground was halfway down the battery and hidden behind the air filter
>almost hooked both leads onto the positive
This battery had two positive caps, one of them was sheathed in a black insulation.

[Anonymous No.534567]

>>532034
not understanding a car battery can produce 20-30 amps when shorted

[Anonymous No.534570]

>>534516
Superglue is your friend, also cloth bandaids

[Anonymous No.534595]

>>533194
I do this on purpose

[Anonymous No.534608]

Last close call I had was when I was doing some hot gluing.

I had just put down the gun when 10 seconds later something inside exploded.

I cursed quite loudly.

All around the trigger was charred to shit.

That was nearly my finger.

[Anonymous No.534610]

>>532647
I work in a photo lab, and I've done that probably a dozen times, and it never gets less startling. First time it happened I didn't even know what I did, but i couldn't feel my thumb and I threw the camera across the lab.

[Anonymous No.534609]

>Doing some repairs at home
>need some wire
>there's some wire on wall that doesn't go anywhere
>//brain fart// for some reason I didn't think about turning off electricity
>take all metal scissors
Wait! me smart
>I can get electrocuted
>//brain fart// take my swiss knife
>pic

there are still some copper on blade

captcha: electric ngoolly

[Anonymous No.534642]

>>534609
anon, a brainfart is when someone does something uncharacteristically retarded.
uncharacteristically.

[Anonymous No.534685]

> not understanding a car battery can produce 20-30 amps when shorted

you're off by a factor of at least 20. A battery's Cold Cranking Amperage (CCA) rating is typically 400 to 500A. Actual cranking current is around 200A.

[Anonymous No.534719]

>>534403
thanks

>>534429
I found this video while trying to get ideas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK0qMgw6gTc

It was what I was looking for so I redid it the best I could in Sketchup, without the drawer, and scaled it to my needs.

I'm going to use it, but considering it a prototype. The second it was done I saw all the ways I could have put it together better but I'm happy with it for a first try. Its all more square and level than I was expecting. I have very few tools and what I do have isn't the best quality so I always lacked the confidence to try. It was a great learning experience. I'm hoping to do a bigger, high quality version when we upgrade to a house next year.

[Anonymous No.534721]

>>531155
I fly my plane into a building.

[Anonymous No.534723]

>>534719
Nice, and thanks.

I ask because that's very close to what I want in a desk.

[Anonymous No.534994]

>>532647
When I was a kid me and my friends used to make mini-tasers with disposable camera flashes and shock each others.

[Anonymous No.535317]

I spilled soda on my laptop, cut my hand while making a sandwich and missed my bus. Not my luckiest day.

[Anonymous No.535326]

>>531432
That's not clumsiness, that's sadism.

[Anonymous No.535389]

I was curious about what my brand-new soldering iron would look like if I unscrewed the tip.

I forgot that I had only shut it off 3 minutes ago.

[Anonymous No.535413]

>2008-ish
>First hand at Xbox 360 modding
>Buy a little board off eBay for connecting my Xbox HDD up to the computer
>SATA Cable + board placed into the HDD and a power cable
>Not too bright with PC parts so I stick a 4-pin plug direct from the PSU into the board
>Turn on
>PPPPPSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEW BOOM
>Shit myself, turn mains off and leg it
>Come back 10 mins later and take the poor smoking board away from the HDD
Never again. Got round it by just unscrewing the whole casing and directly plugging the HDD to the PC through the SATA.

[Anonymous No.535433]

>>535413
??? Wut.

Sounds a lot like a defective board. The 4 pin molex power connector? The power cable was probably just an adapter? It sounds like it was a shit product and badly designed, if not defective.

[Anonymous No.535448]

>>535413
??? Wut.

Sounds a lot like a defective board. The 4 pin molex power connector? The power cable was probably just an adapter? It sounds like it was a shit product and badly designed, if not defective.

[Anonymous No.535460]

>>535389

Are you me? I had this happen to me a day ago while trying to figure out why my soldering tip was loose.

[Anonymous No.535462]

Not really DIY but

>>bought two packs of brown shoe-laces after figuring out how to polish second-hand brown leather shoes
>>pull the string out
>It comes in a pair

I felt so dumb.

[Anonymous No.535595]

>>535462
Not even that dumb because you'll need the other pair eventually anyway.