# All heavy DIYers have done something dumb. Let's fess up.



## BJLower

The next posting is “am I doing something dumb” and is about an accident with a power drill. Sooner or later every serious DIYer is go to do something to injure themselves no matter how careful you are. We use a lot a power tools, tools with sharp edges, heavy tools........


We help each other our with our projects, just for a little fun why don't we admit to our shinning moments as DIYers. This area is for safety, I don't think one thread where we admit to the “dumbs” we had is too far out of line. Instead of advise we can fess up to our dumbs so that others don't do them and get a few laughs out of a posting. 


I was helping a friend strip the old walls out of his basement that had DIYed in the “just tear it all out and start from scratch format”. We were to the point of ripping out the studs. His kids were carrying the old wood outside, so we were moving along at a pretty good rate.


There was a big nail in the ceiling that I couldn't get the hammer at the right and to pry out. This is when I suffered a moment of temporary insanity. I hooked the claw of the hammer on the nail and figuring my body weight would get that nail free, pulled on the hammer with both hands. Just as my feet lifted off the floor out came the nail.


Unfortunately the momentum of my full weight pulling on the hammer caused an unforeseen reaction. The hammer came down so hard that, naturally the claw part of the hammer “nailed” me right in the lip.  Luckily I didn't do any serious damage like knock a tooth out, but it did make a nice “goose egg”.

Hitting yourself in the thumb is one thing, but if smack yourself in the mouth with a hammer you're going to get a lot of well deserved teasing.


I was replacing the end on a garden hose and the blade on the razor knife was too dull, so I popped in a new one. Naturally the new blade went through the hose like a hot knife through butter and I was off to the emergency roof for a few stitches in my knuckle. 


It just happened that they guy next to me in the emergency room had slipped with his cordless drill that subsequently continued to spin into the palm of his other hand. The emergency room doctors made several good jokes about the amount of time they spent repairing DIYers every weekend. The female doctor said that they naturally had more customers on weekends, but they would be a lot less crowded if it weren't for men and power tools.


I know that someone out there can beat smacking themselves in the mouth with a hammer. Fess up!:laughing:


BJ


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## rgsgww

One time I was drilling holes in my crawl space with a flat wood bore...the bit got stuck and the drill came right back at me. Boy did my face hurt.

Another time I was diagnosing an electrical problem, I was using a "pen" detector because I lost my multi meter. The tester read "no voltage" so I tried to pull the outlet out (with one hand ) I got shocked. Always test with a multi meter.


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## nap

such errors are not limited to DIYers. The pros have their share of huta syndrome and get hurt too.

I did the big no-no of leaving a hammer on top of my ladder when I went to grab some material. I forgot about it, went to move the ladder and the suddenly, just as it hit my head, remembered where I left my hammer.

Boy can head wounds bleed. As soon as it happened, I looked around to make sure nobody saw this dummy take the hit.:whistling2:


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## rgsgww

nap said:


> such errors are not limited to DIYers. The pros have their share of huta syndrome and get hurt too.
> 
> I did the big no-no of leaving a hammer on top of my ladder when I went to grab some material. I forgot about it, went to move the ladder and the suddenly, just as it hit my head, remembered where I left my hammer.
> 
> Boy can head wounds bleed. As soon as it happened, I looked around to make sure nobody saw this dummy take the hit.:whistling2:



I just did the same thing...I checked for blood and looked around to see if anyone saw me.


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## Rehabber

Finishing a kitchen cabinet install, I made a jig to drill holes in cabinet doors so that all the handles would be in exactly the same place. However I discovered that the placement of my thumb behind the cabinet door to hold the jig in place shold not be directly behind the hole being drilled:no: Oh well, it was only an 1/8" dia hole in my thumb


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## BJLower

*A friend pulled one of the greatest*

A friend (really) was working on his rather steep roof. To make sure that he didn't fall he ran a rope around his waste over the peak of the roof and tied it to the bumper of his wife's car. Unfortunately he neglected to inform his wife that he'd tied the rope to the bumper of her car.


Yes, his wife got in her car planning on making a quick run to the store that ended up being a quick run to the emergency room. Luckily it was a warm day and she had put her window down so heard his obviously very loud yell and stopped the car just after yanking him off the roof and didn't drag him down the road. He managed to survive with only some good bumps and bruises.


Naturally the number of jokes made at his expense were fairly massive. Two of the neighbors took it a tad too far when they decided that it would be funny for one to pull the other past his house using a rope and his sons skateboard. They very abruptly found out that they hadn't done a thorough job of planning their joke when the neighbor doing the driving hit the brakes after passing his yard and they found out that the combination of a short rope and skateboards not having brakes was not a good combination. The rear of the car, skateboard and its rider survived the subsequent “rear ender” in tact, except for the pride.


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## gone_fishing

Rerunning my electrical wiring a few weeks ago I was pulling the wiring out of my 200amp box. I had too much line so I had cut it and was just removing the excess. One of the wires his the hot terminal. Could have killed me if I wasn't lucky.


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## 7echo

*nail gun*

Saw a guy hold two 3/4" boards together so he could nail them with a gun. Hand behind where he shot, framing nails that are longer than 1 1/2".
OUCH! Right into the meat of the palm below the thumb.


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## Termite

I took an 18v drill battery to the head when the bit grabbed and the drill spun around and tagged me in the face. I never, never got hit that hard in any fight I was ever in! Honestly I thought I had shattered my eye socket, so I was relieved to just end up with a few stitches and a black eye.

My sister and my wife were kind enough to show up at the ER with a camera.


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## Aggie67

Two years ago we moved into our new house, and it has an inground pool. I'd never owned a pool in my life, so I had to learn quick on how to take care of it. Came time to close it down for the year, and I was taking apart the pump and filter piping. The prior owner said leave the D.E. filter housing outside (but cleaned out), and bring the pump inside for the winter (and blow out the lines, cap them, etc, etc). 

The following spring I put everything back together and go to turn the pump on, and whammo, the thing starts shooting water in every direction. The casing had cracked over the winter. I neglected to drain the water from the pump casing, and my garage has no heat, so it froze and split the casing. Expensive lesson. That pump now has a warm winter home behind my furnace.

Also, about 15 years ago I rebuilt my motorcycle from the frame up. New jugs, carb, tank, ignition harness, ignition module, valves, cam, etc. It's February, and I'm in my garage installing the new cylinders and heads, the pistons are in, and I made it a point to replace all of the interior rods, nuts and bolts on the motor with new components. I ran into trouble when I forgot to blow out one of the tapped holes in the crank case. There must have been a burr in this one hole (the last one of eight, of course). I'm tightening down this long threaded rod through the head, the cylinder casting and into the crank case casting, and I hear "EEEeeeeeek", and the rod shears. I bottomed out the rod and sheared the damn thing. I had to rip the whole motor down again to get the rod out cleanly.


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## Scuba_Dave

I haven't wacked myself in the head, but have had a 1/2" drill twist & smack my hands against the wall/2x. I've had the hammer on the ladder thing too - just an egg - no blood
I built a "T" bar to hold a ridge beam up. I nailed the ridge beam into the outer wall. The other wall was undecided as it would end inside the outer wall, then a shorter roof would be built. So the T had a "U" to hold the ridge beam. Inserted the T & pushed the ridge beam up. Measured from each side & nailed the bottom of the T where I wanted it. I then put a ladder up & started to climb to nail the ridge to the T. Except I did it from the wrong way & the T started to slide along the ridge beam. I hopped off, pushed the T back up, then put a ladder up from the side

I remember a neighbors kid coming running out of his basement. He was making a fort & nailing wood together. Came running out & told his dad they were RICH!! He struck Oil!! :laughing:
He hit the (slightly) buried oil line in the concrete


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## rgsgww

One time I was stripping 12/3 romex and sliced through the red wire. I spent 10 minutes trying to find out why the breaker tripped when I flipped the light switch.

Another time I broke the conductor, but the insulation was intact. I found that out after the lights didn't work and I read 137 volts.


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## AtlanticWBConst.

I was transporting some 9' long heavy angle irons (4), for structural lintels (Steel Headers), in a basement. We had cut out some large openings in a foundation, and were putting in windows where there previously weren't windows, on a major remodeling project.

I had them in my 8' pick up bed (with cap), with the extra foot passing thru into the cab. I was driving very carefully, slowly, cautiously....

I came to a set of lights, and stopped very gradually. However, the lintels were sitting at a pivot point. The weight of them started to shift. I could see them out of the corner of my eye start to come down, like the end of a see-saw. 

*What happened*: As the heavy iron sections "teetored" downward, the full weight of them shifted forward. 

*Stupidity*: (First, Let me introduce myself, I'm an idiot); I reached over and tried to grab the iron with my right hand. You see, they were headed towards my dashboard, and in a split second, I lacked the comprehension that the damage to my hand would far out-cost, the expense of a new dashboard.
Needless to say, I ended up driving myself to the ER. There was a line there, but when I walked in with my hand wrapped up in blood soaked napkins, and they knew it was a "construction-related" accident, they took me in, right away.

As I waited in one of the rooms, the searing pain kept getting more intense, it had me tearing the arm rest off the chair, I was trying hard to stay seated in.

The freshly cut end of the iron was jagged, and had shot down, and ripped off all kinds of skin, mostly off the surface of my thumb. It had almost severed two fingers and sliced a chunk of skin on my wrist.

They had to poke a hole in one of my finger nails to let the blood out. They did some xrays & stitched my hand back up.

Anyhow, the funny thing is that I only took a pain killer that night. After that, it didn't hurt much (strange). So I didn't bother taking the rest of the painkillers (don't like pills). I went back to work the next day.


...And here is the gory Emergency Room picture of my bloody shredded hand: 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c201/NHCraigT/DSC00019.jpg


Enjoy the picture link.


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## DangerMouse

wow, some of you guys are lucky to still have limbs or even be alive! i'm more that guy that always has an automotive problem that requires me to use hand tools under the truck/car on the coldest friggin' day of the year and you just KNOW the tool will slip and i'll skin my knuckles.... never fails.... i hate cars.....

DM


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## AtlanticWBConst.

Nice Picture huh? 

Sorry to dissapoint all you gore-loving-sickos...


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## DangerMouse

i always liked tile red with white trim. =o)

DM


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## Chemist1961

*Dumb luck*

DM your blood clots faster in the cold!

Three years ago on a College Bowl Weekend we had a freezing rainstorm. One of 3 of my 25' cedars in the back yard bent over under the ice load into the fork of an apple tree. It was so heavy I couldn't lift the bows to even shake them.
I called a neighbour to help hold my 6' ladder and climbed up about 5' so I was just above the branch to be safe. I took out a hand held tree saw and carefully leaned down to cut through the trunk below my waist and beside the ladder... just to be safe.. .
As I finally cut through the weight shifted and tipped the trunk in the fork and slipped forward taking the ladder right out from under me. Down I came right on my favorite step ladder....Good thing I don't have my chainsaw license... 
After I collected myself we tried to lift that branch off what was left of the ladder. We had to cut it with a chainsaw several days later before we could actually move it. Never underestimate the weight and danger of ice.

I went in for a shower and started watching the game. When I stood up I had a goose egg on my leg below the knee the size of a 1/2 grapefruit, no exageration... where I landed on the ladder. Good bye game, off to the hospital I went. I never felt a thing but the entire leg below the knee was swollen for over 3 weeks and black and blue.... knee to toes


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## KHouse75

I have many, many diy injury stories.

