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Post by Paws on Sept 12, 2004 3:25:25 GMT 12.75
You know when I was a teenager I was curious about everything. But this is one of those "Here's Your Sign" moments we all have but are for the most part smart enough to never repeat nor talk about. Personally, I never had that particular problem. Anyhow one day, like many days, I found myself wondering about echos. I had this old 12 ga shotgun shell, found an empty 3 pound coffee can, and started looking for an ignition source. Now I figured that there was entirely too much powder in the shell to conduct this experiment in the house and I didn't want to go outside so I cut the shell open and removed the powder pellets and wadding package. I saved those for future "Here's Your Sign" experimentation. I had remaining an empty casing attached to a brass base with an intact, live primer. "Great!" This thing will stand up all by itself in the echo chamber (coffee can). This way I can just set the thing on "TOP OF A STOVE BURNER AND TURN THE BURNER ON!! Yeah I did! I put a match to that burner and set that entire rig on top and stepped back and waited. About 20 seconds following contact, [glow=red,5,300]"POP"[/glow] ! That was it, no BANG, no BOOM, no shooting flames. Somewhat disappointed I began to put my toys away and noticed that the coffee can had a small hole, about the size of the cap, in the bottom. The cap was missing from the shell. The cap was not in the coffee can and there was a hole in the bottom of the coffee can. Hmmm must be in the stove, so I looked around. Then I noticed there was a small beam of light striking my eye from beneath the burner I used. How can this be? Stoves don't have lights under the burners? I examined the light beam more closely. Indeed it was coming from beneath the stove. Yes, even from beneath the floor! Holy cow flop! I could see through a "cap sized" hole all the way into the apartment below us!! Can you say shaped charge! ?? Where's my sign?
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Post by Carter Northcutt on Sept 12, 2004 5:37:46 GMT 12.75
D'OH and double D'OH
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Post by threedogs on Sept 13, 2004 13:06:34 GMT 12.75
ROFLMAO ;D
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Post by Paws on Sept 13, 2004 14:13:25 GMT 12.75
Well maybe not theeeeeee dumbest. You see I have this cousin, David Slater, who is three or so years younger than me. Now if you saw Dave you'd think he is fifteen years older but that's only because of the bags under his eyes, wrinkles in his face, grey hair and the limp, hunched over back and the cane! When David and I were kids we spent a lot of time together. For him that wasn't necessarily a good thing because most of the experiments I dreamed up I would "let" him try out first! ;D Like the time we invented the parachute! Yep, we just happened to have this big old barn, a wooden ladder that reached the top clear up there around 26 foot to the peak, a great big old chenile bedspread and a whole lot of rope! Then of course we had Dave! Well one thing led to another and the first thing you know David is standing there on top of the barn, yep, tip top peak with that bedspread tied to a rope on each corner and hanging over his shoulder kind of like a cheap immitation of Batman. He didn't even hesitate for a second. Up into the air he tossed the bedspread and "Geronimo" he shouted as he swan dived from the base of the weather vane. "Floop sproing creak" came the sounds and there was David hanging midway between the roof top and the ground with the bed spread caught on the top of the ladder . "Rrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiippppp" came next as the bedspread slowly gave up it's stitches gently lowering David all the way to the ground. We considered the venture a flop that we couldn't try again since the parachute was destroyed. Did I mention that the parachute was from Aunt Betty's bed? She was not amused! David was soundly thrashed for not only destroying her bedspread but for risking his very life at the same time. Adults simply do not understand!
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Post by Buckeye on Sept 14, 2004 4:06:16 GMT 12.75
I'm glad I never did anything like that when I was a young un!
