Things learned the hard way.

[philSweet]

This morning I did something so extraordinarily stupid that it was beyond the pail, even by my standards. About the only silver lining being I though the forum might enjoy it. If anyone else wishes to share, please post stuff you learned the hard way. If we were to list every stupid action that makes the news or shows up on YouTube there wouldn't be enough memory on the web.

Yesterday (Thursday), I started painting a neighbor’s house. The weather is perfect and the neighbors are not home. I figured I had all weekend. So I called the neighbor after I got started and he mentions that friends will be staying at the house over the weekend but not to worry. Yeah, right. I've got all the windows masked and the doors will all be wet and there will be kids and dogs and cars everywhere. So I hurry the job. It’s pretty cool on Friday morning, but I have to paint, so I turn the heat on in the house and put the paint can I spray out of on their stove while I get set up. That works fine and in half an hour I’m ready to start to spray. So I move the next can of paint onto the stove and go outside. Stove is on dead low. After about 10 minutes I go inside just in time to see paint begin to ooze out all over the stove from the bottom of the can. I test the can gingerly and the bottom holds so I run it outside and after cleaning everything up and moving the paint to a different can I discover the can bottom is plastic. I’ve never seen a plastic paint can before in my life. One more minute and the whole bottom would have dropped out. The stove was a glass job which was a blessing. This could have been much worse, but it was plenty bad enough as it was. By the time I got going again, it was nice and warm out.

Beware of plastic paint pails.

[michael pierzga]

Last weeks plastic paint bucket story...with a happy ending. I mixed us a batch of two component white to paint the base of an anchor winch. As Im walking down the teak deck with paint bucket in one hand, paint brush and rag in the other , I lost my hold of the paint bucket. In slow motion I watch the paint bucket tumble towards the teak deck, perform a gentle 360 capsize in mid air then land perfectly right side up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not even a paint drop on deck..... the gods were watching over me that day.

[KnottyBuoyz]

So I'm working on the underside of the hull (it's upside down right now) and I'm just a lil' short to reach so I grab a 5 gal plastic bucket! Works dandy the first few times then I move into the bow area and set up the bucket again. Wooosh! Out it goes from under me and down I go flat on my back. Big goose egg on my head, bit my tongue and smashed my wrist pretty good. So one of the fella's on the other boat building forum suggests I use two plastic buckets and a plank. Somehow I just don't see how that's gonna help!

[gonzo]

My outboard had gas with water in it and was running rough and stalling. I used a red plastic drink cup to drain the carburetor bowl. The engine was running great, but I forgot the cup in the cockpit cup holder. About half an hour later the plastic cup melted and my cockpit was covered in red sticky melted plastic. I'm still trying to clean it up.

[philSweet]

Well, I wasn't panning on this being the plastic paint bucket thread, but what the heck. It took me almost 8 months to move from Key Largo Fl to Hendersonville NC. I worked my way north doing odd jobs for friends and shuttling trucks and boats as I went. Had most of my boat project supplies in the back of a 95 Chevy, along with the washer/drier and a pair of canoes. I decided to protect the expensive epoxy by putting it in the cab on the back seat. You know the kind with the metering push pumps. The truck was parked in a friend's carport for six months, during which time it got hot and cold each day and a little bit of resin pumped out each day. It never did this in the shed in Key Largo, just in the truck. I don't keep epoxy in milk crates anymore, I use old coolers.

[philSweet]

I'm feeling stupid again, and a bit befuddled. For perhaps the third time in my adult life I will be spending Christmas with family. That means wrapping presents. So I bought some wrapping paper, At least I thought I did. So I go to wrap some stuff and I discover I had bought transparent-with-polkadots Mylar film. WHAT IS THE FLIPPIN' PURPOSE OF CLEAR WRAPPING PAPER IT'S SUPPOSED TO HIDE STUFF. (Is wrapping stuff in xerox paper tacky?)

[Boston]

oh does that ever bring back memories.

