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Your worst ever equipment mishaps...Real right offs !

linnfomaniac83 said:
I used to do custom in car entertainment installation, anything from swapping out a head unit or speakers, to completely panelling out a van and building a PA system on wheels, with all the electrical system to feed it. I’ve had quite a few jobs brought to me to tidy up after someone else’s “handy work”, and bad soldering is extremely common, but the best I saw was where someone (an absolute cock breath of an individual) I know had significantly under cut my price for a mutual friend, now here’s the thing, I’d not quoted a rip off price, I’d quoted a very appropriate price considering the parts involved... Keith (the cock breath), managed to under cut me by saving on things like fuses, fuse carriers, grommets, and cable... he drilled a hole in the bulkhead, really badly and in a structural area, but saving on cable length and labour time, pulled the cable tight (this was a 2 gauge power cable) through the hole, it was stretched round to the battery... he didn’t bother upgrading the battery, alternator or any other wiring... just as well really because it was the negative/ground wire between the battery and the car body that became the fuse/current limiter when the power cable wore through. The battery, battery tray, the ground wire and some other cabling and components in close proximity were melted but thankfully the battery drained before the car could completely catch fire. I managed to repair and rectify all the damage for under £500 luckily, but it could’ve cost him his car, and his insurance would’ve told him to f##k off
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That could have ended up much worse!:eek:

Not as dangerous but another customer once sent me a TOTR old Pioneer amp for fettling and when I opened it up I found that he'd tried "improving" it himself... there were solder splashes everywhere, dry joints, electrolytics the wrong way round and... wait for this... he'd cut every wire for some reason and then reconnected them all by baring the ends, twisting them together and wrapping them in sellotape! He was told to arrange for his courier to collect this abortion tout sweet as I would not be touching it.
 
The destruction of the cantilever of a Linn Klyde by a cleaner with a duster, this despite instructions never to lift the lid of my LP12. She never admitted it and I discovered it when attempting to play a record. I still remember the horror of that moment! Fortunately, I was insured!
 
Arkless Electronics said:
That could have ended up much worse!:eek:

Not as dangerous but another customer once sent me a TOTR old Pioneer amp for fettling and when I opened it up I found that he'd tried "improving" it himself... there were solder splashes everywhere, dry joints, electrolytics the wrong way round and... wait for this... he'd cut every wire for some reason and then reconnected them all by baring the ends, twisting them together and wrapping them in sellotape! He was told to arrange for his courier to collect this abortion tout sweet as I would not be touching it.
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I’ve seen some shoddy workmanship but not that shoddy... I’m guessing he’d cut the wires to be able to liberate the boards without undoing the dreaded wire wraps... not the way to go about it of course.

I’ve f##ked up whilst working on kit, I think every technician/engineer has. I once shorted some pins on the phono stage on a Pioneer receiver I was working on with some stray solder wire, I killed the left channel, it was properly daft error and felt like a right tw@t but as luck would have it, a full rebuild of the phono stage was the next job on the list anyway. I was glad that the damage was limited to that.

As for the car, I think it’s the fact that all the power system had been left stock that saved it. The alternator wouldn’t have been capable of charging the battery properly when that system was belting out. If the battery would’ve had a full charge, the car would likely have burned to the ground. My rectification included fitting a larger alternator, battery and wiring... and a heavy duty fuse box directly on top of the battery, and safe routing of all cables. Another mate welded the original hole that’d been drilled, which was in a structural area of the bulkhead and would also have caused water ingress and corrosion if it had been left for any amount of time.:eek:
Some people just have no idea about safety and workmanship standards, or any knowledge of what they’re doing, it’s one thing when they try and DIY, but when they charge other people for their “services”, it’s criminal.
 
Timcat said:
The destruction of the cantilever of a Linn Klyde by a cleaner with a duster, this despite instructions never to lift the lid of my LP12. She never admitted it and I discovered it when attempting to play a record. I still remember the horror of that moment! Fortunately, I was insured!
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I had exactly the same happen! Even down to the cleaner being told to not touch any hi fi equipment. It was a customers Townshend Rock with an AT ATF-5 cart which was "only" something like £150 at the time and thankfully the customer said the stylus was on its last legs anyway so just to give him £50 towards a new one... It was the then GF's cleaner and they'd become friends so the GF wouldn't let me either sack her or take it out of her wages... in light of this I suggested to GF that she pay it then as I shouldn't be £50 out of pocket for her cleaners mistake and especially after I'd told her to not touch any hi fi gear... she refused! which caused one almighty row I can tell you!
 
