"The Worst Crap Out I Ever Had" - What's Yours?

[WU2D]

I have a couple. The worst was a transformer in a power supply that I built for a military mule pack radio, a BC-654 that I picked up at Hosstraders. The thing had been modified and the schematic was tough to follow too -positive ground crap and so on. Anyway I had a slow burn short going that overheated the transformer. Ka BOOM! and hiSS! Noxious smoke and hot black tar eveywhere. Yuk and it was a mess to clean up. The BC-654 went back to Deerfield the next year.

PCB city I imagine. I got a rare leukemia three years ago and you have to wonder! I beat it though.

Another good one was just last year when I had a bias cap in my Marauder short out causing the bias to go away on a solid stated 800 VDC supply which serviced the pair of 6146's. What an exciting orange and blue light show. At least the fun was confined to the cage. All fixed now.

Finally when I was making my own circuit boards I was using Ferric Chloride to etch the boards in a sink (of course). I decided to clean up with Comet. Bad Idea.

Mike WU2D

[AG4YO]

Neon dust? Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert gas at room temperature. It melts at minus 249 degrees Celsius and boils at minus 246 degrees Celsius, so that must have been one helluva cold transmitter room! Or did she use a fluorescent tube, which is coated with a phosphor dust?

Did that Collins 820 still use the almost impossible-to-obtain and insanely expensive 5-500 tubes, or was it reworked to take 4-400s? It's a nice little transmitter, all solid state except for the modulator and PA.

Right on the neon dust.  ROFL!  Should have read dust from the neon light. This was in 1971, so it had the 5-500 tubes.  I understand it got reworked in the early 90's but not by me.   Saw the receptionist again in 1978 and she was equal in mass with the transmitter. 

BTW, Harold Smith W4PKW in Pensacola has an 820D in his garage on the "to do" list. Not in bad shape for its age.  73!   

[AG4YO]

Most rotten crap out I ever had was a selenium rectifier that went bad. It smelled horrible. Smelled like something was long dead and rotting away.

You're lucky you didn't poison yourself! Both hydrogen selenide and selenium dioxide, formed when a selenium rectifier burns out, are intensely poisonous. They are responsible for the foul odor. Selenium rivals arsenic in its toxicity.

It's best to automatically replace any selenium rectifiers found in older equipment to avoid this health hazard.

Yeppers, selenium had a real nasty smell.  If you ever got a whif, you'd never want another. Hated the smell of burning bakelite too.  I worked with a few slow learners...

Worked with a guy in new Orleans years ago without a sense of smell.  Saw him work on a Marine AM rig power supply and the transformer was belching smoke like a coal locomotive.  Since his back was turned and he could not smell, he was fat, dumb, and happy.  I almost ran over him to shut the power off.  He just kept saying, "Whus wrong? Whus wrong?".  Used to do the hollow spaghetti lead under the workbench rubber mat thru a small hole under a piece of gear he was working on.  He'd turn it on and I'd blow cigar smoke up thru the tube out from under his "patient". 

[WA1GFZ]

Carl,
You remind me of my Dad's worst crap out. He tested jet engines but decided to replace the picture tube in the old GE. His tech buddies wrote him a procedure and it looked easy. Step 1 discharge the anode. He did it about 3 times. no more sparks. He grabbed the wire and came out of the back of the set like he was kicked by a mule as my brother and I watched. We thought he was dead. Slammed against the wall with his eyes spinning. He recovered and went on with the repair. It was one of those priceless childhood things....

[K1JJ]

Used to do the hollow spaghetti lead under the workbench rubber mat thru a small hole under a piece of gear he was working on.  He'd turn it on and I'd blow cigar smoke up thru the tube out from under his "patient". 

 

I never heard that one before!  Great fun in a shop of technicians.  I use to work in a few Motorola 2-way shops in the 70's and can just imagine the laughs...

T

[Glenn NY4NC]

I'm sure you meant to say a fluorescent bulb.. I can't imagine a tiny neon bulb causing much trouble if dropped.    "LOOK OUT! SHE'S GONNA BLOW!!!"

Neon dust? Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert gas at room temperature. It melts at minus 249 degrees Celsius and boils at minus 246 degrees Celsius, so that must have been one helluva cold transmitter room! Or did she use a fluorescent tube, which is coated with a phosphor dust?

Did that Collins 820 still use the almost impossible-to-obtain and insanely expensive 5-500 tubes, or was it reworked to take 4-400s? It's a nice little transmitter, all solid state except for the modulator and PA.

