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Anti-safety Handymen/women: These are their stories (1 Viewer)

I was running a new circuit into my breaker panel. I was feeding the wires into the side opening while puffing out my chest at the same time as I showed my wife how great I was at doing electrical work. SPARKS EVERYWHERE! After pulling the wires back out and pooping my pants a little, it was then I realized that I had stripped the insulation prior to feeding the wire into the panel. The copper ground wire touched the incoming feed posts and nearly welded itself to them. Thankfully, while feeding the wire in, I was holding onto the insulated portion. Normally I would tape the end up with electrical tape prior to feeding it in and strip the insulation after, but for some reason, I didn't this time. I haven't done that work since and hire an electrician now.
 
You're supposed to wear a mask while sanding? :mellow:
Used to never wear safety glasses for anything but my ninja skills have diminished so I usually wear them now while using the weed whacker.
Hardly ever kill the breaker when doing electrical work. 110v only tingles a bit.
We have tall hedges on one side of the house where the property is sloped, a small hill sort of. Before getting a hedge trimmer that had a long extension I used to use a regular old electric trimmer (which I somehow never cut with the trimmer) and to reach the top I would get a step ladder and raise one side by putting bricks under the feet. Daughter saw me doing it once and said "that's why men have shorter life spans."
 
When I first bought my house I had NO handy-man ability and NO money. Everything I learned about remodeling and fixing things was from my Father-in-law. One time my washer was not working so I'm on the phone with my father in law and he's walking me through some basic troubleshooting of the washer.
Me: Ok, I have the top panel off.
FIL: Anything loose wires? Anything out of sorts?
Me: Nope. Everything looks like it should I guess.
FIL: Wiggle around some of the connectors and make sure they aren't just slightly loose.
Me: AHHHHH CRAAAP!!! I JUST GOT THE HELL SHOCKED OUT OF ME!
FIL: I seriously had to tell you to unplug it first before you took the panel off and started touching wires? :wall:

Just recently I remodeled our upstairs bathroom. Put in a new double sink vanity. Had to rerun the plumbing to get it to match up to the sink locations, new light fixtures, mirrors, etc. Hadn't remodeled the bathroom in almost 20 years at this point. Super stoked about getting the old vanity out and this 300lb vanity in. There was an old medicine cabinet that my wife wanted gone. I take this out of the wall and there is 2x4's framing it in of course. Knowing that I need something to screw the new replacement drywall into I scored 3/4" all the way around the drywall that was butted completely up to the end of the 2x4's in this rectangular opening in the wall where the medicine cabinet was. Cutting the drywall off the 2x4 was no problem with my fancy-smancy Dewalt oscillating tool. Man oh man is this STRAIGHT and going to be AWESOME when I cut the new piece of drywall to fit. VERY LITTLE MUDDING going to be necessary on this one! :thumbup: One small oversight on my end. Above this old medicine cabinet was a shelf on the wall. Somehow I didn't notice it. Also didn't notice there was a solid glass candle holder up there that was the size of hand grenade. Needless to say the vibrations caused by oscillating tool caused the candle holder to vibrate to the edge of this shelf and come crashing down. Luckily it whizzed by just missing clocking me in the head. Unluckily, it went RIGHT THROUGH the porcelain sink in the vanity I had just put in. :wall:
 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
mr. furley said:
belljr said:
So this is anti safety. Before I bought my extension ladder, my house has a split level roof, single story over garage part of living room.

When I needed to go up on the second story, I'd climb my 12 footer carrying an 8 footer Climb onto the single story, set the second ladder up with both legs straddling the peak of the first story, to climb up on the second story
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summer after we moved in to this place i went out and climbed a tree in our yard to saw some dead limbs. ladder couldn't reach it so after i got as high as that would take me i scaled the tree and started leaning to reach some branches.

neighbor who i hadn't spoken to previously shouted over from his yard "i'm an EMT qualified to handle life saving emergencies if you need me".

it's then when i climbed down and left the dead branches to nature.
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16’ Pole saw!
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well, yeah, i own one now
 
I've had enough close calls to practice minimal safety now. I wear safety glasses where applicable now that I've found a comfortable pair. Didn't used to. Chainsaw, grinder, whatever - nothing. I also used to never wear a dust mask. I rebuilt my deck a few years back and cut a ton of Trex boards without a mask. I was coughing up plastic for weeks.

Also - don't ever try and solder anything to a battery. My car remote had a non-removeable battery, but I wasn't going to pay $250 for a new one, so I cut it up and found the battery. It was a CR2032 with tabs on it. I tried to solder some wire onto a regular CR2032 and that thing blew up like a firecracker. I didn't have safety glasses as I didn't see that in the range of possible outcomes. Got lucky there.
 
Fat Nick said:
Also - don't ever try and solder anything to a battery. My car remote had a non-removeable battery, but I wasn't going to pay $250 for a new one, so I cut it up and found the battery. It was a CR2032 with tabs on it. I tried to solder some wire onto a regular CR2032 and that thing blew up like a firecracker. I didn't have safety glasses as I didn't see that in the range of possible outcomes. Got lucky there.
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I've done it. Wasn't a coin cell battery though.
 
