What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done with a tool?

I was reminiscing with my other half about stuff years ago, and a little tiny place she rented back in college. She brought up the hedge trimmer story.....her place was SEVERELY overgrown, and I figured I’d try to impress her with how handy her boyfriend was. I mowed the grass, good to go. On to the bushes, which were out of control. One near the back of the house was about 10 feet high and 12 feet across, and should have been about 6x8. In the basement of the house was a hedge trimmer, and I pulled it out to put it to use. It was a cord model, and I got to work trimming. There was so much bush to cut back, I was making big, wide swaths. All of a sudden, no power. It was still plugged in, so I went back to the outlet and, it was plugged in too. Off and on, nada...then I realized I had worked waaaay left, and as I returned to the right I had cut through the extension cord that I had pulled through the bush. In my defense the Bush was so thick I just didn’t see it. Ugh- off to the store to get another cord. An hour later, I’m back and ready to cut again. I worked my way left, and right. Left, and right....and then nothing. Oh SH$T! Did I just cut through the dang thing AGAIN? I sure as hell did. I threw the hedge trimmer down, went in to get my keys and back to the store AGAIN for another cord. I was so mad at myself! When I returned I finished the job, making certain to not cut through a third extension cord.
The girlfriend was grateful- and confessed that she considered throwing the fish back in the ocean, since he had very doubtful skills. Luckily, I got a lot better!

 

I've had my share of blunders, I'd have to think on which one would be most noteworthy.

This could take some time.

 

Get some new extention cord ends and salvage the wire.

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I actually rigged her up a couple of nice, orange clothes lines...redneck ingenuity!

 

I once put a 60 tooth carbide tipped circular saw blade on an old craftsman curved shaft weedeater. Then promptly found out it was a bad idea...oh it cut alright!... but it bounced off a tiny stump and rolled back between my feet and cut through the hem of my jeans, shoe, sock and ,you guessed it, my heal.
Only took 10 stitches

 

Holy crap!!

 

This is exactly why I bought gas! Lol

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Helped my buddy unload and set up his new stove. The racks are shipped with zip ties holding them together. Rather than taking 2 minutes to get wire cutters, I pull out my trusty pocketknife. One slip opened my finger quite nice down to the bone! Off to the ER to get it sewn back together.

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Cut into one of the uprights on the mill with a bandsaw blade. Blade was toast instantly. Didnt hurt the upright tho lol.
Ran into the garage with the ROPS up on the tractor. Lucky for me i was going slow and didnt tear the house up.
Tried to move a picknic table with the tractor this weekend by just picking up one end and dragging it. Folded like a lawn chair, but was easy to fix.
Threw the chain once on a saw as i didnt get the cover on tight, that was pretty exciting.

Im sure there are alot more, thats just what i can think of right now lol.

 

Can't count that high.

 

Thread over.

 

Put the chain back on a borrowed saw backwards when I was a teenager then complained to the owner it wouldn't cut worth a crap

 

You almost became a pegleg!!! I really hope there was involved.

 

I was framing a wall once with a framing nailer. I was holding the trigger and bump firing it. I'm left handed but had the nailer in my right while holding the end stud with my left. The nailer double hit and the second nail skipped off the side of the top plate and into my index finger that was holding the stud. It did a nice little impression of the Steve Martin arrow thru the head gag. Yep, that's a 3" 16 penny ring shank nail.


I have to say the most painful part of the whole ordeal was the shot the doctor put in my finger so he could pull it out with a pair of pliers!

 

Wow.. some vicious hit's been taken by you guys.

As I said, I've made many blunders over the years, fortunately none have required any more than a few stitches and of course tetnus shot renewals.

A theme that seems to recur with me is electricity. I seem to like getting zapped I guess.

When I was a young kid, somewhere in the 5-7 range I guess, my mom had some friends over to play cards.
I was in the living room playing around, then my mother saw what she described as a "spectacular light show".

It seems I had gotten hold of a pair of barber shears somehow, and had cut the cord on a lamp.. arcing the scissors and producing a nice show at the same time. I obviously don't remember that one, but I do remember cutting what I "assumed" was a dead wire here at our new house. Couldn't find the bare handled linesman pliers at the time, so I just grabbed the bolt cutters I have hanging in the pumproom. Wouldn't ya know it, those bolt cutters have that same circular arc hole as those scissors did all those years ago.

I also found out the easiest way to check for spark on a plug, it's quite ingenious really.

You hold the spark plug while someone turns over the engine.. there is no mistaking whether there's spark or not.

Found that one out on a sunny day, checking plugs but couldn't see anything. I decided to hold it so I can block the sunlight.
It worked, the sunlight did not stop me from determining spark.