Stupid things you do...

[Johnson777717]

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!

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.

 

[PsiRust]

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)

 

[Johnson777717]

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?

 

[PsiRust]

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

 

[Johnson777717]

LOL!!! THAT'S A GOOD STORY!

 

[spuffock]

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?

 

[pike]

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.

 

[RonH]

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

 

[Sebi]

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.

 

[Seppuku]

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.

 

[Seppuku]

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!

 

[Johnson777717]

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!

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.

 

[Seppuku]

OW, that must have felt pretty good huh?

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

 

[bmcculla]

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

 

[Johnson777717]

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.

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.

 

[Sankt-Seibel]

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. [/quote]

Hey TO-220 man,
I once had the honour to test the caps voltage (then, when it explodes) it sounds like firework and smells like peanuts.
I also once tried to make a light dependend timer for my computer. to light up the LDRs, i built in 230V lamps. To concentrate the light, i made some kind of mirror with aluminium to get out the light at only one side. then i tested it and somehow touched the alu, which was connected with the lamps. That sucks!!
Have fun!!
I just heard my granma ate 12years old chocolate a week ago (it didn't taste so good, but she ate it anyway...) my grannies always do things like this!!

 

[canadianpoet2012]

I've managed to do three stupid electronic related things in my time!

1) When I was about 7 I was poking around in the back of a brand new cooker my dad had just brought, as he was installing it. I was interested to know what the things were on the back. (You need to know that I am using small, metal scissors as my pointing thing!) He had already plugged it into the wall socket and was checking that it was level. There were some interesting looking vents on the back near the top (behind which was the mains I/P) As I was reaching towards them, and then through them, with my scissors, there was an almighty flash, a very loud pop and all the lights went out! I had shorted the mains I/P through my scissors to the case of the cooker! Those scissor blades are still welded together!!! Lucky escape!

2) I collect cold war memorabilia. I aquired myself a 1950's German Geiger counter a few years back. I'm always interested to know how things tick. So, the first day of getting it, I power it up using a D-cell (1.5v) battery, and take the back off!!! Thick hu? I had no idea what was what, but there was a diaphragm in the middle of it. I thought it was paper, so like an idiot I go and prod it! I got a massive jolt that gave me palpatations, and almost yellow adrenalin! I later measured it with a scope and found it to be over 300v!!!

3) I too have experienced sizzle test syndrome! I made a power supply to produce 270v from 230v. I had a dodgey smoothing capacitor. There was nothing wrong with the circuit or connections, it just shorted itself out somehow! Anyway, it smelt a bit funny and looked cracked. But I figured 'It can't be cracked, it would short and blow the fuse', so to see if it was a crack, I touched it!!! There was certainly some sizzling, mainly my language!! It was VERY hot and, it appeared that there was (somehow) 270v across the crack or case, because I got a massive a.c. shock at 270v (rms)!!! Not a good moment in my electronics hobby career!!!

With all those mishaps and pain, you would have thought I would have learnt by now! But I still give myself home-made difribulation every now and then!!! There is no better volt meter than the human finger! If it hurts, it's high; if it tingles, it's probably functioning normally; if it doesn't hurt at all, there's something wrong with your circuit!

 

[John Sorensen]

When I was in the navy, I was working on a temperature switch on a lube oil sump. The switch was closed but I wanted it to be open, and I figured it was a hysteresis thing and if I would just pry the contacts apart, then I would be fine. So I leaned through a handrail, holding the rail for balance, and proceeded to pry apart the contacts...

When I came to, I thought that the guy standing watch had whacked my across the shoulders with a baseball bat, as a joke, then I remembered what I had done.

I can't believe I'm alive. That was a 450VAC circuit.

BTW, who hasn't had a tattoo of a TO-92 on their index finger?

j.

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

Well if I though about it I could find stoopit conduct on my part but this is funny.

The company I worked for in the 90's we were installing an exhibition space on a museum grounds.
The setting...........
The exhibition was outside of the Tampa Museum of Art. Outside there was a submarine the power take off was tapped into the supply to the submarine..
The equipment....
We had a power distro that was either single phase 220 or 3 phase 220 settable by a switch that is the size of a coffee can mounted in the distro.

The fookup
The owner, thinking he was the expert of all the disciplines he oversaw ..."Don't tell me how to run my business...I own it" , interjects himself in the power destroy problem.

He attach's the distro directly to the Sub's power on a distro that was assigned to single phase 220, problem being the supply was 480 3 phase.

He turns on the power and I heard the loudest BUFFFFZZZZTTT sound I have ever heard in my life and the damn switch becomes a missile and ejects itself out of the distro and dents the Sub spirals up and comes down hissing as it hits the water. I didn't know whether to die laughing or die from embarrassment.

 

[Optikon]

Double -whammy here.. literally.

I was working on a power amplifier of many hundred watts.
I had to replace the output stage which consisted in part of several parallel current sharing power transistors. There were all in the TO-3 package which is the metal diamond shaped type..

I decided it would be a good idea to put just one transistor in and run the amp at a light load to make sure the rest of it worked ok (which I had some earlier modifications) this way, if it doesnt work yet, I dont have to solder all those TO-3's back in yet. Well it worked as expected under light load.

The next day comes and the only thing on my mind was to try and test the amp under full load. Of course not remembering how I had left things the day before, I put a real nasty load on the thing and threw the switch.

The single power transistor that was handling the full load went off like a firecracker and blew the top part of the case off of it. The case had landed in a power supply section of the circuit and took out another power mosfet and driver IC.

The icing on the cake was it also blew a fuse on a transformer primary for which, I had no more on hand. I figured this was a message of sorts, so I spent the remainder of the day doing things that don't require care or thought.