I cut some dead limbs yesterday with the trusty stihl saw. Dropped one on a power line and killed the power for the entire neighborhood.....70 houses.
Thank god I have cool neighbors.

I also nail gunned a piece of pine to my index finger, and slammed a phillips head drill bit thru my thumnail. That hurt. Anyone try to change a Dremel bit right away. They get damn hot.

Idiot I used to work with tried to cut a chain.....with a chop saw......with a wood rip blade on it....the results were spectacular.....

A friend I had right around the time I graduated highschool was moving into another house. His dad was building a room off of the back of the house to expand a little bit, and one of my friend's friends was helping out. I was hanging out over there one day, and opened the back door, and saw this friend of my friend with a circular saw and a 2x4 against his leg about to start cutting it.

I thought to myself "that dumbass is about to cut his damn leg off"

Sure enough, not 2 seconds after I closed the door I hear the profanities "owww fu**!!! $h**!!!!! mother fu*****!!!!"

I open the door, and sure enough, he had cut into his leg. About 6 inches long and only about 1/2 inch deep. It wasn't bleeding too bad either. Got him inside and had to have him drop trou to get a towel on it, and then my buddy's mother took him to the hospital.

What a dumbass.

Cut off a 2x4 with a worm drive circular saw, when I brought it down to my side I didn't realize the guard was stuck open. Unfortunately, it didn't have a blade brake. I have a nice scar on my knee for all posterity now, probably a good thing I went back to school........

I once saw a pretty wacky device using an electric hand drill, but Z-man wouldn't want it posted up here...

Not a tool but still DUMB,
I was welding some unistrut overhead when I felt some heat on my cheek. Those of you who weld/ or cut with a torch know that is usually just some slag and and another seed hole in the shirt...not this time, the heat got really intense and flames were shooting inside my welding helmet. I had left a Bic lighter in my top pocket and some slag had melted through the plastic and ignited the lighter in my pocket, instant blowtorch. No real burn damage but I was really lucky it was a torch and not a explosion next to my heart. Learned a good one that day.

posted by jonco:
"standing on a ladder, drilling a self drilling self tapping screw into 3/8ths plate hanging a computer screen on a drug interdiction boat, the screw finally broke through and tightened down on my finger holding the mount before I could let off on the drill. of course, because of the instant pain of having my finger crushed, I dropped the drill. now I am standing there with my finger screwed to the wall above my head, the drill is on the floor where I can't reach it, and no one else is in the room. after following the yelling, someone finds me at last.. but before handing me the drill, they had to go get the rest of the crew to come check out the idiot screwed to the wall."

BTDT too, almost identical , the worst part was the help, or lack of it.

Tim

Ugh. I did this last year. finger looked like a porcupine. Took an hour to dig out all the metal splinters.

I don't use power tools, but my mother has a love for them. I live next door to her and one day she came running up to the door with her hand in a fist, and she told me she cut some of her fingers with a saw. So while I'm freakin out over the blood and gore factor, she put her hand under the cold water and one finger at a time she opened up her fist. She cut the tips off of 3 of them, and I told her if it happened again I would take all of her saws. I still cringe over that one.

Hiedi

Well... this thread has officially freaked me out!

I'm going to quadruple my awareness while operating tools.

My wife and I always laugh while we watch crime drama's on tv... when they look for blood, like on csi... If anyone looked in my garage, they'd "know" a murder took place. If it's sharp, some part of my finger/hand/arm WILL find it.

But lucky... so far, nothing an up-to-date tetanus shot & band-aid or bandage doesn't fix.

- Skip

Welded a wristwatch to the underside of the car. Unfortunately, I was wearing the watch at the time.

Always double check that the battery is disconnected when you play with starter wires.

AFJ

AFJ, that's rich!

I picked up a 70w soldering iron a little too far down once (was very tired). I couldn't drop it straight away either, as by the time I figured out the mistake I was holding it over my crotch. I had to put it down slowly.

Actually didn't hurt much for the first two minutes, or for the 20 minutes in cold water. Every time I took it out of the water it hurt like a b'stard though.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1127187850.jpg


I made my right middle finger one knuckle shorter with one of these. Worst thing is, when I flip somebody off, it comes out sounding like "Hey, wucknoo!"

