So You've Drilled Through Your Own Hand

I haven't driller through my own finger, but I've come close. But, I have milled a prefect 1/4" keyway in my first finger nail, dead center.

My brother managed to catch his pant leg on fire while welding.

He also managed to weld his wedding ring between the battery + and ground, with his finger still in it.

Another time he was cutting wood for a model plane and cut into his thigh with his Xacto knife, and was the only time I ever heard dad say "he looks kinda green.

Regarding all the posts involving the thought "If I slip..." I'm old enough now that as soon as I hear that, I stop. It's kept me out of a lot of self-injuries.

Of course, one time I had just finished welding on a tube chassis, welded on the other corner, than came back to the first corner and firmly grabbed onto it to flip it over. Yeah...

Back when I was a teen, I had a chemistry set with many chemicals that are no doubt controlled or illegal now. I had an alcohol burner going and managed to tip it over, lighting my entire hand on fire. I found out pretty quick that trying to shake it out didn't work well, and had a hell of a blistered burn for a long time.

Also chemistry-related: I was creating hydrogen in a flask - don't ask why - and had it running through a long rubber tube. Curious if air had been purged from the tube yet, I held it to a flame, and watched with rapt attention as a pretty blue flame slowly moved back through the tube, heading toward the flask (full of hydrochloric acid btw), and thought, hey, that's pretty cool. When the flame got to the flask, the hydrogen exploded, blowing the cork out, which hit the roof pretty good. I still sometimes think about how my life could have been different had that flask exploded...

Speaking of potentially life-changing:

Me and a buddy had built a big solid fuel rocket (35 lbs) and had it out in the desert to launch (back when such things were no big deal). At some point, someone had to get down under it and connect the electric igniter wires. We'd made sure that things were "cold" at the other end, and after connecting the first wire, I brought the second connector right up to the remaining wire, and hesitated. Though only 16 at the time, I realized that if this went badly, it could go very badly, and instead of making the connection, tested it by touching it to the first wire... and it sparked. Our control panel had sand intruding into it, and it had physically pressed down on a relay arm, defeating the safety circuit. Later, after watching the successful launch, and the amount of flame that came out, I realize just how different things could have gone.

Does this count?

Ricochet while attempting an overhead angle shot.  Lost 1.5 hours of billable time...

If I did something like that, I'd likely faint and die from gradual blood loss.

It amazes me how when such things happen, the person calmly takes out his camera to record the event. I've decided that it must not hurt all that much and you're just looking for attention.

I kid.

Ow, middle finger.  How ya gonna drive?

:- (

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

You mean the screw, right?