prmars Peyton, showers and a hose, etc works really nice. In the day we would regularly shower down tube equipment. (Make sure the power is off! LOL). Remove the fan, pull the tubes, and give it a good scrub.  Let it dry in the warm air. Then put it back together and it worked.  Tektronix used to have a dishwasher with a low foaming detergent.

The worst tool to work on electronics?  A pressure washer, of course.  It mixes water with electricity and strips surface-mount components from a board with ease.

While in a practical exam to repair TV, I managed to touch a live part with my finger. Trying not to show any expression in the exam was hard.

14rhb  wrote:

 

dougw  the-dubster 

 

Liking such comments seems slightly wrong. So maybe I should just point out I clicked 'like' to indicate I had read your comments, felt the pain etc. and absolutely nothing along the lines of liking that you both ended up with some nasty cuts !!

Nah, like away!! I spent 25 years in the military, I can laugh at almost anything!

Military first aid: Step 1, laugh . . . .

I once (accidentally) kicked a football so hard straight into the gentleman parts of a colleague (it was still on the end of my toe as it connected - I almost drove it thru him), 3 of us were on the floor struggling to breathe, two of those were laughing so hard (me included) that we were in agony with sore ribs . . . . . .

Just saying . . . . . . .

The worst possible tool you could use for any electronic project is an impact driver to make fine adjustment in the potentiometers but luckily never used one but the worst I have used is an old soldering iron that had no temperature control nor fine tip and I ended up buring out several components very quickly when I tried to do a simple repair, this was quite a few years ago and never repeated myself with that fiasco.

Lo and Behold - Presenting the worst but works perfect tool to strip/cut wires and cut the leads of through hole components on PCB - The nail clipper in action.

https://youtu.be/JAekSgGolyQ 

I have been using the nail clipper for cutting short the leads of thru hole components and to cut and strip the connecting wires for a long time now. I've got so comfortable with it that never bought a wire cutter xD. But sometimes instead of stripping the insulation it cuts the wire core .
Hence, I would like to enter this giveaway .

Do watch the video to see the nail clipper  in action

Back in my college days I used to etch my own PC boards (radio shack had kits you could buy)... One weekend I was in the dorm and I didn't have my normal receptacle to soak the board in to etch off the copper. I had just come back from the cafeteria and had an aluminum tin... well if there is one thing more reactive than copper with ferric chloride - it's aluminum... ate right through - splattered all over the floor (custodial crew was not happy) and smoked something awful... so I would say an aluminum tin is probably the worst tool, for that job at least. (should have paid more attention in chemistry class i guess)

I have a tendency to use my teeth as wire cutters, wire strippers and occasionally biting a crimp connector to attach it go a wire.  Luckly I keep my mouth off live wires lol.

Well I have resorted to using wooden clothes pegs to hold things in place on occasions.

A single paint brush bristle along with the paint from a rear window defrost kit to fix broken traces on a circuit board... fixed my keyboard dead keys pretty well... after someone dropped pop into it at one point...don’t know what the guy was trying to fix with the pop, but it didn’t work...