Ed

Did that with my Rolex, touched a positive post and ground and spot welded the clasp shut on my wrist. That's why I still haven't taken it off 7 years later, I can't get it off! Just kidding, but I did have to pry the spot weld open and f'd up the bracelet it still has a burn hole in one of the non-removable links.

Have I told the one about how I was replacing the alternator in my 911? See, it's on topic because I turned a gorgeous polished 10mm Craftsman Pro wrench into a stick welder. Yep, undoing connections on the alternator and just completely forgot to ever undo the battery. The wrench bridged connections and showers of sparks came flying out of engine bay, followed shortly by clouds of smoke. The wrench was so perfectly fit that I couldn't knock it off the nut with the rubber mallet I had handy, so I frantically searched for a 13mm wrench to disconnect the battery. OF COURSE, all 3 of my 13mm wrenches were gone so I just grabbed a huge flatblade and pried the positive lead off the battery terminal. The whole time, cascades of sparks and smoke everywhere, noxious black choking smoke. I ended up turning the fire extinguisher loose in the engine bay, because I could see smoldering wire insulation. Turned the engine bay into a smelly, sticky mess. The wrench welded itself to the alternator, and I knocked it loose with the mallet and removed the alt. Boy, did it stink. Within two weeks, my CDI and starter failed, and my gorgeous set of expensive NLA wrenches is now marred with a pitted, blackened, 10mm reminder of my stupidity.

OK, my kids hated me for a while over this one but it's all good now.
I had been working on the deck with a belt sander and some other power tools. The switch on the belt sander was broken so to turn it on, all you had to do was plug it in.
I went to plug in a drill and grabbed the belt sander cord by mistake, it took off like a rocket as you can imagine right through the rabbit cage.
It didn't kill the little guy, but now anytime a power tool starts up within ear shot he goes nuts.

I watched a guy loose a scalp when he leaned into a spiining drill press with long hair....ouch....

I work with a guy that's told me this story. He used to do car audio installations. He was once drilling up through the rear deck of a nice new mercedes. He didn't want the dril to hit the back window so he put his finger on top of the deck where the bit was going to go through. When it finally went through instead of being a hole it had threaded itself and before he could let off the bit had fed through the metal and his finger tip until it hit the glass. He then had to slowly back the bit out of his finger and get out of the Merc without bleeding all over the new leather interior.

I should not be allowed to use power tools. In the last few months:

While holding a nut between my open-toed sandals and attempting to drill a hole for safetywire, the drill bit broke and the remaining half still in the powered-on drill went right through my big toe nail and about 1/4 into my toe. Wanna see a pic? :D

While using a power snake on my pool in-ground plumbing, I splashed some water from the pool into the motor while at full-power. The resulting shock made me throw the 20 pound motor and snake a good 20 feet. My right arm was sore for a week.

Awhile back I was using a hole-saw to drill a hole in my cabinets near the fridge to run power for a new in-wall microwave oven. Holesaw wen through the cabinet and about 1/2 into the side of the fridge. Good think you can't see it since its on the side.

"Nail found embedded in construction worker's skull
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth: a four-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier.

A dental office X-ray reveals a four-inch nail embedded in the skull of Patrick Lawler.
The Family Dental Center via KUSA-TV

A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, on Jan. 6 while working in Breckenridge, a ski resort town in the central Colorado mountains. The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, but Lawler didn't realize a second nail had shot through his mouth, said his sister, Lisa Metcalse. "

Plus in 7th grade my homeroom teacher cut off his thumb with a band saw.

Back in the day, I was putting a 350 into my TR7. I was under the car, on my back with a torch. A large chunk of red-hot metal falls off into my sleeve(same hand as the torch). I couldnt let go of the torch because of all the junk I had around the car. I had to wait until it burned thru my shirt and jacket. I ALWAYS tape my sleeves now.

Then there was the guy who was masturbating using some sort of belt/pulley at work. When things went wrong he stapled his own wound shut and only went to the doctor when what was left of his scrotum swelled to twice the size of a grapefruit a few days later.

http://www.snopes.com/risque/penile/scrotum.htm

Well that beats anything I could come up with....I was gona mention something that happened when I attached a big black dildo to my Cordless Power Drill...but I won't now...

