What's the dumbest accident you ever had?

[smsi]

Looking back, I'm lucky I lived long enough to get where I am today. Here are my three dumbest accidents:

1. I was working at a convenience store that had an outside ladder rack. My S-10 service truck was parked right at the bottom of the ladder. I had on leather gloves that were slightly oily. I reached the top of the ladder and had my feet on the top rung. My hands slipped off the "forks" of the ladder and I fell 20 feet down onto the hood of the S-10 shoving the air filter bolt right through the hood into my back! I was 20 years old and very embarrassed. I got up, picked up my tools and drove home for the day.
2. I was working at an Applebee's trying to get the ice machine running during the dinner rush. It had long cycles due to a dirty condenser and the servers were literally waiting for drops to fill glasses. I went down the ladder "firefighter" style with my hands on the rungs and feet on the outside of the ladder right as a server set one of those dustpans with the handles at the bottom of the ladder. Ouch! I limped to the truck for a hose and some coil cleaner after removing the dustpan from my...
3. I was working with someone else at a mall with a high parapet wall. I cut off the water supply to a hose we had hooked up outside. My coworker noticed that the water pressure went away and dropped the hose over the edge (the wall was over his head and he couldn't see me). I heard the Whhhhr of the hose coming but didn't think about it. I looked up at the last second as the brass end hit me and knocked me out! I woke up with a large black woman standing over me asking me if I was OK.

[jdenyer]

Forgot to discharge a start cap on an ice machine once:eek:
Woke up on the floor:eek: Never did that again!

[ozone drone]

I was on an 8' step ladder drilling a 1" hole through a 12" thick pre-cast wall with a large Hilti rotary hammer drill.
Like a dumb-sh*t that I am, I had the trigger locked on.
Somehow my right jacket sleeve at the wrist got caught up in the drill. Luckily the bit was already 8" into the wall. The torque spun me around like a propeller. On the 1st revolution as my legs went left, I knocked the ladder down.

The bit was deep enough into the hole to support my weight so there I was spinning like pinwheel, but my sleeve was becoming a tourniquet. On about the 5th spin my foot caught the electrical cord , and as I spun it unplugged the drill.

So there I was hanging on the wall, 6-7 feet above the floor, with the drill looking like somebody had harpooned me there. Nobody else was in that room, so I was yelling for help.

Another guy with the same company I was with was in the next room, heard me yelling and when he saw me up there, fell to his knees laughing....he laughed so hard he was crying, meanwhile my fingers would REALLY like some blood with oxygen in it. He set the ladder up and got me down... I had a helluva bruise on my arm ,but other than that I was okay. Could have been alot worse. DONT LOCK THOSE TRIGGERS!

[mattm]

OMG Ozone now that's a funny story.

One of my dumbest had nothing to do with work. I had taken my kids sled riding and there was this big ass ramp. I decided to jump it sitting on one of those thin plastic roll up sleds. I went airborn about 6" off the ground and when I landed it happened to be on the bump of a rock that was protruding through the ground. I could barely stand up for like 10 minutes and after that I was done for the night. When I got home to look there was a softball sized bruise and by morning my whole right butt cheek was black and blue and I limped for a week. That sucked especially since my wife took advantage and grabbed it everytime I passed by like when you get a sunburn and people always slap it.

[Green Mountain]

When I was a kid I went off a 35 ft. cliff on a sled.

As an adult I broke my hand when a lock button on a 1/2" drill engaged with out my knowledge. An auger caught a nail and the drill spun around and got me.

Or when I was helping to plank an air handler down a set of stairs. It shifted and pinned my knee against the wall. Tore all the cartledge.

[Green Mountain]

Originally posted by ozone drone

. DONT LOCK THOSE TRIGGERS!

The son- of- a- *****es shouldn't even be on power tools. What do you need to lock a hand drill for?

[small change]

I was doing a clean and check back in the 70's
an I took off one of those old Honeywell EAC cleaner doors that had all the controls in it.

I was sitting Indian style on the floor and laid that bad boy across my lap.

Well, I suppose the cap discharged into my leg, I don't remember much. The Customer was talking to me but she said it was about 5 minutes before I answered her.

All I remember was a bit of a bounce and then this warm peaceful feeling enveloping me.


Best buzz I ever had

[bb]

Ran a screw into my hand once. It hurt more thinking about having to reverse the drill to back it out.. Doh !

[muskie770]

I once trusted a gas station condom.

[compressed]

Flash burn

Starting up a 460V 3 phase Computer room unit... Defective disconnect only dropped two of the three legs out. I had the entire control compartment Explode as I was my needle nose pliers grounded against the cabniet.

I think that the shock kept it from hurting intially. I know the morphine kept it from hurting over the next few days.All the same there is nothing like the feeling of your cornia peeling off.