Right on the neon dust.  ROFL!  Should have read dust from the neon light. This was in 1971, so it had the 5-500 tubes.  I understand it got reworked in the early 90's but not by me.   Saw the receptionist again in 1978 and she was equal in mass with the transmitter. 

BTW, Harold Smith W4PKW in Pensacola has an 820D in his garage on the "to do" list. Not in bad shape for its age.  73!   

[w3jn]

Not my crapout but a good story nonetheless, related to our contracting and procurement class by a retired government procurement official.

That gentleman was the procurement official for one of the US Government research labs.  They had a hugeassed wind tunnel at the facility that was powered by a big radial airplane engine.  Anyway, one day a painting contractor left a ladder in the wind tunnel.  The next day they fired it up to do some testing and the ladder was of course sucked into the engine, but not before bouncing all around the room and wrecking the airframe under test, the test instrumenation, the intake, and the engine.  It essentially destroyed the entire facility which had to be rebuilt at the cost of millions of dollars as well as delaying a critical defense program.

I think the moral of that story was what to do when a contractor screws up.

[W1RKW]

I cringe when a rock or a big stick goes through my lawn mower but a ladder going through a prop that must have been something to see but can't be anything like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ABdcrnIV40

I'm just curious why anyone didn't check the area to ensure it was clear before firing up the wind tunnel.

[KB2WIG]

there was an american airlines stew who commited suicide by jumping into one when it was winding up....

[K1JJ]

........ but can't be anything like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ABdcrnIV40

I can't understand how someone could live after going through the blades of a jet turbine???  Maybe he just got stuck at the opening and they shut it down...

T

[Ed/KB1HYS]

one lucky SOB!!  When I worked at FED EX there was an employee who got into the prop of a Fokker F-27...

They used to have us put Safety cones in front of the engines on the Airbus, they were only about 18 inches of the ground and when they taxi you could see them suck up dust in a mini tornado.

[W1RKW]

I don't know how true this is but I read somewhere that the F-117 when cruising nearly 50% of it's forward motion is caused by the intake suction of it's engines and that prior to running down a runway the runway has be cleared of all small debris as the engines will suck it up.

[AG4YO]

Used to do the hollow spaghetti lead under the workbench rubber mat thru a small hole under a piece of gear he was working on.  He'd turn it on and I'd blow cigar smoke up thru the tube out from under his "patient". 

 

I never heard that one before!  Great fun in a shop of technicians.  I use to work in a few Motorola 2-way shops in the 70's and can just imagine the laughs...

T

Yeppers!  We had Sorensen bench 12vDC supplies. They were on a shelf below the workbench in a corner.  Great supplies.  If you shorted the power leads, they would just clamp down and pop a breaker switch. You had to crawl under the bench to reset.  12v terminals at each workbench was the output for the Techs.

I would take my power leads and watch another tech work.  When he went to flip on the power on a 12v rig, I'd touch my leads together and pop the common breaker.   Thinking his equipment had a short, he's crawl under the bench, reset the breaker, then ohm out a few things.  Of course he would not find a short, work up the courage to turn on the test radio and I would short my leads together and pop the breaker.

I did this to one poor guy 5 times.  He only figured it out when i could contain my laughter no more.  He got me back.  I was working on an AM Marine radio reciever and was using a 455 osc. to go through the IF.  I had to turn up the volume to hear the tone.  Every time I'd put my ear close to hear, the radio would emit a terrible squak.  Finally saw him laughing.  He had taken wire and made a giant coil under my rubber mat (under my radio) and had it extended over to to his bench and coupled into the finals of a SSB unit he had on a dummy load.  When I'd but my ear close to the AM rx, he'd key up the SSB rig and blow quietly into the mike.

But I got the LAST laugh.  He chuckled so much he had to go to the men's room.  While he was gone, I undid the SSB rig from the dummy load and used a piece of coax with battery jumper cable clamps to jumper the output to his metal work stool.  He came out and saw me bent over my radio and just HAD to give me a big whistle.  Yep.  He whistled then yelled as the RF singed his rear end.

[K1JJ]

one lucky SOB!!  When I worked at FED EX there was an employee who got into the prop of a Fokker F-27...
They used to have us put Safety cones in front of the engines on the Airbus, they were only about 18 inches of the ground and when they taxi you could see them suck up dust in a mini tornado.

In a perfect whirl, all jets should probably be required to have internal automatic protective screens that slide over the engine intakes once they land, for human protection. But that's more added weight, etc.

