If you don't know how to use something either find out or leave it the hell alone.

Over the years I have had any number of problems with people fooling around with things they simply either do not know how to use or know the limitations of.

I once had someone get a carbide tooth off of a blade stuck in their cheek once because they were trying to cut a piece of angle iron with my miter saw. 

When I came across that spectacle I simply pinched the offending saw blade tooth out of their cheek and told them they owed me fifty bucks for a new blade. I have yet to see the fifty bucks yet.

The offender still seems to think it is the tool's fault, which it is not. It is the fault of the imbicile that tried to use a wood cutting blade to cut through a tough piece of steel with.

He could have simply avoided this by asking if the saw was capable of cutting steel. I would have simply taken the wood cutting blade off of it and replaced it with a blade I also have which is capable of cutting steel.

Another thing that I have noticed is that some people think you have to have big muscles to use power tools when in fact they were designed so you DIDN'T have to use a lot of muscle. Yet time and again I run into someone bearing down on a power tool with all they have and even when they smell smoke they do not let up.

Another thing is that people will try something they know nothing about to figure out how it works. I once watched someone fry a brand new VHF radio once because they tried to use it before the antenna was attached. Of course he wanted to blame the manufacturer even after I read him the directions that said that transmitting without an antenna would harm the rig.

I wonder how many generators, lawn mowers and snow blowers have been burned up because some dumbass gets it home, dumps a tank of gas into it and fires it up without checking to see if the manufacturer put oil in the crankcase.

Virtually all manufacturers put a bottle of oil in the box with the machine if they ship the unit dry. A lot of manufacturers ship the units dry so as not to make a mess if some shipper lays the box on its side.

Yet the number of people that don't even look in the box to see what came with the machine is probably staggering.

I think the second to worst ones of all are those that say, "Hey, what's this?" as they turn something on they do not understand.

That's happened to me over they years ashore but seldom do I meet a person like that at sea bacause by the time I meet up with him he's likely had the habit of touching something he doesn't know how to use beaten out of him by Chief Engineers.

A while ago I shipped on another rig for a few days and when it was time to fire up the pumps I took someone with me to make sure I knew how it worked. The pump engines were Cats and I am used to John Deeres and while the basics are the same and I likely could have figured it out with no problem it was nice to be shown the first time in case there was something I was unaware of. 

Sometimes the shut-downs are a little different, for example.

Actually after the diesels were up and running the other guy looked at me and told me he wondered why I bothered to ask. I shrugged and told him that it was simply cheap insurance.
It doesn't take a whole lot to stop and check something out and by doing so you can prevent injury or property damage. 

All of this reminds me, I do want my fifty bucks for the blade the idiot ruined by cutting steel with it.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html