Gotta be careful when using fluorinated hydrocarbon based cleaners (red can brak-kleen is one) or Freon. When you burn them you can make phosgene and I think Bill and I found out that they burn when they go through a propane heater. What the heck is phosgene? One of the first nerve gasses…

:shock:

As a newbie to the fine line of brakekleen products that the dorki's love so much and the owner of a partially disassembled engine which needs some cleaning in the cold winter, this is timely information.

Translation: I will not be cleaning my engine with brakeleen and the garage door closed with the space heater on any more. :o

Years ago I my friend and I were installing a "hot" blue cap coil in my hopped up Karmann Ghia. I bolted it to the doghouse fan shroud and was about to plug it into the distributor. Just then my friend decided to turn the key and fire the ignition. All I remember is waking to find myself on my a** on the other side of the garage. :roll:

On a similar note. I was once using an air grinder to grind a braised weld, and the damn wheel kept flexing (before the hard grind wheels today) they were really only stiff sandpaper wheels then. So I had the brilliant idea of putting a disk on backwards first, and then another wheel on afterwards facing out - problem solved. Until a coupla days later when I was using the same grinder, and the inside wheel ground through the shaft, slid down and sanded off the top of my trigger finger knuckle to the bone. Ouch - hurts thinking about it. I was of course using 40 grit :shock:

When my wife and I were teens (dating) she had an old Galaxie 500 convertable I'd gotten running for her, and on this particular rainy day it wasn't starting. I was more of a body man then a mechanic but had seen my father check coil wires for spark by touching it to the engine block. Figured I'd impress the girlfriend with my mechanical abilities, and unplugged the coil wire (yes barehanded - did I mention it was raining?) and told her "Turn it over!" I really don't remember anything after that, though she said she turned the engine for about 60 seconds. Seemed like two days to me... :roll:

Keith

bad bad
 

I have not been harmed in the garage in the last 24 hrs. Of course, i was just out there changing a few light bulbs at 11:30 last night, and called it quits before i got into bigger projects.

always use jack stands. I learned the hard way, but was very lucky not to get hurt, as the car slowly lowered on top of me w/o my notice. If i hadnt been bundled in multiple layers, i wouldnt have been able to wiggle out. and the cell phone next to me had just died.

i don't like fumes, so i'm pretty good about that stuff.

My sister-in-law is a very picky eater, no onions amoung other things. How can you make a proper batch of chili with absolutely no onion? You can't, that's how.

So, my brother took her away for the morning and I was assigned to put together the chili with all required ingredients. Including onions.

I my extreme haste to prepare the dish, while chopping said onions; I sliced off a 1/16 sliver of finger and fingernail. Took years for proper feeling to return to that digit. Not to mention the challenge of finishing the chili.

Fortuneately, there was no negative impact on the flavor of the chili and the small slice of finger and fingernail apparently so resembled onion that we never noticed.

Sister-in-law did like the chili.

"Pay attention", I have been told. "It's the details, think before, during and after." Sage advice.

One day I was changing the races in a Cessna 150 wheel half. The shop had a hydraulic press. I put the wheel and a socket the size of the race on the press and began to pump. You guessed it, I pressed the race all the way through the wrong side of the wheel. An aircraft junk yard saved the day, and it was my airplane, so I didn't have to face a customers ire. :oops:

My wife thinks i must be insane laughing at the computer screen! Great stuff!

A few of many:
Growing up in the construction I started working in the shop when I was 12. Bassically sweped the floor did odd jobs and was the brunt of a lot of good natured insanity. After a few weeks I had changed the oil in a few trucks and was now experienced enough to work on heavy equiptment. (Plus I was still small.) "Go change the hydro fluid in the D96" (Catipillar dozer) I thought a simple job as I grab my wrench and crawled under with a bucket.

Of course the plug dropped in the bucket, and it must have been 50 gal of oil hit the floor. :oops:

Most painful: Lost end of left middle finger in the router. :shock:

Scarriest:
Cutting off a piece of angle with the torch the hot end landed on the oxigen line and burned thru. (Sounded like a jet engine!)

More to come I'm sure. Lucky so far no real dammage!

Bill, I feel your pain.
How do you explain to a fellow driver on the beltway the error of his ways when he cuts you off? Methinks showing him a 2 inch middle finger lose's something in translation. :roll: