Dunno if this counts but here are a couple.

A friend of mine decided to troubleshoot a Ceiling Fan. Instead of using a Meter or non-contact tester he grabbed a Test Light that is used to test 12 volt DC automotive circuits. Gator clip on Neutral and used the probe tip on the Live wire. he said the test light exploded and has a scar on his forehead as a reminder.

My day to day job is a Low Voltage Tech. I do everything from Security, Networking, Audio, Video and Home Automation. Anyway, the company I work for pre-wires new construction homes and a lot of times we get to install equipment. Had a service call about none of the RG6 Coax cable in the house worked. I get there and took off the wall plate in the Living room and the Cable is just totally destroyed. I was able to re-terminate them and got everything working. I found the guy who trimmed the house and asked him what he used to terminate the Coax and he shows me this.

I grabbed them from his hand and tossed them into the retention pound.

Gough Lui

I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!

Probably shouldn’t use an impact wrench to attached a low voltage wire to a circuit board. Just sayin...

We're building a humanoid robot in my senior technology class at school, and we're using 3D printed parts, but sometimes they are a little too large and need some sanding down. After having one classmate spend a week sanding down one piece, my other classmate had enough of this and brought out the dremmel with a sanding bit. Turned it on to full power and started sanding. 3d printed plastic. To say the least, a blob of plastic would be a good representation of what was left. Blackened and melted. Don't use a dremmel to sand 3d printed plastic. Take the slow route.

The worst thing to use is a razor knife, sweaty arms and a damp basement. Was hooking up a 220 volt outlet for my father in law for their dryer. Was stripping the wires at the breaker box and sneezed. Well the worst thing that could ever happen did. The knife slipped and hit a charged wire. And of course it was a 220 wire. It melted the blade and knife, blew me back a few feet. Went upstairs and they said my hair was pointing backwards. After a few minutes I was fine, but found out I fried my watch. This is the point I decided I'm not working on a powered breaker box again!

The absolute worst tool I have used for an electronics job is my teeth! Chipping a tooth stripping a wire was almost a guarantee with each wire stripped.... over the years with each project making them worse and worse till the look of my teeth and pain that was caused by the chips was unbearable! I now have dentures and needles to say they are too also chipped! This is for one , the worst tool to use on an electronics project! And two an equally bad habit to break! It is absolutely a better idea to spend the $20 or $30 on a good set of strippers or at least the $5 on a cheap one!!!!!

I would say the worst tool is a crimping tool meant for RJ-11 jacks when wiring up a prototype circuit. It was a slow and painful process to build this Z8 microcontroller-based system. As a bonus, you get a spaghetti network of wires that is difficult to go through when troubleshooting. You may see this in the image below:

leosmith  wrote:

 

Oxyacetylene torch for soldering surface mount components.

I prefer using an arc-welder.

Just about any "improvised" tool can ruin your day.... A knife used as a screwdriver that slips the wrong way... Using a paperclip as a set of forceps to hold... well, anything that's not paper....

But, one that I've seen bite people on the backside, including myself, is using electrical tape....

No, that's it. Just using it.

I had a classmate try to use some to secure some wire while working on a project. It might have been a good idea, except the prof needed to see the wires... And apparently, he needed to troubleshoot the project because something wasn't connected correctly.

As starting experience of my school I have juts started soldering practice and purchase the soldering Iron and solder wire from market (you guys won't believe I got this soldering iron in just 2$ and solder wire around 1$ ) afterward as I grow and purchase the new parts, components.

But it's about month before I forgot my solde iron in college lab and I used my old one but as Hazard soldering accidentally start burning and it's plastic body started melting. And after this much years passed I open that iron and seen that even there no protection circuit at all the Power supply was directly connected to the iron rod.

As conclusion do not use chip electronics products always go with the standards      I made mistake because at that time I was just 15 years old and don't know about connection, protection circuits.