Don’t water a grease fire, don’t try to replace with a garage spring. What are some OTHER potentially life-saving tips?

If you find yourself making a male-to-male adapter stop. Question all the steps that lead you there. Probably find another way.

You sound like my religious product development manager.
Stares at my network cable with disdain
Used to do property preservation (cleaning out foreclosed homes), and would use a male-male to get power from the generator around the house. I've never felt so much fear as when hooking those things up. I was as safe with it as possible, which is, obviously, not safe enough. But my dad now knows that's possible, and I've caught him trying to do similar since, and it scares the shit out of me, because he's the type that thinks some duct tape around a frayed extension cord is good enough.
- That works great until you accidentally connect one side of the split-phase service with the other side... Your male-to-male cable becomes a short across 240vac.
  Also: if you don't turn the main breaker off first, you are now back-feeding power into lines the local linemen expect to be dead, potentially electrocuting them... This is why specific receptacles connected with a generator interlock kit (breaker that can only be turned on while the main is off) are used.
Docking always worked fine for me
You mean suicide.
- Be better, friend.

Check that the electrical power is off with a meter. Don't trust that you shut the switch. Some really creative wiring or frayed wires can cause them to be unexpectedly live.

I heard a story of a guy working on a high voltage, high current piece of equipment. He confirmed that the power was off. Just to be sure, he threw a big wrench at the terminals so they would short if they were still live. His wrench evaporated. Then they actually turned the power off. He lost his wrench, but saved his life.
- I have a habit of shorting "dead" wires with a screwdriver every time, before touching them. In theory, it should never be impressive, due to the other checks I do. It has saved me from a shock or two though.
- I would pay to see shit get evaporated by electricity
- Good trade.
And don't let anyone close to the breaker box while you are working, my grandfather nearly died when some idiot turned the power back on for an industrial machine he was repairing. In his case both the elecrricity and the machine itself could have killed or disabled him.
- I believe that's why a lot of machines now have locks, so the person working on it can lock the machine with a padlock and take the key with them.
  Looking around, it seems like some setups now have a lock per person doing the work, so no one can accidentally leave someone in danger.
Non-contact voltage tester pens are cheap and made for this purpose. Don't need a meter to measure. Just need to know live or not.
- They're also notoriously unreliable. Fine for casually looking for powered circuits, but if you're going to touch the conductors at all, use a meter.
  As an electrician; it's drilled into your head to use an actual physical-contact meter that you've just tested for function on a known good power supply.
  Some courses even demand you re-test the meter after you've checked the circuit you're testing.
- They are called death sticks for a reason. Always use a known working 2 point meter, and know how to use it correctly. That is the live saving tip here.
Would you have a video on how to do that
- Something like this
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=uFn1zucoaRA&si=22QdamXFHwRDGhFr
  They also have little contactless voltage pens, but I've heard mixed reviews about them.
I would say at least 20% of the water heaters I've replaced were not wired to the breaker labeled "water heater". I only had to learn that lesson once.

If you party around people who do hard drugs (festivals, shows, etc), get a narcan inhaler and know how to administer it. It's very simple, and there are orgs that will give you one for free. Fent is way too common, and there's other bad shit out there. You could save a life.

Learn CPR for infants and small kids. It's usually a different or additional class to standard adult and kid CPR that I think goes down to 2 year olds. You don't want that memory.

Always wait a second before going if you're in the front after light turns green. See too many fucking murderous psychos trying to save 20 seconds by roaring through fully red lights that they missed when it turned from yellow.

Add a water filter with pump to your survival kit. Costs like $20 bucks and means you could drink out of a damn stream in a disaster if mains burst, etc. given the state of poor emergency response and planning that has been on display in the US since Katrina and continues through COVID, NO ONE is planning or going to save you. Water is as important as it gets.

Insulated foil bags/blankets for your car. If you get suck and have to sleep overnight, if you run out of gas they might mean the difference between keeping toes, legs, fingers or your life. They're like $5 and smaller than a deck of cards and weigh almost nighting.

Always have a hatchet in your trunk. It's a hammer, a cutting tool, weapon, and 500 other things I learned reading The Hatchet as a kid.

Know how to find north, and read a map.

Go for your free annual checkups, especially if you're healthy--keep yourself that way!

