Thread: Shop Pranks and Jokes

Does anyone remember the antics that went on in the shop ??

I remember seeing a nickel or a quarter that would have a tack / spike soldered to the back and then it was stuck down into the wood floors that where in the shop . When someone went to pick it up it wouldn't come up.

I heard about one time someone put spikes in the shop stool legs and put it down into the floor so it wouldn't move .

There where some things that went so funny and usually done to get back at some one , like the red lead on the underside of a handle or greasing all the handles / cranks on a machine . ( YES LEAD !!! ) in the lube for cutters and bearings and we had our hands in it !! and breathed the fumes that the cutters made . ( WOW !! )

Many many other dumb things ...nailing someones shop shoes to the floor , painting the back of the heel of the shop work shoes white ....Turning someones tool box backwards every day so that when the guy came in he had to turn it back around .

And we still got our work done and still made bonus on top of that .

JerryLeskovec

How about the babbit pounder "horsecock" in the metal lunch box positioned for a quick getaway when the bell rang at 3:30pm. Also my favorite, the joker gets real close to you and drops cast iron chips on your shoes, and you think he is taking a leak on you.
These creative jokers were "creative". How about the brass grease line on the water cooler that directed the water on your head. KENH

How about putting liquid nails or the 3M stuff on someones shoes when they got to stand in one place for a period of time? Theres also the famous idiot helper torture (this is a story I was told) A guy was welding in a pipe and asked his helper to come up the ladder and and bring him a wrench the helper brought the wrong wrench twice the helper came back with the wrong one for the third time and the guy handed over the wrong one which happened to be hooked to the stinger hehehe.

we hooked some guy's horn to his turn signals on a service truck. greased hearing protectors & phone receiver earpieces, installed toolbox drawers upside down with tools held in by cardboard (only works on thin drawers if they have slides) tons of loose ball bearings in service truck conduit carriers

t

Ive got one my dad used to work for North American Rockwell back in the 60s and he told me that when a new guy would come to work usually the first day one of the older crew would borrow his mic.

They had an old mic. that was junk that they kept for just such an occasion then at the opportune time he would stand about 10 or 15 ft. away and tell the new employ that he was through with it and then toss the junk mic in his direction just out of reach.

I guess that they would do it in an open space so know one would get hurt becaus he said most of the time they would dive for it thinking it was there good mic.

James

A prank used on new and novice employees was to give them a babbit hammer and send them to Heat Treat to have it hardened. Bud Ames the Heat Treat Forman used to go along with this and he played it up in "Buds" usual humorous way. KEN H

our favorite gag was to have the newbie cut off a piece of copper plate 12x12 with the torch cause we needed in a hurry, then the foreman would chew him out for using out all the gas.
William

Once, in Sales Engineering, we tied a long piece of large diameter string to the bottom of a secretary's metal office chair when she was in the ladies room. When she came back and was not looking, one of us crawled over and lit the end of the string with a match, then blew it out so it would smoulder and make a smell. Then we all stood back or sat at our desks, watching to see how long it would take before she reacted to the smell.

In the shop, we would sometimes jam a wood stove match into the shoe of someone fully involved in operating a machine, then lighted it to give him a "hot foot" - this usually worked pretty well. The match was jammed between the top of the sole and the bottom of the leather, somewhere on the side of the shoe or boot.

Jack

While in my apprenticeship program I did not like one of the older scruffy Harley guys teasing me because I was Just an apprentice. He also smoked alot and gave me a head ache. So I went over and asked if he had a quarter,he said yes. I said put your quarter on top of your new pack of cigaretes you just opened, he did, I said I'll bet you your shinny quarter I can move it under the pack with out touching it so the pack will be on top of the quarter. He said I could keep it if I could,If not he get's the quarter back. I very quickly with my fist slamed down on the quarter smashing the new pack of cigarrets ruining them. I lifted my fist and said Oh no! it did't work! I said Oh well you get to keep your quarter....One mad Harley dude!

We used to take hot cast iron chips from a turret facing operation, put them in a parts box and pour Rusticide in it, and place it near someone you wanted to harass. It stunk something awful!

