# The most Pissed ive ever been (construction screw ups)



## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

alright, maybe not the most pissed, but the most friggin angry ive been about a prop in a LONG time.

Back story...I'm not a dumb guy. My monthly subscription to "the family handyman" and I think I'm pretty mechanically, electrically and Drywallery inclined. Not to mention that online IQ test I took came up with an IQ of 142 for Mr. Dannyk...and those things are always right, back me up on this guys. That said I just totally screwed myself...

making a pretty standard MIB, nothing fancy, no DMX, not routines, just a wiper motor a lobed cam and a dream (similar to the one at cindybob.com) only this one uses a toepincher that I built over the last two days that looks friggin great.

The wiper motor that I have has a metric mounting nut for the arm so I couldn't find an extension that perfectly matched it, but the 5/16-24 that I picked up was darn close. Tried to re-tap the shaft of the motor, but my good old Harbor Freight tap and die set just couldn't cut it...no pun intended.

So, trusty crescent wrench in hand I attempt to just screw the extension post that I had down on the motor shaft. So far so good...until I think its JUST NOT QUITE TIGHT ENOUGH...thats right ...SNAPP-O!!!!!!! so now I am down one motor and my 3 year old learned a few new choice words...not to mention the mounting bracket and everything else is measured, cut and fits the existing motor...back to square 1...

Luckilly for me I at least earned myself a big hug from the hottest lady on the planet, also know as Mrs. Dannyk.

AH HAH my 142 IQ screams to me from inside my thick skull...Take the shaft out of the other motor that is slated for the crawling zombie that's only half done, make the MIB work and then get a new motor for the crawler...seems simple enough. 

The motors come apart pretty easy, both of them with no problems at all...amazingly...but alas the shaft is just barely too big, so I guess I'll just put the good motor back together and see if my buddy can do a little welding for me and fix the broken shaft...

Remember how I said they came apart easy...that part will come back into play pretty soon.

Both motors have what appears to be a steel shaft and plastic gear assembly, I gingerly put them back together, remembering that my dad used to call me BAM-BAM on account of my finesse with delicate objects, and broken shaft motor flies back together, no problems.

GOOD motor does not have this luck...

GENTLY and SLOWLY pressing the shaft back into the plastic gear with the vise (to add even slow pressure) JUST LIKE I DID FOR THE OTHER MOTOR, Mr. plastic friggin gear friggin decides to friggin split into 3 friggin pieces...all I can say is a deafening "AWWW COME ON!!!!" (my neighbors came down the street to see what happened). For those of you who are counting, that's right, my friggin MIB ate TWO friggin motors and its not even friggin done yet!!!!!

So my long drawn out story brings to light three truths:

1. Online IQ tests suck.

2. Misery loves company.

3. I can't be the only one who has had a problem like this. Go ahead, post your screw up's here, and we'll all feel better about ourselves knowing someone else messed something up worse than we did...it's worth a shot.

thanks for letting me vent...only you guys would understand my frustration at this point.

dk


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## texmaster (Aug 25, 2008)

One year I got on a ladder and spent 30 minutes tying my bats and ghosts between two trees so they could fly across only to find out after I was done they were facing the wrong way.

I've got tons of car repair screw up stories but this isn't the place


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

not bad, but not quite making me feel any better...come on someone out there has to have messed something monumental up...please, someone, have a more miserable story than mine!!!

dk


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## texmaster (Aug 25, 2008)

like I said, I have car stories that would dwarf yours but not Halloween.

I do have a neighbor when he was putting in his Halloween fence using a drill and a wood bit ruptured a sprinkler station valve ending up costing him about 400 bucks.


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

thats what Im talking about... someones elses misery and I'm loving it!!!


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## Bubbels (Nov 30, 2008)

DannyK said:


> Luckilly for me I at least earned myself a big hug from the hottest lady on the planet, also know as Mrs. Dannyk.


Pictures? 


