Hammer & Shovel Technique

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Just been talking about my old apprentice days and was telling my colleague about the first time I completed my own install,
My supervisor said right you are qualified so you build it test it and then you turn it on.
I was understandably nervous but all tested fine turned it on to an almighty bang raw fear and dread and the smell of poo faded after only a few seconds and turned to rage as I saw my supervisor and the other lads stood round laughing holding a shovel and hammer.

So here's the question what's the best story people have to offer on this subject.

 

[Farmelectrics]

I would of hit him with the shovel lol

 

[Andy78]

Had similar done to me, but with a fire door pushed over onto a concrete floor. Hell of a bang.

 

[telectrix]

blown up paper bag in my case, many moons ago.

 

[Knobhead]

A 1000W MBFU dropped just behind me from an overhead crane.

 

[Andy78]

Just remembered another one thanks to Tony's last post, not a prank though a manufacturer fail.

We had installed some lowbay lighting hung from chains in a new crane workshop install. They were the box type fitting with catch glasses to fit, about 2' by 1' by 1/4" thick. The catch glasses were held in place by rails that you screwed on, not an integral part of the fitting.

So one morning me and my mate walked in, turned the lights on, and BOOM ! one of the catch glasses fell from about 30' up and smashed on the concrete floor right next to us. After changing our pants we had a look up on the scissor lift.
On closer inspection, the rails were just not wide enough to hold the catch glasses, and the vibration of the start-up in the fitting had shaken one loose.

We called the manufacturers to inform them. " Oh yeah that's a known issue, the wrong rails went out with a few batches, we'll send you the right ones and a new glass." :S

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Ok chaps I was also after pranks done by you or to you (we have a new apprentice) not that I will be doing anything to him of course just nice to hear I was not the only guy who had a "initiation"

 

[mechelec]

I was deep in concentration oxy acetylene welding years ago when my old supervisor popped a balloon behind me. He thought it was funny at least, I never did like him.

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

I was deep in concentration oxy acetylene welding years ago when my old supervisor popped a balloon behind me. He thought it was funny at least, I never did like him.

The old ones are the best I don't think that's the first time he did that

 

[Andy78]

Ok chaps I was also after pranks done by you or to you (we have a new apprentice) not that I will be doing anything to him of course just nice to hear I was not the only guy who had a "initiation"

Ones I have had done to me
Thick globs of grease under car door handle
General hiding of my tools/steps/materials
Sent for a long stand etc
Been sent to black the scuffs on SWA with boot polish
Spade bit left in the finger of my glove ( never found out who that nasty git was )

Ones i have done to others
Took all tools out of a guys toolbox and replaced them with bricks
Eaten someones snap
Sent the contracts manager to the wholesaler for a female coil and 3 metres of fallopian tube.
Tied someones shoelaces together without them knowing

Ones I have heard of (but might be best not to try)
Tied to a post naked and ******** painted with red lead
Shout "catch", then chuck him a charged capacitor
Fill his toolbox with swarf/silicone sealant/cement
Come up behind a guy whilst knelt second fixing a socket, whop out the tackle over his shoulder and call his name so he turns round and gets a face full
Joiners once got a lippy apprentice and nailed him to the floor for a few hours

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Heard once about a guy on site who was using the porta loo and got lifted up by the crane and dunked in a lake/pond
He told us he did lose his job as sparked the crane driver out cold.

The old grease trick was another favourite if mine but I loved hiding it on the ceeform/commando plugs

 

[Phoenix]

Bloke staggered towards me at college struggling to carry a 2'6" length of 4" steel round bar, called for me to catch as he was dropping it, so I did. As soon as he stood up some b4st4rd welded a length of angle iron across the top of my steelies. Both of them!!!!

