DIY - disasters & successes

[ElvisIsBeer]

I wondered if friends would care to share the heights and depths of their DIY endeavours.

Vivid description and occasional pics would be good.

Unsafe working practice & injury are most welcome as regular visitors to this thread.

Unintended consequences likewise.

Disapproval by SWMBO an added bonus.

:thumb:

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I have explained to SWMBO that I only do YDI - you do it!

 

[geetee]

When I was young and daft about 30 years ago we moved into a new house and I was fitting kitchen cupboards and sinks etc. I was lying on my back head under the sink with a tube of silicon. As you may know the end has to be cut off and the nozzle put on. Rather than get out and cut it I got my Stanley knife and in a cramped place tried to cut the end off! the knife slid off the plastic and straight into my wrist which started spurting blood.

Luckily I missed a main artery but still had to go to hospital to have stitches. I have a nice 1 cm scar (about 1/2 inch pre decimal) to show for it.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

My worst (and there have been a few) was when i was trying to connect the rubber hose from the air box to carb on my two stroke 490cc Maico Moto X bike, it
it was a pig of a job as it was a tight fit so i was using a screw driver to lever it over and it slipped and spiked me in the eye i couldn't see properly and thought i had done some serious damage, luckily i hadn't and it eventually sorted itself.

 

[BeerCat]

Not sure if this is strictly DIY but i fixed my PC monitor by replacing some capacitors. Also fixed my active studio monitors by doing the same. I try to foget my failiures as they are numerous but i expect they will come back to me. Great idea for a thread.

 

[TheQuokka]

I DYI everything, from making my own bread and currry paste, to fixing my telly, car, plumbing, etc. Which leads me to an occasion when I was living outback - I was clearing some shrubs from the side of the house and managed to put the chainsaw through the gas pipe! It didn't ignite, but I lost nearly a full bottle of gas before I shut it off. You couldn't get a tradesman for love nor money out there and it was on the low pressure side, so I soldered it up. :)

 

[Cwrw666]

When I was young and daft about 30 years ago we moved into a new house and I was fitting kitchen cupboards and sinks etc. I was lying on my back head under the sink with a tube of silicon. As you may know the end has to be cut off and the nozzle put on. Rather than get out and cut it I got my Stanley knife and in a cramped place tried to cut the end off! the knife slid off the plastic and straight into my wrist which started spurting blood.

Luckily I missed a main artery but still had to go to hospital to have stitches. I have a nice 1 cm scar (about 1/2 inch pre decimal) to show for it.

Don't mind me laughing...
Back in the early nineties I was at a Bikers festival in Derbyshire and went to cut off a piece from a bar of toffee with my knife. Cut the piece of toffee off alright, along with the end of my finger. Hahahahaha:lol:

 

[geetee]

Don't mind me laughing...
Back in the early nineties I was at a Bikers festival in Derbyshire and went to cut off a piece from a bar of toffee with my knife. Cut the piece of toffee off alright, along with the end of my finger. Hahahahaha:lol:

Even younger and dafter back in teh late 70s in Spain on a beach one night with a crate of beers and no one had a bottle opener so I had teh clever idea of putting two caps together and pulling at least one of them off. The bottles smashed together and I got a cut on my right hand third finger from top about 1 inch down. I wrapped it in a hanky after washing it in the sea and carried on drinking eventually going to bed a t 4:00 AM.

Next morning (er afternoon) the finger was bright green so I went to a spanish hospital where the doctor stitching it looked worse for wear than I did , had 2 days beard and scruffy jeans on. Another 1 inch scar on my finger.

I now always have a a bottle opener in my coat pocket wherever I go.

 

[geetee]

My best exploit about 12 years ago was cutting down some eucalyptus trees i nte hgarded using ropes and tree saws etc. All went well and was left with three big tree trunks about 1 foot in diameter and about 4 feet long. Loaded then into the back of my Zafira and off to the dump.

my son who is autistic went along and he was chatting to the bloke at the dump as I opened the back door. Unfortunately there is no lip in the boot the back and one log rolled out onto my foot. At first the searing pain and then I thought "what was that! and looked down at my swelling foot. I had to drive the car even though I was in agony and went to hospital with my shoe almost welded to my foot.

Big toe broken into 6 pieces and 3 weeks off work!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

on a beach one night with a crate of beers and no one had a bottle opener so I had teh clever idea of putting two caps together and pulling at least one of them off. The bottles smashed together and I got a cut on my right hand third finger from top about 1 inch down.

I like the "with another bottle" method -

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTpq0xFZiB8[/ame]

 

[Gingerbrews]

Was redoing the bathroom in the first flat SWMBO and I owned (many years ago); week before had put in new electric shower and buried the power cable in the wall. Got up early on Sunday morning to get started whilst she was still in bed. Drilling into wall to fit the new shower curtain, had forgotten that had moved cable . Great bang, flash and thrown across the bathroom. Gave Swmbo the fright of her life, and me too!!
Always careful after that!!

 

[Robin54]

Fell out of a tree with a chain saw...that was painful. Only had shorts and flip flops on

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

Fell out of a tree with a chain saw...that was painful. Only had shorts and flip flops on

Man after my own heart. :thumb:

 

[Cwrw666]

Fell out of a tree with a chain saw...that was painful. Only had shorts and flip flops on

Not a fan of protective gear then? Were you pi**ed as well?

 

[Robin54]

Not a fan of protective gear then? Were you pi**ed as well?

Not that sort of 'protection':lol:

 

[Gunge]

Not sure if this is strictly DIY but i fixed my PC monitor by replacing some capacitors. Also fixed my active studio monitors by doing the same. I try to foget my failiures as they are numerous but i expect they will come back to me. Great idea for a thread.

I've just restored a 1977 monster Hitachi amp to as new condition, including replacing all 32 capacitors. Phew! Worst incident was fiddling around with an opened-up, plugged-in glue gun. Touched a wire and was in a state of full-on electrocution for maybe 10 seconds, though it felt like a lifetime. Had the missus not been there to flick the switch I would surely have been fried... could not let go. I remember hoping and praying that she had the good sense not to touch me. She had!

 

[geetee]

Fell out of a tree with a chain saw...that was painful. Only had shorts and flip flops on

Was the saw damaged then?

 

[MyQul]

And this thread is why I NEVER go any where near anything DIY related (the fact I have zero DIY skills has nothing to do with it :mrgreen:)

 

[geetee]

And this thread is why I NEVER go any where near anything DIY related (the fact I have zero DIY skills has nothing to do with it :mrgreen:)

Most people have very limited DIY skills but it doesn't stop then saying " I could do that!" myself included.

 

[MyQul]

Most people have very limited DIY skills but it doesn't stop then saying " I could do that!" myself included.

tbh, your absolutely right. I can fix/adjust almost everything on my bike from watching youtube vids