I have 4 paper mache skeletons, full size, hanging in my garage. They took a really really really really long time to make. Anyhow, the twine I had holding one of them gave away, it came crashing down and snapped both legs off right under the upper ball of the lower leg bone. I was standing there when it happened and took a few minutes for me to snap out of it and realize that it really happened.

Luckily a little greatstuff and ductape got me back in shape. Mrs. Bubbels comforted me by laughing at me.


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## kittyvibe (Oct 27, 2008)

not halloween related, but I do alot of reading via those clip on booklights, and the only ones I see cheapest are walmart, so they have dirt dirt cheap ones for $3 and the next price is $6-15. I opt for dirt cheap, and I can tell you this, no amount of "carefully" opening the plastic package will allow you to keep the plastic "clippy" part that attaches to the book from breaking. I once succeeded in getting it out of the plastic but its clipped through a flimsy piece of cardstock. I tried to unclip it from the cardboard and the thing went "BOING" and snapped off of it. I think I screamed something similar to the OP> I went through about 4 of them over time before finding the dollar tree pinlights someone posted on here. Thank goodness for that.


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

Bubbels said:


> Pictures?
> 
> 
> I have 4 paper mache skeletons, full size, hanging in my garage. They took a really really really really long time to make. Anyhow, the twine I had holding one of them gave away, it came crashing down and snapped both legs off right under the upper ball of the lower leg bone. I was standing there when it happened and took a few minutes for me to snap out of it and realize that it really happened.
> ...


wifey gave me a big hug and brought me a cup of bengal spice tea...I know i'm going to lose man points for saying that, but it really is a great tasting cup of tea...

good to hear that you got your project back together.

dk


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## walkingcorpse (Aug 29, 2008)

I spent a couple weeks building a tombstone and then engraved buried as b-u-r-r-i-e-d. Not a monumental or even costly error. I am however, the world's worst speller and since this was an upgrade of an older stone you'd think I would just have copied the correct spelling from the first one.


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

nice, still have yet to make my tombstones, going to print out my phrases and now will make sure I hit spell check before I start carving.

thanks for your story!!

dk


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## zleviticus (Sep 11, 2009)

Caution Geek Speak below!

Not halloween related but i once was going to configure a new cisco router and wanted to plug it in to the network to program it versus the console cable. Well i learn quickly that when you plug a router in wrong in a network of about 100 users and 13 servers that the network WILL crash. 

I have done some stupid stuff but half the time no one figures it out or knows about it. 

Oh and on a side note those online IQ tests are crap. After all they said i scored a 150. Yeah right. i am more of a 155.. HA!


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## FeelNecro (Sep 28, 2008)

I understand your frustration! 

I spent two weeks making some "Rising Spirits" (inspired by Davethedead) which involved bending pvc with a heat gun to the proper position .... then tediously corpsing and painting these creatures and carving their heads out of styrofoam and fitting their teeth and claws from whittled tree branches only to have my two pet pygmy goats tear them to shreds as I was weedeating their pen ( which btw should be THEIR job in the first place) Uhhhhhggggg

It`s always something !!!!!

There just may be "Goat Stew" on the menu for the halloween party this year LOL


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## Yubney (Sep 14, 2009)

During last years event I got low on fog juice. This was late into the evening while extensively adding to my aluminum recycling bin. So I pour simple tap water into both foggers. Did I mention we have a well and it's heavy water? For some strange reason that fact escaped me that night. 

Needless to say I just replaced both foggers.


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

FeelNecro said:


> I understand your frustration!
> 
> I spent two weeks making some "Rising Spirits" (inspired by Davethedead) which involved bending pvc with a heat gun to the proper position .... then tediously corpsing and painting these creatures and carving their heads out of styrofoam and fitting their teeth and claws from whittled tree branches only to have my two pet pygmy goats tear them to shreds as I was weedeating their pen ( which btw should be THEIR job in the first place) Uhhhhhggggg
> 
> ...


thought about making those myself, they really are awesome looking. I would HATE to see all that work go down the tubes. Oh, and a little goat meat would sound really tasty to me at that point too!!

-dk


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## Booterbunz (Sep 24, 2004)

DannyK, your post had me LOL'ing!! I haven't had any major investments hit the ******* simply because I don't understand how to make those really cool props. But on the "dumbing it down side" I did spell a tombstone wrong a time or two when I first started making them. Needless to say, I use cutouts or patterns now?!.


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

Booterbunz said:


> DannyK, your post had me LOL'ing!! I haven't had any major investments hit the ******* simply because I don't understand how to make those really cool props. But on the "dumbing it down side" I did spell a tombstone wrong a time or two when I first started making them. Needless to say, I use cutouts or patterns now?!.


thanks for the compliments on my literary prose...i think i use comedy A LOT to compensate when I am pissed. I just want to be able to make some super cool stuffs without jacking everything up.

-dk


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## CraigInPA (Sep 11, 2007)

texmaster said:


> One year I got on a ladder and spent 30 minutes tying my bats and ghosts between two trees so they could fly across only to find out after I was done they were facing the wrong way.


Did something similar. I was stringing wire for an FCG and somehow strung it through the ladder, which was propped up against a tree branch I was using as one end of the rig. Only when I was fully done and watched the fcg work, did I decide to remove the ladder...

Craig


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## Dr. Dark (Aug 6, 2009)

Man, these are fun to read! Dannyk, I can't top yours, but when I was building my scissor extender, I cut, drilled, and welded the frame together, only to discover that it was too short for the cylinder I bought. Had to scrap it, and start over.


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## lucky13 (Sep 4, 2009)

Our very first Halloween prop (2005) was a motion sensor tombstone, it's open to a skeleton with flashing lights in his eyes and a scream. Last year I decided to upgrade our tombstone mounts had them all done at 2am and was looking over to make sure I was happy with them all and tested the animated one to make sure it still worked (it did). When I noticed that the PVC pipe wasn't straight, so unscrewed the strap straighten it out. I realize that when I'm reattaching the strap it's a little harder to get the screw to go in. Yup I'm mounting the strap screw directly into the circuit board.

We tried the next day to see if we could repair it, but we couldn't. My daughter mentioned yesterday that she was still very upset that I ruined it and the truth so am I. We still use it: I stake it into the ground and open the tombstone to see the skeleton  and then walk away very very upset.


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## Pumpkin Torture Guy (Aug 8, 2008)

How about ....WAY TO GO KNUCKLEHEAD!...feel any better yet?lol


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## Wagon (Sep 22, 2009)

Wow, I actually have something to contribute to this one.

Every year, I set my black station wagon on the front lawn with my toe pincher leaning on the tailgate. The coffin has a piston in it, and the car has a fog machine in it. Well, my brother and sister in law were going to be at my parents house with the kids and wanted to show them the setup. So, I set everything up and turned it on. They didn't have to to come by, so when I came home, I just closed up the car. The next day at work, my wife called and said there was smoke coming out of the back of the car. I told her it was just the fog machine and told her to just unplug the cord. When I got home I noticed that all of the windows in the car were black. I mean BLACK! The fog machine had caught fire, and the only thing left of it was a flat melted plastic mess with melted guts. The plastic domelight cover had melted and was hanging all the way down to the carpet. I opened the tailgate, started laughing and just closed it up. My wife probably thought I had lost my mind for laughing. I told her there was nothing that I could do about it now, and I could fix the car. No big deal. Then she was upset because she hadn't noticed and should have done something. If she had opened it, then either she would have been hurt, or the fire would have gotten more air and the car which was close to the house would have been burned to the ground, or the fire department would have come, smashed a window and flooded the car. All in all, it didn't turn out that bad.


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## msmello (Aug 17, 2009)

This isn't nearly as good as the other stories in this thread, but since it just happened last night, thought I'd throw it out there. I was rather frustrated with myself.

I really wanted to make a ground breaker this year. I had made the torso already out of pvc and irrigation tubing and lovingly named him Travis. I bought the queen size pantyhose (which received some strange looks from the cashier) and thought I'd try to start to corpse it last night. 

Well, let me just say that attempting to get a pair of pantyhose over the torso of a home-made skeleton whom is built like a Detroit Lion linebacker is no easy feat, queen-size pantyhose or not. I was cussing and fussing for over an hour. I am sure Travis didn't appreciate the language or the tugging and pulling on his every limb, rib, or finger. But okay, we both survived that endeavor and I stand back to look at my masterpiece and wouldn't you know it - but the crotch part of the pantyhose ended smack dab in the middle of Travis' skeleton face. Looked rather grotesque, but not in a good way, believe me. 

Travis will get a pantyhose makeover today, if I do nothing else.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Ha ha ha haaaaa. Love these stories.

I've got a beauty. Last year I got the garage haunt set up and ready to go two days early and was tweaking the lighting the day before. I decided that one more trouble light would do the trick and put one up on the wall.

FF to 3pm Halloween day. I do one more walk-through of the garage and notice that the paint on a wall is hanging off like it was wallpaper. _WEIRD._ I go up to it to see what's up and it's completely soaked! I looked up and there's that trouble light I put up on the wall. You see, I find the stud in walls by drilling across the wall until I find the stud _(why use a stud finder?)_ Well, one of the holes was drilled right into the upstair's sewer line. *UGH!!!!!!!!!*


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## ZombieRaider (May 18, 2008)

OK...Here's one...Everybody go check your signs and come back and tell us if you spelled it Cemetary or Cemetery....ZR


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## wristslitter (Nov 21, 2008)

Wish I could contribute something to this interesting thread, but, I am PERFECT!!!


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## msmello (Aug 17, 2009)

Terra ~

Stud finders are sooo overrated LOL


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## Baron Samedi (Jan 15, 2009)

DannyK said:


> ....GENTLY and SLOWLY pressing the shaft back into the plastic gear with the vise (to add even slow pressure) JUST LIKE I DID FOR THE OTHER MOTOR, Mr. plastic friggin gear friggin decides to friggin split into 3 friggin pieces...all I can say is a deafening "AWWW COME ON!!!!" ......
> dk


Well, your mechanical engineering skills may need a little brushing up here and there, but your self control certainly doesn't. 
If that had happened to me, the neighbours would most likely think I had suffered a terminal attack of Tourettes' Syndrome.
My compliments, Sir.

I once made a "Rest in Pieces" Tombstone and got the "i" and the "e" @rse about face.
I used that tombstone for two years in my haunt and never noticed it until somebody discreetly pointed out my mistake one Halloween night...


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## wristslitter (Nov 21, 2008)

msmello said:


> Terra ~
> 
> Stud finders are sooo overrated LOL


I will lend you my girlfriend's studfinder, she wont be needing it anymore.


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## quills (Jul 9, 2009)

Ok not halloween related but I just had a day like this on Friday. I went to a service call for a business who's internet was down, my notes said IT says swap modem. I go in check everything out, no problems with signal so I grab another modem off the truck and call IT to swap it, they tell me it's going to be a while so they can set up the IP address and they'll call me when it's done. An hour later they call and say the modem went offline halfway through. I go back in and the modem is completely dead. Long story short I ended up being there for 4 1/2 hours on a job that should have taken 30 minutes only to be told it was a problem on the IT departments side and there was nothing I could do. I knew this after I swapped the modem but I kept getting told the problem was on my end, the kicker was I had my boss calling me wanting to know why I was on one job for over 4 hours.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Well, I must say that _*now*_, the stud finder is one of my prized possessions....


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## msmello (Aug 17, 2009)

Terra said:


> Well, I must say that _*now*_, the stud finder is one of my prized possessions....



Help a sista out and let me borrow that thing Terra.


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## Crazytrain83 (Oct 1, 2009)

ZombieRaider said:


> OK...Here's one...Everybody go check your signs and come back and tell us if you spelled it Cemetary or Cemetery....ZR


We just finished replacing our main sign that was up all last year with "CEMETARY" on it.

D'OH!


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## Baron Samedi (Jan 15, 2009)

wristslitter said:


> I will lend you my girlfriend's studfinder, she wont be needing it anymore.


Impeccable dress sense, modesty and a sense of humour....
What more could a girl want...??


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

DK,

why after you snapped the tap didn't you just weld an end onto the shaft.

and you lost all my respect after the "Tea Comment" sorry had to say it 

-PB


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

Dr. Dark said:


> Man, these are fun to read! Dannyk, I can't top yours, but when I was building my scissor extender, I cut, drilled, and welded the frame together, only to discover that it was too short for the cylinder I bought. Had to scrap it, and start over.



ok that is darn good...a lot of time and effort put into a prop that just goes completely wrong. That is what I am talking about people!!! feeling better with every story!!

dk


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

careypiper said:


> Our very first Halloween prop (2005) was a motion sensor tombstone, it's open to a skeleton with flashing lights in his eyes and a scream. Last year I decided to upgrade our tombstone mounts had them all done at 2am and was looking over to make sure I was happy with them all and tested the animated one to make sure it still worked (it did). When I noticed that the PVC pipe wasn't straight, so unscrewed the strap straighten it out. I realize that when I'm reattaching the strap it's a little harder to get the screw to go in. Yup I'm mounting the strap screw directly into the circuit board.
> 
> We tried the next day to see if we could repair it, but we couldn't. My daughter mentioned yesterday that she was still very upset that I ruined it and the truth so am I. We still use it: I stake it into the ground and open the tombstone to see the skeleton  and then walk away very very upset.



man....thats about rough...very sorry to hear about that, but hell...I'm feeling better about my screw up with everyone of these that I read!!!

dk


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

Terra said:


> Ha ha ha haaaaa. Love these stories.
> 
> I've got a beauty. Last year I got the garage haunt set up and ready to go two days early and was tweaking the lighting the day before. I decided that one more trouble light would do the trick and put one up on the wall.
> 
> FF to 3pm Halloween day. I do one more walk-through of the garage and notice that the paint on a wall is hanging off like it was wallpaper. _WEIRD._ I go up to it to see what's up and it's completely soaked! I looked up and there's that trouble light I put up on the wall. You see, I find the stud in walls by drilling across the wall until I find the stud _(why use a stud finder?)_ Well, one of the holes was drilled right into the upstair's sewer line. *UGH!!!!!!!!!*



been there...only i did it with a backhoe and it was my main septic line while the pump was on...doo-doo rain EVERYWHERE!!! luckily it was a rental backhoe, and it only took about $25.00 to fix.

dk


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

propboy said:


> DK,
> 
> why after you snapped the tap didn't you just weld an end onto the shaft.
> 
> ...



guy up the street has a welder, that is the next step...and if you've never tried Bengal Spice tea by celestial seasonings, you aint lived my friend...I dont think that will help me out in the man points department, but hell the stuff just tastes GOOD!!!! it's like quiche, not that manly, but dang its good stuff!!!

dk


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## Mistress Evilynn (Oct 11, 2005)

Well now I'm pissed off. I started to set up my yard haunt this weekend. I store all of my props in the attic above our garage. Most everything is stored in plastic bins. Well my props that weren't in bins were attacked by an evil squirrel. We've been battling the evil little monsters all summer.


View attachment 6859


The guy on the left I made, not much left of his body. The guy on the right I bought, the fabric used to hang down about eight feet. 


View attachment 6860


He even had peanut shells stuck on him! 
The black bits of fuzz are from one of my giant spiders and the yellow stuff is bits of spray foam insulation from my pile of guts I had made.


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## Biggie (Jul 29, 2009)

Well, not halloween related. However I has a total mess up and it came to affect not only me but my friends band. My friend has been doing the band thing for awhile, and he finally got a really good one going now. They wanted some band boxes to store crap in and be able to stand up on on stage. Well I made some boxes out of crate wood from a CNC machine my dads work got. Then went to find 2x2's at Lowes, no luck. I did what most would do and got 2x4's and chopped them down on the table saw. I then built the framing of the boxes, then covered with the plywood. 

Next the band artist sent me some sketches of the logo, I went to the painting and pulled out the trusty airbrush. Went in and did some shading work, then broke out the pinstripe brush with gold paint to outline the lettering and some pinstripe accents. I mean I was very proud of my work. Then as a last touch put down some grip onto the top using granite in polyacrylic.

Well fast forward to last friday and my friend wants them, I decide I should test them out. I jump up on them and jokingly tried to crab core. Well when I landed I went through the wood. Apparently the nice looking wood was veneers over what I think was paper. Honestly I went into depression for the weekend until I arrived home to a package of bucky bones.

Its never the cost that makes it a traumatic event, its the amount of time that apparently gets wasted.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

DannyK said:


> been there...only i did it with a backhoe and it was my main septic line while the pump was on...doo-doo rain EVERYWHERE!!! luckily it was a rental backhoe, and it only took about $25.00 to fix.
> 
> dk


Uh...ewwwww!


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## MedeaViolia (Aug 31, 2009)

I'm a member of Mensa and I still do the stupidist things. High IQ just means you can think your way out of the special brand of stupidity only really intelligent people can propagate.

I can't count the amount of times I've built things backwards or upside down. I've spent the last two days trying to correct this spelling mistake on one of my tombstones.










I didnt even notice it till a friend pointed it out.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

*Silly things you've done during setup...*

Glad I'm not the only one that thought they had it all figured out and then screwed it up. 

We have a wire fence and cardboard columns. Last year, we got wire snips and custom cut all the sections to make for a neater setup. We labeled the sections so we would be able to setup this year easily and fast.

Sounds easy, right? 

Forgot that there were some extra sections. Accidentally labeled one of them as part of the regular setup, and didn't realize it until after setting up half of the yard and realizing that stuff wasn't going together right... 

cue the cursing and ripping out of the messed up sections to restart the whole thing. 

Somebody else has to have done something like this, right?


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## Pumpkin Torture Guy (Aug 8, 2008)

Made two left sides for my witches shack. Only had to trim two boards but really felt dumb.


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## wilbret (Oct 8, 2004)

Just put up my fence for the first time in 2 years and the first time in this house...

So the connections were custom for my old setup, and I forgot that there was an up and a down side to the fence (so the end posts on each section are taller...). I got done and looked back.... WTF?? Half was upside down... I had to take it down and figure out how to make all the ends meet up right and have all the sections right side up. 

Normally, the fence takes all of 15 minutes, MAX to set up. Pound 2 stakes in the ground for each section and zip tie the sections together. Tonight? 1.5 hours. Ha. 

No tombstones or anything, but tomorrow the kids will see a fence and wonder what's up.


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## Shadow Mistress (Oct 26, 2007)

Just happened yesterday...was finishing up with the Great Stuff as the "guts" for one of my dismembered legs and set it against the house to dry. My husband was outside with the baby and when the leg tipped over and started spilling, he couldn't pick it up so he called me. I had already taken off my gloves and grabbed the leg without thinking. Needless to say, I am STILL scraping Great Stuff off my hands....but it'll be worth it!


