How Can I Be Stupid? Let Me Count the Ways

I nearly always work using English units, but the rip fence on my European table saw has a metric scale.  So I posted a conversion chart in a convenient spot on the roll-up garage door right next to the saw.  Convenient, that is, until one day I needed the chart when the door happened to be open, and found myself seeking guidance from above.

Duh.

Friction

The other day I was trying to make some lamp stands from some hickory that a friend had given me.  After totally messing them up and having to make them over again out of some other material, I had just a little bit of the hickory left over.

The hickory seemed especially hard and dense, so I decided to turn a mallet.  I found a plan of sorts in an old-time book, fired up the lathe, and had the head made soon enough.  Before removing it from the lathe, I wanted to add some decorative features that were shown in the book.

I had heard that you could burn lines into a turning simply by pressing a piece of wire hard against the wood as it spins in the lathe.  That sounded easy enough.  So I got a piece of soft iron wire, looped one end around each hand to get a good grip, and gave it a go.

Holy catfish, that wire got hot fast.

Duh.

Trapped in the Laundry Room

If ...

you need a rack to hang up your laundry as it's coming out of the dryer,

And If ...

you make some brackets even half as awesome as this one:

And If ...

you decide to mount your rack above a pocket door like I did,

Make Sure ...

that you don't use really long screws because one of them will go into the pocket door and you will be stuck in your laundry room forever.

Duh.