I was working on my beach house a few years ago. It was getting dark due to a thunderstorm moving in. I was cutting some wood on a tablesaw and was on the last piece before I was going to take a lunch break.

I cut the piece of wood, turned off the table saw then tried to grab the little piece of wood. It was dark and loud from the thunder so I didn't see, hear or realize that the blade hadn't fully spun down. The blade was moving so slow, I could clearly see each of the 4 teeth of the blade that hit my index finger tip. Those 4 teeth took out a nice 3/16" wide by 3/16" V shaped chunk of fingernail and meat from my finger.

I jumped off the last step on my ladder after working on my metal roof. To my surprise, my feet never touched the ground. I then realized my wedding ring was caught on a nail. Next I heard a loud pop and heard my ring bouncing around on the roof. I immediately grabbed my hand. I was afraid to look. I thought my finger had torn off. I finally looked and it wasn't too bad. Just a good flap of skin hanging.

Tore a huge flap of the outer layer of cornea of my right eye while moving a pindo palm. Having been poked in the eye by them in the past, I figured I'd close my eyes as tightly as possible while I moved the container it was in. It bumped my knee and an unopened front poked between by eyelids and got me. I've had many eye injuries and all healed withing a day or two. This was so bad it took a week and a half to heal.


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## VA Beach Trimmer

I was installing a custom kitchen cabinet package..This package was made of some very hard wood. Well, while I was installing the crown, I needed an angle that my then small, duel bevel mitersaw couldn't deliver..So with both of the miter box fences moved to their outer edges, :whistling2:, I cocked the 1' piece of crown over a block so I could get the needed angle. The blade grabbed the trim and drove my thumb into the blade !! I always forget to elevate whatever is bleeding until about 5 minutes of slinging blood everywhere..I was working by myself in a customer's house, so I had to clean up my blood before leaving and drive to the emergency room..After 25 minutes the pain had stopped accelerating and was getting better...
The emergency room doctor took a look at it and told me what he needed to do..I'm gonna have to numb your thumb, have you ever had that done before, he asked ? No, and by this time which was about an hour and a half later, my thumb was sore but didn't really hurt..I'm gonna shove a needle down the length of your thumb on BOTH SIDES to numb it..That hurt more than the blade !!...He cleaned it and stiched it up like Frankenstein's thumb..It looks 97% normal now..I was lucky, it could have been ALOT worst.. :thumbsup:


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## brokenknee

Look at avatar; fell off ladder reaching to far with nail gun, recoil threw me off balance, went to reach for some 2X8s I had sitting on the walls waiting to be nailed in. Had about three of them fall on top of me with one hitting my knee just right (or wrong) broke my lower tibia plateau. Out of work for four months.


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## KHouse75

VA Beach Trimmer said:


> I was installing a custom kitchen cabinet package...


Sounds similar to what my father did a few months ago. After a pretty bad sliding miter saw incident that involved cutting through a couple of bones about 27 years ago, you'd think he'd know better. He builds houses for a living by the way.

While helping my brother add a basement bathroom, my father didn't feel like waiting for my brother to grab a hand saw from upstairs. He needed to shorten a pvc elbow about an inch and decided to use the miter saw. Bad idea (I know, I've tried it. PVC shards everythere). I get a call on my first day of vacation at the beach from my brother: "Did you hear what happened to dad? He cut his thumb off". Turns out, he basically shaved the thumbnail off his left thumb. It's now 1/4" shorter and has no nail or tendon to bend it back. Same hand as the previous miter saw incident.

I think I'm going to by him a sawstop tablesaw for Christmas.


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## fireguy

This did not happen to me. In fact, it happened before I went to work at the motor home plant. The motor home plant burned to the ground when a coach backfired in the spray foam pit. It took 20 minutes to burn the plant to the ground. The employees re-built the plant. When the crew was stapling the plywood on the roof, one of the guys ran a staple through the top of his foot into the plywood. The staple hit the steel truss and clinched over. He had to have someone cut the plywood sheet, then he had to have help to get down the ladder to the ground. After a period of time, he was released to go back to work. Someone asked how he did such a stupid thing as to staple his foot to the roof. "Like this" he said as he grabbed a staple gun. That time there was no plywood, he was standing on concrete. The staple clinched over. That time, when he was released from the docs care, he did not return to hte motor home plant. 

Rudolph was trimming his fruit trees with a small chainsaw. the saw caught the back of his hand. He drove himself to the hospital. He said there was no way he was calling the ambulance, and have any of his fellow firefighters haul him to the hospital. He said it was cool when the ER doc pulled the tendons to see which fingers moved.


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## mark942

While reading this thread it brought to mind a bumper sticker I read one time while on my way to a local hospital.

"The probability that some one is watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions". 


This statement has stuck in my head now for years and years. I care not to elaborate any further................:whistling2:


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## jerryh3

I listened to my wife about paint color. Oh, the horror.


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## brokenknee

mark942 said:


> While reading this thread it brought to mind a bumper sticker I read one time while on my way to a local hospital.
> 
> "The probability that some one is watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions".
> 
> 
> This statement has stuck in my head now for years and years. I care not to elaborate any further................:whistling2:


 
No need to elaborate, we all know you were driving the WIFE to the hospital and a lot of people saw what SHE did! :laughing:


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## Clutchcargo

Here's my story.
I had just bought my first framing nailer and I was excited to use it. I was planning to install some ceiling joists. I grabbed the closest ladder I could find. Unfortunately, it was the smallest and oldest ladder I own but it should be fine just to shoot a couple of nails. It’s only five and half feet tall and wobbly because it is old and made out of wood. I didn't want to run all the way to the basement to get the 8' ladder for just a few nails. I was standing on the top step, you know the step that says "[Idiot] This is not a step!" As you would expect, I was pushing the joist into place and the ladder flipped out from under me. I grabbed onto the joist and I was hanging about 2 feet off the ground with my nailer in one hand. I had the nailer pinned and I couldn't easily grab it with my other hand because if I let go,I'd fall. Hanging for a few seconds I came up with a plan. I would simultaneously let go of the nailer, catch it my other hand, guide my landing so that I'd miss the ladder and land on my feet. 
Now the reality, I let go of the nailer but instead of catching it like I planned, I first landed directly on the ladder directly beneath me and hit the floor tangled up in the ladder. This circus act isn't over yet, in this synchronized performance I ended up swatting my brand new, used for less than one day nailer against the chimney and it came crashing down. I jumped to my feet to see if anyone saw and thankfully nobody was watching, just my wife yelling up the stairs, "Is everything OK?"
Just some bumps and bruises but nothing serious. I was humbled looking at the scratches on my nailer. My wife made me feel a little better by saying "Well, at least your tools don't make you look like a poser anymore."


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## brokenknee

Clutchcargo said:


> Here's my story.
> I had just bought my first framing nailer and I was excited to use it. I was planning to install some ceiling joists. I grabbed the closest ladder I could find. Unfortunately, it was the smallest and oldest ladder I own but it should be fine just to shoot a couple of nails. It’s only five and half feet tall and wobbly because it is old and made out of wood. I didn't want to run all the way to the basement to get the 8' ladder for just a few nails. I was standing on the top step, you know the step that says "[Idiot] This is not a step!" As you would expect, I was pushing the joist into place and the ladder flipped out from under me. I grabbed onto the joist and I was hanging about 2 feet off the ground with my nailer in one hand. I had the nailer pinned and I couldn't easily grab it with my other hand because if I let go,I'd fall. Hanging for a few seconds I came up with a plan. I would simultaneously let go of the nailer, catch it my other hand, guide my landing so that I'd miss the ladder and land on my feet.
> Now the reality, I let go of the nailer but instead of catching it like I planned, I first landed directly on the ladder directly beneath me and hit the floor tangled up in the ladder. This circus act isn't over yet, in this synchronized performance I ended up swatting my brand new, used for less than one day nailer against the chimney and it came crashing down. I jumped to my feet to see if anyone saw and thankfully nobody was watching, just my wife yelling up the stairs, "Is everything OK?"
> Just some bumps and bruises but nothing serious. I was humbled looking at the scratches on my nailer. My wife made me feel a little better by saying "Well, at least your tools don't make you look like a poser anymore."


Scratches on the nail gun give it character. You don't want to show up at a job with a brand new shinny nailer anyway. :wink:


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## Leah Frances

Telling someone to be careful is always my downfall. 

Sometimes, literally. Today we had a guy out to look at pruning a tree. I told him five or six times to be very careful on the ice - then I fell right on my hind-parts in front of him. :laughing: Serves me right.


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## John McCabe

I almost burned my house down hooking two 110 legs to two separate brakers. I had a wire ground out on a romex connector and when it tried to trip the braker, it sat and fried the jacked off the wire from basement to roof. Whole house full of toxic smoke, house was being reno'd so the wire hung, ran open in a stair case. Didn't have money for a brakerwith a bar holding them together. I went and got two more, shoved a toothpick into the holes and JB puttied it in, been working every since!


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## flash512

nap said:


> such errors are not limited to DIYers. The pros have their share of huta syndrome and get hurt too.
> 
> I did the big no-no of leaving a hammer on top of my ladder when I went to grab some material. I forgot about it, went to move the ladder and the suddenly, just as it hit my head, remembered where I left my hammer.
> 
> Boy can head wounds bleed. As soon as it happened, I looked around to make sure nobody saw this dummy take the hit.:whistling2:



I've done that one, too!


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## Leah Frances

*Definition of Dumb:* defeating the anti-kickback device on my table saw to make a specific cut and FAILING to re-install the anti-kickback device immediately. Result: a 2x2 chunk of oak kicked back at me. 

One of the corners hit my right index finger gouging a deep V-shaped cut, then it bounced off the back of my hand leaving a nice print of the corner (a perfect right angle right behind my thumb), and lastly SMACKED me in the mouth. Thankfully, ricocheting off my hand slowed it down enough that it only gave me a FAT LIP. 

I'm sure the cut on my finger will leave a scar - a good reminder to PUT ON MY WORK GLOVES.


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## gmcf2004

My wife and I bought a fixer-upper house that had been vacant for a few years. One project was to remove all the wild brush that had grown around the property line. The brush had become entangled and intertwined in a chicken-wire fence that surrounded our yard. I decided a bright idea would be to use my ATV and a chain to pull the fence, the posts, and the brush all at once. I hooked on to the fence and threw the ATV in reverse. Everything was going well until the fence snapped. My foot got caught underneath one of the foot pegs and I as quickly approached my pool in reverse, I panicked and accidently pushed the throttle even harder. I ended up driving the quad over the diving board backwards and flipped it into the pool. My neighbors enjoyed the show!!!

Here's another one I heard from a friend. When he was a kid his father was splitting hard wood with an axe. The problem was he was standing in front of a clothesline. He came down with the axe onto the line and the axe shot back at him and split the top of his head open. The was a 42 sutre trip to the E.R.


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## BJLower

*I love that I started this thread of us DIYers injuring ourselves*

Future DIYers might get a tad nervous reading about the wonderful injuries we've inflicted on our selves, but I'm glad I started this thread because you can laugh at someone else besides yourself.


First the good news:


When the hammer falls off the ladder and puts a nice gash in your head, they don't shave your head (to make sure everyone sees what you did to yourself. They have a staple gun and just go pop, pop, pop.
I started riding Moto-Cross when I was 12 so have had a whole lot of stitches in my life. I never go back to get them removed I DIY them. Hint, if you slide the knot in the stitches from side to side a few times a day they don't stick and pull right out with a careful snip and pull.


Once the wound in my head healed I took a pair of needle nose and pulled the staples out pretty easily. It would have been a lot easier to have my wife pull them out so I didn't have to do everything backwards in the mirror, but she's a bit on the squeamish side.


If you haven't heard of using Super Glue to fix cuts you're missing out. They use it inside you when they perform surgery. I heard it from a doctor on a radio show many years ago and have used it ever since. He said that you could buy medical Super Glue for a lot of money, but he used the Super Glue he got from the local store because what Super Glue is made of makes it germ free.


Everyone's gotten one of those nasty paper cuts that bug you for days. If you take a little Super Glue and glue the cut closed it will never bother you a bit. You can glue some pretty big wounds. Being the neighbor hood “fix the bicycle and rider from the crash go to guy” I've had a lot of practice. The good size ones might pop open, but will glue right back closed again.


Note: You can't glue the wound until you get the bleeding stopped. If you can't stop the bleeding then it's off to the hospital.


WHAT YOU BEEN WAITING FOR, MY LAST GOOD ONE:


I live in Florida where there are a lot of roofs with concrete tiles. Age and the weather had gotten to them, so I decided they needed repainting. Naturally to get a good coat on I needed to strip the old paint off. I borrowed a friends 5,000 psi pressure washer that I had now doubt would do the job. The neighbor across the street has a plumbing company so actually had a 14' safety ladder I could use.


I decided that I would start by stripping the paint from the edges of the tiles along the end of the roof while standing on the safety ladder. I quickly found out that a 5,000 psi pressure was has a kick that makes a 12 gauge shotgun seem like a BB gun. It shot me backwards like a rocket and I didn't let go a the trigger for added speed that I didn't really need. I've done a lot of climbing and was even trained in it when I worked for Ma Bell during the summers in high school, so I at least turned myself so that I would hit and role. Unfortunately the ladder was long enough to reach the side of the neighbors house.


Thankfully the window that I ended up jamming the pressure washer through was in his garage, so didn't cause any damage. To my surprise I was uninjured.


But I wasn't through yet. While pressure washing the main part of the roof a swarm of wasps came out from under one of the tiles. Thankfully I'm not very allergic to wasp stings to begin with and managed to get most of them with the pressure washer. Then one of the little heathens landed on my leg and the same time that my brain momentarily stopped functioning.
I decide to kill him off. Yes, I blasted the wasp and my leg with 5,000 psi pressure washer at close range. It didn't peel the skin off my leg but felt like it did. I did kill the wasp, but would have felt a lot less pain had I let him just go ahead and sting me.


What makes it even worse in my case I'm a competition shooter and should have known not to shoot anything on my leg that they haven't made a horror movie out of.


Power tools keep doctors busy.


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## gma2rjc

Good thread! It's fun reading these. 

I hope you keep your health ins. and life insurance up to date! LOL


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## drillbit

You are heros. Soldiers of home repair.

Some of my battle wounds include.

Thinking I could just hold a piece of metal in one hand to drill a larger hole in it. Who knew that metal spun around like a blade when drilled? I am very lucky that I just superficially cut a couple of fingers.

Ha, never carry a wide board in front of you impairing your view. I somehow managed to step into the miter saw on the floor and down I came. There was nothing I could do to regain any balance and not fall straight down. The board actually cushioned my fall, may have saved my neck, and thankfully my miter saw is manual so I just got scratched and very shaken up. My miter saw was destroyed.

This one I'm not considering my fault. I had friends over to help me install a staircase. So I'm on the bottom level and my tape measure is on the second floor I needed to measure something so I asked my friend to "pass the tape measure". I remember hearing everyone go, "ohhh, owww, ouch, are you okay", before I even knew what happened. My tape measure is a metal Stanley 25 footer. Tossed from 10 feet above into your forehead is quite a blow. I assumed that he would measure out 10 or so feet, lock it and then lower the tape measure. Not toss it. After procuring a suitable hat to wear to hide my newfound unicorn horn, I resigned myself to the kitchen where for that day I belonged.


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## Leah Frances

I take blood-thinners for my phlebitis and to keep me from having a pulmonary embolism (man, that makes me sound OLD!) so any small nick results in LOTS of blood. This makes for good DIYer street-cred (see this blood stain, it's from when I installed my drywall).

Super glue works GREAT but it REALLY stings when you put it on. I keep 'stingless' nail glue in my tool box - you can get it at the drug store - next to the press-on-nails.


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## mark942

Forgot I made a post of my bumper sticker slogan earlier.

I once stayed at a Holiday Inn.


Take It Easy!!! 

:thumbsup:


----------



## Scuba_Dave

My last house I installed a new slider on the back of the house where a window used to be
The door on the side (same room) I took out & put a window in
I was screwing in the plywood under the window (not sure why I didn't use nails)
After finishing I stood up & admired the "finished" project
I then realized my keys were in the house, and the house was locked
I proceeded to unscrew the plywood so I could get back in the house :laughing:


----------



## ScottR

thekctermite said:


> I took an 18v drill battery to the head when the bit grabbed and the drill spun around and tagged me in the face.


- That same thing happened to me! I was using a spade bit to go through the top plate of a wall to run some network cable. The bit bound up, the drill jerked HARD (it was on its high-torque gear) and it hit me right in the temple. Also twisted my wrist pretty good in a way that it wasn't prepared to go. No stitches or anything.. just felt like an idiot, and had to drill with my other hand.

- I'm in the process of redoing the electrical in my garage (I have a thread on it in the electrical forum), and I mounted a fluorescent strip light on the side of a 2x4 cross member, above the garage door, about a foot in. I figured I was smart to mount the light sideways to allow ample clearance for the door. As I was mounting the light though I wondered why the corner of the 2x4 was planed down.. it was real sloppy, so I figured it was just some re-purposed scrap.

The next day I opened the garage door and - BAM - it crashed right into the fixture. If I'd done it just a little harder I would've had pieces of the bulb embedded in my head. They'd planed down the 2x4 to let the door clear.

- This might just be the stupidest thing ever, but I was doing it professionally, not DIY: I was using a 6ft. ladder while running some CAT5 through a drop ceiling. I coiled up some cable, and had the cable in one hand and a tool or two in the other. Looking up into the ceiling trying to determine if there were any obstructions, I tried to climb the ladder. The first step seemed a little shaky. Then the second step ... ????? I fell through where the second step should've been, and took a hit on the chin from the top step.

I was climbing up the back of the ladder. :laughing: :blush: Well, *trying *to climb up the back of the ladder.


----------



## drtbk4ever

ScottR said:


> I was climbing up the back of the ladder. :laughing: :blush: Well, *trying *to climb up the back of the ladder.


 
LOL, that is a good one.:laughing::laughing::laughing:


----------



## ScottR

Good stuff on this thread.. Just went back and read the rest of your posts (I stopped when I hit kc's before), and now I feel like a real wuss with no ER visits.. ::knocking furiously on wood::

I got one more in case you're not tired of hearing from me.

My wife and I were going to take down a wall in our house, before we moved our stuff in. She was worried about it being a load bearing wall, and that it might have wiring or plumbing in it. With a whole lot of bravado I pointed out various reasons why it wasn't load bearing, and that there were no utilities running through it. (I could see the top of the wall from the crawlspace hatch between the first and second floors, btw. It's not like I have magic x-ray vision or anything).

Shortly after, I started knocking some holes in the drywall in each stud bay, just to double-check that all was clear. After about the third stud bay I said, "this is stupid. I can see that there's nothing in that wall", and I grabbed my sawsall and started cutting across the wall at about waist height. Of course in the middle of my cutting I smell burned plastic, and some smoke came pouring out of the cut. I used my hammer to break open that part of the wall, and yup, there were two ends of a piece of romex, both a little toasted.

Luckily it shorted to ground before it could short to me, and there was no fire. Turns out the cable was neatly tucked against the side of a ceiling joist, out of my line of view from the crawlspace hatch. I felt like a complete idiot, and my wife had a pretty good smirk going.

Incidentally, I had NO idea what that wire did, and there happened to be another tripped breaker in the box (to this day I don't know why it tripped) which is of course the only one I saw. It took me about 2 hours of wire tracing and troubleshooting before I found the m#$#$*@ing breaker that I'd tripped, and found out it was for the backyard motion sensor lights (which wouldn't have turned on anyway because it was DAYTIME -- makes troubleshooting very difficult).


----------



## tribe_fan

During a shower remodel - I put in new in line ball valves. 

Checked they were off, and went to turn on the main water. 

Heard water running at the main, figured it was just a toilet refilling.

By the time I got to the shower - the room was flooded. 

When the handle is in line - that means water is on, but the worst part is I knew that, and even double checked that it was "off" .


----------



## Scuba_Dave

Not a DIY, but still funny
Neighbors son was into building things (very young - not a teenager)

Well he was in the basement hammering boards together
He came running out "Dad Dad we're RICH - I Hit Oil!!!

Yup - he hit the buried oil line from the tank to the boiler


----------



## Mort

Leah Frances said:


> I take blood-thinners for my phlebitis and to keep me from having a pulmonary embolism (man, that makes me sound OLD!)


My aunt died at 40 from that, so you don't have to be old. I'm glad you caught it before it was too late.

Most of my injuries come from working on my cars. Doing a timing belt a few months ago, I gashed my finger, a real gusher. Well, because of a few other things, the procedure took quite a while, and it was almost healed when I got back to the job. And of course, where do I completely gash my finger again? Yup, same place. Luckily, its looking like it won't permanently scar.

A real stupid thing I did that didn't involve injury, though, was use a sack of Quikrete to hold down a slip and slide. Yessir, those bags are water soluble.


----------



## KHouse75

I have an embarrassing one I've never told anyone before....

I was putting up a backsplash in the kitchen and took a break for the night. The next day I grabbed the bucket of what I thought was the mastic. After about an hour, I realized I grabbed the bucket of taping compound!!! Same size, same container, same color and same consistency.

They were 2"x2" tiles on 12"x12" sheets. I had to pull them all off, soak them in water, clean them then reapply each one individually. Boy was I mad!


----------



## Leah Frances

Failing to KISS and analyze the problem at a basic level first. I thought the switch for my oven light was broken....Or, maybe it just needed a new light bulb. DUH.


----------



## n0c7

Finished doing a garage and a basement with minor scratches. Soon after I was trimming a piece of plastic on an office chair floor mat with a heavy duty exacto knife. Cutting toward myself with lots of pressure I slipped and cut my thumb down to the bone in between the index finger. 6 stitches on the thumb and one on the index finger, and one ugly life time scar to go with.

The pictures are pretty bloody, available upon request.


----------



## diy'er on LI

I'm such a lame DIY'er.... I only get smashed fingers and severely achy backs and arms. all of my worst injuries come from cooking... knife slips! Often right before company is coming.... Unfortunately, I have "good knives", so when they slip, they go straight to the bone. Those cuts bleed profusely, and the skin doesn't seal itself...

I have two words for those suffering from deep cuts: butterfly stiches. you can buy them in the bandaid isle. They've saved me numerous times.