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## cinders (Oct 12, 2003)

I was setting up my fencing the other day. Using my cemetery fence, but redone to fit in with the tribal theme. One section usually goes off on an angle. I was going to put the angle area close to the entrance and put a "backstory scene" in the wedge area in front of the fence. Well, during set up I ended up forgetting my intention and doing it like I always do, and the angle is in its usual place. Not where I wanted, and kind of messes up my plan, but the fence is sturdy and it was cold out, so it stays! On another note, I spent so much time figuring out how I was going to decorate the fence, that I don't have a clear idea of what I'm going to do for the REST of the yard!


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## Zeltino (Aug 7, 2006)

Shadow Mistress said:


> Just happened yesterday...was finishing up with the Great Stuff as the "guts" for one of my dismembered legs and set it against the house to dry. My husband was outside with the baby and when the leg tipped over and started spilling, he couldn't pick it up so he called me. I had already taken off my gloves and grabbed the leg without thinking. Needless to say, I am STILL scraping Great Stuff off my hands....but it'll be worth it!



Man, that stinks. That stuff never wants to come off. 

I was using Great stuff to make some arms for a grave-grabber a couple years back and forgot to lay down some form of cover for the garage floor. Needless to say, my parents weren't too happy when there was great stuff all over it. I also happened to great stuff my shoe to the floor. Those shoes were thrown out .


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## Shadow Mistress (Oct 26, 2007)

Yeah, those warnings are for real when it comes to Great Stuff....will definitely be more careful with it later this week.


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## iamgettingbored (Oct 8, 2009)

Nail polish remover takes it right off. I even clean the tubes out with it and a wire. So if i dont use whole can i dont have a clog when i need it again


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## kUITSUKU (Jul 5, 2009)

Hehe, these were a good laugh to read. I haven't had any big projects to stress over but I bought 144 plastic spiders and lost a good few of them in my room. Still getting split second shockers when I see one poking out of my bed or something.


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## Jack Skellington (Oct 25, 2005)

Saturday night I was ripping a power supply and speed controller out of an old prop control machine to use on my new rocking chair prop. It wasn't plugged in but as I was touching the wire my cell phone in my pocket went off in vibrate mode. I nearly jumped out of my skin thinking I was being electrocuted.

Boy do I feel stupid now!


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## Scary Firefighter (Sep 13, 2009)

During the early stages of building my electric chair last month I was attaching the 2 by 6 section that would connect the back support to the front support and ultimately form the part of the chair you would actually sit on. I needed to build each side and make them mirror images of each other so the plywood could rest on them.... but I built them the exact same so the 2 by 6 on one of the pieces was on the wrong side. Cursed myself the whole time while I un-screwed the piece and wiped away a bunch of wood glue so I could then build it correctly.


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## Tsloth (Aug 23, 2008)

*Crypt Destrcution!*

Not a stupid move on my part, but bad luck. I just finished a 5 ft crypt (TK421 plans) for my FCG--looked pretty good-spent countless hours finally finishing it. I placed it out in my front yard on Thursday night. Next day--18 hrs later, *tornado warning* the kids are sleeping and the wind gets really loud. I look out the front of the house to see what the clouds look like, and my crypt is GONE! Two little sconces are laying in the outline of where the crypt was, but literally no sight of the crypt for hundreds of feet. Wind blew it partially behind my house, smashing it into the horse fence. Kids are crying from the noise (1 and 3 yo), I'm running outside in the rain to find it and try and salvage the FCG motor (ghost wasn't hung up yet!) Fortunately, only the roof will need to be replaced and the entire structure rebolted together with some touch up. I will be using cinder blocks for tie downs--FYI, I did not use the extra wood at the base like TK421's plans did--might have saved it. I will post pics once its refinished, along with some destruction pics. I was more amazed it was smashed then angry
-I also found a black widow spider living in the corner of the roof when I dismantled it----that shows you how *real* my crypt looked. Don't really like spiders--yuckkk.


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## HallowSusieBoo (Aug 11, 2009)

MedeaViolia said:


> I'm a member of Mensa and I still do the stupidist things. High IQ just means you can think your way out of the special brand of stupidity only really intelligent people can propagate.
> 
> I can't count the amount of times I've built things backwards or upside down. I've spent the last two days trying to correct this spelling mistake on one of my tombstones.
> 
> ...


