Was using a 4hp handlheld wood working router as "tabletop" router by sitting on the floor with it cradled between my legs upside down as i was feeding stock through it. Went ok until a piece kicked back launching the router at me bit first at 20k rpm. Luckily the bit grabbed my sweatshirt and not my skin. It wound up the material around the bit and I felt like I was being crushed by a boa constrictor. There must be a saint that looks after idiots

 

These are great! I'm still kinda young so I'll use that for my excuse for everything...

I was changing oil in a Honda at my apartment. The lease says you can't work on cars but I figure I'd done it before I'll do it again. Crawl under, drain fluid, take filter off, replace filter, replace drain plug and fill. Okay so I'm done, I move the car to it's designated spot and jump out, first I notice a trail of oil through the complex pointing at my car. I can't figure out what happend, after yelling at the autozone people for awhile about the wrong filter and having them replace the Castrol Sytec I lost, I found that the gasket for the old oil filter was stuck to the engine! I'll never not wet the oil filter gasket again......I also don't live in that apartment complex anymore.....

This one happened when I was about 10 or 11. My dad is a logger and after a long day of work he gets home and jumps in the shower. I'm outside playing and notice that his Kenworth was running? I didn't think anything of it. My sister is outside as well and after awhile takes a look at my dad's truck and sees smoke and flame and dripping plastic. She runs in and tells my dad (who is still in the shower) and he comes flying out of the house in a towel with a small fire extinguisher. He opens the hood and is trying to put the fire out and jumping around, in all the chaos though he loses his towel. Well the neighbors hear the ruckus and come out to see my dad running around in the nude trying to put out his truck! Eventually it was put out with the neighbors gardenhose and the towel was put back on. I'm not sure how the truck started itself but in the end $1000 damage to the truck and some emotional scars for me and my siblings. HAHAHA

 

Was the truck on fire a 88 - 91? They had an ignition problem and trucks were burning down all over.

 

I didn't read all 5 pages of posts, so I'm not sure if this is a duplicate or not....

The dumbest thing that I've ever done in my garage is let my wife in.

 

A buddy of mine saw this post and laughed. He said the dumbest thing he ever did was let his future ex wife out of the garage.

 

Did this last weekend, put a new tranny in my 78 Bronco and had let the air out of the tires - 38 inchers- so I could reach the motor to button it up. Big tires take awhile to air up so I attach the nozzle and get busy on the motor, 4 year old daughter falls off swing and I attend to her, come back to garage after being distracted and start working again - forgot about tire. Somewhere over 120PSI the sidewall let go, loudest explosion I ever experienced, Hood hit me on the top of the head, seeing stars and choking on all the dust that dislodged from every surface inside the garage, it came to me that I just exploded a $300.00 tire. Neighbors are rushing to see what blew up, dust is pouring out the now open garage doors and embarrassed or not, I have to explain my stupidity. The concussion of the explosion also blew the sheeting away from the stud wall two inches on that side of the garage, so now I have a weekend repair event to remind me of the Bonehead Incident. Makes my ears start ringing again just thinking about it! But alive.

 

Yesterday....im out in the carport changing the rear brake pads on my 05 kodiak 450 atv. Well i got the whole rear end lifted up by my lil floor jack i carry around in my truck to change tires. I have the rear left wheel off changing the brake and for some reason i decide to jerk on the atv. Darn thing fell off and bent the crud out of my steel toe boots. Good thing i was wearing them or i would have a really sore foot right now.

 

Years ago , one of the guys from work got home from night shift at 1am, when he swung his truck door shut he realized the keys were still in the ignition, so he tried to stop it from closing and it latched shut with his fingers in it.....

He managed to pull all of them out except one (he grabbed it right near the latch) he said he yelled his head off, whistled and watched the neighbors bedroom light come on and then go off again......

Then he tried unsuccessfully to smash the window, but the only rock he could reach was too small....His son found him kneeling by the truck at 6am and took him to the hospital where they had to remove most of his finger.....
He said that 4am that morning was the first time he'd cried in 10 years and loosing the finger was nothing compared to the night he spent in his driveway...

I still think about him every time I get home from night shift.

 

HA THAT FUNNY!!
now this:
i was jacking up a car, the garage door was closed, and i forgot to block the rear tires
when i released the pressure of the jack, the car comes at me , my back still hurts, that was friday>

 

I forgot about this one until I saw this letter. Not in the garage, but working on a car. Middle of winter, twenty plus below and I find my vehicle with a flat tire (Mercury Marauder circa 1966- weight somewhere in the Titanic range) I jacked it up using the "new" scissors" jack and when I broke the never before been taken off tire and wheel off, it started to move, so of course I quickly pulled the tire away and lost my balance trying to keep it on the wobbly jack and it tipped. Now, here I have to say. I was lucky. The brake drum landed on my glove. Not on any part of my hand, but close enough that I couldn't pull my hand out, in the position I was now in. I yelled and hollered. Nothing. So, I worked my body around so I could get at that stupid mankiller jack and with my only free hand, (I'm right handed) my left hand, I had to crank the jack back down with no load on it. Kinda like trying to turn a balloon inside out with one hand. I finally got it cranked down and under the car and raised the car far enough to pull my glove loose. My hand was about five minutes away from solid. I got back inside and find everybody sitting around playig cards and having a brew or two. "Oh, where were you?"
Luckily, it wasn't quite to the frostbitten stage. I got to keep all my fingers, and I NEVER work on a car alone, unless nobody is around...

