Tell me something you/someone else did that was really stupid and the lesson learned.

[K'Tesh]

Not me... But something I read, and shared on the forums before... Still, funny as hell.














(girl's toilet story)

 

[K'Tesh]

 

[K'Tesh]

Lesson learned? Don't Panic! (and keep your yap shut)
2nd lesson learned? Don't try to post this story when you're recovering from a cold... between the laughing and the need to cough, I felt a little woozy there for a moment (and no it's not covid, I've been tested nearly daily for almost a year now).

Girl's toilet story

 

[jqavins]

[T]he radiators had been painted over with 80+ years of pain

Typo, or Freudian slip?

while the naval jelly did its thing

Isn't naval jelly strong sulfuric acid jell? For paint stripping? Really?

Lesson learned: Don't scratch your junk when you're stripping.

Nicely done there.

 

[K'Tesh]

Typo, or Freudian slip?

Isn't naval jelly strong sulfuric acid jell? For paint stripping? Really?

Nicely done there.

typo (fixed before I saw your post)

I don't remember what product I was using, it was some kind of paint stripper.

Thanks!

 

[tsmmiller]

I used to live in a very old apartment complex that my step father owned in Klamath Falls, Oregon. The date on the foundation put it at 1912 (and it was 1995 when I moved in). There was no AC in the unit, and it was hot as hell on a hot day. In winter however, it was also hot as hell all winter, as heating was done by an old radiator system that somehow had managed to keep working. However, the radiators had been painted over with 80+ years of paint, and that had frozen the valve in place. Well, the paint was flaking off, and it looked awful. So, one hot day, I get it in my head to strip the paint, and paint it with spray paint. I also wanted to see if I could somehow get the valve to at least partially close. Being hot and uncomfortable, I decided to no ruin any clothing by wearing anything while the naval jelly did its thing... Then I made the mistake of scratching my... ahem... forward nether regions.

Two hours later, I was finally able to get out of the bathtub full of cold water as the pain had finally subsided enough I could function again.

Lesson learned: Don't scratch your junk when you're stripping.

I've had issue with Turco and naval jelly before, but never like this.
With my arthritis acting up once upon a time I had used the capsaicin cream for pain relief. It started to burn like crazy then it began to hurt like hell.
I figured with the knowledge you use milk to calm your mouth down after hot peppers I would try it on the areas I had treated. I had no milk. I had read once upon a time that it was the fats in the milk that did the cooling so I reached for the next best thing that I could find. A jar of mayo. I slathered it all over my knees and feet. What a mess! But it worked!
I wonder if treating the burns from such things as Turco, naval jelly and my worst of all skydrol would be effective in the same manner?

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Typo, or Freudian slip?

Isn't naval jelly strong sulfuric acid jell? For paint stripping? Really?

Nicely done there.

Navel Jelly is usually Phosphoric Acid.

 

[jqavins]

The fat in milk is a solvent for the capsaicin. Other fats work just as well (generally) so it's no surprise the mayo worked. For inside the mouth, I like sour cream. A mouthful of vegetable oil works.

All that is for clearing the capsaicin away, not for treating burns. Capsaicin doesn't actually burn the skin at all, it just triggers those same nerves.

 

[K'Tesh]

When one of my orders of PSII kits from Estes arrived damaged, I contacted them, and they replaced the entire order... Which included an Argent, and parts for another build I was working on. So now I have a damaged Argent, and lots and lots of PSII parts. I decided to build an upscale Cherokee-D with it. Decals from Stickershock, It was glorious. I finally got a chance to join OROC and go to a launch. My L1's first flight (MPR) went well. The first attempt at a Cert failed (the hard landing broke the nosecone.




Thanks to help from Rob Appleton (an Awesome Bloke), it was fixed... with Union Jack duct tape. 2nd attempt was a perfect flight. I had my L1.


I'd flown G's and H's... I got it in my head to try to fly the alphabet w/in 24 hours, and went to the onsite vendor and bought some F engines (I had As, Bs, Cs, Ds and Es back home), and a Halloween candy basket rocket that I could fly in the neighborhood. But first... I needed to fly something with a F motor, and Sheridan, Oregon was where that was going to happen.



The F went into the Cherokee-D, and the button was pushed. The UP was beautiful... But because I had built it with a baffle, and as a zipperless design, I had the recovery bay attached to the NC, as was the shock cord. Well, guess who forgot to tape the NC to the recovery bay. The ejection charge knocked the recovery bay off the rocket, and the NC off the recovery bay. The parachute was stuck inside...



Now what you don't see in the video (which ended when the camera's battery finally gave up the ghost), was at the last possible moment, the parachute did extract itself, and deploy... *JUST* before the rocket could crash into the ground. When it fully deployed, the rocket seemed to nearly stop only inches above the ground, before coming to rest gently.

Yeah... I meant to do that.


Ok confession... I got lucky... stupidly lucky... Lesson learned? Make sure the NC is firmly attached to the recovery bay when going zipperless.

