Am I Good or What...

[OzFab]

I had an experience yesterday which I want to share; once I do, I ask all of you to share experiences where you "fluked it" (some of you may be more familiar with the term "jagged it"), a time where you casually did something that turned out better than expected & made you think "I couldn't do that again if I tried"...

Yesterday, I had to take a load of things to my ex's house; once we unloaded, I put the little princess's bike in the trailer to bring it home to fix a broken chain.

In the process of strapping it down, I casually tossed the end of the ratchet strap over the other side of the trailer & gave it a light recoil tug; lo & behold, the hook grabbed on the rope rail perfectly, saving me about a minute standing in the rain securing it & holding tension on the strap...

My ex just looked at me & said "go on, do it again, I dare you"

 

[Half-breeder]

Fabroman, earlier that day... caught on video... lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQTFFeDVGfE


A 'fluke' event huh? Well, hard to choose just one...

One time at work I flicked a 18penny nail up to a friend of mine that was standing up on a forklift(~15ft) to nail something up and forgot a nail... so I flicked one up to him. As I watched it travel up to him, via being flicked, I noticed it headed straight for the center of his forehead... sure enough... the pointed end stuck into his forehead. As he attempted to shake it out/off... it just sorta 'dangled' like a dingle-berry, on a rocking buttox... couldnt do it again if I 'had' to.

 

[itsid]

I remember two occasions actually, but let's start slow

A decade or two back I was walking along the river with a friend when we came across an empty soda can (maybe beer can.. I don't remember) laying on the ground not even 10m (~30 ft) away from a public trash can, and with he words "..why can't those idiots use the bin!?" (no.. I was speaking german, that's for your convenience ) I kicked it..
no aiming, without any attention to it actually...and whaddya know I perfectly hit the trash can.
we moved on quietly, about a minute later he looked at me and calmly asked "..please tell me that was just luck!"

And now for the "do not do this at home"
A friend and I decided to make a trip to Italy in my car to decide if it will get the repair it needs or if it will get trashed.

So we drove off in the middle of the night (well in the unspeakable earlieness of morning) heading south just as it dawns we had a few hundred kilometres behind us, and to stay awake we chatted about absolutely everything .. nothing important, just "have you known that..." stuff.
And because the Autobahn was empty I pushed it a bit doing say 160-180 km/h (100-110 mph) and within that chat he strays in "have you seen the upcoming construction sign?"
and without even noticing what he asked I said "yes"..
seconds later he asked "you know that this lane will be led through contraflow?" ... "yes"
(well I haven't listened to him for the last 45mins or so.. so why should I listen to him now )
he keeps asking.. "you've seen the lane will only be 2m wide (~6.5ft)?" .. and again "yes" was my reply..
Now, near a road construction you need to limit the speed to 80km/h sometimes even 60km/h to stay safe on very narrow lanes like the one I was approaching..
still I was travelling at ~150km/h at least.
Suddenly he got extremely nervous since I was heading straight towards a giant red pole (with the blinking arrow to thread into the 2m wide lane they layed out on the opposite lanes) that's when I snapped out of the trance I was in already.
A hard left and right jolt on the steering wheel perfectly got me into that lane.. with a car 1.8m wide on a 2m lane (well it must have been wider.. 2.4 maybe) allowed for a max speed of 30km/h with a steel guardrail to my right and a concrete crash barrier to my left, none of which more than maybe 30cm (a foot) away still being waaaay to fast.
So I said "Ah you know it's all about knowing your own car.. no worries".

So right at the next gas station we took a rest and I swear:
I got out of the car and dropped; all jelly knees and such..
and he asked "What's wrong? legs asleep?"
And I told him the truth about me NOT noticing the signs.. any signs..or what he was talking about. I HEARD what he said, but haven't listened...
so it was nothing but luck that we haven't crashed straight into that 4 ton crash barrier with my 800kg car at 150km/h

we swapped and he drove for the next few hours


'sid

 

[OzFab]

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout, keep 'em coming guys

Fabroman, earlier that day... caught on video... lol

Just for the record, no, that's not me

 

[Poboy kartman]

Well....I've got quite a few....but here's one...and I don't even know if it was me....(odds are it was....as I've made dozens of impossible shots....this guy ...none)....but when it comes to lucky shots....it's anybody's guess....

A buddy and I were hunting with Daisy Cubs....little BB guns that didn't have enough power to go through a beer can.....

Now....while you're wondering why we were hunting with such weak weapons....
#1....We were young.
#2...It's all we had
#3...We could kill birds with them....

