What’s Your “Easy” Project That Went Sideways?

[hikenhunt]

I thought I was smart when I decided to hire someone to replace our elevated and large deck. Enjoy the summer rather than spend it figuring out while things aren't lining up. But I tried to save the demo cost by doing it myself. What could do wrong? Well 99% of the demo went great but there were some beams they were going to scabbard the new deck onto that were sticking out of the house. I was removing some of the decking nails on those beams while on a ladder (always a weird angle) when the crow bar slipped and the opposite end hit me just above the hairline. Blood was pouring from my head and I couldn't get it to stop. I was going to need stitches but a doctor friend came to my rescue and glued it shut. At the time, I was guessing the ER visit was going to be $2k which was about the same as the demo cost. My wife still reminds me of this every 6 months or so...

 

[bigeyedfish]

So many to choose from.

Changing Cummins injectors, I had a rocker bolt break in the head when I was finishing up. I was using a torque wrench, and before it clicked I could feel the bolt soften. Having been through this rodeo before, I stopped and slowly backed the bolt out, ready to kill everybody in the whole world. Somehow, the center of the bolt had broken through, but the thread was still sort of in tact, so I was able to remove it in one piece without pulling the head.

I changed an AC clutch on my truck, and on the last bolt, the bolt broke way before it was tight. I went from having 10 minutes left, to spending two more hours getting that stupid bolt out.

I manual swapped an F250 once, and everything went great but the transmission I put in was noisy. It was dirt cheap, so that's to be expected. I took it out and had it rebuilt. Went to reinstall it after the rebuild, and the input shaft would not go into the pilot bearing. A few days in a row, I would come home from work and spend an hour or so trying to get it to go. Finally, my patience wore down and I just used the bellhousing bolts to draw it up. I got really lucky it didn't break the bellhousing. All at once it just snapped into place.

One time I split a tractor to find a pretty significant hydraulic leak. After building stands and making a couple tools, we got it split and discovered the leak was not coming from there. I put it back together and said to hell with it. Hydraulic oil isn't that expensive. That was several years ago, and that tractor still leaks.

Those are just the ones that come to mind quickly. I try to convince myself that these things happen when you're trying to expand your skillset or push yourself. In reality, they just happen. Sometimes it sucks.

 

[Tilzbow]

Any project I watch a how to YouTube video that shows the project taking more than 15 minutes usually go sideways and takes 4-10 times longer than the video.

 

[dreadi]

Two Savage 110 6.5 PRC rifles I was planning to use for product demos. Both had hard bolt lift after firing Hornady 147gr ELD-X which is what Savage said to use. Distributor sent them both back for me. Sacage told me the chambers were reamed and polished, then test fired. Well, both rifle made it back to me and they still suck. Sending them back AGAIN.

Really disappointing. I have three other Savage rifles. They don't have this issue.

 

[Trr15]

“I’m gonna buy a Jeep wrangler to play around with and just add a few minor mods” what a deep dark hole that has become.

 

[Terrapin]

Having kids… seemed like an easy project when I got started… I even watched videos on how to do it… the first three minutes of the project was pretty fun… the subsequent 25 years have been tougher than I anticipated… the youngest will be graduating high school in seventeen more years


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[*zap*]

Marriage

 

[gwtravis]

I think I told this story on here before.

Cleaned out my garage. Previous owner left about 15 gallon size cans of half used paint of various colors in there; bagged those up and put them on my deck to drop off at hazardous waste over the weekend.

Before the weekend comes my sewer lines gets clogged up so I rent a sewer line power auger after work and get started as the sun goes down.

I had to remove the toilet to feed the auger down the stack into the sewer line. Well that goes fine and I hit an obstruction about 20' down the line. I power up the auger and all hell breaks loose. Something is banging the hell out of the wall next to the bathroom. I mean dust is dropping from the ceiling at each bang. I turn off the auger, turn on the deck light and walk outside to see what happened.

Well the auger didn't go down in to the sewer line. Somehow it went up the stack vent, out over the roof and down onto the bag of paint cans on the deck. When I turned it on it grabbed the bag and beat it against my house splashing paint across 40' of siding and across the deck.

What started as a late night drain blockage turned into a 40'x15' Jackson Pollock painting on the side of my house.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Wtf?

 

[Idaho Brad]

Anytime I try to remove any bolt or nut. It breaks off and I spend hours getting the bolt out.


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[7mm-08]

I think I told this story on here before.

Cleaned out my garage. Previous owner left about 15 gallon size cans of half used paint of various colors in there; bagged those up and put them on my deck to drop off at hazardous waste over the weekend.

Before the weekend comes my sewer lines gets clogged up so I rent a sewer line power auger after work and get started as the sun goes down.

I had to remove the toilet to feed the auger down the stack into the sewer line. Well that goes fine and I hit an obstruction about 20' down the line. I power up the auger and all hell breaks loose. Something is banging the hell out of the wall next to the bathroom. I mean dust is dropping from the ceiling at each bang. I turn off the auger, turn on the deck light and walk outside to see what happened.

Well the auger didn't go down in to the sewer line. Somehow it went up the stack vent, out over the roof and down onto the bag of paint cans on the deck. When I turned it on it grabbed the bag and beat it against my house splashing paint across 40' of siding and across the deck.

What started as a late night drain blockage turned into a 40'x15' Jackson Pollock painting on the side of my house.

Winner!!