Did something dumb today.

[Don P]

My dumb thing for today was making all the parts for 8 rail and stile cabinet doors.  The dumb part was making all of the rails one inch too short.  Consequently I will be making them all again tomorrow.  Planing, jointing, cutting, milling at the router table.

"Inch syndrome" if I had a dollar for every time :D

For whatever reason laying on the ground fighting the chain onto the lucas slabbing bar it is real easy for me to get turned around. Not too bad till it happens back to back.

[Nebraska]

You know it helps one legitimatize a sawmill purchase with reducing the amount of rental fee's
one has to pay in renting the "board stretcher" at the home town lumber yard. I just don't know
why it was always  rented out  when I needed it.  I think they just saw me coming.   :D

[Southside]

This was a while back ago but I was making an order of stair treads for a customer.  They came out of the kiln looking awesome.  Through the edger they go to get them pre-sized for the moulder (can you hear the ominous foreshadowing music at this point?)  Run them through the knock down planer and set up the moulder, they are all perfect.  About to feed the first one into the moulder when, HOLY GAP PROBLEM BATMAN, HIT THAT KILL SWITCH!!  So I double check the set up on the moulder and much to my chagrin she is spot on.  Look back at the stair blank and for the life of me I can't understand what the problem is.  Now we are not talking about a 1/16" width gap problem here, more like 2".  11 1/8" - that's what they should be, pull out the tape to check the blank and @#$%!@#%^, they are 9" and change - every single one of them.  At some point after retrieving my tape measure from the other end of the building after strange forces drew it from my hand and caused it to defy gravity as it traversed the 100' length, I walked back over to the edger to check the scales (ahh that same music is playing again) accuracy.  Lets see, left fence scale is dead on, right fence scale is dead on, adjustable fence scale is dead on.  Scratch my head some more and suddenly there it is.... the 9 and 11 cross each other on the scales and I had used the left adjustable fence and read the right scale, meaning the edger had worked perfectly, now if only my customer had small feet...

[WDH]

In marketing, you always have to find that right customer ;D. 

[WV Sawmiller]

It's even more impressive when you put the band on backwards on your mill, or so I have heard.  

And then call the tech complaning the mill isn't sawing right.  

I am pretty sure I did that early on with 2 blades on a job and I was so green and the problem was obvious the tech never thought to ask me about the teeth direction and just told be to send them back for replacement which I and they did. At least I did not complain about the mill. I just complained about this batch of "bad" blades.

[Jim_Rogers]

I had a customer here once, he was a Boston Cab driver, he brought his recently sharpened "blade" for his chain saw. And was putting it on as I was getting ready to saw his logs.
I watched as a huge cloud of blue smoke rose from his cut.
I walked over and asked him: "will you get mad at me if I tell you that you put your chain on backwards". He said no.
I said to him "you put his chain on backwards."

Jim Rogers

[Ed_K]

 Riding with a friend we had to stop by an acquaintance of his. He was in the yard and very unhappy couldn't get a saw to cut some cordwood. after talking awhile I looked at the saw. The chain was on backwards and he had tried to sharpen it that way . It just wouldn't cut  >:(.

[samandothers]

Riding with a friend we had to stop by an acquaintance of his. He was in the yard and very unhappy couldn't get a saw to cut some cordwood. after talking awhile I looked at the saw. The chain was on backwards and he had tried to sharpen it that way . It just wouldn't cut  >:(.

Well... I would think most folks at least would notice the chain on backwards if they tried to sharpen.   Was there alcohol involved here? 
Now watch me do this very thing next week.   

[thecfarm]

Does not have anything to do with wood. The wife's dog. We let the dog have free range here. She was outside when I went out. I saw her come to me and went across a batch of grass and had a foot in the air.Thinking the grass was rough,crabgrass,weeds too,I thought she did not like the feel of it. I get on the tractor and head down to the road. She is running along beside me on 3 legs!! Stops to lick the foot and catches up with me. I stop the tractor and try to see what is wrong. I touch the foot and she yelps in pain. Broken foot? it does look odd at the end,by her toes. I carry her back to the house and tell the wife and she looks at it too. Something is wrong. We call the vet and get in an hour from now. They have a hard time looking at it too. They xray it and all is fine. Maybe bent it a little,bee sting. She gives her something to take the swollen down,you could see the swollen part and home we go.This all started at 1:30pm. Well by 8:pm she is bearing weight and acts like nothing wrong.  Which is good,but we paid a vet bill for a bee sting!!!! :  But at the time it gave us a peace of mind. The way she was acting it looked beyond bad. She was even sitting at an angle so that foot would not even touch the floor.

[Peter Drouin]

That's not dumb cfarm that's love for your dog. I would have done the same thing.
 Hope all is well up there.

[Southside]

Completely agree - would do the same thing.  Now if it were my foot I would hobble around on it for a week before getting anyone to look at it, but if it was one of the dogs - no question.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sampson, my 13 lb Rat Terrier and general knock around buddy, often runs around with one back foot in the air. I am not sure it is even the same foot all the time. I think it is to keep at least one foot dry and warm when the grass is wet or there is snow on the ground.

[Woodpecker52]

If you were in Korea majority would have eaten the dog!

[sawguy21]

I was trying to retrieve the messages from my stoopid blankety blank phone, finally called the carrier help line. " Well sir, it says here your call forward is activated". DOH!! He laughed, says it happens all the time.

[KenMac]

  Sampson, my 13 lb Rat Terrier and general knock around buddy, often runs around with one back foot in the air. I am not sure it is even the same foot all the time. I think it is to keep at least one foot dry and warm when the grass is wet or there is snow on the ground.

My wife has 2 chihuahuas.  One of them holds a foot up like that. Always a rear one, but no telling which one.

[doc henderson]

our chocolate lab Norman Rockwell and our blue healer Scout, had a routine.  throw the ball for the retriever, and half way back he would be cut off by the healer, and his left rear foot would be carried in Scouts' mouth back to me.  they would both sit and do it all over again all day long.  named him Norman cause my dads dog was Coco and his father was named Hershey, so the good chocolate names were all used up.  Scout after to kill a mocking bird.  Norman after my favorite artist.

[K-Guy]

@doc henderson 

You like Norman Hangshafter too!! Small world. :D

[firefighter ontheside]

If spending money on dogs is dumb,I'm one of the dumbest.

[Old Greenhorn]

My turn (again). I put a bunch of new parts on my Mule to get it back on the trail today. I was worried that the used front differential I bought was good. When I got it all assembled I rolled it back and forth under power and it sounded a little noisy, even at .01 MPH, just moving 5 feet forward and back. Then it dawned on me I hadn't put any grease in it.

Stupid move number two: I am moving and driving this thing VERY slowly listening for every creak, groan, grind, rub, or any other indicator of a problem. Sounds pretty good, so I start moving down the length of the driveway. Still sounds good, so I cut across the lawn to head for the skid road. When I dropped down on the lawn i hear this terrible CRUNCHING noise. I sopped, backed up, then rolled forward and it was gone. Now I am on pins and needles looking for a problem. I went across the road and dropped onto the neighbors driveway leading to the skid road. I heard it AGAIN, this time it was worse. Now I am wracking my brain as to what the heck I did to mess this up? Was the differential I bought bad, did I screw up and alignment on something? Did I totally miss something important?  i am really stressing at this point, but I crept onto the skid trail and did a slow little loop and came back up. As I came up the driveway I began to realize what that gosh awful was. 
 Acorns.
 They have been dropping lie mad in the past week and as I have not been driving the mule around, I was not used to the sound. It was freaking acorns that had me on pins and needles tearing myself apart for a stupid error in my work. ;D
 Many times in my adult life I have been told by family, friends, and employers that I am my own worst enemy and my own worst critic. I guess this is proof. ;D :D

[Nebraska]

Thank you to all of you who spend money on your animals, it feeds my family.  @Old Greenhorn thank you for brightening my evening. 

I just got back from watching an old fashioned thrashing.  Joke for you.... what's this.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

It's all the helmet stickers Ohio st gave out after the game this evening. I figured my road trip to Lincoln today qualified for a post here.

[Crusarius]

old greenhorn, I get that but usually the nuts are in the belt case. darn squirrels and mice seem to think its a good storage area. Hickory nuts scare the poop out of you the first time they get crunched when your driving.

[Old Greenhorn]

I was down by the mill unhitching a log this morning when an acorn came down and whacked me on the shoulder blade. HOLY COW did THAT hurt! ;D It about brought stars to my eyes, but no blood that I could see. Now I have a little welt there. It's a lot worse than hitting a June Bug on your motorcycle. Thought about putting my hard hat on. :D

[Crusarius]

With all the nuts falling and the squirrels dropping stuff on me I tend to wear my hardhat in the woods this time of year.

[Sixacresand]

This was dumb and against my better judgement.  With temperatures approaching 100 degrees, I set up the mill at a local fall festival Friday afternoon.  My first shirt was soaked in 15 minutes.  I sat in the truck under the AC and drank a quart of power aid to cool off. And just like that, a dome of clouds moved overhead, a breeze started and the temperature dropped 10 degrees.  

God is good and He looks out for us.     

[RAYAR]

Now my turn. Was out to buddies woodlot / build site on Sunday afternoon. Was parked on the road / driveway by the first build site and trimming some stumps down a little in an area so I could back in off the road. There was one stump off to one side left so figured I'd get it after backing the truck in past it. Caught it with the right front wheel as I swung around and it momentarily stopped the truck before jumping over it, so continued back a few more feet and heard something under the truck, probably some brush. The tail gate was down and I had set my little Craftsman (Poulan) 40cc saw on it up against stuff in the box. Got out and walked around to the back  and several things from the box were out on the tail gate, so I put things back and then realized my saw was nowhere to be seen, then it struck me. I crouched down and looked under the truck and there was my saw way up under the cab just under the left side. DANG! So I walk up and pull it out and it's not looking too good, the chain brake is tweaked some and the forward handle is also a little tweaked out of shape and position. Now for the bar, it was not looking too good at all. It was really bent out of shape, to the left and also upwards a bit. Well after fiddling with it for a few moments, I put it aside and grabbed my old Husky 61 with a fresh sharpening and raker set and used it for the rest of the afternoon. Now that's a saw that performs well! It's the one with the aluminum chain brake handle, yup, one of the older ones.

On Monday afternoon, at home, I figured I'd go out and see what I could do with my poor little saw. Fixed up one of the anti-vibe mounting springs for the forward handle and it's not looking too bad now. OK, grab the poor looking bar, which also has the rack and pinion slack adjustment built in, and see what I can do about straightening it. Wasn't easy, but after an hour or so, I had a curved and bent piece of junk looking like a bar again, was mainly bent next to the mounting end, but also a curve in the middle of it the opposite way. Put it back on the saw and had to work on the chain brake mechanism to get it operational again. After that, I sharpened the chain, wasn't too dull, and then filed the rakers as they're needing to be done. Fired up the saw and ran it for a minute or two and you'd never know it had been a wreck, no replaced parts and it ran good. Should've gotten a few pics, but I didn't.

Oh, that stump I ran over got trimmed down with the Husky. Wasn't a big stump either.