I love it when signs save me money and make me feel smart. Of course, everyone’s had spell check do a number on their work — we’ve had a couple funny ones here at Toolmonger — but it’s amusing to see it happen to other folks, too.
Most people won’t read anything past “50 percent off” anyway, so “register” being misspelled way at the bottom will hardly be a stumbling block amid the pillaging going on at the table it’s attached to. I had two tools in my hand before I stopped to read the sign fully myself.
Watching other folks screw up a lifting operation never gets old — but it always makes you wonder about the circumstances at the scene when they were rigging it up. Did the crane operator have somewhere else to be? Did he bet his buddy he could screw this bad boy up in under twenty seconds?
It just doesn’t occur to people that what you may think is a permanent connection or solid object is only strong in one direction. Lifting on an object with four times its own weight slung under it isn’t the best plan of action. We suspect they came to that conclusion at about second 13 of the video.
We’re pretty sure no one in this video actually owns that dozer. All that laughter at the end is a tell-tale sign these guys either intended to do it or aren’t financially responsible for the fallout.
It could’ve been worse: Had the trailer not cut when it did, whoever owned that white pickup behind the semi would’ve been walking home. We’re pretty sure this happy little event added an hour or two to the end of the day –- of course, that assumes they hadn’t declared “Miller Time” right before they devised this plan.
Ever wonder what would happen if you decided to use your household vacuum like a snow blower? Wonder no longer! Actually, it worked a great deal better than we thought it would.
Sure, you run a risk of electrocution, and there’s the slight chance your vac won’t ever be the same again, but if you can get that sidewalk clear, who cares? Seriously, who says you can’t use your regular Hoover like a wet/dry vac?
Did we mention not to do this? Don’t do this — we’re pretty sure copious amounts of Anheuser-Busch were involved here.
You can blame blunders like this for many of the “never do that” lectures the old-timers give you — you know, the ones you toss aside and never give a second thought to. Those pearls of wisdom came from somewhere, and probably from scenes like this.
Remember, kids, always check to make sure the flow is shut off when you cut into a pipeline. At least it was water and not sewage or something really nasty.
It’s not that fathers and sons don’t love each other, but when Dad screws up, the son will find it funny — ok, not funny, hysterical. In this case, anybody can see that a dump truck unloading on a hill is going to be trouble, but sometimes you just have to let Dad have his way.
Even if these guys set this up just for the video, I wouldn’t be able to resist posting on the net and making fun of the same guy who told you, “Stop that, you’re gonna break it!” all those times. Just once to catch dad pulling a “Doh!” on camera is worth more than money.
I realize that it’s not always obvious to you when you’re pulling a completely boneheaded move. Maybe you’re not fully on your game, or your attention is elsewhere. But when you rip a crane off the back of your trailer, it has to be a show-stopper.
I may not know what that 12-foot spark trail coming out from underneath the trailer was, but I feel certain I would’ve stopped the truck to investigate. Luckily when the crane boom caught the overpass beam and yanked it off, no one was injured.
The video won’t do much for this guy’s trucker license though.
Sometimes you witness something that you’re almost sure has to be fake — this guy pulling into the quick lube is one of those times. If it was an employee, you may find him buried under the quick lube. If it was the owner, you might find him under a giant can of Old Milwaukee that fell from the sky.
Whether it’s fake or not, we’re very curious how they got the car out of the pit. We can think of several ways, but the simplest –- and most entertaining — may be to hook it up to a tow truck and rip it out of there. But you can’t always find the really good videos on YouTube.
It’s always embarrassing to see these videos come out of your home state. What we have here is a fine example of what happens when you think all those height signs on overpasses and overhangs don’t apply to you. It’s like something you’d see in a movie, except the truck doesn’t explode or anything.
What I’d like to know is what did the cops — who undoubtedly showed up to this — do upon arriving? If it was me, I don’t think I could’ve kept from doubling over in hysterical laughter, after I’d determined no one was hurt. It’s probably best I don’t wear a badge.
Growing up in the video-game era, I can honestly say that most of the time I heard the phrase, “Drop a new engine in it,” I got the idea that it was something that takes about twenty minutes and suddenly you could turn a Yugo into a GTO. After all, you could do it in video games with the push of a button — how hard could it really be, right?
I think back to that kid and wonder, if I’d had the equipment at age five, would my first attempt have resembled this engine and van combo: spectacular and highly fruitful — but only in the sense that I’d laugh for about a week, then do it again.
Doh! Tie down your load, know the length, know the height! Obviously this story happened in 2006, but breaking S#!$ is cool any time. Check out more photos of this whoopsie on Snopes.com.
While we’re on the subject of bridges, when was the last time you watched a video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse? Structural failures, machinery failures, tool failures — Toolmongers usually arrive on the site before anyone else, either containing or cleaning up the mess. And sometimes a Toolmonger pulls a Tim “The Toolman” Taylor stunt.
Let us know in comments about the failures and mistakes you’ve seen.
Every time I watch Ax Men I remember why I’m not in the logging business: loggers don’t have good days. Okay days are when no one gets hurt and you think you might still have a job next week. Most days, or at least the ones we see on the show, begin or end with something like this picture we found on the Gustafson website.
That’s got to be disheartening, to see your high-dollar crane — your best way to get logs on the trucks and make money for the company — dumped head-first into a ravine. Oh yeah, and you need to get the truck out before you can deal with the real problem. These guys cope with a very different set of problems than I do on a daily basis.
Recently we were testing some hole saws in the Toolmonger shop, and we managed to get a giant, circular hunk of two-by-four stuck in a saw. After some thought we ended up removing the chunk with a small drill bit and a large common screwdriver, but we started wondering if any of you have a better solution.
I found some interesting tools that could’ve helped — a slug ejector for $12 and a hole saw hook for $5 — but waiting for a tool to ship would’ve been downtime with no hole saw.
What would you have done? Let us know in comments.
File this one under Reckless. This guy was just asking for it, and — guess what? — he got it. I still don’t understand why he had to stand on the top step; ladder manufacturers print “DO NOT STAND” up there for this exact reason. Even so, I’ve committed that sin a few times myself, but I did so with extreme caution. Fortunately the guy wasn’t hurt — or was he?
Watch what happens when non-Toolmongers audition for a home shopping network by trying to sell a camouflaged drill set. I laughed so hard when I saw this — what a great item to weed out the bad salesmen. Not only do they concentrate on the least important feature, the camouflage, but they have no idea what they’re talking about. My favorite quote: “Maybe you wanna lay in the grass and drill.”
I’ve seen some pretty stupid things in my lifetime, and this one ranks way up there on the list — a prime example of what can happen when you don’t have the right tools for the job. Try not to laugh too hard.
See it here before you see it on Ax Men, folks — cutting down trees isn’t as easy as it looks. You know the old “I could’ve caught that” saying while watching football/baseball? Well, you probably couldn’t have. And the same goes for cutting down trees: just when you think you’ve got it, all hell breaks loose.