[lakeerie]

I went to work on a roof top 15 ton a/c no cool. put up ladder found unit. Seen them nast looking bees and figured well they are in the disconnect , so i shut of the disconnect and went and got the bee spray. Not thinking that there was still 3 live legs in the disconnect i sprayed it into a hole on the box and loe n behold lord have mercy. It knocked me a good one and then still got stung. So needless to say i never spary into them anymore unless all the power is off.

[Edmund Forsthe]

when i was in the military. there was a flare rack in back of the aircraft, flares are electricaly fired and we were told to stay away from the racks, during a thunderstorm they could fire off, now the rack was a handy handhold to climb up the aircraft and you become lazy and use it nothing happens, one day i going to climb inside and got distracted so another airman climbed up ahead of me, lo and behold a flare cooked off and went right through his cheast, he was dead on the spot, shook the **** out of me it could of been me laying there, i never touched that rack again for the duration of my tour.

[hvac r us 2]

Did lots of dumb things, but the one I got hurt the worst was with a screwdriver.
I was hanging some duct off of a ladder, and couldnt get the drive started.
Also could not find my duct stretcher. So I was using a screwdriver and a hammer to pull the duct together tighter.
Scredriver slipped and went into the side of my eye! I pulled the driver out and fluid just poured out of my eye.
Drove right to the nearest MedCenter, and they took me to the hospital.
Had to get seven stiches in my eyeball. That was the worst, they hold your eye open and you see this big needle coming right for the eye! Just laid there and watched them stich my eye. Funny thing...it really didnt hurt even when I did it?
Lost a little vision in my right eye, but nothing drastic.

[bigbird]

married my first wife.

[Paul R. Burkett]

I was working on a pool heater with the neighbor, a plumber watching and talking across the fence,he asked if I had checked the gas pressure on the inlet side of the gas valve. Since the valve was turned to pilot, I took out the inlet side plug,but since the pilot was still light, the whole cabinet caught on fire until I could run around the house and find the gas meter. The installer did not put a gas cock on at the unit. I had to het a short hair cut the next day because I lost a lot when the gas ignited. It seems true that God protects fools and little children,........ most of the time.

[i_got_ideas]

Not things I did but co-workers

When in construction I was watching a guy drill a hole in the side of a house when the drill grabbed and his hand slipped. The drill started to spin and took out 5 of his front teeth.

A couple of our guys were taking out an old furnace. Both thought the other had turned the gas off. The older guy takes the union apart only to hear gas rushing out. The other guy hears it and goes running for the door to shut it off at the meter. Didn't make it, the gas blew up in the older guys face. I arrived just intime to see them walking out with the fire exstinguisher. Both were fine and no damage to the house. The older guy had no eyebrows, no more mustache, lost half his hair, and had what appeared to be a slight sun burn. Needless to say the old lennox was gutted, anything combustable in it burnt and the house smelled.

Then there's the:
Drill on top of the step ladder that knocks you in the head when you move the ladder....then there's the hammer, flatbar, and 18" cresent wrench too.
missing the nail and bloodying a finger :eek:
stepping on nails
getting your picture taken (the flash from a good shock)
falling off a roof to get away from wasps


Ok, so I've done some of that but only a couple of them :D
I'd have to say my worst was my 22oz. straight claw hammer slipping out of my sweaty hand and hitting me right in the mouth, amazingly all teeth remained but it bled like crazy....and I looked stupid for a couple of weeks.

[karsthuntr]

I was on the roof of a building about a year ago and a storm blew up. The wind knocked my ladder over (no where to tie it off) I called office and told them to call customer to set ladder up for me and to hurry because it was pouring the rain down. I huddled in the shadow of the unit until I saw my ladder coming back on the roof. I ran over to it and took one step and found out the dogs were not locked. Down I went 16 feet, (the only thing I could think on the way down was "this is going to hurt). I just missed the van, the rungs of the ladder, the metal no parking sign, and a plate glass window. The guy that put the ladder up turned as white as a ghost and said "Oh no". I sat there for a few seconds and did a self check and relized I wasn't hurt and that really suprised me. I jumped up and got in the van. The guy came out and checked on me 6 times while I was waiting for the rain to stop, he couldn't believe I wasn't hurt either.


I was very lucky I didn't get hurt. Now I triple check the ladder and it still makes me nervous. I just took a fire ladder rescue class this past weekend and learned a few things I will implement in my ladder calls.

[Roscoe]

Originally posted by bigbird
married my first wife.

ROFLMAO

I married the first. Then married the second.

I'm a walking accident as far as that goes.

