[Lab] Open Question: Dumbest Thing You've Done While Making

[Peter Sjoberg]

On 06/27/2013 01:42 PM, sincrest256 at gmail.com wrote:
> Picking up a recently unplugged soldering iron like it is a screwdriver
> to move it across the workbench burning a nice line across my hand.

Did something similar. Did go over to a friends workbench and set down
on the desk. Did feel that I was sitting on something that felt like a
screwdriver I grabbed the non handle side of the screwdriver to remove
it just to discover that it was a 150W soldering iron heating up. While
not at full heat it did give some nice marks.

> 
> Putting a 16 volt ceramic capacitor into a 30 volt circuit shooting a
> stream of sparks 5 feet long was also exciting.
> 
Sending 220V to a power supply set for 110V caused a cap to pop with
such a speed it hit the tube lights above and broke it.

And one more. I had a big TV I was repairing on my desk and of course
with the back off. I was in front of it looking at the picture when
suddenly it became a thin horizontal line for a split second and a
sparking sound came from behind the TV. It was my little sister (I think
around 4 years then) that - holding her hand and tears - quietly and
quickly exited the room.
She knew to not enter my room and absolutely not touch anything, I think
that was a good spark on her hand to teach her why because she never
came back uninvited.

/ps