What's your "best" welding mistake?

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Since it's valuable to learn from others' mistakes and it can also be amusing, here goes:Most likely the pinnacle of my welding brain farts occurred to me one afternoon in my early high school years. This was back when I figured I already knew everything there was to know about everything. I made and installed a trailer hitch on a friends old Buick. As part of this, I stick welded under the car, on my back, a few inches from the fuel tank. When my father got home from work that afternoon, I showed him what I had built. He of course let me know what a dumb azz I was in no uncertain terms. Luckily nothing went bad this time, but can you just imagine how that Darwin award would have read?
Reply:Years ago I worked as a welder at a truck body mfg shop. We often started things out with basic cab & chassis platforms & went from there to build whatever our customer wanted whether it be a fire truck, dump truck etc.As the story goes, I was workong on building a ~25' stakebed to place upon a cab & chassis truck. It just so happened that for whatever reason the gas/fuel cap had been removed from the filler & I was welding a couple feet away. Next thing you know - out of the corner of my eye I saw what appeared to be a very brite light. The light was actually fumes burning as they escaped from the fuel filler tube.  The flames were ~6-12". I guess it was instinct, but quickly grabbed a handy wet rag that I always kept near me & stuffed it in the open fuel filler tube. Boy was my heart ever racing after that event.
Reply:Very lucky, most of the bu-hogs i've worked on had leaking tanks at some point. John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:At about 17 I really LEARNED the value/importance of grounding close to your work! I needed to repair the lower shock mount on my first car, a convertible Corvair, (Yes, I did just date myself). Thinking the nice clean metal of the bumper was a GOOD choice to place the ground, I did just that, and went under to weld up the mount. All went along fine, until I lifted the helmet to find a VERY hot, orange/red emergency brake cable. Cheap lessons learned early:  Ground as close as possible to the weld!Think, think, think!Just my  opinion, not from a book, just from the road.Howes Welding Inc.www.howesweldinginc.com
Reply:I'm rather new at this welding, but having great fun.  I'm also of the older generation.  This past weekend I was repairing the radiator cap on my daughters 1931 American Austin.  The old cap had rusted through on the bottom, the outer shell being nice and shiny, stainless steel.  I've been looking around at a number of flea markets for the correct size opening for a "donor" cap and recently found two of them at the Hershey Swap meet.  Well, I measured everythig up well and set to do my repairs.I decided to braze a Brass nut onto a thin piece of steel that I would braze into the old somewhat rusty cap.  The first step went very well.  As I brazed the steel piece into the cap, however, my brass nut just puddled and melted away.I later rethought this all and just brazed a steel nut into the rusted out opening  and all is well.But I'm having fun.Al Bachman
Reply:I once mistook a galvanized gate and fence I was working on as aluminum. when i first tried to weld it, the galvinized coating was pretty thick and prevented fusion with my bracket i built. so i hit the fence post with my grinder real quick and i didn't get any sparks, must be aluminum then right. so i rebuild the bracket out of aluminum and tried again, this too did not fuse. unfortunatly someone noticed my mistake and felt the need to broadcast it to everyone. I was only a week or two into my new job so i definatly made a good first impression
Reply:You dont wanna know  and i 'aint tellin'  ...zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Zap, you've got me interested! How bout you start off with, I knew this guy once, and he did.... Come on, confession is good for the soul, or so they say. I don't know for sure about that, but NOTHING teachers better than a mistake! So with the amount of mistakes I've made, I should be a professor!Just my  opinion, not from a book, just from the road.Howes Welding Inc.www.howesweldinginc.com