Last summer I'm working on a house, parked out front and I need something from the truck. Now I always keep paint behind the drivers side door and in a milk crate so it can't spill, One would think that was a good idea eh. I open the passenger side door grab a level or something, and it destabilizes something, which falls, hits something else, which rolls, hits something else, which defies gravity. All the while I'm standing there just looking dumbstruck as the mousetrap is going off in front of me and I've no clue whats about to happen. In the end a can of paint gets jolted loose, falls into the drivers seat, rolls across to the passenger side and out the door I'm holding open, explodes at my feet right smack in the middle of this poor guys driveway. Kilz no less. While I stand there looking completely stupid.

Took forever to clean it up and yes it left a mark. Guy took it like a champ when I told him how it happened.

I hate paint.

[PAR]

A few years ago I was making a 29' birdsmouth spar for a customer. I'd glued up the two halves and forgotten to replace a 3' section of plastic sheeting on my work bench, that was torn up when I was gluing in swallowtails. Yep, I glued the most flexible part of this mast to the bench. I chainsawed out the bench top, power planed it from the mast and the bench still has a plywood patch over the area, to remind me to not work when really tired and pushing to beat the setting sun.

[Mr Efficiency]

It's when you're rushed, or tired, or both, that mishaps are most likely to occur. I sometimes marvel at people who refuse to be rushed, but I'm still a 'victim' of panic at times.

[WestVanHan]

Was making an aquarium from plexi and using DCM (methylene chloride) to weld the sheets. Used much of it in one of those 4l thin steel containers...had some acetone left over from something else,and mistakenly dumped it into the DCM container.
Had things to do,so put the jug into a 20l white pail,beside my truck...was a nice hot day.

Three hours later as I was walking up to my truck it hit me-DCM boils at 30C and acetone higher but it's still evaporating and building pressure. Cautiously peeked into the bucket and the steel rectangular 4l steel jug was almost basketball round,yet still held pressure!
The top and the bottom still looked quite flat though.

So as I was in the house getting cold water to cool it down,it blew. The problem is that DCM removes paint quite well,and by the time I got a hose out to rinse it off it wrecked the paint on the whole side,the roof,and the hood...it cost $2300 to fix it.

Can't complain,as it could have blown in my face and maybe been blinded.

[keith66]

Couple of years ago had a car full of tools & gear, went round a corner & my toolbox slid across & hit a one gallon can of battleship grey epoxy floor paint.
The lid popped of & it fell over..............
The next day i opened the boot & took out the brand new suit of tan sails for the Ness yawl i was working on. The mizzen in its bag was sitting in a puddle of half congealed paint. You can magine my horror! Luckily i had a gallon of acetone along & laid the new sail on the grass. I had no idea if the acetone would ruin the sail but had no choice, Half an hour later of frantic scrubbing later it was as good as new. One i got away with!

[Doug Lord]

I designed a little kayak a few years ago. I had designed numerous other boats-this was no big deal. Except that I was in a job I hated and had borrowed money from a friend to get the kayak project going. I wanted it to be a classic little boat with teak floor boards and handrails and hoped I'd sell a million of them freeing myself from working for the MAN forever. I did all the tooling and built the first boat-it sure looked good.
But there was a problem: the damn thing wanted to roll over with me in it! It was right on the edge all the time. Project over!
In analyzing how I, an "experienced" designer could have made such a critical mistake at such a critical time in my life-it came down to plain old arrogance. I didn't do the stability calculations because I thought "it looked right" and I was in a hurry. Something I'll never,ever forget.....

[daiquiri]

Well... Hell, yeah - it does look right at the first sight! Let me guess - it had pretty rounded underwater sections?

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

Well... Hell, yeah - it does look right at the first sight! Let me guess - it had pretty rounded underwater sections?

==========
I could paddle it around-I imagine some racing kayaks are designed close to the edge but selling to the public was out of the question. Yes, rounded sections, but fairly tight-just not tight enough.
A monumental mistake at that point in my life.....

[philSweet]

Doug, Are you familiar with the Tiki sit-on-top kayak? Arguably the first production sit-on-top plastic kayak. I used to make them in Key Largo out of 30 year old molds. here
and here