 

[shanky887614]

Ones I have had done to me
Thick globs of grease under car door handle
General hiding of my tools/steps/materials
Sent for a long stand etc
Been sent to black the scuffs on SWA with boot polish
Spade bit left in the finger of my glove ( never found out who that nasty git was )

Ones i have done to others
Took all tools out of a guys toolbox and replaced them with bricks
Eaten someones snap
Sent the contracts manager to the wholesaler for a female coil and 3 metres of fallopian tube.
Tied someones shoelaces together without them knowing

Ones I have heard of (but might be best not to try)
Tied to a post naked and ******** painted with red lead
Shout "catch", then chuck him a charged capacitor
Fill his toolbox with swarf/silicone sealant/cement
Come up behind a guy whilst knelt second fixing a socket, whop out the tackle over his shoulder and call his name so he turns round and gets a face full
Joiners once got a lippy apprentice and nailed him to the floor for a few hours

I know of a guy that had toolbox filled with cement with all there tools in it.
Couple ive seen

A guy was using people for target practise with plasterboard fixings and a length of conduit.

Always wear a belt, especially when up a pair of steps or they will pull trousers down.

Painting a guys hardhat purple etc

 

[Tiny Spark]

Ive never been caught out by such pranks luckily but I have pulled and seen a few done.

1) A contractor covered my mentors tools in PVA glue so in revenge he dipped his brand spanking new Dewalt drill in PVA glue. (totally knackered it)

2) My 2 apprentices tried to freeze my sarnie, So in revenge for this I spiked the one lads sandwich filler with tobasco sauce and the other (main culprit) I picked the lock on his tool box, Sprayed all his gear with WD40 then tipped loads of dead flys over them (acquired out of the high bay light fittings)

3) Smashing a length of unistrut down on the work bench while the apprentice powers on his circuit.

4) Handing the apprentice the freshly removed plug of a knackered high bay Sodium light (gets a nice blast off the internal capacitor)

Sure ive done lots of other evil things as well but none that spring to mind atm....

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Great guys try keep this going good for a laugh

 

[StevieTee]

Done a few pranks and been pranked a few times,

- Put jack chain on my tradesman van's tow bar and around a steal beam,
- Insulation resistance test to tradesman whilest he's up steps connecting a light,
- Getting 1st year apprentice to try pull a 40m coil of 185mm2 up 3 flights of stairs,
- Swapping people's tools in tool kit with someone else's,
- Asking first year to shout a call point to see if it is working,
- cling filming subby's car
been caught out,

- joiners using nail gun whilst I'm connecting cables in a bus bar! What a bang, s**t me self big time!
- jacket nailed to floor,
- trying to pull a cable through a wall whilest guy I'm working with is holding it on the other side,

A lot more, but those are some of the best. All good laughs, gladly no one took it serious though!

 

[fuel]

Working on wires on something or other then the wood butcher decides to use his 'effin nail gun...

 

[ferg]

As an apprentice was working inside a cabinet.

Mentor hit it with a lump hammer..........

 

[Knobhead]

While I was a production manager I had bawled out two of the girls on my shift.

Later I was stood near a stanchion and they approached me, at the last moment they suddenly split up. They had a roll of industrial cling film between them. I was fastened to the stanchion for nearly 2 hrs. The works manager arrived, “who’ve you upset?” He just left me there.

It was the first time I’d ever had to work with females, never again!
Up until then I’d been in quarrying, you hardly ever heard swearing. I’d 10 girls on my shift, to say I was shocked is an understatement.

 

[ferg]

I did my time in a pharmaceutical factory.

I was physically scared of the bench fitters, fitters, welders, sparks.
You can wear a split lip or black eye as a badge of honour.
The thing that terrified me the most, and thankfully I only saw it happen to someone else, Was an entire shop floor of women shouting and laughing whilst wiggling their pinkies

 

[markc123]

A 1000W MBFU dropped just behind me from an overhead crane.

Only read the first few posts, and Tony wins already lol.

 

[markc123]

In my case anyway it was a lump hammer hit on the carpet behind me....not as impressive as some, but hell it made me jump.

 

[Tiny Spark]

I did my time in a pharmaceutical factory.