I would add in addition to waiting a second after the light turns green, look both ways while you're waiting. Takes almost no time, but saves lives.
- Please repeat that to the guy who ignored a stop sign and hit me in a zebra crossing last week.
  Thankfully for me, I was paying attention. I managed to hop on the hood and roll through the impact.
- A few years ago a dump truck slid through an intersection in front of me and the light was green my way. It was going too fast for the road conditions. If I hadn't looked, it would have t-boned me on the driver's side.
Are the blankets you mention the same as the thermal Mylar blankets or space blankets?
- Yep.
I agree with the second one. I very nearly wound up compacted into jello after a semi blew through a light and t-boned the driver's side back end of my work van going a good 50-60 MPH. Now everyone on the road thinks I drive like a grandma, but I'd rather be slow and make everyone behind me upset than be dead.

Use jack stands for your car. If your body will be under the car for even a second, there should be jack stands. There were five different people at my high school who were in a wheel chair because they thought the jack was enough.

I don't care if your jack costs $100,000 made of pure titanium; do not trust it.

That had to be a HUGE wheelchair
- wheelbench
- Lmao
Similar to this, once you have a vehicle on jack stands, shake it lightly to make sure it doesn't fall easily. Better to find out now by shaking the car before being under it.
- True. It's okay if your car falls a few inches. At worst you'll have a blown shock.
Related pro tip, if you're changing a flat tire and don't have any jack stands, place the spare/damaged wheel under the car while you're working on it. Better to have the car fall on the wheel then potentially your leg
- They really need to print this one on the spare tire.
- Why would you be under a vehicle to change a flat? You just sitting at the wheel legs under the car?
- I do this anytime I take a wheel off, even with jack stands. Doesn't hurt anything and I'll take anything extra between the chassis and my head I can get.
I just posted elsewhere in the thread, neighbor had his car roll off his jack stands because he was, let's face it, dumb enough to be working on a sloped driveway. Crushed his head and killed him. His parents found him.
If you're only using two jack stands get chocks too, not just a log from the wood pile.
People seem to think nothing bad will happen to them because it never has before. This is wrong.
- People are way too comfortable with getting underneath unsecured loads, especially cars. I feel bad for the kid, but damn, don't get under a car on a slope.
  I need to buy some chocks now that you mention it. Parking brakes aren't enough
There was a waiter at my second job who was crushed by a car that fell off a Jack. Same, he was in a wheelchair. But then he (probably partially from continuing to do meth) had a heart attack and died 6 months later.
- I was not expecting that ending
I lost a coworker when his beloved 70s Camaro fell on him while he was alone at home. His partner had to come home and find him, and he was never quite the same. I tell everyone to use jack stands or a block or a wheel.

- Vulnerable people should be able to defend themselves. GSRM have a high rate of being assaulted and weapons can be a strong deterrent to that, although it probably would be a better idea to carry pepper spray and other nonlethal weapons provided you know how to use them.
- It's case by case for each person, and it really depends where you live. The vast majority of people do not need to carry a weapon to defend themselves. But for those that do have that need, be it crime, environment or something else, it's kind of like a seat belt, something you hope to never have to use, but could save your life or the life of someone you care about.
- Not everyone lives in a developed country, some of us live in third world countries. I have a firearm and I wish to never have to use it for self defence, I will be extremely happy with that outcome.
Don't carry a gun.
- Thanks for that insight....do you have a pocket Leo you wish to share with the rest of us?
One big thing that i learned while training for my CCW was even if you are in the right and shoot someone, your life is about to be hell. The average self defense shooting will run around 500K or something like that. It's just a life ruining event no matter what.
- Don't get USCCA, lot's of bad shit from those guys not paying out.
Group shooting with rednecks will get you well on your way on the basics. It's like having a shitload of uncles all excited to have you sharing a hobby. You'll get to fire a lot of different firearms, too.
- Very few rednecks actually practice gun safety. I'll pass.

Before getting on a ladder double-check that the feet are placed firmly and (for extension ladders) the angle is not too steep.

Generally the rungs of an extension ladder have a flat spot where you step, that flat spot should be level.