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Post by shiloh on Sept 16, 2004 6:25:03 GMT 12.75
The cap experiment was great!LOL! Not nearly as good, but when at gunsmithing school, I had to test a Browning A-5 to see if the firing pin was indeed protuding the bolt face with the hammer strike. Now, they taught us the trick of sticking a hard dowel in the assembled gun's barrel, holding thegun upright and dry firing to see if the pin popped the hard dowel up. But, I'd negligently already taken the barrel off, along with the friction rings etc. and was too lazy to put it back together for that little test. I held the gun upright and placed my finger firmly over the firing pin hole and pulled the trigger. You know that nano-second between your commencing a stupid activity when your brain has time to think "hey, maybe this ain't such a hot idea" but it's still before the end result? I actually had my speedy little brain run down all the problems with this stupid act between the time the sear disconnected from the hammer, and the end result. The pin did protrude its specified few thousandths of an inch, which hurt like he11, and raised a purple blister on my finger tip. I then reacted in the predictable "eeouch!" fasion and slung the A-5 off the table where it landed by my table on the concrete floor. This of course made a loud sound and won me many confused and astonished looks from fellow students and instructors. All I could do then was to sheepishly pick it all up and act like "I meant to do that." ;D --Shiloh
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Post by Paws on Sept 17, 2004 6:20:04 GMT 12.75
Shiloh that rivals the "I fubarred" act pulled by my friend Sgt Mathew Scarf who was a KC-135 Maintenance Weenie at Rickenbacker. In order to work on the engines parts of the wing and areas off the ground by 15 foot or better the troops use a maintenance stand more or less a platform that is reached by stair, rail or sometime lifted by hydraulics like a cherry picker bucket. Well Mat was using a hydraulic platform which could be raised and lowered only by a second operator on the ground. After the platform was in place Mat was supposed to install safety pins in the rails of the platform to prevent it from sliding down if the hydraulics should leak. This step he ignored; however, when the stand started to slip he thought that maybe he could just insert his finger into one of the holes where the pin goes just until he could get a pin into another hole.... Well needless to say the human index finger does not support a six hundred pound weight too well or for very long when concentrated into a small sharp edged area! He didn't lose it; but even the most creative surgery could make it look no better than a lightening bolt!
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Post by shiloh on Sept 17, 2004 7:14:34 GMT 12.75
Yikes! Reminds me of a story my father-in-law told. He used to drive car-carrying trucks for Ford. Some guy he knew had decided not to isert the safety pins on the upper deck after loading it with cars. He got on the lower deck and for some reason decided to do something to the hydrolic line near the rear. In the process, the line ruptured or came off and instantly a 1-ton vehicle and steel upper deck came crashing down! As you can guess, they never found out what posessed him to not use the pins and then to play with the hydrolic line.
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Post by Paws on Sept 17, 2004 7:26:12 GMT 12.75
Well if they were American Motors products; it could have been Gremlins, but Ford sheesh I don't have a clue!
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Post by Paws on Nov 11, 2004 3:03:51 GMT 12.75
And then there was the time when my cousin David and I decided to relieve the boredom by making " "FIRE CRACKERS" ! We just happened to have a five pound can of Red Dot gun powder, a nice supply of aluminum foil and a roll of toilet paper. We always had a supply of matches! We had made and exploded about twenty or so when we manufactured this particularly stubborn one. It refused to ignite and explode properly. The toilet paper fuse burned to the end of the foil body and went out. We had tried to iginite it a half dozen times. We piled up some shredded toilet paper and placed the fire cracker in the middle and lit the fire to "cook" it! Nothing! "I'll getthat damned thing to light!" exclaimed David! No sooner had he uttered this proclamation than he grabbed the mason glass jar filled with the gun powder we were using and began to sprinkle it over the embers of the fading toilet paper. It must have been that tiny flash of reason Shiloh spoke of above because just as the powder hit a spark and just as the spark lit the airborne powder trail David released the jar spun around 180 and raised his hands to cover his ears! A mild "whump" ensued but with a blinding [glow=red,10,600]"flash!!"[/glow] The brightest light I had ever seen! So bright in fact that it momentarilly turned off the "Dusk to Dawn" security light at the bottom of the hill more than a half mile away! David lay there in misery. Half blind, ass bleeding and his britches tattered and torn by the exploding glass jar. I think that he still today carries memories of this event with him! And I am sure that he has often thought of the consequences if he had "not" spun that 180 just nano-seconds prior to ignition!
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Post by Rich on Nov 11, 2004 5:08:01 GMT 12.75
Here's one I don't like to admit too but will.
You know how sometimes you can lick the end of a battery to make a better connection? Well, maybe you don't know that but trust me you can.
I was at work one day and my calculator didn't seem to work right. Now, this wasn't a battery operated one but one that plugged into the wall. It seemed like it wasn't getting enough juice so I surmised if you can lick the end of a battery to get more juice you should also be able to lick the end of that little thing you plug into the calculator to do the same thing. I just figured a little saliva would help make the connection. It does!!