Of course you had to be close....and place your shots well....Now you couldn't kill a squirrel with one with 100 bbs and a squirrel in a cage.....
And they would only go through one side of a beer can....(not even one of a vegetable can....but...back then...you had to use a can opener to open a beer....and the cans were steel...not aluminum.....

Anyway...stage set....so we sit down to take a break...and my buddy spots a dove in a mesquite tree like 50 yards away...(probably closer IDK)....but....WAY out of range of our guns.....

So....on a whim...we decided to send a couple of bbs his way....we're sitting down...and both of us just raise our guns SHOOTING FROM THE HIP!!!!!

Now....were somewhere around a 40° angle we're holding these guns....so...we go on the count of three....

And that dove spirals down out of that tree....dead!!!!

 

[machinist@large]

As a general machinist, when working in a job shop, you are always either putting together a set up, or tearing one down. Depending on the work flow, you might have to do it ~4 to 5 time's a day.

When you have to set up a machine vise on a milling machine, unless it's a one off, you always indicate the fixed jaw parallel to one of the machines axis of motion. At least a half dozen times in the last 27 year's, I've slid a vise onto the table and loosely snugged the hold down stud's so I could start the process of indicating it into position, only to find that I was already within .001" of square.

We're talking about multiple thousands of setups, so this isn't an every day thing. But when it happens.... Even the worst type of day just got a whole lot better....

 

[OzFab]

Great driving story Alex, reminds me of a situation when I was young... which took place in the space of about 5 seconds...

I was 17, I'd had my licence for about 4 months & was working as an apprentice mechanic in a large(ish) workshop; one day at lunch, a bunch of us were listening to one of the other apprentices, who was studying for a racing licence, describe a manoeuvre to take a corner at speed which involved putting a car into a sideways slide, knocking down through gears while sliding then, at the appropriate time, release & steer the car around the corner...

A few weeks later, I was driving in a somewhat illegal manner in the outer lane of a dual carriageway main road (doing about 100km/h in a 60 zone) when a large van turned right in front of me across my path; If I'd have simply hit the brakes, I would've creamed him so, in an instant, I employed the manoeuvre I heard a few weeks back & put the car (a 1974 Toyota Corolla) into a sideways slide, knocked the gears down from 4th to 2nd & waited for the van to move far enough out of the way for me to drive behind him... meanwhile, my still buddy Kurt was in the passenger seat screaming "F***, WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!"

Now, as this manoeuvre was described, it was to take a corner at speed, I wanted to continue straight so, I had to modify it on the fly while fearing for my own safety but, SOMEHOW, I did; once I thought the van was clear, I threw the car in the opposite direction to align it with the roadway, dropped the clutch & punched the accelerator; the back end flicked & Kurt swears we missed the van by a few inches...

200 metres up the road, I pulled over to calm down; Kurt turned to me & said "HOW THA F*** DID YOU DO THAT?" To which I replied "I have no idea..."

The next day at work, I described the incident to my coworkers &, would you believe, no one believed me... until Kurt verified my story; they looked at me in a totally different light after that...

 

[itsid]

hehe, the looks are priceless... All the time!

pulling over sometimes necessary

Just after I had my license I was out to buy me a motorbike;
a GSX-R 750 W 'slightly' modified to provide 122HP...
(yeah because testosterone was strong in this one back then )

So I drove to the seller a few cities east and asked for a testride (money in my pockets)
he agreed and adviced me to stay BELOW 6000 rpm when under 60km/h otherwise the bike likes to lift the frontwheel...

young and stupid enough I just thought "Yeah Pal.. as IF!!" hopped on, drove off...

I drove for a few minutes and finally got to a road where at least some speed was allowed,
going 55 km/h at maybe 5.5k or something;
I thought to myself "WTFC" and yanked the throttle..
All I could see was the bright blue sky for what felt like HOURS and my short life began to unravel before my inner eye,
All that was left for me to do was let go the throttle and hit the rear brake..
It smashed so hard onto the pavement that I truely think I busted the oil seals...
had to pull over and took a 20min rest before I drove back to the owner
in sixth gear @ 30km/h or something.
He was slightly p155ed when I finally returned because of the time it took...
Told him it was nice and I lost orientation somehow, but I wanted to take a look at another bike the next day and would get back to him afterwards, then left.

I then decided to buy the 914 widebody I went to Italy with instead of a motorbike;
and only had to pull over to adjust adrenaline levels once years later *gg*

'sid