Now this one is saying when are we getting married

dah

[Edited by pjs on 08-24-2004 at 09:40 PM]

[srmfsr]

I win the dumb ass award. I was removing a hydraulic pump from a scissor lift and had case of "assumicide". I didn't check to see how well someone had braced it up, after all it had set there in the same position for 8 years. But the damn thing fell as I was cutting the welds with a torch. I ended up two fingers less on my right hand and a messed up left hand. It fell across my left hand and damn near cut it off. I was trapped and it took three men and some pieces of pipe to lift it up to get me out. There is amessage to this: " Don't Get a Case of Assumicide."

[Roscoe]

Originally posted by srmfsr
I win the dumb ass award. I was removing a hydraulic pump from a scissor lift and had case of "assumicide". I didn't check to see how well someone had braced it up, after all it had set there in the same position for 8 years. But the damn thing fell as I was cutting the welds with a torch. I ended up two fingers less on my right hand and a messed up left hand. It fell across my left hand and damn near cut it off. I was trapped and it took three men and some pieces of pipe to lift it up to get me out. There is amessage to this: " Don't Get a Case of Assumicide."

I thought this was supposed to be humorus.

sorry to hear that thats some serious she===it

[Senior Tech]

Originally posted by lakeerie
I went to work on a roof top 15 ton a/c no cool. put up ladder found unit. Seen them nast looking bees and figured well they are in the disconnect , so i shut of the disconnect and went and got the bee spray. Not thinking that there was still 3 live legs in the disconnect i sprayed it into a hole on the box and loe n behold lord have mercy. It knocked me a good one and then still got stung. So needless to say i never spary into them anymore unless all the power is off.
And then there was the time I shot myself in the head...

[Roscoe]

Originally posted by senior tech

Originally posted by lakeerie
I went to work on a roof top 15 ton a/c no cool. put up ladder found unit. Seen them nast looking bees and figured well they are in the disconnect , so i shut of the disconnect and went and got the bee spray. Not thinking that there was still 3 live legs in the disconnect i sprayed it into a hole on the box and loe n behold lord have mercy. It knocked me a good one and then still got stung. So needless to say i never spary into them anymore unless all the power is off.
And then there was the time I shot myself in the head...

thats not funny that was no accident he hit his target

hey lake you know, we love ya man !!!

you're one funny sob

[ice machine undertaker]

Originally posted by senior tech

Originally posted by lakeerie
I went to work on a roof top 15 ton a/c no cool. put up ladder found unit. Seen them nast looking bees and figured well they are in the disconnect , so i shut of the disconnect and went and got the bee spray. Not thinking that there was still 3 live legs in the disconnect i sprayed it into a hole on the box and loe n behold lord have mercy. It knocked me a good one and then still got stung. So needless to say i never spary into them anymore unless all the power is off.
And then there was the time I shot myself in the head...

I thought I read somewhere that it was lakeerie who shot himself in the head.

Fred

[srmfsr]

It was serious, but we live and learn. There is very little that I can't do. I install all my own duct and units. I still am also a Master electrician and run conduit and controls. Just don't have dexterity in the left one vey well but it could have been worse. But hell I'm accident prone anyway. The GC that I work for is so accident prone that he carries a stapler and staples with him so he can fix himself. He is forever getting hurt. The other day he fell off the wall he was on and held onto his nail gun and cut his wrist pretty bad on the metal joint plates on the trusses. He saved his nail gun but ended up in ER.

[prolinehtg]

Dumbest thing i ever did was lighting a water heater with a turbo torch and then having the pilot go out after I turned the knob to on and raw gas is now spilling out cause ive got the thermocouple so hot. What do i do I relight my torch and stick it down by the pilot to relight and boom. Burnt all the hair off my knuckles and caused homeowner to come running down the stairs. I was pretty embarassed. Then one of my coworkers was gas piping a lp fireplace in a basement and purges out the air. Does he wait 5 minutes? No theres no time for that so he lights his lighter and that pool of gas that is sitting on the floor flashes. The family dog that is in the same room as him gets his hair a little cooked and he goes yelping out of the room.

[classical]