 

Hmm, I know we had a tread like this somtime ago, last fall? But here are some dumb things that i pulled. Had a starter button under the hood of one of my vehicles, I was working on the timing and the carb, not paying attention, key was on so i could just hit the button and fire it up, also because I was listening to the radio. I got everything ready, hit the button, she clicked but wouldn't crank, wire broke. fixed it, by this time I was leaning pretty close, guess where my foot was.... wound her over and backed right onto my foot. Thats when I let go of the button, at least it didn't start, but the wire broke again so I got my buddy to get it off my foot, he took his sweet time too, which way do i turn the key? etc. Got him back when he was pulling plug wires off my 302, he had his hand on the dist. cap terminals and the coil was hooked up, guess what I did...


This one is going to be happenning this afternoon sometime.

I have an 83 Lada Niva 1.6 4cyl etc. (same one I parked on my foot 8 years ago.)

I have a mixer for a propane 302, I have it all on the lada, I have a bit to finish but I am going out to try starting it today. I'll post as to wether it was a bonehead idea later today. Any bets as to weather I blow somthing up?

 

My dad told me quite a bonehead story the other day, so I figured I'd share it with you guys as well.

Back in the day, my dad went to an auction sale and bought a tractor-John Deere 5020 turbo. He drove it back to our farm and put it in the field that day. He goes for awhile, then the tractor dies. Turns out the kids that had changed the oil before the auction had forgot to tighten the drain plug, therefor running it out of oil. (Not the bonehead part)

So, it obviously needs a rebuild. My dad and a buddy tear it all down, replace the needed parts, and begin the reassembly process. The last thing they had to do was put the head on. They do so, start the tractor, and hear these obsurdly loud "CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK..." They shut the tractor off, and ponder for awhile. They finally decide to pull the motor back apart and inspect the noise.

They start at it, pull the head off, and guess what they find...? A socket laying on top of one of the pistons! Somehow, when putting the head on, the socket had fallen into the motor without being noticed. My dad removed the socket, bought a new piston, etc, reassembled the motor, and it still runs great to this day.

 

when i was a lot younger and dumber at my moms house she had the tennis ball hanging off the gradge roof ,on a string ,so youd know how far to pull your car in ,but it was set up for her car and not my truck needless to say the truck ended up halfway into the rear wall. that was the summer i learned how to put up drywall

 

I have been quite about this for 20 years, so for you guys I will share.

I had just re-lined all four brakes on my '69 Torino. My girlfriend showed up before I got all four tires back on and wanted to go to the Mall. Well who am I to say no. I put all four tires on, hand tightened the lugs and said to myself, "self, when you get back, tighten the lugs".

Well after a few hours at the mall, I got back and needed to breakin the shoes. Headed down highway 29, got it up to about 80 mph and turned around. as I completed my u-turn........ both wheels on the pasenger side come off and lodged under the car. Bonehead I know. Fortunatly I had two jacks and was able to get the tires out and back on. The only damage was 3 broken lugs and my ego.

Needless to say, to this day I triple check the lugs on all of my vehicles. Last week after doing brakes on my wifes camry, I could not remember if I check the whells. I got out of bed to go check.

 

1991 i was working on an old camaro in my front drive while trying to place a block under the frame the junk fell of the jack.the rotor plate came down ontop of my arm cutting a 4 in gash to the bone pinning me to the ground.my buddy had just got in his mufflerless truck and he couldn't see or hear me yelling for help.good thing was a gravel drive.i was able to throw a bunch of kocks at him.after he gets the car off me we went next door to his old hungarian mother's place.i showed her the wound which for some reason be it luck or whatever wasn't bleeding very even though you could see the bone.the old gal went in the house and came out with a handfull of pickling salt and just slapped it on me before i could stop her.i wouldn't wish that on my enemy man.my buddy said that was the funniest one of those faces he had seen in a while.so i am sitting there,face all scrunched up and the old gal reached out an poured about a cup of homemade 100 proof moonshine on it.i guess it produced the results that mamma was looking for because give me a cuff for swearing.i went to get stitched up and the doc said he had never seen such a clean wound.lesson learned-beware of old hungarian ladies with a home cure.sorry fellows if this is a bit long but you had to be there and i still wear the scar as a reminder to play safe.

flat trie