I'm happy to report that every time, feeling has been restored to my fingertips within several months of the incident :thumbsup:


----------



## BJLower

*Then you have people that don't even know what DIY stands for.*

For some strange reason Howard earned the name of “Handy Howard”. My parents got to know them and I subsequently became friends with them. His wife wanted a hook but on the bathroom door so she could put her robe on it. Howard's actually managed to get the screws to hold the hook on into the door, unfortunately when he closed the door the hook was on the outside. He managed to give his yard a special feature. Only Howard could mess something up as simple as putting fertilizer on the plants around his house. He didn't notice that there was a hole in the bottom of the bag of fertilizer that pored out a nice trail as he walked from plant to plant. When my dad and I went over to look at the strange thing happening to their yard is wasn't to hard to figure out by the trail of taller grass that followed the path he'd taken. Howard was all set to fix the problem though, he'd gone out and bought a gallon of premixed Roundup. (A trail of dead grass would have looked better?) Naturally it took me dad an I several minutes to stop laughing so hard to be able to tell Howard to take the Roundup back and by fertilizer for the whole yard that would “even the grass up”. Howard was watching a football game and at half time noticed that the rain had slowed down. Howard grabbed a paper grocery bag and ran around the yard cleaning up the piles their dog had left. Howard didn't want to miss the game starting back up, so tried to give a little side-arm though of the bag into the garbage. Unfortunately Howard's hadn't noticed that between the rain and wet doggy doo the bottom of the paper grocery bag hand gotten soaked. So his little side-arm move spread the wet doggy doo all over his very nice and only about 2 week old convertible that had the top down. We went to their house for a barbecue. Howard had one of those round Webber charcoal grills and actually managed to get it going without burning down the house. It was sitting in the driveway just outside the garage door when it started to rain and naturally Howard and his neighbor thought it would be better if they rolled the grill just in side the garage door. It had a handle and wheels so even Howard could handle that. When I walked into the garage from inside the house I was naturally confused as to why Howard and his neighbor had piles of rags on their hands and looked like they were trying to pick up a hot charcoal drill. When I asked what he was doing Howard told me that the vent in the top of the grill was filling the garage with smoke, so they were going to turn the grill around. Without saying anything I just walked up, grabbed the handle on the lid of the grill and spun it around. I actually managed to make it back into the house before I couldn't hold it in anymore and busted out laughing. When his wife Joni saw me laughing so hard I had to brace myself against the wall she somehow knew and just said, “What did Howard do now?”


Another friend beat Howard by a mile. They'd bought a house that had all wooden floors in the upstairs. That he actually managed to rent a sander and do a fairly good job stripping the floor down was a surprise. He asked me to stop by and see if I could figure out how to fix the Polyurethane he'd put down. I couldn't believe it when I saw that floor. There was a good ¼ inch of Polyurethane (he wanted that floor to have s serious shine) that was filled with dice divots where the huge bubbles had risen to the surface as it dried. When I accede him how he'd put the Polyurethane down he reach into a room and pulled out a paint roller with a broomstick handle on it. I asked him if he'd seen the huge bubbles which he has, but thought that the Polyurethane smoothed out like a roller rink as it dried, so did the whole floor. He wasn't a Happy Camper when I told him that he needed to get about 5 gallons of stripper, take off all he could and the re sand the floor. (REAL MEN DON”T READ DIRECTIONS) Telling him that you actually put it down with sheep's wool pads would have confused him, so I just told him when he had the floor ready again to call me and I'd show him how to put the Polyurethane down the right way.


----------



## Red Squirrel

One mistake I did is trust someone with no knowledge of electricity help me wire something.  I was in high school theatre class and did the lighting system. We were preparing for our tour to the other schools and had a few custom setups such as an extension cord with a dimmer on it. So I wire up the dimmer, and someone else does the two ends. I plug everything in power on, and nothing. I figure that's weird, so I reach so I can unplug it from the wall for further troubleshooting... as my hand touches the metal ring around the plug, I get this huge shock from the hand holding the metal "grounded" dimmer box, and the hand that was about to pull the plug. It was like a flash, and I found myself a few feet behind, and did not even realize I was not holding it anymore. It was like split second reaction. We had a good laugh and nobody got hurt, but turned out the ground wire was put on the hot screw of the plugin.  Was my first time getting a arm to arm shock, those leave you feeling funny for a while.


----------



## jweller

I did this one on the car, but close enough. I had the hood open and instead of using the prop rod, I just leaned the hood back, just past 90 degrees to where it sort of balanced, but not quite leaned all the way back against the windshield. Gust of wind blew down the street and pushed the hood past 90 and onto the back of my head. 

5 staples, a lot of blood, and a nasty concussion later, I always use the prop rod.


----------



## High Gear

Picture this , I was redoing a rather steep section of my lawn with my trusty 

Troy built 8 hp tiller when I hit a big solid chunk of clay.

Being that I'm rather good sized I put a death grip on it and tried to muscle 

it through that spot , like I've done many times in the past.

Well not this time , it flipped me off my feet and as I was rolling down the 

hill the tiller still running was tumbling and following right behind.

I found out that day that I'm faster than a troy built down a hill !


----------



## High Gear

This is how I wasted all of yesterdays afternoon .

I'm doing some electric in the basement , needed to put in a 4way between 2, 3 ways.

A piece of cake right ? Should have been.

I got my wires mixed up and couldn't fathom that it was the problem.

Blamed the switch , electricians that wired the house ect. then I got out my multimeter.

Started getting some weird readings , thought my leads were messed up, nothing made sense , now I'm more confused than ever.

Finaly my wife came home from work ( whom knows nothing about meters 
or electric ) sais maybe you need new batteries.

DUHH , I had it figured out in nothing flat.


----------



## Leah Frances

High Gear said:


> This is how I wasted all of yesterdays afternoon .
> 
> I'm doing some electric in the basement , needed to put in a 4way between 2, 3 ways.
> 
> A piece of cake right ? Should have been.
> 
> I got my wires mixed up and couldn't fathom that it was the problem.
> 
> Blamed the switch , electricians that wired the house ect. then I got out my multimeter.
> 
> Started getting some weird readings , thought my leads were messed up, nothing made sense , now I'm more confused than ever.
> 
> Finaly my wife came home from work ( whom knows nothing about meters
> or electric ) sais maybe you need new batteries.
> 
> DUHH , I had it figured out in nothing flat.


Lets hear it for the wives!!


----------



## TJ_in_IL

*Broken Thumb*

6 weeks ago I was DIY'ing repairs on my truck... replacing u-joints. I was beating the old ones out with a hammer- dink, dink, dink, thud. I thought, "WOW, that hurt". Checked and didn't feel broken (no wiggle ore looseness), so I went back to work. When I went to pick up a tool, the thumb bent backwards.... yup, it's broken. 
Sad part is I had to put the driveshaft back in before I could drive myself to the hospital. I ended up breaking it in two places.
This put a major hold on my summer DIY plans. I got the cast off 2 weeks ago, and now have a brace and physical therepy.

Lesson learned- use the right tool for the right job.


----------



## Jim F

In '96 while working as an over-the-road truck driver I fell getting out of my truck cab and broke my wrist resulting in surgery with external fixation as well as internal pins. The company would not let me drive until I was adaquately healed- at least 6-8 weeks. But that didn't stop me from DIYing arund the house. 

I had shrubs that needed to be pruned. So I found myself on a step ladder with loppers-couldn't even use my left hand, had to use the crook of my elbow on the other handle. Of course that is when I would tip the step ladder over. Fortunately no further damage to the wrist, just lots of excruciating pain. 

I was actually more afraid of how I would explain to my wife what I was doing on the ladder with my wrist in traction.


----------



## Branden

I'll play... Both dealing with electricity...

Went to change a broken 3-way light switch for my parents. Very simple job. When I got there my dad told me that he shut off the electricity. When I asked if he was sure, he said yes. Turns out he turned off the wrong breaker.

I had a new furnace put in while I was at work. When I got home, they were finishing up and the HVAC guy told me that he flipped a few breakers in my electrical box. I sort of forgot about him telling me that until I was continuing to wire up my garbage disposal/dishwasher when I cut through a wire. Turns out it was one of the breakers he turned on. I didn't get hit with too much electricity, but it did scare me to the point where I fell off the ladder I was working on... didn't feel too good.

There are plenty more, but that's enough for now.


----------



## Red Squirrel

I did this just now. I decided to use Great Stuff so I could seal between the spiral vent tube and the plastic connector of my portable AC unit as it was blowing some hot air out. Being a rather small gap it was hard to get the stuff to go in properly, so I decided to use my finger to spread the stuff into the crack.

I STILL can't get it off my thumb! Tried WD-40, Goo Gone... about to try gasoline. LOL Worse part is, I did read the warnings and it does mention it is very hard to take off, but I did not figure it would be THAT hard lmao.


----------



## gma2rjc

Don't feel bad. I was sealing the rim joists in the basement one time. I was very careful and wore gloves, long sleeves, long pants, shoes. 

I was reaching _up_ to seal gaps _above_ my head. It never occured to me to cover my hair.


----------



## DangerMouse

I just let it wear off over a week's time... lol 

In your HAIR???? How did the family like your new haircut?

Acetone MIGHT work... (fingernail polish remover)

DM


----------



## gma2rjc

Surprisingly, it came out of my hair by the next day - with a comb and my fingernails, strand by strand. 

When I had it on my hands and fingers, acetone didn't work to take it off. 

Barb


----------



## High Gear

I think its a given that GREAT STUFF will come in contact with you no matter what precautions you take.

Sticky eye lids from the mist are no fun either.

Great Product just hate using it though.


----------



## DangerMouse

I've actually managed to go through a few cans with no stickies.... but more often than not.....
The BEST thing to do with any that drops on the floor, etc. and not on you is to LEAVE IT ALONE and let it set up, then it can be picked right off! DO NOT WIPE! LOL

DM


----------



## Red Squirrel

Yeah best to let it set, and think that actually goes for skin too. I went and washed my hands which made things worse as it just spread it. 

I'm STILL trying to get some of it off LOL. But the worst is gone. It's mostly all in the pores of the skin now, think the skin will dry and it will flake off. Hopefully this stuff is not TOO toxic lol.


----------



## gmhammes

I have too many to mention but i'll start with a recent one (well last year)
I was installing my fence and my neighbor had told me that there used to be a chainlink fence there prior to me moving in but the old owner took it out.
I managed to find quite a few cemented posts that i had to dig completely out. One was right next to the house though and for the life of me couldn't get it out. Brother in law suggested using his true temper wheel barrow with a piece of 14/2 wire on the bottom brace connected to vice grips which were connected to the pipe stub left in the footing. 

Both of us grabbing the handle pulling upward however i was standing at the edge of the handle (he was more towards the tub part) 14/2 snaps, handle hits me you know where :huh:. I was on the ground for a solid 5 minutes while the brother in law drank a beer and laughed!

Needless to say we didn't try that method again. I ended up using a car jack and it came right up!


----------



## gma2rjc

Like they say, it's always funny 'til somebody gets hurt.... then it's hilarious.


----------



## McSteve

Who else has got an eyefull of sawdust, shavings, paint chips, rust, etc. while your safety glasses are either on top of your hat, hanging from your shirt, or in your pocket?

I've done all of the above, in every combination, more often than I like to admit.