In 1991 I was working on A Rudd condenser someone else had overcharged it had an expansion valve and no start kit. The compressor went out on overload I went out on warranty call late on Saturday afternoon. Problem was obvious tripped overload and I had plans with new lady friend that evening.
Now I normally wear leather white mule gloves but actually took them off and threw on to front seat. Disconnect the low voltage raise the top with the fan run water on compressor to cool it off. Customer standing there asking what I am doing. I tell him waiting for overload to cool down when it does I will lower fan and start compressor show him where the contactor is. I actually punch in the contactor fan starts customer freaks out yells I reach up and catch a hand full of blade. If he hadn't yelled I would have let it fall and replace the bent blade and cut hose. Instead I cut the ball of my hand at the base of the fingers from the inside of the left finger to inside of the little finger. It starts bleeding like a stuck pig, I just pushed my hand into my thigh to slow the blood and go back to putting this guys unit together. The compressor had tried to start seemed the thing to give the guy some cool.
The guy starts freaking out asking what are you doing I said finishing my job and then going to get some stitches.
He says you know your bleeding to death I am like no big deal I have been cut before. He runs into the house and brings out the biggest whitest fluffiest towel I have ever seen. He wraps it around my hand and drags me into the house to see his wife. The house is spotless and has white carpet everywhere. I am standing there with the towel saturated in blood clutching it to my chest trying to keep blood of the carpet. The wife asks if she can do anything I asked for a glass of water. I took a drink handed her the glass and passed out. I woke up laying on the white carpet and they help me up he is going to drive me to the hospital. He pulls me to the front door and I looked back not one drop of blood anywhere but the towel is ruined. We rush to the hospital in this little Toyota Starlet right passed a DPS topper. We get at the hospital and doctor says needs about 30 stitches to stop the bleeding but I need to see a plastic surgeon for the repair work. The HO says he will stay until they start stitching.
A week later after talking to two surgeons I am at the VA hospital because I am a vet and they have the best hand people in the world there.
I went into surgery team of 5 surgeons some 400 stitches 9.5 hours to repair 9 severed nerves 1 severed and 4 partially severed tendons and a whole host of severed arteries and blood vessels. After 6 months or rehab everything works except long finger wont pull all the way closed and some numbness.

Then there was the time I flipped a three wheeler broke two ribs dislocated two ribs from the sternum splintered my left clavicle twisted my back. They took the radius head and four inches of radius of my right arm.

There are more like the time an AH fell out of an attic when I was 18 and broke the T1 vertebrae in my back.

[Senior Tech]

Originally posted by ice machine undertaker

Originally posted by senior tech

Originally posted by lakeerie
I went to work on a roof top 15 ton a/c no cool. put up ladder found unit. Seen them nast looking bees and figured well they are in the disconnect , so i shut of the disconnect and went and got the bee spray. Not thinking that there was still 3 live legs in the disconnect i sprayed it into a hole on the box and loe n behold lord have mercy. It knocked me a good one and then still got stung. So needless to say i never spary into them anymore unless all the power is off.
And then there was the time I shot myself in the head...

I thought I read somewhere that it was lakeerie who shot himself in the head.

Fred

It was...I was putting words in his mouth...forgive me lake, I couldn't resist.

[amickracing]

These kinda threads make my injuries seem small (I like it that way).

I've drilled a hole in my finger, put a screw in my finger (didn't back it out, paniced and ripped my finger off it), numerous slips and falls while carring stuff. Thankfully nothing major.

[The Penguin]

I felt so smug and superior to all you who posted as I had not really done anything dumb like you guys but reading your stories made memories return of all the dumb things I have done. in no particular order
1. did not tie ext ladder down and wind blew it down luckly for me it hit only the owners vehicle small dent abt 500 to fix
2. ext ladder went sideways and I fell about 10 ft flat on my back on a lower roof in the only flat area around. some brusing no injuries.
3 had a folding six foot aluminium ladder and was standing on the top of it in a ceiling made the mistake of turning around then forgot i had then stepped down wam flat on my back on the floor no lasting injuries
4 I was tying my ladders down with bungie cords the rubber kind and was stretching one tight when the hook popped off and went straight into my eye right through my glasses. glasss shards everywhere. no loss of sight the glasses frame took all the brunt I'm lucky
5 did not tie my steps on the roof hit the brakes at a light and watched my steps fly right into the intersection no problem
6 had my fluke meter leads plugged into milli amps and tried to test 600 v on a comp terminals the bang had my ears ringing for hours had second degree burns on my left hand and a sunburn on my face
7 just was learning about gas and last call of the day at 4 pm I was checking an old york sunline series rtu abt 4 ton with the mecury flame sensor. heat exch was all sooted up and I got the pilot lit and the main flame but it was not burning right I had to clean the heat exch I turned the gas valve off and stupidly I thought I shouldn't have done that so I turned it right back on and just as I realised that was even dumber and I pulled my head back out from the burner on about the 7th spark the gas lit up and boom I had one eye brow missing and allot of hair missing too I was covered in soot. But on the plus side the heat exch was clear and I had a good flame pattern!
I would not recomend any one cleaning a heat exchanger that way

[Edmund Forsthe]

what ya call that explosive cleaning?

[mattm]

The guy that posted about lighting the water heater reminded me of the time my gas grill ignighter went out so went and got a lighter lit a piece of paper stuck it through a hole in the bottom of the grill and BOOM!!! blew the lid clean off the grill and off the deck, I forgot to turn the gas off when I went to get the lighter. Luckily I was bent over and 90% of the flame went straight up but I about shat my pants and the nieghbors came running out all sides.