For your second point: If you suspect lines are live, you shouldn’t be messing with them at all. And don’t trust those little AC detector probes that light up and beep when they detect power nearby. Electricians call those widowmakers, because the apprentices will trust it, it fails to detect power, then the apprentice gets shocked because they think they’re working on dead lines when they’re actually live.
If you absolutely must check it without a proper multimeter, use the back of your hand, not your palm. It will cause your muscles to clench when you get shocked. So using the back of your hand will cause you to flinch away from the shock; If you use your palm or fingers, there’s a good chance that your muscles will contract around the wire and you’ll be “stuck” to it until someone else kicks you off.
Lastly, if someone nearby is being shocked, don’t grab them to pull them off. For the same reason as stated above. Your muscles will all lock up as soon as you grab them, and you’ll get stuck too. Kick them off instead. Kick hard. Like a full blown Sparta kick. You need to kick so hard their hands are ripped away from whatever they’re locked onto. Or if they’re not in a place you can kick them away, take off your shirt, twist it up, loop it over their shoulders, and pull. And again, you want to pull so hard you knock them completely over and rip their hands away from the electricity.
Wholeheartedly agree with the last point specifically. I once had a dude stop on an intersection to give me the right of way... while I was waiting for a RED STOP SIGN. This dude stopped in the middle of an intersection to allow me to run a red light, like this wasn't a multi lane thing where he was the only lane giving me a 'pass' to run a red. I just looked at him until he decided he'd waited long enough.
Dude. Just go. The light will go green for me, I can wait 20 seconds.
A lot of people forget about not wearing gloves with rotary tools. All of those diy channels on youtube wear them when using a drill press and it makes me die inside.
Quality.
With regards to your container bit: don't enter ANY confined space, regardless of where the egress is, without a lifeline and someone on the outside watching and ready to pull you out, preferably two or three people. Make sure THOSE people do not enter after you to get you if something goes wrong - chances are they'll just wind up dead as well.

If you need to put out a small kitchen fire in an emergency and have no other way to do it rip the top off a box of baking soda and use the contents to smother the fire. As the baking soda heats it releases CO2 starving the fire of oxygen, the remaining salt also prevents oxygen from reaching the burning material.

Even better, always have a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen - don't bury it under the sink or in a closet.

- When it gets old, AFTER you bring home a new one, take the old one outside and practice with it until it's used up. Educational and fun.
- Not all kitchen fires are on the stove, toasters and toaster ovens are common culprits as well.
- Throwing it into an oven that's turned off and then closing the oven door can help extinguish the flames too

Cutting down trees of any real size is incredibly dangerous. They can kick or barber chair and instantly kill you.

For anyone like me who didn't know what barber chair meant in this context: https://youtu.be/9O7H9qWdquk?si=KvGhTKrfYVUN84Pw
It's when the tree rips in fucking half and tries to murder you specifically as an act of final revenge.

Always cut away from yourself (and others).

Sometimes it's impractical. After several dangerously deep cuts at work, one of the older guys taught me a fantastic trick, whichever way you have to cut:
Tuck your elbow tight to your sides when you're cutting something that you're holding.
It limits your range of motion, preventing serious injuries when your knife slips.

Never ever EVER walk under a forklifts raised load (the pallet it's carrying).

Things can fall from it, the hydraulics can giveway, the operator may not see you and lower it on you.

Especially an 'order picker' as the operator can not see under them.

Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Shit advice. Every person I've seen go against a Sicilian with death on the line has ended up happily riding into the sunset.
I’d argue never starting a land war in Asia is the better advice.
I mean, 2. Nf3 isn't that bad of an opening.

Loosen (but do not remove) lug nuts from a wheel, before jacking up the car.

How would failing to do this kill you?
I prefer to jack the car until the wheel is barely touching, then loosen the nuts while the wheel still doesn't rotate, then jack it all the way up. Have I been risking my life somehow?
- If the nuts are too tight you risk rocking the car off the jack when you undo them.
  The least you'll do is possibly damage your cars bodywork the worst is to injure yourself.
- That’s about the same. I think the concept is to avoid jerking it around while it’s on the jack.

House or apartment, make sure carbon monoxide detectors are installed NEAR GROUND LEVEL.

So many slumlords do not even give a fuck, and many homeowners think they are just some other kind of smoke detector.

