Stupid tool tricks

Post by **Spike** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:22 am

Ive been thinking about a thread like this for a few days, and Bob's post the other day motivated me.

Stupid tool tricks are things you have done in the shop that were, well, stupid, and potentially dangerous. Come clean, tell us what you have done, laugh at yourself, and keep some other poor schmuck from doing it to himself.

Me? Well, a couple of days ago I was opening up some holes on the aileron bellcrack brackets. I was using a drill press, and, you guessed it, was stabilizing the part on the press table. At about the 5th hole, I was getting comfy, and dropped the bit into the hole too fast. The bit grabbed the part, spun it around, and knocked the snot out of my thumb, and not just once *sigh*. It happened fast, it hurt, and boy was it stupid. I just know my cat is taking notes on this stuff only to blackmail me with it later.

The worst part of the whole thing was favoring my thumb for a few days trying to hide it from Patti and avoid the question. Then finally the inevitable happened, "Hey, whats wrong with your thumb ?" .... *DOH*

- John

bmurrish · Post by **bmurrish** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:14 am

How about trying to change a bit on an air drill without disconnecting the air hose then accidentally hitting the trigger.

tshort · Post by **tshort** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:38 am

My friend Mani went to change a die on a pneumatic squeezer without disconnecting the air hose. We were watching, and told him to unhook it ... sure enough, he accidentally hit the lever while pulling on the die and fully smashed his thumb! Ouch!
I always disconnect the air tools before messing with them after witnessing that.

T.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:33 pm

I was working on the back of my garage on the extension ladder about 18 feet in the air lifting the rake board into position. It was the new PVC stuff (read plastic, heavy and wobbly). I had the lower (eaves side) resting on a nail and the peak side in my hands.

The ladder was on Tyvek and don't cha know, it started to slide!

I threw the board as far as I could away from the building and bailed off the ladder (from 18')! I figured it would hurt less than getting entangled in the rungs and certainly wrenching my legs!

On the way down the board struck me in the back of the neck, I landed on my feet and didn't drop a nail!

I suffered a bruised/cut neck and nothing else!

How is that for luck?

CJ

JohnR · Post by **JohnR** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:33 pm

I had a bunch of leaves stuck on a roof kickout and put the ladder up from the deck. It was early winter and I went up and kicked the leaves and some snow build up that was behind them off. It all ended up near the base of the ladder. I checked out some other things while up there and when I went to get down I did not realize that water from the snow I had kicked off had ran under the base ofthe ladder on the deck making it very slick. As soon as I put my full weight on it the base kicked out and down we went. It was an aluminum ladder and I landed on it bending the main leg of the ladder on one side. Bruised my hip pretty bad but nothing broken. I was lucky.

I have a friend that shot a nail through his thumb and into a 2x4 with an air gun then had to holler for someone ot help him get loose as he had no hammer in reach and didn't want to just rip it out.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I drilled a #30 hole in my finger with the air drill. After doing so, Luke who had been watching was laughing and said "I thought it looked like you were going to do that."

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:13 pm

What, nobody has drilled a #40 or #30 hole in their fingers yet ?

Guess that's a fuselage boo boo.

JohnR · Post by **JohnR** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:35 pm

Better read my list again Dave. I already confessed to that one. I don't plan on doing it again though, once was enough!

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:49 pm

I think that the "Hole in the finger " is the mark of the RV builder. I have mine!!

Dan over 130 hours on my 8 after a flight to Colorado last weekend. Would you believe I had a tail wind both directions? - - - Amazing! --- Probably never happen again and I'll probably make up for it with a head wind both directions next time!

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:14 pm

I have lots of holes in small pieces of wood now.. no more fingers for me.

John, That is always a sweet ride when you have tail winds in both directions.

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:54 pm

My old boss, God rest his departed soul, stuck his finger in the screw machine just before it started peck drilling. The drill worked its way through his finger and beyond in about ten increments. He couldn't pull it out because the drill didn't retract far enough between pecks. Actually, since it's really a lathe, the stock is turning but the bit isn't, so it was really just punching through, pulling chips and oil back into his finger on the retracts.

I haven't hurt myself on the RV yet. Ever since I used the tip of my index finger as a push stick in a table saw 30 years ago, I've been pretty careful with my fingers around power tools.

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:03 pm

JohnR wrote:Better read my list again Dave. I already confessed to that one. I don't plan on doing it again though, once was enough!

I did it twice. Didn't drill through my finger correctly the first time so I just had to do it again.

What an ijit.

JohnR · Post by **JohnR** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:25 pm

svanarts wrote:What an ijit.

My older sister used to call me an ijit. I never new how to spell it until now! She pasted away several years ago and I have not heard that term since. Thanks for the reminder, it is a good thing.

N258RE · Post by **N258RE** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:53 pm

the requisite #40 hole in the index finger,second knuckle to the bone,

putting cutting fluid on the cut with a fly cutter and getting rapped on the knuckles was a wake up call

jim_geo · Post by **jim_geo** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:34 pm

I had a friend in high school that worked in a machine shop. He swept floors and cleaned up the place. One day he bent down to pick something up and his longish hair got caught in a machine that cut threads on screws. Long story short it ripped his hair out by the roots at his part and around the back and down the right side of his head. It was a chrome dome perfect pull and made him look just like a monk. He said it hurt like hell. Having had straight hair before the incident the after growth was wavy, soft and very nice. All the girls loved it and made us all think seriously about possibly sticking our heads in a thread cutting machine. He's lucky it didn't kill him and we're lucky we were thinking with our, Hmmmn, brains.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:32 pm

N258RE wrote:the requisite #40 hole in the index finger

Hmmmm, haven't done that yet... can't wait!

CJ

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:31 am

This is kind of RV related because it has to do with building hangars. On my row of hangars we all built our own hangars. Some had them put up by Port-A-Port, a few of us, myself included built our hangars from scratch. I welded steel tuibing together for the frame and put vinyl-coated steel siding on it for walls. The stupid part is when the wind caught a piece of siding and tried to cut my head off with it.

The guy next door who was building his hangar at the same time wanted to extend his hangar over an embankment so he and his friends were drilling post holes for the piers. The had a farm tractor and were running the post hole digger off the PTO on the tractor. They hit some hardpan and the auger was just scraping and not digging. One of the guys helping stood on an ibeam just above the PTO shaft and started bouncing to try to force the auger to bit into the hardpan. He slipped and the leg of his pants got wrapped around the PTO shaft. In a fraction of a second it had torn his old shabby pants right off!

If he had been wearing a newer set of blue jeans it would have wrapped his whole leg around that PTO...several times. Luckily he had a set of coveralls in his truck.

Makes for a great story but we were scared poopless there for a second.

N258RE · Post by **N258RE** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:19 am

captain_john wrote:
N258RE wrote:the requisite #40 hole in the index finger
Hmmmm, haven't done that yet... can't wait!

CJ

when you do I promise you will think to yourself "wow that air drill really cuts alot faster than a cordless"

be sure to take a picture for your build log!

here is mine after I cleaned it up!

and boy does it hurt too

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:21 pm

Heh, heh, this is why when people ask me what I built my plane out of I tell them it's made of blood, sweat, and bad words.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:53 pm

OUCH! Looks like that one smarts!!!

Scott, Good answer!

CJ

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 1:14 am

Ooh... Blood, Sweat, and Curses. Great name for a airplane, or a rock group.

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