Do you know how hard your tongue gets when it is zapped with a straight shot of 110? It is also very hard to turn loose of the dumb thing. It's like sticking your tongue to a frozen pipe but with a lot of sizzle. You're fillings get a little frazzled also. Don't ever want to do that again.
Rich
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Post by Rich on Nov 17, 2004 13:48:48 GMT 12.75
Well, I guess I can add another one to this list. I parked my truck tonight, got everything out of it that I needed to go sit in my stand. Closed the door and lo and behold I locked the keys inside. Had to break a wing window to get back in.
I worked on that dumb wing for over an hour and I was running out of hunting time so took a hammer and busted it.
Not nearly as exciting as licking the hot end of a wire plugged into the wall but pretty darned frustating none the less.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Oh yeah, my cell phone and spare key were in the glove box.
Rich
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Post by Paws on Nov 20, 2004 3:25:20 GMT 12.75
ROFLMAO! I'm happy to see that the old case of "DA" happens to everyone without discrimination! ;D Great stories Rich!
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Post by Rich on Nov 20, 2004 10:58:28 GMT 12.75
Thanks Phil. Unfortunately, they are all true.
By the way. I didn't know for sure how to post this in the thread about "one day when" without screwing it up so thought I'd post it here. That danged thread is worse than computer solitaire. I am an addictive person anyway and I'm afraid I'm addicted to it. It is about one of the funniest things I've ever read and it is more fun to add to it. I am always amazed at what people come up with. And, poor CG. She must be an Angel to put up with this crew.
Thanks, (I think) for starting it.
Rich
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Post by Paws on Nov 20, 2004 14:00:56 GMT 12.75
Yes sir CG is a true treasure! ;D You are right thosee threads can be funnier than all get out!
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Post by Rich on Nov 20, 2004 15:23:09 GMT 12.75
I bet she reads all those things and laughs her little butt off. If not, I'm sure she would be chastising a bunch of old cowboys.
Nice to have a gal around that can go with the flow and take a little ribbing.
Rich
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Post by OLKoot on Nov 21, 2004 4:21:54 GMT 12.75
These are all great anecdotles. Being big city born and raised, we didnt have all those toys to play with and not coming from a high income family, didnt have the money to buy the toys to create the problems..... we just had to try out simple home products and hope for the best. We did however have some loonies in the neighborhood, like this jerk that thought he was superman, and jumped off a 6 story apartment building in his superman outfit, or taking bottlerockets and having a shoot out behind parked cars......NOthing great but it helped pass the boredon....playing kick the can in the street and having one can loaded with doggie doooo, for that extra special nerd in the group.Also as we outgrew spin the bottle the next best thing was to play touch football and challenge the girls.ON a danger curve from 1-10 that was committing suicide if caught....as far as explosives and not posting a book on what we did with firecrackers, we also made things that lfew out of the match heads and tin foil.....so that was our release from boredom besides fighting the kids on the next block........
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Post by Paws on Nov 21, 2004 4:56:47 GMT 12.75
Did I ever tell you how we made "speedbumps?" Back on Hunterdon road close to number 10 Hollow before you got to number 17 coal tipple there was a fairly straight stretch of gravel road. It started to straighten out right beside my Step-dad'splace and folk had a tendency to rev up right there by his door. One afternoon three of us spent our time carving all the bark off this ten or twelve foot long log all in one piece.Yessir when we finished it and laid it across the road right on the blind side of the last curve it looked just exactly like a "whole solid intact" log about a foot and a half in diameter. Well sir would you believe that was all it took to "end" the neighborhood hot rod teen-agers speed demon's trips? Yep, he was first one around that curve, saw that log swerved and head onned into a walnut tree beside the road. He wasn't hurt but boy was he mad when he saw that log was hollow and his car was totaled! ;D
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nickw
Water Fetcher
Posts: 3
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Post by nickw on Nov 27, 2004 11:10:58 GMT 12.75
I won a dollar bet by peeing on a hot electric fence! ;D Then I had to pay my buddy five bucks for not telling anybody!
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Post by CountryGal on Nov 27, 2004 14:52:43 GMT 12.75
You guys are killing me I have been sittiing here thinking that...well never mind. I am just glad the good Lord made me a female. I mean I don't know how you fellows are still around after some of the stunts you pull. I am sure that my boys have done some stupid things when they were younger and I know they still do but wont aim up to them. I also hate to admit that I laughed at all of them but if a prize was givin out Kokvik, Darling, you get first place. How is your tongue anyway?
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