I was physically scared of the bench fitters, fitters, welders, sparks.
You can wear a split lip or black eye as a badge of honour.
The thing that terrified me the most, and thankfully I only saw it happen to someone else, Was an entire shop floor of women shouting and laughing whilst wiggling their pinkies

That reminds me one of the guys I used to work with was bound, gagged and bundled in the back of a works van by 2 rather boisterous women who said they were going to erm do things to him lol.

Anyways they drove him round for a while being sure to smash him around as much as possible before pulling up outside his house and chucked him out on the pavement.

Apparently he was rather petrified!
All he did was finish his apprenticeship and the girls said he had to be made a man lol

 

[Ashley Williams]

Filled my mates boots with bags of grease and bolts on multiple occasions.

My dad replaced a heating element in my aunts oven when she goes to switch it on I bang on the wall and hit the light switch at the same time.

My colleague when he got married on his last day of work they grabbed him stripped him naked tied him to a signpost by the office and covered him in grease.

Another one one vie heard is a apprentice who was terrified of heights they bundled him into a packaging crate nailed the top on which they put slings around and attached to a crane put it on slow lift and lifted him about 6ft off the ground ( even though he thought he was a lot higher. ) swung it around a bit left him in there for half an hour let him down. He got out he ran out the main gate never to be see from or heard from again.

Ash

 

[Robotstar5]

I've had the hammer on the enclosure one just as I switch on.

A favourite wedding present at the foundry was was your steel tool cupboard being seam welded shut, took hours of grinding to get it open.

A non electrical one was when I worked in a paint shop, had replaced some ABS pipe that passed through a floor plate, turned it on and water started pouring down through the hole in the plate, turned it off quick and went upstairs to find my mate rolling around laughing, he had been pouring water out of a bucket down the outside of the pipe when I turned it on.

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

Screwed a apprentices tool bag down , filled with glue then sawdust.

2 days after I bought him a new one, sent a lad up in the loft and screwed it upside down to the ceiling into some timber and carefully put some open paint pots in it whilst closing it.

good times we're had that week!

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Remember a guy once telling me how he got his mate back big time not sure what they had done to him but he "accidentally" emptied numerous tins of coke into his tool box over the summer not only was it highly sticky but turned out to be a heaven for the wasps for the entire week

 

[Guest111]

I had a pager which was on vibrate due to the noisy environment,just got hold of a terminal on a machine when pager went off,didn't half make me jump.Another 1 putting lamps in a load of florry's had a box full on the scissor lift and as I fitted a tube I threw the cardboard sleeve over the side,got distracted and threw 2 tubes over then tried fitting the cardboard sleeves into the light fitting.

 

[Guest111]

Remember a guy once telling me how he got his mate back big time not sure what they had done to him but he "accidentally" emptied numerous tins of coke into his tool box over the summer not only was it highly sticky but turned out to be a heaven for the wasps for the entire week

we were working in an infants school toilet once and this little lad came in and peed into my mates toolbox.

 

[Tiny Spark]

we were working in an infants school toilet once and this little lad came in and peed into my mates toolbox.

pmsl!!

 

[lockhes]

haha some good ones here

only really used a party poper next to my mate who was sniping cable off a drum so no chance of it been live but boy did he jump

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Yes party poper good idea,

 

[Guest111]

We had a girl in our office who always wore knee length boots,in a morning she'd come in and sit in her chair at one end of the desk unzip her boots step out of them,into her shoes wheel along the floor on her chair and start work.At the end of each day the process was reversed,one of the lads came into the office while she was out and coated the soles of her boots with impact adhesive,Five o'clock came and there was a few people in the office,she wheeled along the desk,slipped her shoes off feet into boots,zipped them up and stood up.It was so funny watching her trying to move,she couldn't work out why her feet were stuck to the floor.

 

[Knobhead]

I wouldn’t have dared do that to the girls on my shift, retribution would be swift and painful!