LOL - I actually LOVE this! You should leave it _*as is*_ just to test visitors to see if they are paying attention! Where - were - whir - who cares!? You wood!


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## theicewitch (Oct 2, 2008)

Well you all make me feel better...

Yesterday I was working on my tv columny thing. Four small screen tvs in a 12"x 12" x 6' soon to be black wood column. I want it to have holes cut so the screens only show. So I make patterns by tracing the tvs and cutting out the screens on a piece of paper. I then mark on the front of the column where the shelves are and then place the patterns on and draw where to cut them. 

I cut the holes and grab my tiny tvs .... they are all off by 2 inches in height. I marked the bottom of the shelf...not the top.

Tomorrow I get to cut the holes larger then find a way to make this work...lol... and some how get it painted black... and back home..and wired... before Halloween.


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## Gorey (Mar 2, 2004)

10 foot foam pillars, good enough to fool passerbys and the city to thinking we constructed brick pillars in a day without permits.

Add to this a foam arch spanning 15' and another 5+ feet in height to span the pillars.

Hang from this a Foam shadow box constructed cemtery sign with incorporatred flickering lights.

Then add a pair of skull gates (skull cut out of the foam) 11 ft wide and 10 ft tall.

Place this all at the foot of the driverway, held in place with 2-3 pieces of rebar thru the base supports of the pillars.

Take pictures, enjoy, have ToTers come for 3 hours, get thru most of the night.

A breeze picks up, knocking it all over into the 5 lane road in front of the house.
OK, not so bad, broken into pieces, but salvagable.

UNTIL the bus plows thru the entire thing smashing it into millions of painted foam pieces scattering up the road.

Time for a drink.

There are more, but I have toget back to work.


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## dead by dawn (Oct 9, 2009)

This year I made my first attempt at corpsing a blucky and I have to say I am very satisfied with the results. I even built a 5 foot toe pincher for him to reside in and used some pieces of my wife’s blonde wig from last years costume to place on his head...very cool effect and very real looking!

In my hast and excitement to get him secured in the coffin, I managed to operate my portable drill a little too close to his head causing some of the hair to get tangled up in the drill. Before I could react he's got a friggin cordless black and decker bound to his dang head! Ugh...


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## Mandathewitch (May 19, 2009)

I just couldn't help but laugh at your story DannyK. I laugh because that's the kind of stuff that happens to us! Last year we decided to go a giant mushroom cap over the gazebo (Alice in Wonderland Theme), and decided to inflate balloons and fill it with balloons... Yeah, well after inflating 60 balloons and using most of a helium tank, we realize that we have now POPPED half the balloons because they were rubbing against bare wood because we forgot to lay the black tarp first... No big deal right? Well, as it turns out, at 4pm on a saturday before halloween you can't get more helium.... So what do we do? We decide to start stuffing paper up there... Awesome idea, right? Yup. Really awesome. What we forgot about was that we were leaving the spa that sits under the gazebo OPEN ALL NIGHT LONG... Hot moist air, sticking to the paper, and then sticking to the gazebo... 

Yeah. We are brilliant. This year, Black tarp first. Paper products 2nd. And I put a kaibosh on putting little color changing LED lights on TOP of the gazebo that have to be each hand turned on....Because getting up there on a ladder in full costume to turn on 4 little lights IS the smartest thing ever!


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## digbugsgirl (Aug 15, 2007)

I just read this DannyK...you are hilarious! Sorry it happened to you, though.


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## DannyK (Sep 21, 2008)

thanks to everyone for sharing their screw-ups and "series of unfortunate events". I think its good for all of us to take a step back from our own problems, take a deep breath and let it out with a HUGE belly laugh at someone else getting royally screwed worse than we were.

thanks again to everyone who has, and will, add to this thread.

dk


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