[hvac3901]

a while back i worked on oil rigs, rotating equipment, heat exchangers and compressors. company was removing a very large six throw compressor for shore repair. we had alot of problems with salt water corrosion as you could imagine, so the 1 1/2" mounting studs about four feet from the pad had to be cut off from the top at the nut. well this left a tappered spike (several) protruding from the pad. we had attached some rigging to the overhead for breaking and holding flanges/ associated piping. when i was dirrected to bring down the rigging i took it upon myself to stand on an oily pipe (imagine that oily pipes on an oil rig) well my foot slipped and down i went. when i landed i had one of those mounting studs stuck in my neck just under my jaw in line with my ear. not really bad by it penetrated the skin and after landing i just held the pose for a minute wondering when the pain was going to hit me, and rolling my eyes a little down looking at how close i came to impaling my head with a steel rod.

this is one of those things you should probably never share, becasue it was just so damn stupid.

[wolfdog]

When I was a kid, my brother got a "wrist rocket" slingshot. One of those high powered, metal framed babies.

He decided to impress me by showing how he could shoot a rock thru a knothole in a wood fence. He stood DIRECTLY
in front of the hole, about 20 feet back from the fence.....loaded up ,pulled way back....and let fly.


He missed the knothole.

The rock bounced STRAIGHT back and hit him square in the forehead.

Layed him out.

Funniest thing I have ever seen....shot himself with his own slingshot.

I still remind him from time to time.

[ozone drone]

Those natural gas delayed ignitions are fun....I've done the Wylie Coyote imitation about three times..."I love the smell of burning hair in the morning" (apologies to Robert Duvall)

[bootlen]

Originally posted by ozone drone
Those natural gas delayed ignitions are fun....I've done the Wylie Coyote imitation about three times..."I love the smell of burning hair in the morning" (apologies to Robert Duvall)

================================================== ==========

:D :D

[otto]

Old York RTU with an early version of Direct Spark Ignition. It wasn't lighting off so I looked in to see why. At the time I HAD long hair, beard, mustache and eyebrows. The eyebrows and mustache grew back but the beard never did.

[troup]

GOT MY TONGUE CAUGHT IN A POP BOTTLE
AND TRIED ROPEING...HORSE TURNED / STEER TURNED...I WENT STRAIGHT

[marylandtech]

mine just happen 2 months ago. was working on a 25 ton rooftop unit at a church in baltimore. This thing was made in the early 60's (never seen one like it) well i found the high side service valve but couldnt find the suction. So i am inside this monster with a huge semi-hermetic compressor looking. Heres where i made my mistake. I seen a cap that looked like it had a service valve access under it. So i give it a good tug with my crescent wrench. within seconds im stuck inside this unit engulfed in freon. Finally got out but was zoned out for like 10 minutes. I felt as high as the clouds. My heart was pounding, **** was spinning. Apparently it wasnt the service port.

[ozone drone]

Originally posted by otto
Old York RTU with an early version of Direct Spark Ignition. It wasn't lighting off so I looked in to see why. At the time I HAD long hair, beard, mustache and eyebrows. The eyebrows and mustache grew back but the beard never did.

Oh so you did the Wylie Coyote AND the David Bowie imitation?

[otto]

LOL Yep, looked kinda weird for a while.

[The Penguin]

oh yeah I got my sleave caught on a service valve undoing a discharge flange on a 5 hp 502 comp in the days where we just blew off the charge when replacing a comp I had front seated the valve but there was liquid 502 in the head I got frost bite on my wrist but the local hospital did not know how to treat frostbite!

[classical]

You live in Canada and the Hospital can't treat frostbite?

[mattm]

It only takes 1 time to learn to stand to the side when firing a furnace off. I've had my brows burnt off ONCE from delayed ignition. Damn little spider.

[srmfsr]

That's OK, Matt, he paid for it.

[HeyBob]

To make a long story short, I had a customer that had a long uphill, narrow winding driveway.

It was unplowed and still snowing, before I headed to his house I called the homeowner and said I was less than 5 minutes away.

After my third unsuccessful try to get up his unplowed disaster of a driveway, I backed all the way down to the end and about 50' into the street, gunned it all the way up to the last curve and guess who was on his way down?

We hit head on at the last curve almost to the top, totaled his car and did quite a bit of damage to my van. I asked him why he was coming down and he said he decided to leave for work early!!! Go figure! I felt bad for him, fixed his furnace for free (thermocouple) since his car was totaled and he did not have full coverage!

The guys still rag on me about that one!

[midhvac]

Half drunk, drilling a new 3/8" hole in a lawnmower handle *on my lap* with a *power* drill.