I've often wondered why mufflers weren't required on all piston powered airplanes. They come over the house here and I can hear them for miles, just like a car with a blown muffler...     But, it's all about getting max power out of the engine with minimum back pressure, I guess. The end result is better safety when trying to clear those power lines on take-off.

T

[KB2WIG]

The A-7(?) guy ended up on the compressor cone and didn't get into the blades.. someone had the jockey kill the engine.. dis was on local TV in the last week or so. The flame seen was his clothes being burnt...

In school, each lab table was controlled by an individual breaker. After the student started his work, the Dept. Head went and triped the breaker... Greate fun... The real funner part was that there was a big red indicator bulb (7.5Watts?) at the lab station power supply, and usally the voltmeter was placed all over the circuit looking for the problem.. nobody noticed the lack of the brigh red glowing orb directly in front of the face.... I guess the victum  learned to always check power before troubleshooting.....
  klc

[WA1GFZ]

Bob,
All high value mil jets have teams of guys who do FOD hunts prior to them coming out of the hanger. The F117A has two doors on top of the inlets that are spring loaded. On take off the doors are sucked open to allow additional air flow into the engines because there isn't enough ram air to feed them. I don't think the suck thing is valid since these doors are on top.
I was in a  737 once and saw a rock get sucked off the ground right into the motor. My dad tested many JT8s so gave him a call as soon as I got home ant told him about this two inch rock. I was sitting just ahead of the wing and expected it to blow. My Dad assured me the motor was fine as long as it doesn't go down the core.
Tom Vu a screen on the front of a jet motor would melt with the air friction.
The A7 sucked many Navy guys down the tunnel of death. The front fins on the first stage were sharp and small.

[W1RKW]

Hi Frank,
OK on the F-117A.  Maybe it was some other aircraft I'm thinking of or maybe it's just BS altogether.  In any event the suction is incredible nonetheless and be able to pick a person right off their feet. 

There was another video floating around on the net not to long ago where a man got sucked into a Continental Airlines engine.  You see him get sucked in and nothing but red and flame come out the back of the engine. It wasn't a pretty site.

[WA1GFZ]

Bob,
Like any motor a jet uses ram air to aid in compression so there may be some flight conditions here it may be sucking the plane forward when the motor is wide open and the plane is going slow. The F117A the doors on top would just open.
I had a friend in the Navy who saw a couple guys get sucked off the deck.
He actually told me about guys who were able to hang on and come out the front.
That front set of blades on that alison are small and sharp looking.
My Dad sent many a chicken to the rotating deboner/cooker.

[W3SLK]

Frank said:

I had a friend in the Navy who saw a couple guys get sucked off the deck.

Been there and saw that Frank. The A-7's and F-14 were notorius for lifting up the newbie on the flight deck. Usually, they would wind up FODing out the engine with their headgear and any thing attached to their flight deck vest. It would really piss off the pilot and the jet mechs. Those GE-110's(?) were a bitch from what they told me. Intrestingly though, when they would test the engines in the test bed on the fantail, they would have to notify the navigation bridge because they could cause the ship to go off course!

[John Holotko]

The A-7(?) guy ended up on the compressor cone and didn't get into the blades.. someone had the jockey kill the engine.. dis was on local TV in the last week or so. The flame seen was his clothes being burnt...

In school, each lab table was controlled by an individual breaker. After the student started his work, the Dept. Head went and triped the breaker... Greate fun... The real funner part was that there was a big red indicator bulb (7.5Watts?) at the lab station power supply, and usally the voltmeter was placed all over the circuit looking for the problem.. nobody noticed the lack of the brigh red glowing orb directly in front of the face.... I guess the victum  learned to always check power before troubleshooting.....
  klc

When I was in school the electronics lab installed a whole slew of new benches with bench power supplies. Each supply had a red pilot light to indicate when it was turned on. It was really just a white bulb with a screw over red cover.  Afdter a couple weeks the benches started to malfunction.  The second you tried to turn one on the breaked would pop. Week after week more and more bench power supplies became inoperable due to this problem. The instructor thought the supplies were defective and prone to developing internal shorts thyat prevented them from operating. And still more and more became inoperable. Then one day someone just happened to take the red cover off of one of the pilot lights and noticed that inside the bulb was removed and a wad of aluminum foil was stuffed into the bulb socket. That was the internet short. Apparently some joker decided it would be funny to stuff foil into the sockets. Every week or so he'd stuff a couple more benches. I'd imagine he got a good laugh out of it. It took a while for anyone to figure it out. Once the foil was removed each bench worked fine...minus the pilot lamp which was removed,.