"Building my rat: I laughed, I cried, I caught myself on fire." - me (Sam_Fear)

"Building my rat: I laughed, I cried, I caught myself on fire." - me (Sam_Fear)

Sam's new signature is to funny, who else has torched them self.

I have loss the hair on my head twice due to carb back fires. 6 pairs of jeans and a tennis shoe.

So far my personal best is when I saw my phone on the floor and was confused how it could have fallen out of my jeans pocket. Then I realized my pants were on fire. Enough to burn a hole in my pocket. Almost had to Stop Drop and Roll for that one.

Second best was when I forgot to put a plug back in and started the motor. The wire must of been arcing, because it was shooting fireballs from under the hood. That one was fire extinguisher worthy.

I was grinding some brackets of a 9" and I thought I could smell burning but looked around and everything seemed fine,little bit more grinding and my leg was feeling warm.
Looked down the grinding sparks had burnt a hole right through the denim and it was smoldering like a champion.

Welding: An endless source of entertainment.

I'm not black, but I have looked like Richard Pryor a time or two. (I've also done a convincing impression of Michael Jackson's Pepsi incident).

Fires. I lit up a customer's brand new F150 once... started the undercoating on fire... the plastic fuel lines were right in the flames... pushed it out of the shop and extinguished the thing before the lines melted thru. Lucky, I didn't get burned at all.

Touched off the interior in our Mustang. Melted down a big hunk o' plastic, "tinted" a couple windows and burned my arm pretty nice trying to pat it out. Another extinguisher bites the dust. (Tip: Hot molten plastic sticks to skin like poo to fur shorts).

I worked in a large fab shop for 14 years. One night, I was happily burning some aluminum mig wire... all of a sudden, I'm being beaten about the head and neck. Hair on fire. Again.

I hate it when a bad tune gets stuck in my head.

Just Beat It, Beat It
Just Beat It, Beat It
Just Beat It, Beat It
Just Beat It, Beat It

you'd think we'd learn

Tourch v shirt, arc v pants, grinder v shoe, grinder v shop rags. 30 yrs in the fire service never burned [S

In 1964, I was cutting up a '56 Chevy 2 door when I passed the torch past the gas tank filler hole. The blast was like a blow torch and rolled me over backward catching my hair and T shirt on fire. I went in the house and asked my wife to call for help. I looked so bad she panicked and couldn't call. I called the county sheriff's office and while I waited I washed my face with cold water, then waited for 15 minutes on the front steps in the cold. After a 100 MPH ride in a deputy''s car I was admitted into Emergency and had my face and neck covered with ice for several hours.

While I was healing a resident asked me if I was married. Yes, I said. He said, good, cuz the way you are going to look no one would want you. So much for bedside manner. Spent 3 days in the hospital just to prevent infection.

Actually I healed very fast and had no visible damage after a while. Still ugly as ever. Apparently washing with cold water and sitting in the 35 degree air waiting for the deputy retarded the damage.

I've been pretty careful since.

That's how I got my nickname Torch....
Not because I was really good with it
I was cutting the top rails off a car trailer i was converting to a box trailer

hey you... you with the Torch
who me?
Hey Torch your on fire....
Yeah I'm pretty fast with this thing
NO!... your pants!!!!!

and when i was drunk they'd say "hey Torch...Your scorched"

Never cut or weld with threadbare jeans {Don't ask how I know }[
Always wear boots with leather laces, cotton burns, nylon melts {again, don't ask me how I know }[
Probably a few more don't do's that I have been involved with!

i have been a machinist and welder by trade most of my like, no telling how much has been cut or burned. when i do yard work where i get dirty i can count the scars as the dirt doesn't stick real well to them. the car/truck work is always that is going to hurt later, then have a problem trying to remember what it was i did, well work is the same way.

My worst day was just last week. I was building a thumb for my excavator. Cought my pants on fire with the gas chop saw (using it to grind metal clean). Jumped down off of bucket to put it out, lost my balance and head butted the boom that I was just grinding on. It nocked me out and I fell to the ground still on fire. My pants burned to just above my boots but never burned me. I don't think I was down long but I don't know because I was alone lol. Got back up and finished what I was doing.

Only time I was really on fire was tig welding aluminum at work, I had the piece clamped over the edge of the table and I had a ball of welding rod drip off the rod when my hand slipped, I didn't think too much of it as my feet were out to the sides away from the area it fell, but it caught the frayed ends of my jeans on fire as it dropped to the floor and eventually my sock before I realized I was on fire!

Yeah... I've set a shirt or two on fire while usin' a cut off wheel or grinder but I hardly ever set my pants of fire but I have ripped a few out bendin' over for a wrench or something! Hahahaha!!!

BoB

Let's just say my Son Dan doesn't relax quite as much as he once did when I am holding a torch while we are bending something. I got too interested one time in watching the piece we were bending and forgot that the lit torch I was holding was getting a little close to the back of his head ! He was looking all over for a second mirror so he could see the back of his head in the bathroom mirror. Luckily, it grew back.

Don

21willys said:

i was building a thumb for my excavator....

Click to expand...

Well that question mark has me wondering what pic is suppose to be there.

It's good that you guys can laugh at yourselves because I sure am laughing. Thanks for the warnings/stories.[

21willys said:

My worst day was just last week. I was building a thumb for my excavator. Cought my pants on fire with the gas chop saw (using it to grind metal clean). Jumped down off of bucket to put it out, lost my balance and head butted the boom that I was just grinding on. It nocked me out and I fell to the ground still on fire. My pants burned to just above my boots but never burned me. I don't think I was down long but I don't know because I was alone lol. Got back up and finished what I was doing.

Click to expand...

Glad your OK, because that's funny!!

I assume you mean the bottom of your pants burned UP to the top of your boot, not that your pants burned DOWN to the top of your boots.

Good stories, guys. One of my fire adventures: I was working with a pipefitter, cutting up some six inch pipe with the ole Victor wrench. I had been cutting a minute or so when the fitter, who was my fire guard, tapped me on the shoulder. I stopped, pulled my goggles up and said "what you want?". He said " I just thought I'd let you know that I smell boilermaker burning". It took me a second to snap but, I looked down and my coverall leg was burning like a rag. I'm glad I had on jeans underneath. So much for the fire retardant coveralls. The fitter thought it was real funny. I didn't.

old man dave said:

It's good that you guys can laugh at yourselves because I sure am laughing. Thanks for the warnings/stories.[

Click to expand...

I would of liked to be one of the guys watching the day I torch the tennis shoe, because they were rolling on the floor. I had my foot where it shouldn't be while using a torch, a nice big peice of slag dropped on my shoe melted rigth threw and stuck between my toes, I was doing the hot foot dance. Try getting a shoe off when you can't quite jumping around. It was funny a couple days later after my pride healed

Sam_Fear said:

Glad your OK, because that's funny!!

I assume you mean the bottom of your pants burned UP to the top of your boot, not that your pants burned DOWN to the top of your boots.

Click to expand...

Ya I was fine. Just had a nasty headache the rest of the day. And ya my pants burnt up to the top of my boots and not down lol.