Reply:I have several, it just takes a minute or two to remember...One of mine:Even though I had a torch just a few feet away, and a nut splitter in my tool box, I tried cutting off a rusty nut from a chevy truck wheel with the liberal application of max heat from 6011 rod...the result turned a wheel that was a little stuck to one that now was welded to the rear drum and now COMPLETELY unremovable.  In the end, I spent hours repairing the damage from that laziness had to replace the wheel, lug, nut and brake hub, instead of just the nut.Another of mine:I was showing my dad how easy running a wire feeder was, but had forgotten to put the retaining nut on the spool spindle.  After about a foot or two of wire, the brand new 10# spool fell out of the...yes...OPEN  case and onto the asphalt, breaking the side of the spool off and unwinding about a thousand miles of .035 solid core wire.  That was not a good father-son moment...at least not from my point of view...my dad, on the other hand, loved it.  I hear that one every so often.Not mine:I had a neighbor down the street that had heard you could jump a car off with a welder and proceeded to attempt it with an AC-225 at full amperage.  I don't remember exactly what all he damaged.  But, it was a lot.  Luckily, I wasn't around for that one, but they had the fire department over.Definately not mine:Here is one I did see happen...it's not welding, but it's about a welder.  I was driving to work one day and saw a big welding company truck (like a power company truck, but not one) getting ready to get onto the on-ramp for the interstate going toward atlanta (ie., he was turing right onto a two lane on-ramp that eventually merges into one lane).  Coming from the other direction throught the traffic light was the other lane of traffic.  The truck had a miller bobcat on the left, on top of the very tippy-top of the side tool box.  The truck was going way too fast for the turn, and I guess the only thing holding the welder to the truck was a couple of bolts through the thin sheet metal tool box. But anyway, the welder popped loose under the stress and fell about 10 feet onto the road, proceeded to flip about 3 times before hitting and shattering the front end of a fairly new corvette coming up in the other lane of the on-ramp.  No one involved thought that one was funny at all.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:Come on, confession is good for the soul, or so they say.
Reply:What a great thread!! This one's gonna end up going on for weeks, probably end up in the WeldingDesign editorial page. Let me think on this one and I'll post back...If you don't have the time to do it right, then you definitely don't have the time to do it over.
Reply:Welding round parts on a little motorized turntable, forgot to move the ground from the table to the connection on the turntable.  The weld current apparently favored the 110V power cord as the path of least resistance.  It looked, and probably smelled, like Zap's "lack of water" cooled torch.Using a brand new Bridgeport mill to simply drill holes in a bunch of tubing, didn't set the stop right, and proceeded to drill through into the bed.  The shop owner almost cried.
Reply:This isn't mine but one that I saw happen.  A guy here locally in Carrollton was welding on a blade for a big caterpillar (I think it was a D6) anyway he was adding a piece to the top of the blade which the blade happened to be about 8 or so inches off the ground.  I remember hearing him yell and as best I could tell some guy who was up near the chair must have released the pressure off the hydraulics and the blade came down and crushed his feet (yes feet both of them) he ended up losing most of his toes and had to re-learn how to walk (I guess from losing his big toes).  It didn't sever his feet from what I could see but crushed them real bad.  I guess it was his screw up for not putting jacks under the blade or lowering the blade before is started.
Reply:I guess I have one to tell as well.  I was welding sockets on to a pier for a removable handrail.  I decided to insert the handrail into the socket prior to welding to help line everything up.  Anyways, I ended up getting to socket to hot and welded the rail to the socket as well.  It was a short bead, a little more than a tack, so I figured it would be fairly easy to break loose.  I beat on it a bit with a hammer with no luck when someone decided to suggest I use the forklift to pull it out.  Great idea!  I put one of the forks under it and proceeded to lift, nothing happened.  I continued to pull until the back wheels of the forklift came off the ground.  Still, nothing happed.  I shook the lift lever in the fork lift with the back wheels off the ground to try to jerk the thing loose.  After much shaking, it went with a BANG!!!  I thought the rail had gone in the water.  I looked over at the guy I was working with to see him looking up in the air.  I looked up to see the rail coming down from some unknown height and watched it land with a crash on top of one of our boats.  It landed inches from the thin fiberglass radar antenna.  If the antenna had not stopped in the position it did, it could have been destroyed.
Reply:I had rolled some rings about 8"  dia. 4" tall and cut a plate to fit inside of it flush with the bottom.  I had been grinding a little off the plates and fitting them into the rings.  I started welding the plates in the bottoms, well I forgot to put a plate in one of the rings and I welded the ring solid to my table.  Another guy at work had his finger under one of the dogs on the shear and crushed the end of it off.  That was nasty.I didn't line a punchup good in the ironworker the night before last and shattered it, I have to have surgery in the next few days to get the piece of punch out. It pays to watch what you're doing.DewayneDixieland WeldingMM350PLincoln 100Some torchesOther misc. tools
Reply:Does running the TIG torch without the argon on counts? mmmm.....I don´t think that I have one of those awesome stories...just my destroyed type jeans getting burned by a mean 6010 rod spark, I noticed that after 10 secs of smelling something on fire...yeah, my leg hair... All I can say is don´t panic and just turn it off with your hand =) glad no one was watching me oh....and ever weld something with oxy-acetilene and then turn off the torch and grab the just-welded piece with your bare hands? Auchie....My Babies: HF Drill pressHF Pipe Bender3   4.5" Black and Decker angle grindersLincoln Electric PROMIG 175that´s it!
Reply:Yes!!!
Reply:I was doing some repair work on a disk ripper that was stapped upright to a flatbed ready to ship. There was a design change and I had to add a weld. When we ship an implement all of "assemble by dealer" parts are strapped to the truck in wooden pallet boxes. The parts in these boxes are painted so they are also wrapped in oil paper (do you see where this is headed?). I made my repair late in the day and went home. When I came in the next morning I saw a charred ripper and flat bed. The heat was intense enough it blew two tires out on the trailer.   OOPS!!
Reply:long story short i welded up a resevor that needed disfusers on the in let side well guess what i did not go in ,yup got it all welded and turned to my bench and there was the disfusers  so i had to cut a door in the shell and reach in and weld them in then weld up the doorChuckASME Pressure Vessel welder
Reply:Not the best story in this bunch for sure, but here's mine: welding in class for a few weeks and noticed an intermiitent burning odor, finally figured out it was the bottoms of my shoes when I stepped on a few berries. A few more weeks of this and one night theres that smell of burning again, I'm in the middle of a practice coupon and thought (a little cockily) I knew what that smell was from, and kept welding untill I felt my leg heating up. Lost most of my jeans pantleg from the knee down, and got ribbed pretty bad by the other fellas when everyone was heading out the door for the night and I'm walking top my car with one pant leg burned away.If you don't have the time to do it right, then you definitely don't have the time to do it over.
Reply:My worst mistake was thinking that I was just going to do a couple tack welds so I didn't put my gloves on. Then add the fact that I forgot to remove my wedding ring to the mix and you guessed it...I ruined a $600 ring and got 2nd & 3rd degree burns on my finger all in the blink of an eye! It is still healing very slowly....
Reply:Not stopping on my GWAW start stop on the 90 edge, TWICE! my pratice coupon i didnt stop, no big deal i thought i'll get it next time. 3 days later the actual text came up and i passd a perfect bead, all the way across . can you say brainfart?!
Reply:I had been working offshore for a couple of years as a block weldor, fitting and welding flow lines, fixing handrail, just what needed to be done in my block. I never worked offshore construction before, just production. I was living on Grand Isle at the time and on my days off I went to the shop to pick up some extra hours. They said to come in on Saturday and work on a dolphin they were building. {A dolphin is a three legged structure attached to the platform. This is used for personel to swing on and off boats. On the front of a dolphin is a set of bumpers. Usually 6 to 8 8" sch 80 about 12' long. Bumpers have a "hook" welded on the bottom to hook over a pipe and are welded on top to the dolphin} Back to the story... They wanted me to finish welding the "Bumpers" So I did. Welded the **** out of them. Well ...bumpers are supposed to be easly removed from the dolphin when damaged. When I got thru with them ...they weren't. Welded the bottom hook. Learned alot since then, but no more shop work on days off
Reply:Not being a welder, I don't have any welding tales. Can I tell another work mistake?It was my first job after school - I took a year off before going to university. I was working in a panel beating shop (I think you call them body shops). Just unskilled stuff - cleaning cars, ordering parts, washing cars etc. The yard out the back was pretty big - around 30 cars usually, either fixed or waiting to be fixed.There was another young guy - Jimmy - there who was a bit thick. He used to clean up around the place and get the lunches and get generally picked on by the other guys.The best part of Jimmy's day was in the afternoon when he would get to light and tend the 44 gal drum that all the paper rubbish and empty paint cans went into. I though one morning I would give Jimmy a surprise. So I grabbed a nearly empty paint can and put an inch of thinners in it, hammered the lid on and stuck it in the fire drum - yeah, yeah, I know, I wasn't too bright either.That afternoon after Jimmy lit the fire and I watched from the other end of the yard. He turned his back and the can blew. I watched it go up into the air and spin like a catherine wheel. Jimmy turned around and we watched from either end of the yard as I'd say every car was hit by tiny droplets of red paint.Jimmy panicked and ran to get stuff to start cleaning the cars.I calmly walked into the workshop, went up the the foreman and said: 'It wasn't Jimmy.' He didn't know what I was talking about. Then I walked out and didn't go back. I forfeited 2 days pay, but I reckon if I had stuck around I would have copped a belting from a posse of mad panel beaters.
Reply:This is probably far from my best welding mistake, but since my memory is getting shorter my more recent big mistake is pretty amusing. My wonderful wife found some saw horses in a magazine she thought was pretty neat. She came up with the brilliant idea that I could make some of these for birthday or Christmas gifts for some of the men in the family. After kicking around the idea for awhile I decided I would make a set of them to see  how things went and so I could get an idea on how much they would cost to make. Well I got a list of the measurments and went and bought the steel to put them together. Wasn't too bad of a project after awhile I was out of metal and had two end pieces and the top pipe.  Then my brain kicked in and I realized I was only half done that I needed to make another set of these. I decided then that I was probably only going to make one complete set of these.Go see my topic about me being an idiot for my tale of a welding mistake.
Reply:I've only been welding for 4 weeks, but I'd like to join in any how.I learned how to sweat pipes a few years ago the worst way, reading a book.  I got my mapp gas torch and everything at home depot and went to work in the basement.  I started with a 12" peice of pipe and a 90 supported in a vice.  I soldered the pipe and watched in amazement as the solder wicked right into the joint just as it said in chapter whatever.  Thinking I am the chosen one of solderers, perfect joints from day one, I spun the vice handle to gaze at my work as I felt its awsomeness in my hands.  Thats when the pipe shot across the basement dirt floor, I shot upstairs for some cold water, Thats when I relized the water was already shut off.  I had to go to the hose back down in the basement.  The rest of the plumbing got put on hold while the blisters healed.  Another rookie mistake.  The boss just finished praising me how quick was catching on.  for a challange he had me practice some butt joints, and to get rid of me for a while.  I went to my trainee welding table, 1/4" thick top on some saw bucks.  The bosses words tracked through my mind as I laid a bead, "slow down, watch the puddle, listen for the sizzle"  I kept the nozzle pointed staight down at the joint.  I grabbed some pliers to examin my work of art.  See, I learned from my soldering days.  I did such a good job on that butt joint that my table top is now 1/8" thicker than it used to be.
Reply:I burned my thumb today, I wasn't welding but I was watching two guys weld at school. When it was my turn they passed me the welding gun and the rod touched my skin, stupid me for not getting my gloves on first.
Reply:I learned to tig with aluminum. First couple times had a few interesting things happen. One time I was wearing "plastic pants" and I kept sticking the hot end of the aluminum filler rod through the pants and burning my legs.Starting at the corner to weld some aluminum, I used too much heat and the puddle fell through and landed between my sock and my shoe. When I realized what had happened, it was too late. Had a big hole in the sock and a really nasty blister on the side of my foot. Luckily, I had a garden hose next to me to help cool it off.Trying to weld some aluminum angle which was about 1/4" thick, I needed some preheat. My brother held an oxy/acetylene torch under the area I was welding. He was holding it in the same spot and when I got to that spot with the tig torch, it was like the aluminum just vaporized. That was scary. It left a hole about 1/2" in diameter.Campbell Hausfeld Fluxcore 80Thermal Arc 185Millermatic 250JD Squared model 32 bender
Reply:Plastic pants!    HaHaHA, You're killing me.
Reply:Hmmm  Think i was 13-14 and just starting to learn to weld.My freind and i were working on our dirt bikes and i needed to weld the the footpeg perch back onto the frame due to a relatively spectacular crash earlier that day.The shop floor was dirt...the welder was a huge... 50 yr old stick welder with 100 foot ft 50 year old welding leads that had as much wire as insulation showing.  Now this doesnt sound to bad right...kinda spooky but not bad.Unfortunetaly the reason we were working on the bikes was because it had started raining about an hr earlier and i mean pouring so we were both soaking wet and that dirt floor was getting slimier by the minute.Bingo i get everything lined up and ready to weld and wake up about 5 mins later about 20 ft from where i started flat on my back while my buddy trying to put out the fire that started.Seems leaky roofs water and old large power supplies dont go together real well...who woulda thought!! Oh and the WORST and i mean the WORST mistake: the phrase....nah dont pay me just buy some beer this wont take but a minuteSafety,Function,Form take it or leave it
Reply:My worst welding mistake?.....Getting addicted to that damn blue light...
Reply:I remember just starting at the water department and they found out I could weld.  Well of course I wanted to impress everyone so I hauled all their equipment up to my bench and cleaned it, replaced cables, had one of the guys go buy me some new rod and set to work.  All morning, fixed tools, supports, threaded rod ends, welded a couple trailer tongues.  All was going great.  Then the guys started bringing in "home" projects.  Hell, I didn't mind.  This is the kind of thing that makes me a valuable employee right?  Well it was warming up in the shop so I took off my coat and was just a minute or two from finishing a new receiver for one of the guys trucks when I get a tap on my shoulder.  I stopped and crawled out from under the truck which was in our City shop, on a City lift, with $50 worth of City metal being attached to it after 2 hours of City labor (mine) went into it and the Superintendant of Public Works is standing ther with my half burned up coat in his hand.    Oops!I have some more but that is all I want to admit to right now.  Beat to fit and paint to match!
Reply:I was doign a 6x200mm fillet on mild steel, and when i was wedling, my left nuckle got way to close to the weld, so i proceeded to start welding, and i noticed my left index nuckle was getting hotter by the second, and i was only like 20mm into the weld, so i just kept going, and as i progressed further down the weld, my hand got really really hot, to the point where i couldnt feel it anymore, and i thought " o its gone now, so i didnt worry about it"  flipped the visor up, took the glove off, and noticed that there was this huge hemaroid of a blister, it was massive, and it instantly cained after i lifted the glove off.this happened like 3 months ago, and it has all healed up now, but occasionally it stings at the same intensity it did when i first got it...sure learnt a lesson.....never sacrifice ya body for a weld, even if the weld turns out good. lol"One World...One Muay Thai...Muay Thai Never Dies..."
Reply:OK - this is sort of welding - blacksmithing cut-off toolI was 16 years old or so, a student working the summer in the blacksmith shop of the Copper Refinery of the International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO).  Normally, two blacksmiths work together - one holding the hot work piece on the anvil with tongues held in one hand, the other hand holding a cut off tool - looked like an Indian tomahawk on the work piece.  The second blacksmith [or helper ] swung the sledge hammer down on top of the upper, blunt end of the tomahawk - to drive it into and eventually through the red-hot work piece.  Yes siree - with one blacksmith on summer vacation, I became the 'sledge hammer man'... but day dreaming  I brought the hammer down on the blacksmith's thumb!  Geez, I never heard words like that!But, they helped me along.  Yes siree, I forged and oil quenched my own center punch and presented it to them for inspection.  One takes it, places it on the anvil and whacks it with a 2 lb hammer - the pointy end of my punch splays out like an upside-down mushroom.  "Nah, you got it wrong - do it again."  So, I did it again - two more times... then it dawned on me - that anvil was super-hardened steel, been pounded on for 30 years - it was H A R D !!!  They was just wrecking my center punches for fun - nothing wrong with them at all!Rick V
Reply:One day at 5:00 rush I was entering  the interstate via on ramp.  I watched an unknown welding rig just starting out from the shoulder. They had  been repairing damage to the overpass. As we where getting our trucks up to speed, the weldors and I where side by side  I noticed that welding lead was being neatly unrolled from their reels onto the roadway. I sounded my trucks horn and in return received some sort of a secret hand signal. They thought I was road raging!! I watched as hundreds of feet of cable paid out. I tried to get their attention again but they drove off into the sunset! My mistake? - Not being able to stop and pick it up!!Last edited by denrep; 11-15-2006 at 11:31 PM.
