The two best "blind" drilling things I have seen:


1. Alarm guy doing a retro in a very old house. One goes into the really tight attic to pull the wire across the space. The other is drilling into the attic at an angle with a D'versa bit.

Guy drilling hears a thump as the bit seems to be getting hung up. Reverses drill, reverses again and gets the same thump sound. Then he hears "STOP!".

Drill bit had caught in the pants leg of the guy in the attic.

Then the real fun began.... Thump, thump, thump....LOL


2. My son was working with me one summer, and his first time with the right angle drill and a 2 1/2" self feed bit didn't go well.

He's standing near the top of a step ladder, drilling up into a wall cavity with a kinda dull bit, when the drill bit catches a nail.

He can't seem to let go of the trigger. The ladder goes out from under him, and now he's hanging by the drill, and is spinning like a fan.

I couldn't help but laugh as the drop cord starts winding around his legs, and he's screaming "Turn it off!.

Man, that was the best.

Drill stopped when the drop cord came unplugged. LOL

It just seemed wrong for a thread on this topic to not have that one. LOL

I have never caused any insurance claims, thankfully.

Recently, We were mounting a TV over a fireplace. We had previously mounted a TV in the same house over the same fireplace for a previous owner with no incident. This was a different TV and different mount and different owner. Homeowner was helpful enough to have measured out where the mount he bought needed to be mounted to locate the TV where he wanted it. So I went to drill for the lags. 2" in, and I got a spark, a bit of smoke, and popped the circuit.

Framers used 2x4 "sideways" to frame above the fireplace. Electrician stapled romex directly to the backside of the sideways 2x4, likely just a single staple next to the box. I got lucky enough that that ~3/4" area happened to be right where the lag needed to go. I moved the drill an inch and missed the romex. Mounted the TV, turned the breaker back on, and everything was ok.

I had a co-worker once who was preparing to cut some in-wall speakers into a garage soffit. It was sheetrock over OSB. So he needed to drill a pilot hole to get the saw in there. For some reason, he grabbed the longest 1" auger he could find. It was dull. So he was using all his weight to push it through. It went through alright. All ~16" of it....at high speed. Right into the 000 feeder for the electrical panel. Huge spark, and LOTS of smoke out of that 1" hole. He panicked and ran in to find the homeowner, and asked for a "fire extinguisher or a cup of water".....that is a direct quote. I was not on site unfortunately. I would have died....from laughing so hard.

I was drilling up through a floor and my measurements were off. Ended going through the bottom of a bathroom vanity and wrapping a package of tampons around the bit.

Oh...I remember one a co-worker did. Drilling up from a first floor mech. closet into a second floor bedroom wall. Long 1" auger. Drilled until no more bit left. Still had not "broken through" anything. I went upstairs and his bit was riding the center of the baseboard. It left a perfect auger bit profile in it. Customer not home, and mess up was behind night stand. So we put it all back together for the night. The next day, I took some filler and sanding blocks, found some paint in the garage, and fixed it up like new. No one needs to know some of the stuff that goes on. :)

It's been a while since I've done damage installation on an old plaster house...

Usually old plaster walls have been very cooperative. I prep and outline the hole I'm going to cut. Once I start, the house gives me a hole at least an inch oversize in each dimension. Very generous.

You left it without repairing the Romex???????

that is exactly what I was thinking. I feel like there was probably some bare copper there.

no joke! this pipe was close to the center of the basement theater room ceiling. i made a hole in the top of the washer drain pipe, so it probably would have been a while after the house was finished before it would have been discovered.

I was at the shop when an installation team came back. One of the guys had learned a lesson about long hair.

His hair went below his shoulders and it wasn't neat.

He had been drilling through a beam when the end of his hair got caught in the drill bit.

The drill he was using ran real fast, but its output was geared down to a rather slow speed.

He instantly let go of the button, only to have to watch and listen as the drill slowly came to a stop, winding his hair around the bit the entire way.

Sure enough, it slowed, and slowed, and got closer and closer to his head. In the end it yanked about a square inch of hair out of his scalp.

Ouch.

And, if the cross section of the wire was reduced, it's safe current carrying capacity was also reduced.

one of the first TV's that I mounted....had a hell of a time with a stud detector and just getting littel transient stuff in between the studs....in frustration i took my best guess and mounted that TV (42" Fujitsu) and got it centered and lined up just so.....until the homeowner flushed a dump and a small brown trickle emerged from behind the TV.

Never guess in frustration.....

Just goes to show, everyone's a critic.