----------



## nap

Red Squirrel said:


> Yeah best to let it set, and think that actually goes for skin too. I went and washed my hands which made things worse as it just spread it.
> 
> I'm STILL trying to get some of it off LOL. But the worst is gone. It's mostly all in the pores of the skin now, think the skin will dry and it will flake off. Hopefully this stuff is not TOO toxic lol.


well, with all the problems in the world today, you should be well _insulated_ from everything then.:laughing:


----------



## Fortitude

I'm in the process of repainting the basement. Since we're also replacing the old carpet, I figure I might as well move the carpet away from the walls to make it easier to paint the baseboard. This morning I went into the basement, barefoot, to get something and stabbed my big toe on one of the exposed carpet tacks.  OK, I figure that's my fault for not paying attention and go back to cleaning up around the house. After about 15 minutes, I finally notice the blood spots. My toe was bleeding and I was leaving little blood smears all over the house (kitchen floor, rugs, oriental carpet, stairs, etc.). :wallbash:

From a couple of years ago: I replaced all of the basic "builder's grade" electric outlets with Decora outlets. One winter I got an electric room heater for the basement. It worked great for a little while then it stopped working and the basement smelled like burned oil. After some investigation... An outlet earlier in the line, behind a bookshelf, had literally melted down. Thankfully there was nothing flammable in contact with it. When I replaced the outlets, I got lazy and used the conductor insertion hole in the outlet rather than wrap the conductor around the bolt. I also did a crappy job of tightening the wire bolt. The high resistance generated enough heat to destroy the outlet.


----------



## oldrivers

one time i was trying to drill a 5/8ths hole through 1/2 inch steel and my dewalt 14 volt died almost at the end , so i found an old heavy duty drill sitting on the shelf it was one of those old powerful drills that needed a pipe handle screwed in so youd use both hands well it didn have the pipe handle and i thought well im almost through so ill be careful, well the drill bit got stuck and spun out of my hands the momentum of the drill made it wrap the cord around the trigger then it kicked on again and spun until the cord pulled itself out of the drill. my hand almost got broken again. one of those things i did cause i was tired and lazy. not sure if the old roomate ever noticed the black tape yet though ... :laughing:


----------



## dirtrider73068

Well I learned a few lessons on my own. One being when they saw keep loose clothes away from power tools they mean it, I had my angle grinder with a wire wheel working on something, had a big loose fit shirt on, good thing its a old shirt, wind blows, next thing I know I have my angle grinder in my gut, turning off and spent a bit unrolling my shirt. Tore the shirt to crap, scratched me a little.

Ever stick your hand with a screwdrive? Flat blade to be exact, I have and more then once in the same hand in the same spot, first time is at work, cutting open golf balls, to use as fooseballs at work. Used hacksaw cut around then use flat blade to pry open outer shell, well I slipped and stuck it in the web of my hand between the thumb and first finger. Needless to say it was really sore and it hurt to grab on to anything, could even hold a cup. I did 2 more times at home same thing, same deal same hand, same spot. After that I quit cutting golf balls open and just order the right fooseballs.

Its also not fun to be useing a angle grinder grind metal, and grind a small oval indent in the your finger, what was amazing and it never bleed.


----------



## WillK

I'm an engineer, so usually I wear khaki pants to work. We're living at my parent's house until the house we recently bought is ready to move in, one of the projects needing to be finished being the roof. I'm doing the roof myself, and it's down to details mostly like ridge cap, new siding on the dormers and so on... But it's a 9/12 pitch, so I've got a safety harness, brackets and so on up there, and the last shingles can't go on until the safety equipment comes off.

But here's the problem: My dear wife bought me new pants for wearing at work. I am well past the part where old nails sticking up tend to snag pants and tear them, so tearing clothes is not something I expect at all. Nevertheless, one day after working on the roof in my new pants, as I'm getting ready for bed and letting the dog out, I notice a breeze.

The roof has actually sanded through the back of my pants to the point where there is a tear under both of my cheeks. Fortunately, this wasn't on a day where I had to pick up more supplies at the store!


----------



## mrgins

We were building a 60' long single story residence with a trussed roof. I noticed that the trusses had been braced about an inch out of plumb. The foreman, who was standing between the 1st and 2nd truss decided, instead of adjusting them individually, to tie an electrical cord around the second truss, wrap the other end around a utility pole, and pull them all into alignment together. (Believe me, OSHA, I told them not to do it this way!). Anyway, the guy holding the rope couldn't hear the instructions that the foreman was yelling, so he cupped his hands to his ears, thus letting go of the rope and releasing 58 feet worth of 30' trusses onto the foreman who was still between the 1st and second trusses. As I got a length of 2x6 to pry a space for the screaming foreman to slide, the rope "holder" climbed on top of all the trusses to peer down at the poor guy and ask if he was ok! Luckily, no one was injured, just shaken


----------



## mrgins

I remember a big site I was working on in London, England, when a laborer, who was using a fork to dig nearby, suddenly screaming and writhed around in agony. Apparantly, he'd shoved the fork right thru his boot and the tines were sticking out thru the sole. After we'd removed the fork and the boot, we saw that a tine had slid right between his toes! His screaming subsided quite quickly!


----------



## jules4

Last Thursday (Dec 23) I did something so profoundly dumb that I was inspired to locate this thread and post it here in order to inspire others to avoid similar idiocy.

I was using my circular saw as a plunge router to dado some shelf supports. Stupid move #1 (if you don’t count using a circ as a plunge router): I pinned the guard all the way back instead of just thumbing it back the half-inch I needed for my cuts. Stupid move #2: I was wearing a loose-fitting apron over a loose-fitting T-shirt.

Three-quarters of the way done my routing I leaned in too far and my apron must have caught the blade. I felt a sudden tug and the next thing I knew I had a circ saw cinched up tight against my arm and chest and the motor had stalled out. The saw moved so fast I honestly didn’t grasp what was happening until several seconds after it was all over.

Looking down to find a saw embedded in my arm and a pool of blood forming on the floor, I had a moment of profound fear as I saw the use of my fingers passing before my eyes. However, I was saved by the fact that I only had the blade extended a quarter-inch and it went into my forearm (where all the vital bits are covered in a layer of sacrificial flesh). After disentangling myself from the saw I was astounded to find that the damage was essentially just cosmetic (pretty nasty looking, mind you lol). *[warning: graphic details]*There was a nice kerf out of my forearm exposing fatty tissue and muscle, and I’d ripped a 3" diam. hunk of skin off my left breast, but the saw didn’t go deep enough to damage any muscles, tendons or nerves.*[/warning]*

I was so relieved that I hadn’t done any serious damage that, after I’d bandaged myself up in enough gauze to contain the bleeding, I practically skipped with joy over to the ER to get sewn up (was only a five minute walk for anyone thinking I’m insane for walking - it would have taken longer to drive and find parking). 

The end result was 7 stitches in my arm and 10 in my chest, and I consider myself _incredibly_ lucky to have gotten off so lightly. Six days later and things are healing great:


----------



## Clutchcargo

Nice... that must have scared the crap out of you.


----------



## jules4

Clutchcargo said:


> that must have scared the crap out of you.


Thankfully not quite - I had enough trouble cleaning up the floor with just the blood. :whistling2:


----------



## DangerMouse

*ouch!* That had to hurt... are you a he or a she?

DM


----------



## jules4

DangerMouse said:


> *ouch!* That had to hurt... are you a he or a she?
> 
> DM


Happily, still a she :thumbup: (I joked with the Doc stitching me up that I'd just done it for the free boob-tuck.)

It didn't really hurt that much - but I've always had a high pain threshold.


----------



## DangerMouse

jules4 said:


> Happily, still a she :thumbup: (I joked with the Doc stitching me up that I'd just done it for the free boob-tuck.)


Thought so.... very funny reply to the doctor, but wouldn't you have to saw the other one so they match? :laughing:

DM


----------



## gma2rjc

I'm glad you're alright Jules! It's amazing that you were able to walk to the hospital after all that. Even if it is only 5 minutes away.

Sooo.... did you pass anyone on the sidewalk and scare the heck out of them with all the blood?


----------



## jules4

DangerMouse said:


> Thought so.... very funny reply to the doctor, but wouldn't you have to saw the other one so they match? :laughing:


Symmetry is highly overrated :tt2:

Besides, they might get suspicious if I tried to get both done at once . . .



gma2rjc said:


> Sooo.... did you pass anyone on the sidewalk and scare the heck out of them with all the blood?


LOL

Na, there was no visible blood - I changed my clothes before heading to the ER (and cleaned my saw . . . I have my priorities :thumbsup.


----------



## gma2rjc

jules4 said:


> Na, there was no visible blood - I changed my clothes before heading to the ER (and cleaned my saw . . . I have my priorities :thumbsup.


:laughing::laughing::laughing:

Barb


----------



## cocobolo

Jules, I am really sorry to hear about that accident.

If you don't own a router, how about I send you one as a belated Christmas gift?

Circular saws are nothing to mess with (as you now know) and I hope you NEVER tie the blade guard back again.

Here's hoping for a full and speedy recovery.


----------



## jules4

Don't worry Keith, I have pinned my last guard - from now on the guard will be thumbed back to the bare minimum :yes: (and no more loose clothing around power tools either).


----------



## cocobolo

jules4 said:


> Don't worry Keith, I have pinned my last guard - from now on the guard will be thumbed back to the bare minimum :yes: (and no more loose clothing around power tools either).


That last part of the statement is incredibly important.

I can't tell you how often they drummed that into our heads in IE class at high school.

Perhaps equally important is using the right tool for the job. I still catch flack from the missus every time I bring a new tool home..."don't you have 10 of those already!"...well yes, but they aren't all the same.

Which means the router offer still stands.


----------



## mrgins

I had a skilsaw whose guard would get stuck in the open position. If you set it down before the blade stopped rotating, it would chase you round the workshop!


----------



## nil4664




----------



## gma2rjc

:laughing:


----------



## DangerMouse

Good one! I wonder if they ever got that cord untangled?

DM


----------



## gma2rjc

DangerMouse said:


> Good one! I wonder if they ever got that cord untangled?
> 
> DM


:laughing:


----------



## Red Squirrel

I was doing electrical in a very packed junction box, so I ended up undoing everything so I can add a box extender. Not thinking, I just put all the whites together, forgetting one of them was actually a hot from the switch for the lights.

When I turned on the breaker it tripped in my hand, I thought I just miss flipped it, so I did it again. It took me 3 times to realize it was actually tripping! 

Out of the 24 stab loks, at least I know that one works.


----------



## fungku

Nothing too serious yet.



Some near falls off of scaffolding or stupid use of ladders.
Lots of nice clean deep cuts with utility knives.
Drill bits into the thumbnail...
Lots of 120v shocks
bruised and sore hands from drilling big holes with big nasty drills that like to catch and spin out
Long boring story:

My worst one was probably when I was a laborer and fairly new. Big boss man was on site so I was putting on some extra hustle and was jogging to where I was needed.

I was going past a pile of rubble that earlier a big excavator or some sort of machine must have demo'd some concrete and there was rebar twisted and broken or cut and sticking out... 

All of a sudden I stopped moving and my leg was stuck. I tried to jerk as a natural reaction, I thought my pant leg caught something, but my leg wouldn't move at all. So I look down and there's a piece of rebar straight into my leg, to the left of the shin area.

My leg wouldn't move, I had to jerk it backwards really hard and fast and it disconnected with the rebar. It was like a sharp spear. So I hopped over to where I was supposed to be and lifted up my pant leg. there was a perfectly round hole in my leg and blood flowing out and down my leg into my boot.