Shall we bring things we've broken on purpose into the mix? Hooking up speakers to the mains is always fun. And sometimes a recalcitrant and worthless piece of kit deserves the same treatment, once its own power supply is bypassed of course. I've smashed a few of those awful Crosley-style turntables, a few with my trusty hammer and one with a concrete block thrown from a shed roof. And few things in life can provide as much entertainment as wiring the motor of an irreparable turntable, cassette deck or CD player to a variable power supply and seeing just how fast the thing can go. We've all done it surely... or do I need to get out more?

(I do save useful parts from things that are to be scrapped. Though those modern Chinese turntable motors don't last very long at all, and I often find the motors from later Panasonic and Philips CD players on their last legs so no great loss).
 
Wrote off my Clear Audio Insider Gold Cartridge. Naked cantilever and alcohol wasn’t a great idea.
I believe Simon Sq225917 ended up buying it for buttons, I hope he managed to get it fixed was a damm fine Cartridge.
 
I seem to have gotten off lightly, just a bent cantilever on a cheap MM cartridge. I have, however, seen many woefully packed amps. The 13A plug is the main culprit, followed by bubble wrap (Hint: it doesn't work with corners on heavy extruded aluminium cased equipment), then shoe/cereal boxes. A bit of 'Fragile' tape is almost an invitation to a courier.
 
hi-fi132 said:
Shall we bring things we've broken on purpose into the mix? Hooking up speakers to the mains is always fun. And sometimes a recalcitrant and worthless piece of kit deserves the same treatment, once its own power supply is bypassed of course. I've smashed a few of those awful Crosley-style turntables, a few with my trusty hammer and one with a concrete block thrown from a shed roof. And few things in life can provide as much entertainment as wiring the motor of an irreparable turntable, cassette deck or CD player to a variable power supply and seeing just how fast the thing can go. We've all done it surely... or do I need to get out more?

(I do save useful parts from things that are to be scrapped. Though those modern Chinese turntable motors don't last very long at all, and I often find the motors from later Panasonic and Philips CD players on their last legs so no great loss).
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That could be quite extensive, I’ve never destroyed anything useful but with the amount of shite I get brought to me by family and friends that just isn’t at all cost effective to fix, I tend to end up with a car load to dispose of after about a year... so sometimes have some fun with it before I dump it. Whacking a couple of kilovolts from a microwave transformer through a mixer that had failed twice in the middle of a gig was entertaining!
 
Arkless Electronics said:
I had exactly the same happen! Even down to the cleaner being told to not touch any hi fi equipment. It was a customers Townshend Rock with an AT ATF-5 cart which was "only" something like £150 at the time and thankfully the customer said the stylus was on its last legs anyway so just to give him £50 towards a new one... It was the then GF's cleaner and they'd become friends so the GF wouldn't let me either sack her or take it out of her wages... in light of this I suggested to GF that she pay it then as I shouldn't be £50 out of pocket for her cleaners mistake and especially after I'd told her to not touch any hi fi gear... she refused! which caused one almighty row I can tell you!
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My ex gf scratched/chipped the display window on my Linn Klimax preamp, luckily narrowly missed scratching the metalwork, that’d have been a big problem, the only way to fix that would’ve been a new casing, with a four figure price tag. It was only about £30ish for the plastic window iirc and it was like new again. I had some stern words about observing common sense and taking care, everything in her own house was damaged in some way, marks and gouges in walls and doors, burn marks in carpets, scratched TV screen, tear in sofa cushions, scratched furniture. The damage to my preamp was done with a dog crate she was moving... she also scratched the wooden arms on my chair with it, stained my carpet with wine and burned a plastic tray onto my cooker hob, among other things... she was a f***ing nightmare, she did more damage in three months than my daughter has done in all of her 15 years. That and her depressive and defeatist moods put a fairly quick end to that relationship, she just gave me constant anxiety.
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
My ex gf scratched/chipped the display window on my Linn Klimax preamp, luckily narrowly missed scratching the metalwork, that’d have been a big problem, the only way to fix that would’ve been a new casing, with a four figure price tag. It was only about £30ish for the plastic window iirc and it was like new again. I had some stern words about observing common sense and taking care, everything in her own house was damaged in some way, marks and gouges in walls and doors, burn marks in carpets, scratched TV screen, tear in sofa cushions, scratched furniture. The damage to my preamp was done with a dog crate she was moving... she also scratched the wooden arms on my chair with it, stained my carpet with wine and burned a plastic tray onto my cooker hob, among other things... she was a f***ing nightmare, she did more damage in three months than my daughter has done in all of her 15 years. That and her depressive and defeatist moods put a fairly quick end to that relationship, she just gave me constant anxiety.
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Good lord, she sounds like an all round wrecking ball.
 