If I wasn't so drunk, my instincts would have told me to LET GO OF THE FU*KING TRIGGER before pulling the drill out of my leg.

[midhvac]

This one's embarrassing. 13 yrs old, riding an English Racer 3 speed over a curb. *BOTH* frame bars snap, bike breaks in half under my crotch, frame goes in my nuts.

My voice would be an octave lower today if it weren't for that frickin bike!!

[referjunkie]

I did the same thing marylandtech, in the bilge of a boat. Talk about a good high. I guess I have been fortunate compared to you guys...knock on wood. Once slipped on the peak of a roof that had, at the time, the new white sheit. Damn that stuff is slippery when it has slime on it. Land right on my tool box. Had bruised ribs for a month. I have seen some pretty interesting ones though. Guy working for SCE (so. Cal. Edison) was checking/repairing underground(1,000's of volts) wiring. I was on a roof working. Heard, BOOM,ZZZZ ZZZZ, THUD. Look over and the guy shot back about 30 feet and up 5. Lucky for him he was wearing insulated clothing, NOT! Electricity shot out his elbows, thighs and parts of his back. It smelled like burnt chicken. He was in therepy for months I heard. Another guy fell off a building at about 50-75 feet. Landed on some rebar sticking up from slab. skewerd his legs and ended up with a bad concussion. The guys I was working with had to cut the bars and he went to the hospital that way. Not a way I want to destroy new underwear.

[glennwith2ns]

Well, Once I was drillin a hole with one of them 6' flexible bits. Standing on a ladder with my head above the ceiling, one hand down the wall guiding the bit to drill thru "cat" in wall. had to hold drill with other hand so bit went by the back of my head. My hair was a bit longer than it is now and yep, it grabbed a hold of a hunk a hair.
Ever drill into insulation? Looked just like it.

Had a perfect 4 inch round bald spot at back of head. No blood but very tender!!

Haven't used that bit since

[The Penguin]

Originally posted by classical
You live in Canada and the Hospital can't treat frostbite?
I was in a hot country at the time
One time I got a call out to an apt building (owner condos) seem a ho was putting up crown moulding and using 3 inch screws into the metal wall studs (the ceiling was concrete) so he puts a screw through the copper sprinkler pipe hidden in the walls I felt sorry for him so I came out and checked it out It was leaking all right so I said lets get that screw out and put a bigger one in with out tripping the flow sensor and setting the alarm off at midnight. so he pulls the screw out and I put my thumb over the hole then the ho panics and drivesthe screw back in right through my thumb so I had to back out the drill my self and then put it back in. we call in a sprinkler guy and he shuts off the water and the alarm sensor and I weld up the pipe then we refill the branch line by this time its 2 am boy I was glad that was over
the hos wife was really hot and she was nice too I coulda woulda shoulda but didn't
remember if the women don't find you hansome they should at least find you handy

[Edited by The Penguin on 08-26-2004 at 09:05 PM]

[i_got_ideas]

Now this was funny........

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=59183

well if you like to hear about other's agony :D

[spackard]

My hairest near-miss (that really should be a near-hit, since it missed).
I was a youngin' and some construction workers were grading a lot behind my house. They were taking the soil down deep because a bank's vault and foundation were going to be put up, so they had two smaller earthmovers and one large earthmover working on the job. The large one is the type that has hydraulics for turning and a king pin separating the cab from the scraper. It rained heavily during the scraping, and one day one of the little movers gets stuck in the mud pit and can't get out. They're down what looked to me to be about 8'. When I got into the pit I was in over my head and my arm's stretch. I had to kick out some earth to make steps so I could climb in.
So they get a big-ass cable and get the large mover to tow the small mover out. When small guy is out he keeps driving a little, probably stopping ahead of the big guy. The construction guys are standing around in the pit watching this, and by now I've lowered myself down the wall and into the pit, to watch too. Suddenly the big mover takes off - hey, he's done his job after all. He just forgot about the big-ass cable tow line. Construction guys all start running for the wall of the pit to get out. No noise, no "Look Out!", just everybody takes off running. I didn't see what was going on, but a gut feeling told me that if all those guys were running I'd better do it too and worry about why later.
I'm the last one trying to get out of the pit but I'm too short to make it. I hear a ground-thumping "pummmp" followed by a whistling sound - the snapped cable's coming around like a 30' weed wacker. Misses me, but would have sliced me in half if I hadn't run. Guy driving large mover never knew what happened until they stopped him his next time through the pit.
I never got back into that pit unless the crew left for the day, and shook a lot when I did.

