DIY Disasters Challenge
Check out the Destination DIY segment featuring Depotdevoid and Aerospaced here: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/destination-diy/id266173213
WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!!!
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Destination DIY is a public radio show and podcast based in the creative hub of Portland, Oregon. This hour-long, documentary-style show includes stories from around the country about innovative, creative people. Our last season of shows included themes such as “DIY Economy,” “DIY Rituals,” and “Representing Yourself.” For more information or to listen to some of our past shows, please visit http://destinationdiy.org
To kick off our next season of shows, we’re putting together an episode called “DIY Disasters”. Here’s where you come in. We want to hear your best DIY disaster story. Did you have a project that went wrong in more ways than you thought possible? Did you start something and realize you were in way over your head? When did you realize you had a DIY disaster on your hands? Have you ever sustained an injury while attempting a DIY project? These can be funny stories or scary ones or even sad ones. For the purposes of our show, a DIY project is pretty much anything that someone does without the help of a large institution. We’ll choose the best stories to be featured on Destination DIY later this year. Featured stories will be produced by a radio professional, who will interview you and help to tell your story on the air. You’ll also get some sweet Destination DIY swag like buttons and stickers along with bragging rights.
DEADLINE: July 10, 2011
ENTRY RULES: your story in 300 words or less - include images if you like. The more evidence the better!!
- Your entry should be a comment on this post. Click the orange ADD COMMENT button at the bottom of the post to enter. Commenting on other peoples stories by clicking REPLY with your own story WILL NOT COUNT AS AN ENTRY. You are of course allowed to comment on other peoples posts (we encourage it!!), but to enter you must have your own original comment on the forum topic.
- please include at the top of your entry your name and location (country or state), we will accept entries from anywhere but you must have access to a landline phone or skype
- Limit 2 entries per person. Each entry should be its own comment.
PRIZE: a chance to be featured on Destination DIY!!!!!
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A valentine's contest or so ago, I put together a Heart shaped cake....The cake got too soft AND crumbly and the iceing was not warm enough when I put it on, so it looked (to me) like a heart shaped Franken-cake (Friankenstein's monster's cake).
You can see the ible here....
I wish I was a better writer and could have explained this better, the event really was hilarious!
I rented a house for a while with an absentee landlord--if you wanted something done, you did it yourself. The basement leaked through an obvious crack in the foundation, and I decided I was going to do something about it. I read up on various epoxy sealants and drainage schemes, and on a sunny fall Saturday I pulled out the shovel and went to work.
I was foolish and didn't call before digging, but I wasn't worried. A contractor told me that local regulations said the minimum depth for a water main was 18 inches, and I wasn't going that deep. I just needed to remove about a foot of topsoil and poke around the foundation, to see if the crack got more serious below ground. Then I would build a little gravel drainage area to shunt water away from the house. No problem!
Six inches down I started wondering why there was so much water . . . I got down and sifted through the dirt and water by hand. I'll give you one guess what I found. It took half an hour of panicked phone calls and googling to find out how to shut it off, and by the time I was done the basement was absolutely soaked.
Then the time came for the real pain: calling in a plumber. On a Saturday. During the U of O football game. The pipe was so rusted that the plumber said it was only a matter of time. Disturbing the dirt above was probably enough to flake off an already compromised section.
All in all, I got off pretty light, it cost me around $300 to get everything fixed, but really it was my self confidence that was hurt the worst. To this day I am absolutely terrified when messing around with the plumbing.
My mistake was starting off with a water-bomb balloon, fully inflated with air. The fully inflated balloon was already stressed by being fully inflated, however it retained it's integrity until it was nearly covered, whereupon it burst and sprayed liquid chocolate all over me and my kitchen cupboards. At that point I remembered that latex doesn't like oil nor heat (from warnings about latex condoms). It took a full hour to clean up the mess.
Eventually I succeeded with a larger but only partially inflated balloon.
I wanted to make something new for the Cupcakes contest.
I made an ice cream , with vanilla cream, pineapple , cake.. etc...
The result ...
It was so hard to eat this, that I broke a tooth. HAAHHHAHAHAHA
And it didn't look so good.
Anyway ... it tasted very good.
:]
I was repairing my old VW beetle (vintage 1969) trying to determine why it would not start. It had fuel, and it was getting to the carburetor.
Next, check the spark: I pulled the wire coming from the center of the coil, being careful to hold it with a LOT of rag for insulation, near the bumper (I was leaning on the bumpter), my brother turned the engine over and SPARK! Just then I pulled back a little too far and the spark went around the rag and hit me, about 12 times before I let go. 90,000 volts IIRC. BEHOLD, I am NOW awake ! LOL
Things were going great until the fateful moment when I lit the pile of compound. An errant spark jumped up and landed in the cup full of material and (poof) it was gone!
I thought I was going to loose the front steps of the house, if not the house itself, for a second.
You can see the whole thing here http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-Thermite-3/