So they wrapped it up with gauze and the boss ended up taking me to the med clinic in his truck... it didn't start hurting until halfway there. they cleaned it out, found a flap of skin they could sew and wrapped it up. I have a nice round indent and scar on my leg now :laughing:


Ever since then, I've been a slow-and-steady type. I take my time and careful with power tools. Most of my injuries are with hand tools :whistling2:

When you're in a rush you get hurt.


----------



## fungku

nap said:


> such errors are not limited to DIYers. The pros have their share of huta syndrome and get hurt too.
> 
> I did the big no-no of leaving a hammer on top of my ladder when I went to grab some material. I forgot about it, went to move the ladder and the suddenly, just as it hit my head, remembered where I left my hammer.
> 
> Boy can head wounds bleed. As soon as it happened, I looked around to make sure nobody saw this dummy take the hit.:whistling2:


I always hold ladders straight up when I move them because I always leave stuff on there (bad habit). So I never get hit on the head. Can't say the same for the poor suckers who use my ladders without asking first :laughing:


----------



## JulesB

thekctermite said:


> I took an 18v drill battery to the head when the bit grabbed and the drill spun around and tagged me in the face. I never, never got hit that hard in any fight I was ever in! Honestly I thought I had shattered my eye socket, so I was relieved to just end up with a few stitches and a black eye.


 

We could be twins on this one. Same exact situation. Same eye. 4 stitches in the brow....
Needless to say, I use both hands whenever I'm drilling near my face now.


----------



## JulesB

BJLower said:


> If you haven't heard of using Super Glue to fix cuts you're missing out. They use it inside you when they perform surgery. I heard it from a doctor on a radio show many years ago and have used it ever since. He said that you could buy medical Super Glue for a lot of money, but he used the Super Glue he got from the local store because what Super Glue is made of makes it germ free.
> 
> 
> Everyone's gotten one of those nasty paper cuts that bug you for days. If you take a little Super Glue and glue the cut closed it will never bother you a bit. You can glue some pretty big wounds. Being the neighbor hood “fix the bicycle and rider from the crash go to guy” I've had a lot of practice. The good size ones might pop open, but will glue right back closed again.


I get bad dry skin cracks at the front corners of my finger nails, and on the tips of my fingers, during the winter months. Super glue is a life saver.


----------



## JulesB

I have Many. I'll start with two automotive related. I was fairly young at the time, working on a 67 Dart GT. There was a "clangy" noise coming from beneath. I climbed under the car, while running, to see if I could diagnose the sound. I had pulled the flywheel cover off previously, and while under there, I took a rag to wipe some oil off the oil drainplug thinking it might need to be tightened. Well, the vacumn that the spinning flywheel and torque converter was making sucked the rag and my hand with it. VERY lucky for me, my hand came free just as the flywheel nicked one finger. No worse than a hangnail, but I laid there for a couple moments thinking about how it could of sucked my whole arm up in there, and I would of laid there bleeding to death, as I was alone at an isolated location, pre cellphone.
I had to put a breaker bar on the crank pulley just to back the motor up to get the rag out.

Same car, same day. One of the tires had a slow leak. I figured it out. One of the balancing weights was causing it to leak at the bead. Obviously (in retrospect) I should of let the air/pressure out, but no. I took a screwdriver and pryed if off.....and off it came, like a bullet. Hit me square in the center of my lower lip/chin. Split it open clean through to the inside of my mouth.

Decided to call it a day, and drive myself home (in a different car The whole time, thinking how I nearly lost a hand and an eye.
And for added visual, saliva was running down my chin through the hole :huh:

Sorry for the long windedness......


----------



## Jackofall1

My absolute worse mistake, a cartridge fuse for starter on a conveyor system kept blowing because of a timing issue on a transfer and it was always the same fuse, the floor around the control panel was about a 1/2 deep in water.

The fuse blew again and I like an idiot without fuse pullers hooked my fingers behind the fuse and pulled out, well the fuse released from the load side, leaving the line side connected and at that moment so was I, yes that wonderful Ontario 600 volts surging through me while standing in water.

In a matter of a millisecond, I was picking myself off the floor about 7 ft away from the panel, needless to say, every muscle in my arm and right side, was sore for about 2 wks.

Lesson learned, never and I mean never, work on electrical equipment without the proper tools!!!!!!!!!!

Mark


----------



## JulesB

Ok, great thread! Post #81 regarding walking down the street all bloody reminds me of another......

I'm installing some shelfs in my mothers basement some years back. Just some 1 x 10's atop cheap shelf brackets. You know the kind. The 90 degree cheap metal ones, usually grey. Well one of the brackets was exactly ear high, and not paying attention, I walked past it, catching my ear. It nearly cut the top 1/2" completely through. Deep enough, that the top of my ear drooped over, mutt dog style.
No one around, so I had to drive myself. As some of you are aware, the ear is a very vascular part of the body. Needless to say, there was blood everywhere, And I just happen to be wearing a white sweatshirt. The funniest part of the incident? Sitting at a stop light on the way to the hospital. I looked over at the car beside me, and saw horror in the passengers eyes...... :huh:


----------



## rossfingal

I love this thread!
I thought I was the only one that did stupid things!!! 
We're working on a room addition - (Aurora, Ill. - 2nd story - Nasty).
The windows arrive.
One of the windows is 1 inch too tall - suppliers mistake.
No problem - we used double 2 x 12's as headers - we'll just rip an inch or so
out of the header.
We're rushing (as always) - I get up on a saw-horse (stable - 2 X 8 top)
and proceed to start the process.
I go to step down off the saw-horse - blade is still turning (luckily, it wasn't
a worm-drive).
"PWANG" - the blade stopped turning and I had a nice tear on my jeans -
on my right thigh.
First I thought - Oh, no problem, I tore my jeans - no blood, no pain!
Then, I looked inside the tear, clamped my hand down onto it - off to the 
hospital!
140 plus stitches, inside and outside (Demerol is your friend!). 
I watched them clean it and stitch it. (Demerol = It wasn't my leg).
The blade-guard had jammed back. OOPS!

rossfingal


----------



## mrgins

rossfingal said:


> I love this thread!
> I thought I was the only one that did stupid things!!!
> We're working on a room addition - (Aurora, Ill. - 2nd story - Nasty).
> The windows arrive.
> One of the windows is 1 inch too tall - suppliers mistake.
> No problem - we used double 2 x 12's as headers - we'll just rip an inch or so
> out of the header.
> We're rushing (as always) - I get up on a saw-horse (stable - 2 X 8 top)
> and proceed to start the process.
> I go to step down off the saw-horse - blade is still turning (luckily, it wasn't
> a worm-drive).
> "PWANG" - the blade stopped turning and I had a nice tear on my jeans -
> on my right thigh.
> First I thought - Oh, no problem, I tore my jeans - no blood, no pain!
> Then, I looked inside the tear, clamped my hand down onto it - off to the
> hospital!
> 140 plus stitches, inside and outside (Demerol is your friend!).
> I watched them clean it and stitch it. (Demerol = It wasn't my leg).
> The blade-guard had jammed back. OOPS!
> 
> rossfingal


I may have mentioned this before. I worked for a guy once who supplied us with power tools. One was a circular saw whose blade guard would stick open. Every time we set it down after using it, it would chase us around!


----------



## mrgins

I installed several combination doors in a condo building one time. The first customer was a drop dead gorgeous 20-something. I was SO distracted, that I installed the pneumatic closer on the same side as the handle. I just had to reinstall it on the correct side and patch up the screw holes, but the embarrassing part was when I mentioned it to another customer who curtly replied that she'd noticed I didn't screw up HER door!


----------



## Leah Frances

mrgins said:


> I installed several combination doors in a condo building one time. The first customer was a drop dead gorgeous 20-something. I was SO distracted, that I installed the pneumatic closer on the same side as the handle. I just had to reinstall it on the correct side and patch up the screw holes, but the embarrassing part was when I mentioned it to another customer who curtly replied that she'd noticed I didn't screw up HER door!


The only thing worse than paying too much attention to a woman is not paying enough to another


----------



## chrisn

Leah Frances said:


> The only thing worse than paying too much attention to a woman is not paying enough to another


 
Now , THAT is profound!:yes:


----------



## flashover600

I tested a hot wire with a continuity tester, had the bulb blow up in my face...duh!~~

Besides that, I just waste a lot of materials...also I tend to buy and return a lot of stuff cause I rush into things and don't think things out


----------



## CplDevilDog

Running string lines across the top plates of the exterior walls. Threw the 6 ladder up against the studs in the corner and figured I would just run up and hook my string on the nail. To bad we had stacked several sheets of very slippery rigid foam board underneath several sheets of very slippery OSB. Face, meet exterior wall sheathing.


----------



## kwikfishron

I was hopping off an 8’ wall and my ring got snagged on a top plate nail that was sticking up a bit. Had to have an egg shaped ring cut off a very swollen finger.

I also had my shirt tail caught up in a angle grinder. Thankfully it was after I switched it off but it showed me how ugly it could have been.

These were both in my younger days and were good lessons learned.


----------



## Leah Frances

kwikfishron said:


> I was hopping off an 8&#146; wall and my ring got snagged on a top plate nail that was sticking up a bit. Had to have an egg shaped ring cut off a very swollen finger.
> 
> I also had my shirt tail caught up in a angle grinder. Thankfully it was after I switched it off but it showed me how ugly it could have been.
> 
> These were both in my younger days and were good lessons learned.


RON!!! omfg!!! You are the reason I stopped wearing (exposed) jewelry! Just thinking about it makes me cringe!!


----------



## kwikfishron

Leah Frances said:


> RON!!! omfg!!! You are the reason I stopped wearing (exposed) jewelry! Just thinking about it makes me cringe!!


I don’t think it says as much about not wearing a wedding ring as it does about jumping off walls. 

I’ve had a few nail bag snags that almost turned ugly too.

Young, dumb, piece working framers. It was all about fast.

Sure glad those days are over. :yes:


----------



## fixrite

This one has to do with my 70 Firebird. I had installed a set of monroe air shocks, along with a pair of n50-15 tires (big fat ones). Being the proud owner of a (then) fast car I took it to the carwash one weekend. When I was finished washing and drying my car I noticed a slight hissing noise coming from the back of my car. Getting closer I could tell it was from the left rear tire, but was it the tire or the air shocks? Well in order to determine if it was the shock I needed to put my head between the tire and the wheel well of the car. Just as I got my head in there to both visually inspect it and to hear if it was the shock, yes you guessed it the nut that holds the air line in the shock went bang, releasing all of the air from the shocks ( the things that hold up your car). So picture this here I am with my head on top of this huge tire and the car resting on my shoulders. Luckily I had very good strength in my legs and was able to hold it but not able to move it up and remove my head. Screaming set in and 4 guys ran over and lifted it off of my not so intelligent head. I sold the car to my brother in law the next week.


----------



## secutanudu

I was splitting my upstairs off to it's own heating zone (hot water) this week. I decided to do it in pex, and I needed a couple more fittings, so I went out to the store on my way to dinner. I didn't get home till around 11PM, and I thought this would be a GREAT time to finish the project. I forgot to crimp one of the tee's since I was so tired, so when I turned the water on, and once the zone filled with water, the pressure built and popped, and the entire second floor zone shot out like a fire hose on my basement floor.