[Irascible]

Fresh out of trade school I came across a bad circuit breaker that had corroded the bus bar in the subpanel where it attached. The bars are maybe an inch from each other. I had a narrow metal wire brush with a wood handle. I figured I could get it in there with the brush and not touch two of the bars together. I was wrong. I hear a loud pop while simultaneously seeing the brightest whitest white I had ever seen. It was followed by pitch black... which I was thankful to find out was the building breaker going out and not my eyes. The brush didn't fair as well. The arc etched the surface of my eyes and left me seeing halos around lights for a few days.

[hvac r us 2]

A funny one I thought of when I was reading this thread happened when I was just starting out.

Went with the boss on a service call to a home with no cooling.

It was late on a Saturday and they were having a family reunion. As we are driving up the long driveway you can see all the people out in the yard, playing volleyball, eating and drinking.

So as we are pulling up it felt like we hit a pot hole in the driveway, and we both looked at each other as if to say what was that?

The next thing you know all the peole come running over to the truck. Man, they are really happy to see us I thought...

Unfortantly that "bump" in the driveway was the family dog.

It would seem that the dog was running next to the truck, and the boss didnt see him, and he became a speed bump.

Needless to say we didnt even get to look at the A/C unit.

[Irascible]

Your boss killed Lassie! :( ;)

[hvac r us 2]

Originally posted by Irascible
Your boss killed Lassie! :( ;)

Nah, it was a Beagle! LOL It's really not that funny when I think about, but makes for a good story!

[hvac r us 2]

Originally posted by hvac r us 2

Originally posted by Irascible
Your boss killed Lassie! :( ;)

Nah, it was a Beagle! LOL It's really not that funny when I think about, but makes for a good story!

Hey, Ira...were you able to get any of the files I e-mailed you?

[Green Mountain]

This didn't happpen to me so it is really funny.

A speaker from Trane come to highly publized seminar about rebuilding semi-hermetic compressors. This speaker was a nationally reknown expert on Trane semi-hermetic compressors.

There were about 75 attendees in the brand new lecture hall that they rented at Siena College. As we walked into this ampitheater we could see charts, diagrams, tools and a big 6 cyclinder Trane compressor setting on the bench.

The guy got to the tear down part. He explained that he normally has a certain compressor that he used all the time but it got losted in shipping for this particular seminar. "So I pulled one form the local branch" (what are you going to do? 75 guys are signed up for this)

So he pulled the heads, and the valve plates. The presentation was great. Then he got to the end bell. Took all the bolts out and gave it a little tap.

Swoosh! 2 gallons of refrigeration oil went splashing all over every where. Needless to say he was embarassed.

[haustek]

My foot slipped off of a rafter, creating a huge hole in the customers' living room ceiling. A whole lot of blown-in insulation was all over the place! It was my second week on a new job. The company had their sheetrock guy fix it, but it sure was embarrasing.
Oh, & then there was the refrigerator I caught on fire! I started a thread on that one about starting fires while soldering. That was actually funny now that I look back on it; nobody was hurt or anything, but I was working for the OEM at the time & it was hard to live down.

[cde72]

Starting out... wiring the 2 condensors in a live 200 amp main panel...accidently pushed ground conductor against main bus bar... biggest brightest loudest arc fault i've ever seen.... get this, main breaker didn't snap, but lost power in the house... 10 seconds later power comes back... that leaves the breaker on the utility side... glad I wasn't holding the bare wire at the time...

[seaboard]

I started this thread at work (that's why the username is SMSI) and have had a great time reading the replies. I've got a couple more people reminded me about.

I was servicing a Carrier 8 ton heat pump with weird pressures and was reaching back to feel the reversing valve pipes to see if it was switching properly. I couldn't reach the pipes without my face right up against the electrical panel (you know, the one with the picture of a hand in the fan blade with the line through it) you guessed it, I put my hand right into the condenser fan blade breaking the blade clean from the hub. I pulled my hand back and the fingers were still there. Walked to my ladder, went down and ran some water from my water cooler over it to see how bad it was. Definitely needed stitches so I went into the department store and they called an ambulance. They took me to Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville and they took care of me. The worst part was they gave me a betadine sponge and had me scrub and clean the wound. Then the intern had to poke and prod all the nerves to make sure everything worked. They were slow and the orderly drove me back, helped me gather my tools and even put the extension ladder on the truck for the 90 minute drive home.

When I was in Community college our gas heating instructor was a local contractor and the class was on Tuesday nights so his own workers could attend. His stepdaughter attended school there during the day and told us about one of his installers cutting a hole in the second floor of a two story house to drop a grille in to transfer air. The guy stood in the middle and cut the hole all the way around him just like in the cartoons! He fell 12 feet to the first floor and landed right on his feet, saw still in hand. Anyway, we were laughing about this as class started that night. We noticed a guy sitting behind us had turned extremely red and we thought he was sick or something. It turned out to be the guy in question and he walked out and never came back. Quit his job the next day, poor guy.