EDIT: bus_factor has pointed out to me that this is actually a common misperception. CO actually more or less evenly dissipates in a room and does not settle near the floor.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21536403/

Im now going to think about my life choices that lead me to this moment, and more importantly:

Go out for a breath of fresh air =P

It doesn't help that they are sold as smoke+CO detectors.
- Were you expecting consumer protections in the only country on earth that allows advertisements for brand new poorly tested drugs of all kinds on all forms of media?
My stepdaughter at 12 years old accidentally bumped into our gas stove and turned on one of the gas burners and then went to bed. Our cat came into the bedroom and started howling at 2AM and woke us up, alerting us to the smell.
Little dude saved our lives. The whole house was filled with gas.
This isn't correct. Follow the manufacturer guidelines for install
Never even heard of carbon monoxide detectors irl. Is it used with integrated garages or something like that?
- At least where I am from they are common in more urban areas (mandated technically, but as mentioned SLUMLORDS so its not sctually done in practice) as they have more cars and are nearer to restaurants and other stuff that can have a CO leak.
- They're a requirement in many areas of the U.S. because gas appliances are very common.
Google claims they can be wherever: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9259392
- Google also links to a dead url, and when you search the NFPA for their most recent Carbon Monoxide Safety Tips it says that you should follow the manufacturers guidelines for the height you should install a CO monitor at.
  That being said: Damn, you are actually correct.
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21536403/
  My whole life, including when the Fire Department came to school and did a presentation and had us run through the simulated burning trailer, every instruction manual I have ever read for a CO alarm and everyone I have ever talked to about this all insisted CO alarms be installed near ground level.
  How is that possible? Did CO Alarm manufacturers just get it wrong when CO Alarms were becoming more widespread a decade and a half ago and everyone just parrotted what they were saying without checking? I can even remember news segments on CO danger and needing to install the alarms near the ground.
- Yeah the density of carbon monoxide is very close to the density of N2 so it stays fairly well mixed unless you have extremely still air. What matters most is having the detector near where you sleep.

Springs again, do not replace car shocks with a cheap spring compressor, my cheap ones bend and slipped when the springs were fully compressed. Literally like a mini explosion

I had a friend that told me he was going to replace his shock springs using Harbor Freight spring compressors, and I told him it was nice knowing him. Luckily it went ok, but that shit will rip you in half if things go sideways.
- I was so lucky with my failure, it shot between my legs and missed, almost joining the eunuch community. If I ever want to do it myself again I will remove the shock absorbers, but then take them to a proper shop to remove and replace the shock
I actually did do a DIY spring swap on to my new struts with a "cheap" spring compressor from Harbor Freight. I did buy two sets, for a total of four spring compressors. Instead of using just two, I used three total spring compressors and ensured they were fixed properly with the guide pins locked in. Three points of support are inherently more stable than two or even four. I also compressed them with hand tools, as recommended in the instructions, and went around to compress each of the 3 little by little. I not only paid attention to the screw rotations, but to how much force each one was taking to spin so they would all be loaded up equally.
Still cheaper and more convenient than taking it in somewhere. And combining the extra safety factor of using an additional spring compressor, along with keeping the ends of the spring oriented perpendicular to my body at all times, I felt pretty good about it!
Funny anecdote - my first car was a Chevy Chevette. That thing was so under-built, undersized, under-specced …..
I didn’t know about the existence of spring compressors but had no problem fitting them by hand. All ya gotta do is just press hard to compress them enough
my brother said it was the easiest car to work on because the transmission was light enough to hold up with one hand while unbolting it with the other

If you have to secure something heavy to work under/beside it, secure some more.

My dad nearly lost a hand to it.

And don't cheap out on safety devices. Don't buy Walmart jackstands (for example) when you can purchase better quality ones from a more reputable vendor. Your life isn't worth $20.
Edit: Better yet, since I mentioned them, learn yo'self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ufAL5R0mg
If you need info on most anything, this dude has tested it.
- A neighbor of mine was working under his car (on a sloped driveway to be fair) and it rolled off the stands and fell on him. Killed instantly as his head was crushed.
  Don't forget to get real chocks and not just use miscellaneous junk from the garage.
- Your life ~~isn't~~ is worth $20+.
  Corrected it for you 😉.

I replaced the spring on a garage door.

It's officially the most dangerous thing I've done. Even if the door hadn't almost crushed me it would still rank way up there.

I've worked on the Water with little LEO presence. I've carried a rifle for my queen. I've taken the crowchild to Glenmore exit in full drift in winter. I've fallen on my head, been run over, almost lost my arm, separate incidents. Swapping the spring on the garage door - in a rental no less - is still the riskiest and dumbest thing I've done.

