On Saturday I was cutting down the length of a fence panel (to make two 3” x 6′ rather than one 6” x 6′) and had the wood held ‘securely’ between the jaws of my workbench. As I went along the length, the gap I was cutting closed up due to the pressure of the jaws, grabbing at the circular saw blade and sending it shooting across the surface of the wood, narrowly missing my arms.

In hindsight I know I was particularly stupid (I should have held it with g-clamps on one edge).

Certainly gave me a fright and I didn’t tell my wife about my little ‘hiccup’…

undoing a manitou coil shock in a vice that wasnt getting full travel.

it wasn’t getting full travel as there was air where there shouldn’t have been.

i found this out as the top part of it whistled past my nose and embedded itself in the roof of the shed.

For some reason using a circular saw makes me significantly more nervous than any other power tool!

Using a circular saw in our house without eye protection.

Felt something on my eye/painful to blink. Rub eye and can feel something sticking out. Quick check in the mirror and 1cm long splinter sticking out of my eye.

Pull it out, stick some glasses on and carry on.

Many many more with power tools/up ladders.

While refitting a grain conveyor up in the roof space of a big shed I slipped and fell. Luckily I fell above a set of wooden steps which I grabbed the hand rails of and slipped down. After we measured it at about 15′. It was 30′ to concrete 3′ to the left.

I can’t respond to this thread, as it didn’t miss 🙁

[url=https://flic.kr/p/nDme8E]Untitled[/url] by T*inbred, on Flickr

Drunkenly dropped a jumper on to an electric fire when i was a student. Woke up in a room full of smoke.

Stupid.

Cutting a rusty bolt off the underneath of my Landy, wearing latex gloves, manouvred the angle grinder up into the space, blade pointing down towards me. I didn’t notice that my finger was on the sliding ON switch and it powered up – I fumbled with it like a juggler as it headed towards my chest and got away with just a shallow graze in the palm of my hand.

Was riding along in a sportive minding my own business when a mad bunch of cyclists came round the corner going the other way. Clearly they didn’t realise I was in a race even when I moved to the middle of the road so they could see me better – though you’d have thought my green and white striped top made me nice and visible. Some of them came very close to running into me. Idiots.

I’ll also add the time I was climbing this

(not direct, on a top rope to get my mates gear back) When I realised that I had only tied into the rope from below that was to stop me swinging. The Rope from above was being pulled out my harness when I noticed and managed to sort of retie 1 handed on sh*t holds then reverse the whole thing….

There may be a couple more coming soon

Loading a car onto a double axle trailer, needed to move the trailer, went to undo it with the car on the ramps at the back. (I know) I leant down to get a better look at the catch just as it released, the tow hook brushed my jaw at full velocity as the weight of the car tipped it up. Would have smashed the lower part of my face to pulp.

Looked round to see the colour drained from my friend’s faces.

Had a BIG drink that night…

Plenty more with drills and grinders under cars but not many like that that I could be 100% certain would have been life changing.

Chased out a wall to bury the cables for central heating thermostat

Reconnecting everything when the timer clicked, closely followed by a bang and me wondering why I wasn’t standing where I previously was!

Would love to post pics up but currently the event is under HSE investigation.

Loading a car onto a double axle trailer, needed to move the trailer, went to undo it with the car on the ramps at the back. (I know)

I have to admit to doing that once. Stupid. Just not thinking.

Another trailer based near miss was towing a 110 on a trailer behind a 90. In hindsight the trailer bed was too short and compromised the loading position. Got on dual carriageway hit 50mph and the thing started snaking. It got well out of hand very quickly. Trailer and 90 flipping 45 degrees sideways (opposite to each other) back and fore. Luckingly there was little traffic and what there was held back as I took up both lanes and the hard shoulder. Finally managed to get it under control, to this day not sure how as I thought the whole lot was going to go over. I little tap of the trailer rear end on the arnco barrier possibly hepled. Got it on the hard shoulder and I was shaking an in need of clean pants, as were my two passengers. Thankfully the 110 was strapped on well had had just slid sideways on the trailer by a few inches. Only damage done was to the trailer light cluster where it clipped the barrier. Very lucky.

Similar angle grinder incident to above, under a LR using a wire knot cup brush to clean the chassis when it caught and kicked out of my hands. Bit of juggling it missed my head and I ended up just losing some skin of my hand. Then the grinder danced about till it wrapped itself up in the cable and shorted out, just before I reached the plug.

Another circular saw one here.

when living in a small london flat on 4th floor, needed to cut down an 8×4 ft sheet of plywood, didnt want dust inside so propped it up on the small balcony…
got all the way to the end of the cut before thinking ‘whats gonna happen when the top cut bit falls forward…’
So, so nearly had me and the plywood going over the balcony edge onto the people sitting in their gardens below..

another one, helpfully trimming the weeds along the gap under garden shed with some long handled shears, got through the really tough grey ‘stalk’ only to hear that familiar sounding electric-‘pop’ and power inside house going off..

Drilling into the bricks surrounding a window frame when there’s a huge ‘BANG!’ and the lights go out and smoke starts trailing out of the hole i’ve just drilled.

Look at the masonry drill bit and the end had been completely vapourised. Main fuse for the house had also blown.

Turns out some earlier resident had put the cooker ring main diagonally across the wall, right against the corner of the window.

Not stupid on my part but yesterday on a country road a car came around a left hand bend 100 yards in front of me, sideways on my side of the road at great speed like a rally car but completely out of control. It somehow skidded back across to the right side as I jumped across the verge. How he didn’t roll it, I don’t know. The driver was a very lucky lad

Very, very drunk and bold 20 year old.

Decided to climb into the small bathroom window of an abandoned factory via a drainpipe. It was on the 3rd or 4th floor. A very awkward move from the drainpipe to the window ledge was needed (ie a bit of a push off and grab).

Turns out getting in was the easy bit. I had to reverse the move on the way back out. It must have been 15+ metres off the deck.

I slipped when squeezing out of the small window and fell all the way to the ground.

Landed on a pile of rubbish and boxes. Walked away winded, but not a scratch. Still sends shivers down my spine when thinking about it.

I also jumped off the Charles Bridge in Prague later that same year and caught a very nasty infection.

Wish I could say my stunt man days finished after that, but in reality they never did 🙂

driving a landrover 90 along old A55, bonnet came loose popped up to 90 deg then flew off cartwheeling along the road.Luckily no spare wheel on the bonnet at the time only damage was the corners of the bonnet as it rolled along and some of my clothing. 😉 question to landroverists do those hinges allow bonnett off at 90 deg?or did the bonnet rip out of the hinge?

Nearly had a head on with oncoming cars with a closing speed of 100mph once.
Went round a LH bend on a two lane B road to find a stationary car waiting to turn right on the far LHS of my side with oncoming traffic. Leapt on the brakes, locked up, decided I couldn’t possibly stop anyway, so came off the brakes and managed to squeeze between the stationary car and the oncoming traffic missing everything.
Drove slowly and quietly home before having a quiet cry to myself.

Day before my wedding, out on my Yamaha R1, over the crest of a hill at 150mph, on the other side was a BMW turning right ! I ended up going past him about 100mph on the inside, the lane he was turning into… but he stopped as he either heard or saw me….

Very very close one that was.

Oh and I had a sunroof glass and frame blow off a Mk.1 Sierra on the M20 at 70 mph, fortunately nobody was tailgating me.

Land Rover bonnet hinges are slotted to allow the bonnet to be lifted off vertically.

I was driving through Hungary in my agent’s car, she was asleep beside me. Followed another car without thinking as the road kinked in a quick left-right across to the other side of the railway line we’d been following. As I crossed the lines I saw the buffers of a diesel locomotive just beside me; it must have missed the back of the car by inches. My agent slept on so I said nothing.

Setting up a top rope in Causey quarry in Durham, I tripped over a tree root and plunged head first towards the edge. Caught a tree root with my right hand and stopped the slide, with half my body already over the edge, staring straight into the eyes of my girlfriend about 80 feet below me.

Aged about 18 driving a rental Cortina estate back to Carlisle for Hertz, I got into a bit of a “competition” with the other Hertz driver in front of me. I overtook on a long straight then realised it was a long queue of cars, close together, with nowhere for me to go. Stayed on the outside all the way through the first couple of bends, pooping myself util I found a gap big enough to pull in. That one still makes me sweat; I’d have gone to prison if I’d killed anyone, and rightfully so.

Best mate (Irish) wanted to show me the performance of a 900 cc engine in a 750 Honda chassis so he took me for a ride down the A5 to Bethesda and back. Just coming out of the village he opened it up, still in the 30 zone, and must have been doing 80 when we came over a blind crest to find a car stopped, indicating left, and another car coming the other way, with nowhere for us to go. Matey was hard on the brakes, front tyre screeching and we knew we were going to pile into the stationary car… when it turned and we shot through the gap. All happened in about five seconds.

Messing about with some petrol and matches as a dumb teenager, managed to spill it all over me and set myself on fire, luckily I had an equally stupid teenage mate with me who was also enjoying playing with petrol, who actually turned out to be a hero and put me out by rolling me in sand as we were on sand dunes. No serious burns but absolutely s**t my pants (metaphorically speaking)

bigyinn – Member
Nearly had a head on with oncoming cars with a closing speed of 100mph once.
Went round a LH bend on a two lane B road to find a stationary car waiting to turn right on the far LHS of my side with oncoming traffic. Leapt on the brakes, locked up, decided I couldn’t possibly stop anyway, so came off the brakes and managed to squeeze between the stationary car and the oncoming traffic missing everything.
Drove slowly and quietly home before having a quiet cry to myself.

Done exactly that 😯

globalti – Member
Setting up a top rope in Causey quarry in Durham,

It’s not very often Causey gets a mention on STW 😉 I learnt to climb there! Ahhh, the Dangler – happy days!! The top of that was pretty slippery when damp – had a few sketchy moments up there myself!