One guy at work filled another guy’s work boots with cast iron chips and water then stuck them in the freezer over night.
Then there is the old, welding a ½ inch key stock frame around another guys tool box so he can’t open it with out cutting of the frame first.
Or the grease or high spot blue on the toilet seat
Dead mice in the desk drawers of management
Just to name a few.

how 'bout the guy who blows your bowels into your pancreas by shooting an 175psi
air hose up your butt..... or the dickhead who drops a 6' long piece of channel on the
floor behind you while you're tediously cutting the last pass on a 4.75 " buttress thread.

shop-pranks are dangerous , and liable to get your ass kicked . don't do it around me

I just wanted to say that even though I DID start this post , that I do not condone many of the things that went / or go on in the various work places .

Some are funny weather you personally take part in it or not . Some are wasting Time and Material and possibly Equipment at the expense of the owner .

Some of these antics are just plain dangerous if not potentially DEADLY .

JerryLeskovec

This was an interesting thread to recall our days in the shops we worked in. I do not think anyone who replied would condone some of these pranks, horseplay does not belong in the shop, and all but bozos would agree. When I worked at Ford Foundry the prank was finding a snake in your tool box, I wonder if it was the same bozo that used to put snakes in our sleeping bags in chosen ? KEN H

When I was midnights foreman at a very big job shop, I had a guy give me a "hot pocket." While I was standing at the layout table lining up one of the guys this fella' slipped a lit cigarette into my pocket while I was busy giving instructions to the other guy. I noticed it after a minute or so after it got uncomfortably warm. Fished it out and looked around and found the guy...he was laughing his ass off when I walked over with an unhappy look. He was a buddy though so I let it go. I got my revenge when he turned his back and put the cigarette into his coffee thermos and shook it up real good, lol.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was high spot blue on the microscope rubbers...The guy looked like a racoon and didn't have an idea!

I remember the story of the guy that would sneak into the dog house of a machine in slant bed assembly and sleep. One day the other guys saw him do it, waited until he was asleep, then went over and locked it. They went home at the end of their shift with him still locked in the dog house. I don't know but I bet he didn't do that again!

Several years ago when I was a Bowhunter, I had gotten ahold of some 2 part skunk scent that I used for scent cover around my ground stand. It was completly harmless smelling till you mixed a few drops from the 2 bottles on a rock or piece of wood. Once mixed, it was just barely tolerable from 15 feet away outdoors. A friend was always sneaking up behind people at their workstations and spraying them with some el cheapo perfume to see how their wives would react.
One morning I came in a little early and mixed a 1/2 bottle of each on a wad of tissue paper and tossed in the back of the bench/ cabinet that he sat on while running his lathe. It was strong enough to make our eyes water and soon everyone was looking around for the skunk. The natural draft in the building soon took it to the far end of the building where the storeroom and offices were, and soon after that to the engineering offices on the floor above. It was so strong in the building that no one could tell where it was coming from. After about an hour the crowd was searching far enough away in the building that I could sneak it out the back door with a long stick and burn the paper before anyone saw. Kept my mouth shut about that one.

When I was serving aboard a couple of Coast Guard Cutters they would always get the "New Guy" to "Run down to engineering and ask them for the "MK1 Punch", always ending with "hurry man, hurry!".

This was before the "Kinder and Gentler" military, the newbie would undoubtedly be routed to the salty old Machinery Tech 1st Class or the Chief to fulfill his "Urgent Request" of the tool loan. When he finally did get to the "Right Person" (normally the Biggest, hardest punching Engineer aboard) who could fulfull his request he was surprised when he got hit so hard in the shoulder it would almost knocked to the deckplates, always ending with "There ya go sailor" You got your "MK Punch", now get the &*()&%$ out of my engine room, newb....

Everyone got one, normally...Oh, then there is the "Mail Buoy" trick and "Water the Compass Rose". I have to admit , the "Mail Buoy" sounded like a
viable method of communications at sea..I cant believe they dressed me up in full battle regalia including 2 life vests and a boat hook to "Catch it" when we arrived onscene...Twenty years later I can laugh at all of the FNG's that "I" got to give the business to! This is now "Hazing" and is punishable under the UCMJ. What a crock of ....

Back in the seventies when I was just a little boy, on days off from school I would always go with my old man to his shop. He would have me clean machines, Bridgeports and lathes. Anyways he would always send me across the parking lot, over to his buddys machine shop, and have me ask the owner if I could borrow a bag of "steam" that my dad was out, and I needed some to clean machines. Anyhow, his buddy would get a big clear bag, and fill it with compressed air, tie it off, and send me back across to my dad's shop. Dad would tell me to pour it on slow, not to use it all at once, that "steam" was not cheap even though it was invisable. I guess it was a way to keep a 9yr. old kid busy and out of his hair!