[midhvac]

Ya know those little screwdriver pocket testers with the little light in em that lights up when you touch em to something hot?

I was playin tv repairman. No picture. So I start moving the screwdriver tester towards the back of the picture tube zzzzzzzzzzzt. 30,000 volts arcs out and meets the tester about 2" before it gets there, like the Frankenstein movie!! OUCH!!!!

[bootlen]

Originally posted by hvac r us 2

Originally posted by Irascible
Your boss killed Lassie! :( ;)

Nah, it was a Beagle! LOL It's really not that funny when I think about, but makes for a good story!

================================================== =========

SNOOPY!! YOU KILLED SNOOPY!

[appltech1]

I said I Do. :(

[selfemployed]

Finished working on an ice maker at the shop. Washed my hands walked outside and thought I'd check the wall temp of an LB-8 freezer to see if it was cold yet. :eek: Started hollering till the head tech came out and saw my hand stuck to the wall. Poured water on it till I could get loose. This was my first refrigerant burn :D.

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by benncool
This didn't happpen to me so it is really funny.

A speaker from Trane come to highly publized seminar about rebuilding semi-hermetic compressors. This speaker was a nationally reknown expert on Trane semi-hermetic compressors.

There were about 75 attendees in the brand new lecture hall that they rented at Siena College. As we walked into this ampitheater we could see charts, diagrams, tools and a big 6 cyclinder Trane compressor setting on the bench.

The guy got to the tear down part. He explained that he normally has a certain compressor that he used all the time but it got losted in shipping for this particular seminar. "So I pulled one form the local branch" (what are you going to do? 75 guys are signed up for this)

So he pulled the heads, and the valve plates. The presentation was great. Then he got to the end bell. Took all the bolts out and gave it a little tap.

Swoosh! 2 gallons of refrigeration oil went splashing all over every where. Needless to say he was embarassed.

BWAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

Who would've ever thought that THAT would happen????????????:D:D:D:D:D:D

[condenseddave]

Pushed a reset button on an old boiler int he basement of an apartment house inhabited by a half dozen absolutely GORGEOUS college girls one afternoon when I was about 20.

Never crossed my mind that one of them was the daughter of a dyed in the wool DIY'er.:eek:

Yup. That 300K boiler tried to chase me across the basement as it started to buck, roar, and flame like a rodeo bull just doused in gas and set fire.

Broke boiler piping and all when it rocked.

I shut it down fast, and RAN my big ass out to the truck for my (LOL) 5 pound ABC dry chemical fire extinguisher. (Seemed like the thing to do at the time...)

Had a neighbor call the fire dept.

They showed up for The SECOND TIME THAT DAY, I find out shortly after they got this behemoth blaze under control with some 20 lb Purple K's.

Yup, Ditzo the hot little blonde daughter of Earl the DIY'er pulls up in her little white escort, walks up tot eh fire chief and announces that she only hit the reset ONCE after he left last time. She SWORE it.

I wanted to kill her dead, there and then.

Apparently, Daddy Dumbass informed her that the little red button was to get her heat, and if she pushed it, she'd have heat. She kept pushing it, it would light, starve and trip back out, while, of course, dousing the combustion chamber with some fresh oil each time. It started to smoke earlier in the day, and the fire dept was called. The chief told her to call for service, and never to push the reset more than once...

Well, I don't think this bimbo understood that he meant don't push it at all until a tech gets here, and then tell him what happened...

Nope. Just "no heat". That was the call.

The transformer was going bad, apparently, and since it was cold when "Junior" here walked in, it lit. All of about three gallons of fresh #2 oil.

It wouldn't happen to me NOW, because it happened then.

The sight of that cast iron dragon moving across that dirt floor is forever etched in my brain.

[markwolf]

I was sitting on a 15 ton curb finishing duct connections & just about ready for setting the equipment.I slid over on the curb a few inches & OOOWWWAAAA!next thing I knew there was blood all over the place......The shear used to cut the curb must have been dull & there was an edge rolled up on it.I had a slice about 4" long & 1/2" deep on my ass!--The guys at that shop still raz me about my"butt cut"when I stop in to visit while on vacation lol

[The Penguin]

Damm I'm still remembering the dumb stuff
I slipped in the shop once and ran my left hand down a window thumper condensor 20 yrs later and I still have the scars on my fingers

On a construction site for a bank I climbed up a set of temp stairs to get to the roof I smacked my head just under the hard hat rim on an I beam knocked me out for a second next thing I know I am up to my hips in a false ceiling with one leg each side of a 2 by 6 my nuts hurting something fierce. the funny thing is that I did it again not five minutes after the plasters finish their repairs I was not popular.