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

http://safecen.navy.mil/photo/images...0/photo34p.jpg

Randy

I weed-whacked my barefoot once 13 lashes!

doing some demo once I was told by the boss "be careful"

as he walked away I hit a 2"x4" that was nailed to a frame on the ceiling....it hit him in the back of the head...10 feet away.


Guys, THE WORST POWER TOOL STORY that I have.

A airplane mechanic at la Verne airport {bracket Field?}

he was using a Marketa power tool unscrewing screws out of an airplane wing that housed the fuel tank {wet-wing}. He was standing on top of the wing when the second screw came out a spark from the Marketa drill caused the wing to explode.

d.o.a-- tossed him 20 ft into a concrete wall

La Verne is Bracket Field. I used to live in LaVerne.

I went to grade school in San Dimas. Party on!

Dude, where's Waterloo?

I didn't think so at the time....

Then U know where Glendora is.....

Hahahaha. That's hilarious. I'm sorry.

I can't think of any dumb things with power tools. Seriously. I have a warped mind, because when I use dangerous tools, I think "What would this bandsaw do to my arm?" That fear puts me on super-alert.

When I was younger and didn't have any hours on a chainsaw, I always had trouble starting my dad's saw. I didn't pull the cord to find the compression stroke. When I jerked the loose starter cord, the action pulled the bar and chain up into my left leg. The saw wasn't even running, but still managed to put a gash in my leg. I needed stitches, but was too embarassed to go.

Some folks would think running a chainsaw is pure stupidity, and I'd agree to some extent. However, cutting wood helps me release stress.

BTW, the safest and easiest way to start a chainsaw, for me, is grab the chainsaw handle with my thighs, about 4 inches above my knees. Hold tight. Hold the front handle with my left hand, and pull to start with my right hand. Never fails, and it keeps the bar away at all times.

Had shop class with a teacher named Mr. Ganser. At the start of the year, he went up to the board and drew a big “A” . “This will be your grade if you follow all safety instruction, follow all the rules and don’t screw off”. “DO NOT WRITE ON THIS BOARD!” “This A will remain up all year to remind you”. This guy was a total authoritarian.

Halfway through the year, he was looking at a girl in the class and managed to take off his thumb on the band saw. He was gone for a few weeks. In that interim, someone had erased the large “A” and put up a large “F” with “Mr. Ganser” below it. He was not amused. We were.

that's great!

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_pho...7/nail-gun.jpg

Stupidity hurts.SmileWavy

When I was young, we had a fridge with a auto-open button on the front. Very handy for when you've got 2 arm fulls of stuff to put in... bump hte button, and a little arm on a wheel kicked the fridge open a inch or two. Being young and curious, I noticed it wouldn't work if the fridge lite was on... somehow, I managed to get the push-switch in (as if the door were closed), hit the button to move the kick-arm, and get my thumb caught between the arm and the fridge. I was just tall enough to reach it standing on tiptoe, so I hung there by my thumb for a hour or so until the parents came back in from doing yard work...

There was also this guy who used to shoot IPSC locally - really good too, used a stock 1911. One match, he was much slower than normal, and using his middle finger for the trigger instead of the index. When asked why, he explained he had caught the index finger in his reloading press the night before, and had vented the blood blister under the fingernail with a 1/8" drill bit on his drill press, moving slowly. None of us believed him, claiming he was just a wimp and didn't want to shoot competetively that day... until he took the bandaid off his finger and showed us a very neat 1/8" hole in the nail...

"and had vented the blood blister under the fingernail with a 1/8" drill bit on his drill press, moving slowly."

I have on occasion done this, and can attest to the fact that it really works no matter how crude it sounds.

ouch.

Hot nail mo' betta. Melts right through the nail. Pain goes away when you hit the sweet spot. Less chance of infection with cautery.

Disclaimer; DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME. YOU COULD LOSE YOUR HAND, AN EYE, OR YOUR LIFE. (yada yada yada) :)

double ouch.