Fatherly advice
My father was an engineer, and taught me lots of things - including how to wield a soldering iron. He told me the cautionary tale of the guy on the bench next to his, who had clipped the iron onto the edge of the table in front of him. As he leaned closer to his inspect work, the hot tip of the iron was neatly inserted into one of his nostrils...

I like to imagine there was a sizzling noise, just before the yells started.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 13:48, 9 replies)

This tale must be quite old
they solved the 'storing irons with the sharp burny bit pointing downwards' problem several decades ago.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 14:42, closed)

moon monkey is in his 50's, so his father's experiences are very likely to have been in the dim and distant.
b3ta is getting proper old.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 14:45, closed)

That's all true, but
...in fact the point of the story was him teaching me not to place the soldering iron tip up.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 15:10, closed)

Yeah, but...
Shit soldering irons come without the holders (in this instance, seeing as the term 'bench' is used it probably wasn't shit) so you either had to lie them on something, or like what I did, store them tip-up in a mug.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 17:07, closed)

Owch.
I was putting together some speakers a few years ago, bastarding up some old stereos into a large bass cab I "inherited" from school.
Went downstairs to do something, and ended up leaving the house for an hour or so...
Got back, went upstairs, and saw the soldering iron there. So to test if I'd left it on, I tapped my toe on it.
There was a crack as the soldering iron broke due to the sudden temperature change, which was even audible above my agonised scream.
I'm such a clueless twat sometimes.
(SigourneysBeaver took off and nuked the entire site from orbit on, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 14:58, closed)

As an old enough to know better child,
I stuck my palm onto the middle of a recently extinguished gas hob, to see if it got hot. Pretty dense behaviour.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 15:27, closed)

After working on a complicated mains junction box
As I was packing up, I thought to myself, "Now, I did turn it off, didn't I?" and without thinking stuck my fingers onto the exposed contacts to check.

50Hz - they certainly do!
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 15:42, closed)

During an electronics class at school cretin #1 encouraged cretin #2 to smell the fumes from the solder on the iron.
Which he then promptly pressed the victim's face on to when he obliged.
( Pig Bodine., Wed 11 Sep 2013, 15:05, closed)

Oo. Stingy.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 11 Sep 2013, 16:22, closed)