----------



## rtoni

Thank you all for showing me that I'm but a contender, and in very good company within the realm of stupid human tricks 

I've had my share of ladder acrobatics and other "WTF-was-I-thinking" moments, but I think I earned my badge of honor without the aid of any power tools or other usual DIY implements of destruction. I was working on my addition (roughed in and roof on at the time), I had the work lights and tools powered off for the day, and we were packed up and about to head out at the end of another busy weekend. For some bizarre reason, just as we were almost ready to leave, I felt this sudden extreme urge to do a final walk-about around the inside perimeter of the project, to inspect some of the work I did around the rafters / eaves that day. Armed with a mini mag-lite. On a dark cloudy late afternoon. After I killed all the work lights. Paying very close attention to detail up in the rafters (but not certain other minor details, like where my feet were going, and the crawlspace cover that was laying beside the (large) access instead of over it). What could possibly be / go wrong with that plan?

The half-gainer-with-a-twist that followed didn't seem so elegant when my shoulder hit the concrete rat slab below. But that cracking sound wasn't nearly as disturbing as the muffled pathetic sound of idiot-man calling out to his better half from somewhere under the floor (apparently I rolled a couple times). Trying hard to sound like it didn't hurt wasn't helping my case either. I twisted my knee when my foot slipped off the edge (it may have been kinda lucky, since I think this actually spun me around in a way that I cleared the access opening without smacking my melon on the way down or on the slab). Shoulder took the brunt of it. All I can say is, it was a nice dive, but the judge was not impressed.

So I got to wear the pointy hat all the way to emerg. My brilliance put a dent in my pride, and broken shoulder left a 6 month dent in my project.


----------



## hschork

*Watch you step...*

I was on a commercial bldg and cut in two new roof drains and had a substantial run of 3" PVC into existing 4" cast iron drain pipe. The owner wanted to get the extra water off the roof. It was a 3 day job and I used two tiers of Baker's scaffolding on the inside to reach the floor of the roof from the inside.
With only about 20 minutes left on the job until completion, I was hurrying to replace the ceiling tile. I wanted to get home to take my kids to Chucky Cheese. I was moving so fast that I just literally walked off the 2nd tier platform and fell head first on to a commercial German printing machine. It happened so fast that I don't remember the fall. I broke the fall with my left hand and actually rolled back under the scaffolding and had to have the guys disassemble them so I could get out. My fragmented wrist gave me eight weeks off.


----------



## ahrens

I havent had anything really bad happen to me but one night I was fixing some water lines in my barn with 1" rubber line. We have very hard water coming out of a well and the mechanical clamp that I needed to remove had rusted and calcified up to the point it would not turn on bit. I thought it would be a good idea to take a flat head screwdriver and pry up the clamp to get some snips in there to cut it loose. Well while I was struggling to get the driver underneath the clamp to pry it up I tried to almost stab the screwdriver under with my right hand while holding the pipe with my left......

Ended up stabbing myself between my thumb and forefinger from the webbing looking skin all the way down to my wrist. 25 stitches later and I was useless for about 3 weeks.


----------



## woodye85741

I grabbed nail by head instead of shaft and smashed my thumb but good


----------



## Lagerhead

Finished building a '23 Model T except for the float for the gas gauge and decided to take it out for a quick run. Yup, ran out of fuel about five miles from home. 
Had a buddy with me and as we were close to a hill that would get us about halfway back it was decided to push to the crest and coast down the hill.
All went well for a while until we started to slow. Buddy jumps off the back and starts pushing trying to keep up the momentum while I sat in the bucket steering.
Here's were the bad decision was made! We were still slowing so I decided I would pull a Superman like leap out of the moving vehicle and push from the side while steering. It went really well until my foot hit the ground and that damn 18" Mickey Thompson grabbed my ankle and rolled right up the back of my leg.
As I'm laying on the ground I take a look back and my pal has got his head down pushing for all his worth, I yell, he looks up and thankfully stops pushing!
He pulls the car off me and thankfully nothing broken, just a good road rash and a three week limp.
Sorry for the long story but as far as I know I'm in pretty elite company as a person who ran himself over!

Lagerhead


----------



## raylo32

I just saw this funny thread thanks to the spam post bumping it up.


I've done some stupid things over the years, most of them qualifying as small as compared to what I have seen in this thread. One that sticks out that I am still kicking myself for was one of my first ever copper plumbing jobs. I don't even recall what I was doing exactly but I was having trouble getting the last solder joint done due to a little residual water. I asked around and learned about the bread and toilet paper methods to absorb or stop the water from getting into the work... sounded good. So I got a small wad of TP and stuffed it into the copper line. It worked like a champ and I finished the soldering. Then for some DUMB reason I decided to run the TP out of the system via the kitchen faucet. Of course the TP completely fouled and stopped up the faucet. I assumed that the TP ruined the faucet by clogging the cartridge so I ended up replacing the faucet cleaning out the water line in the process.


Lesson... if you use bread or TP try to flush it out via a hose bib or utility sink... both of which I had available in that water line branch... or at least use a bathroom sink faucet and pull off the strainer/aerator. D'ooohhhh.


----------



## JulesB

raylo32 said:


> I just saw this funny thread thanks to the spam post bumping it up.
> 
> 
> 
> Lesson... if you use bread or TP try to flush it out via a hose bib or utility sink... both of which I had available in that water line branch... or at least use a bathroom sink faucet and pull off the strainer/aerator. D'ooohhhh.


I can add - and this only applies to the dumbest of plumbers, IE ME. I was young, my first plumbing fix, and having the same problem as raylo. In all my wisdom, Instead of using a cheap piece of white bread, I used the fancy 7 grain whole wheat bread my girlfriend liked so much. Needless to say, I had the opportunity to clean out all my screens, and even take a few valves apart.


----------



## Dwillems

When we moved into our house the first thing I wanted to do was install new medicine cabinets since we had old rusted metal ones. Couldn't find any new ones I liked so I decided to build my own out of oak ply and solid oak trim. Well I cut everything out, and drilled adjustable shelf holes before assembly making sure they were measured the same on both sides, glued everything together, stain went on, I was really proud of my work and my wife loved it! It was gorgeous when I installed it and fit perfect. Well 3 days later when I receive my custom cut glass shelves and install them I find out I installed one side upside down, the shelves slanted downwards an inch lol. I had to completely rebuild it and I still have the old/new one laying in my garage as a reminder.

Another day I had to cut a piece of plexi-glass, I didn't feel like pulling my jig saw out so I figured I would use my table saw and chop saw. The table saw worked good a long as I held the plexi down and went slow, but the chop saw instantly broke up the plexi, hurled a piece who knows where, and the piece still on the table that I was holding down hit so hard my hand was completely numb for hours. Luckily I was wearing safety glasses but even more lucky I didn't get hit or cut. Never using those again, next time I'll take the extra 30 seconds to get the right tools.


----------



## supermike

Went to jump from the bed of my pick-up over the side like I've done many times before. This time though, the left foot catches the pant leg of the right and legs dicide to remain in pick-up while body maintains original flight path over the side. Perfect tailbone to asphalt landing complete with friend watching and wondering 'WTF' ? 
Really sore for month and a half.


----------



## fa_f3_20

Some years ago I was a volunteer at a planetarium. The previous operators of the planetarium had made a huge mess of the wiring (120V running through ribbon cable ), and we were trying to clean it up and rip out all of the not-to-code and unneeded stuff. I went up into the attic to trace some wires that ran around the outside of the planetarium dome. I had been in the attic before, but only in the area around the access, where it was floored. I got about halfway around the dome, looking up at the top to see where some wires went, and I did not realize that the attic floor did not go all the way around...

Next thing I knew, I was taking a header through the drop ceiling. Somehow I managed to twist myself around in midair and I landed on the concrete floor of the planetarium on my rear end, just missing the projector console. The flashlight I had in my hand hit the edge of the console and was smashed to bits -- fortunately, the console wasn't damaged. My only injury was a cut on my ear caused by the ceiling grid. After I got my ear to stop bleeding, it occurred to me that it wasn't such a good idea for me to be there doing that work alone.


----------



## Dorado

I took out a faucet stem without shutting off the water. I think I was actually able to screw it back in with the water on, with much difficulty. Unfortunately, I didn't learn anything from the experience. I already knew to turn it off and just forgot.

More recently, I walked about 5 blocks home with two sheets of drywall on a dolly and forgot to check the weather forecast for wind. My finger still hurts more than a week later from trying to push and steer in the wind. And I was actually looking for drywall that wasn't ultralight because I wanted the standard kind. I'm glad I didn't find it.


----------



## ddawg16

Built a 2-story garage....not a single ouchy.....

One of the very last things to do...nail some trim up on a little stub balcony.....get one side done....start to move the ladder....crap...forgot about the hammer up there.....

7 staples later....


----------



## RWolff

Ouch, that hammer to the head injury is bad! and people at work leave stuff like and Makita cordless drills that on top of ladders all the time...
Not me, but a guy I work with was cutting small boards on the sliding table saw just before xmas a year ago and putting the cut pieces on a cart and reaching back for another board.
Somehow or other I think he tossed the drop-off over into the bin on the other side of the saw, turned to get another board and his fingers just brushed the blade.
The injury was bad enough- basically caught and "de-gloved" the end of his forefinger to the bone, and cut part of the middle and ring fingers too.
The result was he lost 50% of the index finger, and about 25% of his middle finger, they basically had to amputate at the joints due to the cartilage, vein and nerve damage even though the bone wasn't cut through.

He was out of work for many weeks, in physical therapy, and they almost had to do mor surgery when one of the amputations was not healing well, but now after a year his injuries healed fine, and no more sensitivity/pain.

Only took one moment of inattention, and even though his fingers were not actually cut off, there was enough tissue damage they had to be amputated.

They say the radial arm saw is probably THE most dangerous saw in a woodshop, but any machine with a rotating blade will do the job if you have just one moment of inattention and get careless!


----------



## Dorado

I hit my head once or twice using a ladder by a doorway. The last time I woke up the next morning dizzy for about a minute before getting out of bed. And now I'm working on a closet and soffet so it could happen again. I'm considering getting a hard hat or Halo supplemental head padding for a baseball cap.


----------



## mrgins

Dorado said:


> I hit my head once or twice using a ladder by a doorway. The last time I woke up the next morning dizzy for about a minute before getting out of bed. And now I'm working on a closet and soffet so it could happen again. I'm considering getting a hard hat or Halo supplemental head padding for a baseball cap.


Only thing about wearing a hard hat is that you'll bang your head more because you don't compensate for the extra height of the hard hat. While you may not hurt your head, you can hurt your neck if you hit something hard enough!


----------



## TheEplumber

ddawg16 said:


> Built a 2-story garage....not a single ouchy.....
> 
> One of the very last things to do...nail some trim up on a little stub balcony.....get one side done....start to move the ladder....crap...forgot about the hammer up there.....
> 
> 7 staples later....


Did it hurt when you sneezed or coughed? :jester:


----------



## McGaw

Bought a new compressor, went home, plugged it into the wall, went in the house for dinner. Went back out to the garage after and I was showing my sister how to use an air nailer and compressor. I was at the point of, if theres no air in the tank it won't shoot a nail, I thought I would show her by holding the gun against my thumb and pulling the trigger (since I didn't turn it on I knew there was no air in it), BAM! Shot the nail into my thumb. My sister looked at me and said "I turned it on earlier so it was ready to go":furious:


----------



## forcedreno2012

sometimes you need to quit while you are ahead.

Todays stupidity. 