Reply:deleteLast edited by denrep; 11-17-2006 at 10:04 PM.
Reply:This happend about 10 months ago:I was in a introduction course to welding, which is held at the local trade school. Half way through the class one day, we stop and took a break because of the shop getting so hot. We all put our helments down and stepped out of the booths to go outside and cool off. When we came back in I noticed a funny smell coming from my booth, as i walked in and slid the curtian shut i saw my helment sitting there on the table. (at this time it clued in). I lifted up my helment to find the steel plate i was working on attached to my helment. Melting the splatter lens as well as part of the helment. For the rest of the class i spent in my booth, curtian closed fixing my helment. It was a cheap one, thank god. So i bought new lens for it, and finished the course.  Note: From that day on, i leave my helment on my head or in my hand.
Reply:In an effort to kick-off Zap's recent suggestion about Bone-Head Mistakes and using Alanaker's old post, I'd like to say that I've made plenty of bonehead mistakes too.  These are definetly Newbie ones that hopefully someone can learn from.Last year when I got my HH140 I was playing around with the .030 solid wire that came with it and my bottle of 75/25 gas and everything was OK.  But since I work outdoors and read that flux core is better for outdoor use, I purchased an 11lb'r of .035.  After putting it on I wasn't getting very good results and I discovered, in my haste, that I hadn't changed the polarity.  Did that and life was good again.If that wasn't bad enough, when I went back to an 11lb'r of solid .035 wire, it too wasn't buring too well either with lots of brown sooty spatter.  I double checked to see if they had sold me more flux core wire, it was solid.  I then looked down at my hose connection to the wire feeder and discovered that I hadn't shoved it in far enough when I had pulled it out to clear a bird's nest.  It didn't make a difference with the flux core, but it is REAL important for the gas to get IN the cable when running solid wire!   Hobart 140 Handler w/ gasHyperTherm Powermax 380 Plasmaoxy/acetylene
Reply:"assuming" the steel rule I was using was 18in long.. when in fact it was 16in.. so the 4 legs I'd just cut were 2in short....However, as this was just something I was making for myself I wasn't too worried & the shorter leg length actually turned out better (2x .060tube bedframe) this was 2 weeks ago....
Reply:Another:Walking across the yard one day to the workshop/barn when I see one of the other guys who also welds come running out & jump feet first into the duckpond.... water just about came up to his neck... all because he got a bit of red hot metal in one of his boots.. LOL!!Hi Matt..Hi Rick..Bit cold for a swim isn't it?..eff off...
Reply:I was renting a workshop which was common to a large hanger full of light aircraft (probably about a million bucks worth even then, about 1980). About 50 people had keys to the hanger, so I had to secure my equipment before leaving each day, removing my O/A regulators and locking up my tools. I was building an aircraft fuselage from plans (a mid wing formula racer), welding the 4130 tubing structures with oxy acetelene. Each day I had religiously checked my regulators for leaks after putting them on my tanks, never to find a leak, so I quit doing it. I was up inside the truss of 4130 tubes, welding a 6 tube cluster intersection, which was turning out really nice. I was so excited. I got a cramp and tried to reposition myself among the tube structure, and got the tip too close to my work and the torch let out a huge POP ! Murphy was alive and well too..... I looked over at the direction of my tanks to see the acetelene regulator and tank on FIRE. I didn't have the little wrench to shut off the tank valve, and had been using a small adjustable....... of course I had misplaced it !  EVER TRY TO BLOW OUT A BURNING REGULATOR ?  All I could picture was the tanks taking off thru all those planes like a rocket, and of course I had NO insurance either. Some how I managed to blow or snuff out the fire, I don't remember which, but I almost ****ed my pants.Not a beginner, not a pro !