Durmbo said:
Good lord, she sounds like an all round wrecking ball.
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She really was, nice enough person but really dopey, and really defeatist too, I liked her as a person, but I couldn’t cope with her. I shouldn’t have to mollycoddle an adult more than I do my autistic daughter.
 
I shorted the speaker output terminals of my Creek 4040 when the amp was turned on during my student year. I bought some replacement transistors from a local electronic part supplier (seems like very few local shops are left nowadays) in Leicester. I managed to repair the amp but I did not adjust the bias due to lack of experience. The amp ran hot but never blew up.

I blew up one tweeter of my ATC Active 10 because I played them too loud. Silly me.
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
My ex gf scratched/chipped the display window on my Linn Klimax preamp, luckily narrowly missed scratching the metalwork, that’d have been a big problem, the only way to fix that would’ve been a new casing, with a four figure price tag. It was only about £30ish for the plastic window iirc and it was like new again. I had some stern words about observing common sense and taking care, everything in her own house was damaged in some way, marks and gouges in walls and doors, burn marks in carpets, scratched TV screen, tear in sofa cushions, scratched furniture. The damage to my preamp was done with a dog crate she was moving... she also scratched the wooden arms on my chair with it, stained my carpet with wine and burned a plastic tray onto my cooker hob, among other things... she was a f***ing nightmare, she did more damage in three months than my daughter has done in all of her 15 years. That and her depressive and defeatist moods put a fairly quick end to that relationship, she just gave me constant anxiety.
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I think some people just don't have that careful gene that others of us do have. I work with a guy on my building projects and I have to remind him quite often that when moving any wood or plasterboard and the likes it needs lifting not dragging. Example - on a renovation I was doing last year I got £400 worth of hardwood skirting that I pre-cut, prepped and stained and had laid out on blocks on the floor to dry. When we came to fit it I wasn't there initially so he decided to position it ready for fitting and lifted each one at one end and dragged it across the floor on the opposing corner to it's requisite position... resulting in every corner being scuffed and worn a little, but apparently that's what filler is for.... arghhhhh!!! Fortunately when he applies himself he is excellent, but he just doesn't have that level of care that I do... I always try and warn him to think ahead... but sometimes I'm not quick enough.
 
tiggers said:
I think some people just don't have that careful gene that others of us do have. I work with a guy on my building projects and I have to remind him quite often that when moving any wood or plasterboard and the likes it needs lifting not dragging. Example - on a renovation I was doing last year I got £400 worth of hardwood skirting that I pre-cut, prepped and stained and had laid out on blocks on the floor to dry. When we came to fit it I wasn't there initially so he decided to position it ready for fitting and lifted each one at one end and dragged it across the floor on the opposing corner to it's requisite position... resulting in every corner being scuffed and worn a little, but apparently that's what filler is for.... arghhhhh!!! Fortunately when he applies himself he is excellent, but he just doesn't have that level of care that I do... I always try and warn him to think ahead... but sometimes I'm not quick enough.
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That sounds an awful lot like my Dad!:D
 
Quite a few over the past 35 years, bookended by the demise of two ARC power amps. Drunken sister and a pair of Pro Ac speakers, used one to break her fall. Binding posts pushed through the Crossover. Sumo Polaris shorted speaker cables - output stage blown. Trilogy monoblocs fried circuit boards.
 
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