The power/cable/phone lines run diagonally to our house from the corner pole, we have a tree that has a main branch that sticks out about 5 feet above the wires. In winter storms the branch sags down and almost touches the lines. A few years ago we were supposed to get a freak ice storm in late October when the tree still had leaves so there was more area for ice to build up. I was standing on top of an A frame ladder with a sawzall cutting the branch (about a 5" diameter where I was cutting). I eyeballed it and was pretty sure when the branch swung down it would miss the wires. Got almost all the way through and instead of swinging down with the cut point the center of the arc, the branch just fell, caught the cable and phone wires, then smacked into the ladder and knocked me and the ladder over. Luckily it somehow missed the power line. The connection of the cable and phone lines up near the weatherhead was ripped off the side of the house. The wires were about 6' off the ground until the next spring when I added a new eye bolt and pulled them back up. The storm turned out to be no where near as bad as predicted.

We had a light at the end of the driveway that was controlled by a switch in the garage (I have no idea why it wasn't wired to the switch in the house that controls the exterior garage lights). The light was a piece of crap and never worked so I was going to rip it out. Found where the wires came out from under the garage and went to cut them with tin snips. Guess I never checked if the switch was turned off. Luckily there was a good rubber grip, got a nice shock, and the kids had a mini fireworks display for a second.
 
Ron Swanson said:
Changing a light fixture in the kitchen many years ago and just cut the power at the switch. The old man walks in the kitchen grumbling about why the lights are off and flips the switch juuuust as I'm twisting up the hot pair. Got blown right off the ladder. Or at least felt like I did. Might have been a reaction to the searing pain. Who knows. Good thing is 17 year olds have rubber bones so nothing broken. But my wife never quite understands why I turn off breakers when working on circuits and don't allow anyone else to flip them for me.
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That’s standard procedure for me, or I tape the switch in the off position. Of course, I’m actually an electrician, and I usually have to fix the work of people who can’t do it right anyway.
 
Years before I became an electrician, I had to replace my electric water heater, so I drained it, got ready to move it, and proceeded to take the wire nuts off that connected the plug cord to the heater. One of them left the metal spring on the wires, and I grabbed it to take it off, only to immediately get shocked in both arms. I had forgotten to unplug the water heater. Fortunately, I know better now.
 
Heed the warnings about those garage door torsion springs. Happened so fast I didn't even know I was injured until I noticed the blood on the garage floor. Almost lost a finger. Could have been my face. Only permanent damage is some scaring and a messed up pointy fingernail. But I can really spin a basketball well on that finger now.

Another time I was tightening the cables on a boat battery. Wedding ring on left hand resting on one terminal while I tightened the cable on the other. Wrench slipped and made contact with my ring while touching the opposite terminal. Sparks flew. My dad was with me and I think he was impressed by the string of swear words i put together. It got hot enough to put some gold brazing on the wrench. I'm no longer married but due to the scar I look like one of those guys that takes their wedding ring off when they go out.

I once fell off a 24 foot ladder. Fortunately I was only on the first rung.
 
WDIK2 said:
Heed the warnings about those garage door torsion springs. Happened so fast I didn't even know I was injured until I noticed the blood on the garage floor. Almost lost a finger. Could have been my face. Only permanent damage is some scaring and a messed up pointy fingernail. But I can really spin a basketball well on that finger now.

Another time I was tightening the cables on a boat battery. Wedding ring on left hand resting on one terminal while I tightened the cable on the other. Wrench slipped and made contact with my ring while touching the opposite terminal. Sparks flew. My dad was with me and I think he was impressed by the string of swear words i put together. It got hot enough to put some gold brazing on the wrench. I'm no longer married but due to the scar I look like one of those guys that takes their wedding ring off when they go out.

I once fell off a 24 foot ladder. Fortunately I was only on the first rung.
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we had a torsion spring snap. **** sounded like a shotgun blast. i nearly **** myself in to unconsciousness.
 
WDIK2 said:
Heed the warnings about those garage door torsion springs. Happened so fast I didn't even know I was injured until I noticed the blood on the garage floor. Almost lost a finger. Could have been my face. Only permanent damage is some scaring and a messed up pointy fingernail. But I can really spin a basketball well on that finger now.

Another time I was tightening the cables on a boat battery. Wedding ring on left hand resting on one terminal while I tightened the cable on the other. Wrench slipped and made contact with my ring while touching the opposite terminal. Sparks flew. My dad was with me and I think he was impressed by the string of swear words i put together. It got hot enough to put some gold brazing on the wrench. I'm no longer married but due to the scar I look like one of those guys that takes their wedding ring off when they go out.

I once fell off a 24 foot ladder. Fortunately I was only on the first rung.
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I will not **** with my garage springs
 
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