What's the dumbest thing you've ever done or seen done with a power tool?

[ken_xman]

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.

[gassy]

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.

[HardDrive]

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.....

[FrayAdjacent911]

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.

[onewhippedpuppy]

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........

[techweenie]

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

[tdatk]

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

[Rondinone]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
I'm lazy, so I always stop doing dangerous stuff when I get tired. Thankfully I haven't had any run-ins with power equipment when I'm fatigued.

However, that doesn't save me from my own stupidity.

Just a couple of months ago I was trying to enlarge a hole in my motorcycle frame. Didn't have the right equipment so I used a carbide cutting bit in my Dremel. End result: billions and billions of nearly-microscopic steel needles all over the garage. They stick to (and into) everything. How I didn't get any in my eyes I'll never know. I vacced it all up but I still have a few in my fingers though. Irritating as hell.

Not life-threatening, but stupid.

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

[amity914]

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

[skipdup]

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

[AFJuvat]

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

[cstreit]

AFJ, that's rich!

[CamB]

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.

[WOODPIE]

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

[Hugh R]

Originally posted by AFJuvat
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

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.

[dtw]

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.

[P0WER]

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.

[Joe Bob]

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

[masraum]

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.

[motion]

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?

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.