Reply:Originally Posted by PlanewelderI was renting a workshop which was common to a large hanger full of light aircraft (probably about a million bucks worth even then, about 1980). About 50 people had keys to the hanger, so I had to secure my equipment before leaving each day, removing my O/A regulators and locking up my tools. I was building an aircraft fuselage from plans (a mid wing formula racer), welding the 4130 tubing structures with oxy acetelene. Each day I had religiously checked my regulators for leaks after putting them on my tanks, never to find a leak, so I quit doing it. I was up inside the truss of 4130 tubes, welding a 6 tube cluster intersection, which was turning out really nice. I was so excited. I got a cramp and tried to reposition myself among the tube structure, and got the tip too close to my work and the torch let out a huge POP ! Murphy was alive and well too..... I looked over at the direction of my tanks to see the acetelene regulator and tank on FIRE. I didn't have the little wrench to shut off the tank valve, and had been using a small adjustable....... of course I had misplaced it !  EVER TRY TO BLOW OUT A BURNING REGULATOR ?  All I could picture was the tanks taking off thru all those planes like a rocket, and of course I had NO insurance either. Some how I managed to blow or snuff out the fire, I don't remember which, but I almost ****ed my pants.
Reply:I once needed something to support a winch on a boat. This winch support was subject to impact and compression loading. I was in a hurry so I used the materials at hand. I welded a length of stainless pipe between two pieces of galvanized angle with 6011 welding rods. Surprisingly this lasted for two years before it failed causing a large crack in the deck and hull. Fortuneately the boat did not sink and no injuries resulted. I replaced it with a properly designed support made completely out of mild steel.I have seen some other rather spectacular whoops' caused by someone elses good ideas. Too many to list, but here is one I like. I was helping a neighbor to build a 65 foot steel boat. He had a crane, a very old crane, he bought at a scrap yard. He decided to use the biggest pieces of steel he could get to cut down on welding. He hooked up two very old and worn out plate dogs to a 10 foot by 20 foot piece of quarter inch steel to raise it aginst the side of the boat near the bow. I had the very good sense, even though a teenager at the time, to walk across the street a safe distance away and watch what was going to happen. You think steel is pretty strong until you see it whip around in long unsupported sections. He got the plate about 10 feet in the air and it promtly formed a nice u shape because there was no spreader between the cables attached to the plate dogs. Then one of the dogs started to slip. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. He could not see what was wrong from the crane and everyone was yelling "stop". So he stopped. They should have been yelling "put it down". When the first plate dog let go the steel swung like a giant ax as it sprung back out straight. As the free end was falling the other dog also started sliding on the upper portion of the plate. When it hit the ground it was going very fast and neatly sliced through a buried power line, which promtley exploded in a shower of molten aluminum and copper because he also got all the welding cables. He even got the oxy aceteleyne lines, but they were off at the time. Now every time I see some kid holding a tag line on some large object supported by a crane I think if it were me I would not be so close, just in case.
Reply:This is my first time on the forum.So I figured this a good topic!I had removed a bearing race for a customer by running a bead in it one day.He said that was the wildest thing he had seen. A few days later he came in with a engine block wanting me to get a sleeve out for him,only after he tried my welding trick on it & welded it to the block.
Reply:Mistake or stupidity, you decide.  A short vertical-up on 1/2 inch plate, 6011 rod and bare feet.  I dont think I need to tell you anymore.
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Reply:As an aprentice, i was asked to put a 3mm mild steel tank together ( a proptype) had all the bits and peices all lasered cut and and basically tack together and and finish off, do a leak test and bang your done. Well if you can imagine it was designed to fit in chassis to the left side and the pattern naturally followed that shape. well me being "a no it all" didnt look at the plansand welded it up more or less back to front, well I was mud and had to do 4 hours of over time with no pay...  But from then on I always read the plans, both ways.I own a 87 troopie (rust is slowly owning it  )I ride a quadand I love sticking metal together.  And I live in OZ...  (Geelong)