So far.

taken the crowchild to Glenmore
What?
What makes Garage door springs so dangerous? I feel like the spring on a car shock absorber holds way more energy, and I've done that dozens of times with spring compressors of dubious quality. Just don't put your body where the spring would like to go.
- There are two types of garage door springs, and one is more dangerous than the other when it comes to replacing them.
  If there is a single spring enclosing a shaft that spans the top of garage door opening then you have a torsion spring, and these are the more dangerous ones for a DIYer to replace because it has to be wound tightly enough to lift the weight of the door.
  If your door has a spring on both sides of the tracks that guides the door overhead then you have extension springs that stretch when the door is closed. These can be safely & easily replaced when the door is open (make sure the door is somehow locked/blocked open and can’t close by accident). The springs should be under no tension at all when the door is open.
- Garage springs become a lathe, spinning really fast. I'm sure you can find examples of lathe accidents on NSFL channels.

Replacing torsion style garage door springs can be dangerous, but replacing extension springs is fairly straightforward and safe to do yourself. Extension springs are the ones that are parallel to the tracks the door slides on and should not be under any tension when the door is open.

One downside to extension springs is if/when they eventually break it’s likely to happen when the spring is under tension, and pieces can fly around the garage. To prevent this, string a length of wire cable through the center of the spring and attach it to the wall/ceiling at either end when the spring is extended. Leave a little slack in it so that it doesn’t interfere with regular operation of the door. This will prevent the pieces of the spring from shooting around the garage if it does break under tension.

If temperatures drop close to or below 0deg celsius, don't drive with summer tires. It can get stupidly slippery in some spots.

I remember approaching a bend after a bridge on winter tires this november and having absolutely no control - at a measly 10kph. Ended up bumping into the curb,

If the temp is below 8c you're at risk with summer tires; and even all-season.
All-weather will get you a little farther a little cooler but just put the winter snowies on.
The added bonus is they're super grippy.

Wait, what about garage spring? I didn’t get that

If the spring breaks and all the tension in them is released and it unwinds all of a sudden, the whipping metal wire will chop your skull in half and make a big mess.
- Aww gee. Wouldn't wanna make a mess.
Another thing people don't realise is if you are replacing or removing a garage door spring, don't hold it with your bare hand. The coils will collapse and pinch your skin in it, and you aren't strong enough to re-tension it (even if you're Mike Tyson).
Wrap a towel around the spring, and hold that. Then try and pull the towel off after, thinking about how much it would have hurt if it was your hand.

Hydraulic systems can be stupid dangerous. If you can't be positive it's depressurized, or are confident whatever work you're about to do will hold when it is pressurized, take the time to find someone knowledgeable.

Of a few other issues: even a small stream can more or less act as it's own hypodermic, putting really nasty (chemically and biologically) stuff into deep tissue. The resulting infections have killed people. I don't think it's like a death sentence but it can that sort of bug you think you'll sleep off and wake up dead.

I work around a lot of grosse stuff, but it doesn't get a head start from inside my muscle tissue.

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"garage spring." Is that like "football cream" or "turn signal juice?"

Surely they meant “garage door spring”, which can be quite dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing while replacing them.
- Yup. (during install) You often use two short 1/2" steel rods to wind tension into the spring, using one to hold the tension while you move the other to the next position and/or lock down the set screws that keep it in place.
  If you do this incorrectly and slip, that spring will unwind in a hurry and usually throw one of those ~5lb steel rods with enough force to put it through a wall.
  One of those hits you you're gonna have a bad time.
I'm also confused
- Garage doors have one of two types of springs in them, and both of them are capable of killing you if handled incorrectly.
  One can hurl a piece of metal into you at high speeds, and the other can cut you like a steel whip.
  It's one of those things where you should be firmly in the category of "definitely know what you're doing" before you consider doing it yourself.

If you're underground, urbexing in a bunker or cave, don't assume there will be enough oxygen for you to get back out. Heavy gases can displace it. Bring a meter.

Gasoline is explosive. Do not poor it on a fire. If for some reason, you decide that a fire needs gasoline (first, rethink what brought you to this point) poor it on the unlit material and then walk about 20 meters away making a small trail of gasoline away from the material to be lit. Liquid gasoline is not explosive. The vapor that comes off of liquid gasoline is what is explosive. When you go to light you trail of gasoline, stand away from it toss your match or whatever at the trail. The vapor will ignite before the flame hits the ground and then race to whatever you poored the gasoline on. It will then explode and shake the ground under your feet because you thought "if a little is good, more is better." Better yet, just get some actual lighter fluid that was designed for what you're doing and not for propelling a ton of steel down the highway.

Don't mess around with Jim.

Don't piss on Superman's cape
- Don't speed into the wind

Don’t smoke in bed