 

[jflis]

Hhmmm. So many…….

ok, when I was around 12-13 or so, I figured out that I could make motors myself. Easy, right? So I have my latest batch of “fuel” and a spent motor casing in my basement…. I have the plastic handle of a screw driver inserted into the motor casing, atop the fuel mixture and I’m compacting it with a hammer (um, yeah….)

one hit too many and it detonated right below my face…. Screw driver handle shattered, shaft was lost, face all black, large scrape along side of head, above ear, one eye slammed shut, covered in blood…

I ran upstairs, crying from the burns, our nanny comes out screaming, wondering what that noise was. At first she thought I had shot myself (we had guns in the basement). Rushed to the hospital, all bandaged up (didn’t need stitches in that gash in my head, but it was deep.)

I was born nearsighted. As a result of the concussion of the blast, ly left eye was deformed and I am now farsighted in that one eye.

months later, we remodeled the basement rooms and when we tore down the Sheetrock, we found the shaft f the screwdriver (it had gone through the sheet rock and rested in the wall space), still covered in hair and dried blood. It was the shaft that cut my head. THAT close….

yeah, I’ll leave the motor making to the experts, thank you very much…

 

[mh9162013]

Years ago my father was heavily into ice fishing, so I got him a set of ice rescue picks same as the ones I have here:

View attachment 550645

I told him how they work...basically just drape them around your neck and if you fall through the ice, it'll give you that bit of grip needed to pull yourself out.

Years later he confessed to me that he and his friends fell through the ice and had to be rescued by helicopter. If that wasn't bad enough, he was so delirious when they tried to help that he fought them off.

I asked him about the rescue picks I gave him. He said he had left them in the car.

Lessons learned:

• DON'T go out on the ice if you're not prepared in case you fall through.
• A safety device is 100% ineffective if you don't have it or don't use it.
• The time that you don't bring a safety device is the time you'll need it.
• Thank a first responder any chance you get.

A great example of how the best tool is the tool you have when you need it.

Whether it's a gun, knife, camera, epinephrine autoinjector, watch, first aid kit, mirror, match, flashlight, etc., you can have the fanciest and nicest one, but if you don't have it when you need it, so what.

 

[jqavins]

The first attempt at a Cert failed (the hard landing broke the nosecone... Thanks to help from Rob Appleton (an Awesome Bloke), it was fixed.

Arguably, the first attempt was the success, because the only damage was field repairable, as proven by the fact that you did.

I was born nearsighted. As a result of the concussion of the blast, ly left eye was deformed and I am now farsighted in that one eye.

Gee, a little less powder and you'd be 20/20!

 

[jd2cylman]

Maybe. It's been over a decade since I worked there though so for all I know they did do something like that eventually. One thing they were looking at at the time I left was automating the mixers.

Knight Mfg? Or Kuhn?
I used to work at a farm Implement dealership that sold Knight Big Auggies and Little Auggies. I welded in a LOT of replacement floor plates and auger flighting. Only set myself on fire twice… fun times.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

Little switch/lever thing fell off the front of a lawnmower I was using when I had a landscaping business in high school... Without thinking I grabbed the deck to tilt it up to see how to turn it off. Something whacked me in the finger which I slowly processed was the blade of the lawnmower... Looked down to a hand covered in blood... I was very lucky -- just lost the fleshy bit and kept all the digits! Plastic surgery and lots of stiches and it still feels strange when I think about it.

Lesson Learned: Always push down on the handle instead of lifting the deck to tilt a running lawnmower.

 

[Skywriter]

"Tell me something you/someone else did that was really stupid and the lesson learned."

Purpose: To entertain *and* educate others.

Request: No really bad results unless you feel it is good to learn from

I loaded my first ever CTI reload into my rocket but forgot to put it in the case. I hit the launch button and the rocket went off like a giant Piccolo Pete firework. Very embarrassing to explain what went wrong. Lesson: engage brain before launching.

 

[KenECoyote]

I loaded my first ever CTI reload into my rocket but forgot to put it in the case. I hit the launch button and the rocket went off like a giant Piccolo Pete firework. Very embarrassing to explain what went wrong. Lesson: engage brain before launching.

I've heard of one or two other cases of that and I'm sure there are more. Ouch!

 

[jqavins]

I loaded my first ever CTI reload into my rocket but forgot to put it in the case. I hit the launch button and the rocket went off like a giant Piccolo Pete firework. Very embarrassing to explain what went wrong. Lesson: engage brain before launching.

Not to mention, RTFM.

 

[KenECoyote]

Stupid rocketry thing: If you've got some amazing rocket that you've spent tons of time carefully building, DON'T use a suspect reload or motor in it...just not worth the risk.

 

[H_Rocket]

You don’t cheer for the bull in a Juarez, Mexico bullfight. Especially after drinking too much.

 

[Cape Byron]

Stupid things I shouldn't have done:

Disassemble a race car in the motel carpark.

Wash transmission parts in the motel bath.

Lessons learned:

Carry enough de-greaser to clean the bath.