I though that it would be neat to share some of the stupid things that we, or others have done with electronics. Hopefully, we can create a thread with some amusement, which will help to lighten the mood a bit:

Here's my stupidest thing:

When I was 16, I owned a 1966 Ford pickup, which guzzeled gas(Petrol etc) like no other. I think I got about 6-8 miles to the gallon. Anyway, I didn't have a lot of money back then, but I needed gas to get to work one day. My sister had a broken down car, which she intended to have hauled off to the junk yard. I noticed that there was gas in the tank that she wasn't going to use. So I set forth on an adventure to get the gas out of the tank.

Rather than siphon the gas from the tank, or take the fuel tank out of the car, I dedided that I would drill a hole in the bottom of the tank, and catch the fuel with a portable gas tank. (I was 16, I thought I knew everything.) So I went to my dad's shop, grabbed a BATTERY POWERED hand drill, crawled underneath the car and set to drill.

Since I was drilling upward, gas soon started to drip down the hand drill. If you're not familiar with hand drills, the motor inside gives off a spark as the motor turns and the brushes strke the seams in the armature. So I layed there, drilling into a gas tank, with sparks not more than 4 inches away from the gas tank, and dripping gas. It's a wonder that I am alive today! ops:

Needless to say: My family and I still laugh about my crazy idea, and my Dad still yells at me for doing such a stupid thing.

 

Last week...

I was very tired...and lazyness accompanies tiredness...and hunger soon accompanies lazyness...and food kills the hunger which kill lazyness which kills tiredness...

So, with this in mind I set off to cook something for my tired lazy body... what better than canned Chef-Boyardee Speghetti & Meat balls...

Yumm... problem is I couldn't wait for it to warm up, nor had enough energy to open the can, neither light the stove....

So I popped it in the Microwave just so...(can and all)...and set it for 5 minutes...
...4:59
...4:58
...4:57
...4:55

It never made it past 4:55... (both of them, the can AND the microwave)

 

LOL! I've done that one too, but with Pizza wrapped in Aluminum foil.

That'll sure woke you up for a while didn't it?

 

Me, my mom, my neighbours... the fire department....

 

LOL!!! THAT'S A GOOD STORY!

 

It hasnt much to do with electronics, but I once stopped my boss from adding water to boiling concentrated sulphuric acid. Since he gave me the sack for assaulting him, do you suppose I should've just watched?

 

i agree this is not apropriate, but heres my story:

When i was 13 i developed a mono-brow (ya know, when your eye brows suddenly turn into one long eyebrow across your face), i went into the bathroom one night, borrowed my dads razor and shaved it off.

Half-way through the shave, i realized i was shaving off a pimple or zit, so i started to bleed.

I took out a band-aid and tried to stick it over the shaved pimple, but my oily face wouldn't let it stick. So i got some toilet paper and taped it against my bleeding pimple. I taped it all the way to the side of my head.

In the morning right before school, i ripped the tape off. When i took the tape off it took the toilet paper and my eye-brows with it.

For the next six months, i never got a hair cut because everyone else would have seen my brow-less face.

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www.winpicprog.co.uk - Great PIC language tutorials.

 

Years ago when I was living at home with my parents, we had dinner with a bunch of people over, my mom put some buns on a decorative wicker basket and poped it in the microwave to warm them up, she didn't think that the decorations on the basket were made from foil, after a few minutes of eating we saw smoke comming from the kitchen.... we needed a new microwave...

Ron

 

But... the microwawe owen very good for destroying for hard impregnation of SMPS transformer. I've made shortcut to all pins (to avoid high voltage generating) and put into the mw owen. Just 5sec 5times with 3..4sec pause, and the transformer go very hot, the epoxy give up, and with pliers easy can disassemble.

 

We made Christmas decorations one year out of all those AOL CDs you receive in the mail by putting about 6 on a plate, then putting the plate in the microwave oven for about 5 seconds... they immediately cracked into some great patterns that reflected the light beautifully. We did that half a dozen times and hung them on the tree. Mind you, the house smelled of burned plastic for a day or so, but it looked stunning!...

My second experience was more recent... I just bought my first home... and I keep salt water fish and coral. Day *1* of moving into my new home, I hook up my equipment, and get the pumps, filters, etc all running. I then proceed to turn on my 250 W Metal Halide lamp. The ballast I built from components ignited the bulb 2 or 3 times (as is common until a stable arc can be maintained). After 2 or 3 attempts, a spark exploded from the side of ballast, fried the components, and popped the GFI circuit in the kitchen. My wife though I had electrocuted myself when all the lights in the house got REAL bright then dimmed and came back on.

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That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable...

 

I almost forgot.. I took a Digital Electronics class in college. First electronics class I ever took. We were building a clock with six-segment displays. I had just soldered some components into place when I proceeded to plug it into the wall to test. I QUICKLY realized that I had accidentally laid a strip of solder across the exposed leads from the outlet. The solder shorted the AC, instantaneously heating the strip, causing it to explode into miniature molten solder spheres pelting me and those around me... oops!

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That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable...

 

OW, that must have felt pretty good huh?

So many neat things that you can do with microwaves....oh and they're good for food too.

 

Thankfully I was wearing my glasses instead of contacts that day... that's all I have to say.

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That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable...

 

I remember when I first learned why they print those little voltage numbers on capacitors. I had a 12V Tantalum in a 21V system... The tiny little cap spewed a jet of flame that must have been a foot long. I am now quite careful i get a cap with suitable voltage rating.

Along those lines I learned that its a bad idea to check whether components are hot with your fingers - especialy when they are hooked to a 600W power supply. I had a nice TO-220 outline burned into my finger print for weeks. I now call this the sizzle test; if you touch it with your finger and you hear a sizzle then that component probably needs a heat sink.

Brent

 

heheheh. We can call you TO-220 man, or something goofy like that.

I heard those tantalums are pretty nasty when over driven, or put in reverse polarity. Never had the pleasure of finding out.