Wrong tool!

mommucked

mommucked

Endeavoring to persevere
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Location
Rural Apex n.c.
Anyone else have a wrong tool story? Years ago a friend of mine was doing a drum brake job and used needle nose pliers to try to put the shoe springs on. Seated on a milkcrate and pulling up on the stiff truck spring the pliers slipped and he stabbed himself in the forehead w them. They actually pierced his skull:eek: I saw the xrays!. He was not seriously injured, No "apparent" brain damage and was conscious and alert the whole time, but obviously in alot of pain. the doctor said if he'd hit himself in the eye it would have been alot worse. Can you top that?
 
Finishing up brake job on my old Z28....broke the brake tool on the last drum.....setting the last damn spring w/ my trusty Klein screw driver....BAM! - slipped off & stabbed my dumbass in the eye-socket (about 3/4-1" deep). Nice Father's Day spent in the ER...could have been my eye, got lucky.

Right tools are cheaper than medical bills....
 
wow, I thought I was the only dumbass who almost lost an eye on those drum brake springs. Mine was a craftsman flathead screwdriver ended up square between my eyes. Didnt break the bone or anything, but I bet I turned white as a ghost, I dropped everything and had to take a moment to gather myself up after almost skewering an eyeball.
 
I jumped up & then doubled over...my buddy saw me pull the screw driver out & thought my eye came w/ it.

When we hit the ER, I told the cop on duty my buddy (my driver) popped me in the eye (good bit of blood by then)......he was half way out the door until I busted out laughing.
 
...I dont know about wrong tool with the drum brake stories... maybe wrong methods :lol:

Now I've done the whole "press a metal sleeved bushing out with a piece of exhaust tubing that was miraculously about the same OD, leaving the tubing stuck in the leaf spring and requiring me to use the sleeve(bushing) to press the tubing back out aaaaand then i was back to square one. (So then i got smart and pressed it out with an impact socket)
 
I don't think I can top those...and for the record, I got the heeby jeebees reading them...but I was trying to get an old intake off a truck. I had a hammer and phillips on the fender, so instead of walking the 15 steps to get a pry bar, I decided to use the phillips. I work the driver in and underneath the intake...start working around the side and start pounding with the hammer. I had my hand on the block for leverage, the intake spit the screwdriver on my last swing and the phillips ended up going through my left palm in the meaty part between my index finger and thumb. It was surreal to see the screw driver through my hand. I pulled it out, surprisingly, there wasn't much blood...washed it out with betadine and alcohol, wrapped it in gauze and athletic tape and went back to wrenching. It was sore and tender for quite a few months, but never lost any movement or motor skills...took forever to close up though.
 
I had a local buddy who was putting new coil springs in the front of his 79 TA. They were really stiff drop springs and he was using some weird setup he had come up with using some threaded rod and steel plate or something. Stupid design but he didn't want to drive to the store to rent the right tool.

He said it was almost on when he heard a noise that didn't sound normal. He leaned back and the spring let loose, bounced off the floor and over his shoulder and blew a hole right through a panel in his garage door. Can't imagine what that would have done to his head!
 

Watch this classic safety film and you will all be much safer workers
 
Blaze said:
I had a local buddy who was putting new coil springs in the front of his 79 TA. They were really stiff drop springs and he was using some weird setup he had come up with using some threaded rod and steel plate or something. Stupid design but he didn't want to drive to the store to rent the right tool.

He said it was almost on when he heard a noise that didn't sound normal. He leaned back and the spring let loose, bounced off the floor and over his shoulder and blew a hole right through a panel in his garage door. Can't imagine what that would have done to his head!
Click to expand...

Friend of mine was changing the struts on a dodge caravan. He didn't have a spring compressor so he used radiator clamps. Things were going great till the first one failed. Then they all failed and fired the spring out through the side of his shop. Missed his head by fractions of an inch.
 
:shaking:A friend of mine worked a Fireman part time at his shop. He told him to wax and detail a customers car and make sure it was right because he was a very good customer. The fireman was almost finished vacuuming and decided to flip up the gas filler door on the CORVETTE and suck the waxing dust from around the GAS filler! The vacuum cleaner was one of those really good ones and when the fumes went through the dam thing it exploded into a fireball which sent the top half into into the air still running and slammed into the rafters shaking the 50 year old dust into the interior and all over the pristine Corvette! This happened just when the proud owner rounded the corner and seen the whole show! Vacuum cleaner still running as it landed on the tail, cracking the fiberglass and still sucking and blowing all the dust from the canister and rafters! The rest is sorta obvious! No one really got hurt from a tool but I still had to share the story!
 
Back
Top