I always wear gloves and I mean ALWAYS. I even become the nagging wife when the hubby doesn't put his on. Waltzed down the back half of the house to see yesterdays painting efforts now that its dry (looking good) and came across the bathroom fan I removed yesterday...yup you guessed it decided to pick it up and move it. 1 inch long gash to the bone later on my finger when it slipped out of my hand. And if that wasn't enough, when things settled down I was installing some 2 x 4 blocking for the new fan and the drill slipped and before I could turn off the trigger it had drilled a hole in the opposite hands glove (yup at least I put them on then) and was busy trying to separate my hand from my wrist by twisting the glove around. At that point I quit....didn't want to get to the three strikes your out boo boo. 

Robyn


----------



## Dorado

Decided to make a cutout in a closet for my hand to help feed coax to the jack. Stuck hand in jack to make an outline for the top cut. Took down drywall to finish the outline (because it's hard to make an outline with your hand half way in a one gang hole) but made the outline above the line instead of below. I guess I'll raise the bracket for my hand so it matches the hole. Or something else.


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## merle

Several years ago. I was trying to remove some rust from an antique, I had a 3/8 inch drill mounted in a vise with a wire brush inserted into the drill. I put on an apron to keep from getting dirty, Did not tie the apron behind me. As I was busy removing the rust, my apron got caught up in the wire brush. Twisted the apron up around my neck and I could not breathe. I pulled away and the drill came out of the vise, now it was really getting twisted up in my apron and I eventually ( 5 sec.) pulled the drill out of the wall outlet. Now I still could not breathe and panic was setting in. I finally got the drill untwisted. but my neck looked like someone was trying to hang me. I Never did this again. and even today I have my wife stand by when I am working with my grinder/wire wheel


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## hwyfuzz

While talking with someone I was changing bits in my Hammer Drill, I stuck the chuck key into the chuck and as I turned it (drill was still plugged in), my other finger pressed the trigger and WHAM-O, the chuck key about broke my finger which was holding the key.


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## sirsparksalot

BJLower said:


> It just happened that they guy next to me in the emergency room had slipped with his cordless drill that subsequently continued to spin into the palm of his other hand.


Good lord, was that ME sitting there? 

YES, I did have an unfortunate moment of cognitive dysfunction when I was using my cordless and a Hole-Saw. I went to tighten the chuck by holding the saw in my left hand, and popping the trigger with my right. Unfortunately, I was cupping the saw by its teeth in the palm of my left hand  

The oddest thing: I noticed that I had used the wrong method only _after_ the trigger was pulled, when pain and blood came rushing forth.

I don't recall how many stitches, but I do recall the E-Room staff looking, pointing, and laughing in my direction :laughing:


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## CTodd

Last summer I was putting some gorgeous old barn wood on the inside of my shop end walls. I was finishing off the job by putting a piece of wood along the top from the peak down to the wall and the final piece was about 18" long. The extension ladder wouldn't fit well so instead of leaning it against the sidewall, I had the brilliant idea to just bring the bottom of the ladder about 8 feet out from the wall and in essence use it as a ramp. What could go wrong? I climbed up with the board in one hand and a nailgun in the other. What made this barn wood particularly nice was the slight green tint from the moss that had grown on it. It also made it quite slippery.

As I positioned the final board of the job, the ladder lost its grip and brought me to the concrete floor below in rapid fashion. Shaken and bloody, I was determined to finish the job. I leaned the ladder up on the sidewall and realized that I had cut the angles wrong and the "ugly side" was showing. I made a new piece and crawled up but found that my left arm was not able to hold the weight up and I kept dropping it. I was also keenly aware that my elbow was swelling badly. I had to go get an X-ray a few days later and it showed a nasty fracture. Six weeks later I was able to return to work.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Syberia

Got done welding a rack for my trailer. Took my gloves off because I was "done." And since I was "done," I went to go pick up the rack I had just welded. Of course, even though it wasn't red anymore, it was still hot enough to burn me.

Another time, I was up in the attic running a wire for a new socket in the hallway. I had turned off the power to the attic, pulled the outlet out of the box, decided that wouldn't be the best place to tap power, turned the power back on to the attic with the socket still hanging out of the box (that was my first mistake) so the light up there would work and allow me to see. I got the hall socket installed (ended up cutting into a live wire that was _not_ part of the circuit I thought it was, but that's a different story entirely...) and was in the process of cleaning everything up. Went to put the attic socket back into its box... with the power still on... and with the light still on clearly indicating the power was on... and got shocked. Just wasn't thinking, I guess.


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## gma2rjc

Bump!


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## McSteve

Oh boy, every time a notification for this thread pops up I grin a little bit. DIY keeps us all humble, that's for sure.

Here's how a simple 10 minute sheetrock job turns into an 8 hour plumbing nightmare:

I was tasked with slapping a piece of sheetrock into the back of an apartment's kitchen sink cabinet for fire/insect/rodent protection. In order to do the neatest job possible, I figured I'd cut a tight hole in the sheetrock, remove the P-trap, and slide the rock back over the pipe and screw it in.

The building had other plans.

I removed the P-trap, and turned away to grab my sheetrock patch. While my back was turned, I heard a loud *thump* from the cabinet. The foot-long piece of galvanized drain pipe had fallen right out of its fitting and was laying on the bottom of the cabinet.

I cursed a bit. No real big deal, I figured if the hub in the wall was still good I'd screw in an adapter, glue up some PVC, and be on my way. Worst case, the threads in the hub were gone and I'd have to get creative with one of those rubber donut adapters.

So I get my flashlight, and peer into the hole in the wall.

There's no hub. No fitting at all.

The brilliant and talented plumbers who did the original plumbing in about 1915 or so decided it'd save some time and effort to just drill a 1.5" hole into the 3" stack, tap some threads in it, and screw the sink drain right in. The threads they tapped (about 2-3 of 'em) had completely rusted out and disintegrated.

Almost immediately, the tenants in the unit upstairs started washing dishes too, causing a fair bit of water to start pouring out of the hole in the stack. After I got them to stop, it took the rest of the day to open up the wall enough to brace up the stack and get a snapper in there, cut out a chunk of pipe, put in a wye with some mission couplings, and put everything back together again.


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## 1985gt

How is it I've never seen this thread before!



1. I was installing 3 egress windows on my house a number of years ago. Rented a mini excavator after work Friday night. Figured might as well get to work and started digging holes, worked until it was to dark and I had to many barley pops to be digging with a machine next to my brick house. 

Saturday morning, up early to finish digging the holes. The excavator was one of those that the tracks will suck in to get through narrow areas. I happen to not extend them out for some reason. Honestly I don't know why they were in to begin with and I didn't check. Well I was swinging a pretty good sized bucket of dirt to dump it and things got a little tippy, tippy to the point of I was lucky I was 90 Degs to the tracks and when it went over the bucket stopped me. No harm no foul, just a little dirt not exactly in the pile I wanted. Pushed my self back up, lifted the machine, extended the tracks and started to go back to work. That's when I noticed 1/2 the neighborhood watching me work from across the street. 

3 Egress windows over Memorial day weekend 100% complete except the inside finish wasn't bad, even after having to cut dinner short one night to quickly back fill the holes since there was a huge storm rolling in. Plus my daughter was 1 year old at the time, she slept though me doing all this at nap time. I guess that's part of why she is such a good helper for me now a days.


2. I was helping, and when I say helping I mean doing all the work for a friend who was building a new room for their kids in the basement. Part of what included you guessed it, since they were watching when I did mine. Egress windows. 

Not a big deal, order the windows this size, rent the machine on the weekend after the windows are in, we will be done in no time.

Spent Friday/saturday morning finishing the holes he started by hand. Time to cut some block! No problems dug the holes extra deep and wide. Block is all marked out and ready to go, fire up the demo saw and have at it. Went as deep as I can from the outside, time to go inside. Not going to saw inside and get a bunch of water or dust in there. I'll use the grinder and have someone spray water on the blade as I go with a spray bottle. More controlled little dust, less mess. Lets get started, this is the last thing I want to do over my weekend, yet again. So there I am cutting away at this block with a grinder, diamond blade I've done it 1,000's of feet in walls for counter flashing before, nothing new. Eye protection, Check. Ear Protection, Check. Cut off sleeved shirt, Check. Shorts, Check, it's the weekend, and I'm getting paid very little as in the lady is our day care provider so we are getting "deals". It just so happens the man of the house was no where to be found when the heavy work came along. No big deal surely she can handle a spray bottle with water. I'm going to town trying to finish this up for the day, I mean I've got beer to drink yet. Oh we are out of water, go grab another one I'm going to continue cutting. She runs to get some more water, I figure right about the time she turns around to go down the hallway to get more water was when the blade decided to grab, kick back and the grinder proceeded to jump out of my hand, flip around and get wrapped up in my shirt.... 

Anyone who has run a grinder knows, just because you are no longer holding the switch does not mean the blade has stopped turning. The grinder proceeded to wrap it's self up in my shirt. I do one of the such in your stomach, arch your back, and grab for the grinder move. Thinking the whole time how that blade was going to eat right through my skin. Lucky the combination of my cat like reflexes and ninja skills stopped that from happening. Got it all unwrapped from my shirt, she comes back with more water, looks at my, then my shirt, then me again. I turned back around and went back to work with out saying a word. :laughing:


This beauty was after I had a 4x10 24 gauge galvanized go about 3/4 away around my right index finger after pulling it down off the rack. I've never had one slip like that before. I got some pretty nice new gloves to work with sheet metal after that. I've always long been a anti glove wearing person when it comes to metal work. I wear them for fabrication now. 

That was 8 stitches. That is also the picture I sent my wife at 8 in the morning after being there an hour and them stitching me up. She was not please. I kind of chuckled at it.


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## Bob Sanders

Chopped my right thumb clean off a few years back. I was too lazy to put the work down to go and get the right tool and there just happened this axe within arm's reach.

Went to the ER with thumb in hand... other hand that is...

I must say they did a really good job putting it back on. I can no longer extend my thumb all the way outwards but the important movement (the inwards grabbing motion) was completely restored. They said I was lucky in that most axes aren't sharp and tend 'crush' everything to all heck on the way though. The one I was using was sharp as a razor blade and made the cut real clean.

I returned to the ER and surgical people a short time after all of this and brought them a cake (a sort of thank you). I had the cake decorator place an axe and a bleeding thumb on the top of the cake and the caption read

"Never chop digits with a dull axe!"

They got a kick out of it.


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## Cullen

Wow. That's a pretty good story. Thank you for sharing.

I used to be the GM of a bar in Dallas. Older building with slipshod maintenance performed over the years. Worked on it all the time. As well as the owners' house. Minor electrical, plumbing, some rough carpentry. He asked me to build him a catapult to dissuade a local opossum from eating the food he put out for a neighborhood cat he adopted. Never built one before, but how hard could it be? He lost interest after the first working prototype. Normal shenanigan type stuff. 

I digress.

My tale of stupidity was simply removing a television from a corner wall bracket. 

I had unplugged the television from the extension cord, then was distracted by something. When my attention returned to the task at hand, I set about moving the cord, but it ran behind a banquette. I didn't feel like moving it, so I figured I would just cut the cord. Can't explain my reasoning, it made sense at the time.

Unfortunately, the cord was still plugged into the wall. 

There was a loud pop and spark.

Fortunately, the breaker tripped before it killed me. 

Took a chunk out of the blade of my pocket knife. Fused some bits of copper wire to the blade as well.


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