What’s the biggest accident you’ve had with a machine?

[dzavracky]

Not me but someone I used to know. Years ago, a Toronto area major collector was coming to bring me some repairs, including a mint Edison banner front Triumph. He loaded everything into his van but accidentally left the Triumph on the running boards. Travelling down the 401 west out of Toronto @ 110km an hour (70 mph) at night, he saw what appeared to be a huge spark show in his rear view mirror. When he arrived, he noticed the Triumph was missing. It was never seen again....

I've been thinking about this all day ..... that is such a sad story

David

[alang]

I once tried to pick up and move my Vic 2 without first removing the morning glory horn. As you can imagine, it somehow slipped off the back bracket and fell, taking down a floor crane with a larger horn, which then crashed into my Edison DD A-80. Fortunately just a small scratch in the A-80 and small creases in the two horns, all of which could be nearly completely fixed, but if you know it you can see it
That taught me to always remove the horn and any loose parts before moving a machine.

Andreas

[emerson]

Had bought a 2 fancy Silvertone uprights from a dealer loaded them in my brother's pick-up truck and with him driving, north on route 1, right by Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ. the wind caught the lid of one and it flew off---cartwheeling down the highway onto the shoulder of the road. went back to get it and was surprised at how little damage was done---Thanks TAE

[outune]

Herb's story reminded me of an almost identical incident that happened to me--- or rather that I inflicted upon a VV-XIV... I had attended an auction on the eastern shore of MD. Among other things, I bought a fairly decent VV-XIV-- Same as Herb, I had it standing upright in the back of my open pickup, secured against the cab. I even thought to turn it sideways, facing a VV-XI I had purchased -- but as I was driving down Rt 301, I heard a loud bump and looked in the mirror to see the lid sliding down the highway on it's top- I discovered that an asphalt roadway makes an excellent coarse sanding medium--- The scratches were many--and quite deep.

After that I always carried a key with me to lock the lid--and a very large elastic strap to loop over the lids.

Brad Abell

[PeterF]

We had a similar thread to this, a while ago:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19396&p=113777

[kendphono]

Quite a while back, I restored a victor low boy for a customer. I don't remember the model. Anyway, the customer came to pick it up with a pick-up. I helped him load it in the bed and assumed he would lay it on it's back. Nope. He wanted to transport it standing up so I suggested he put it up against the back of the cab. Nope. He wanted to put it in the center of the bed. Then I asked if he needed some rope to tie it in place. Nope. He said he was only going a few miles and it would be fine. I told him the machine was top heavy and had a good chance of tipping over. Nope. He insisted that it would be fine. He got about 100 feet to the corner of the street. As he turned the corner, the machine flopped out of the bed onto the street. As you would expect, it had quite a bit of damage. When I asked if he wanted to carry it back to the garage for extensive repairs, he said to just help him put the pieces in the bed. He drove off, never to be seen again!

Ken Danckaert

[AmberolaAndy]

Quite a while back, I restored a victor low boy for a customer. I don't remember the model. Anyway, the customer came to pick it up with a pick-up. I helped him load it in the bed and assumed he would lay it on it's back. Nope. He wanted to transport it standing up so I suggested he put it up against the back of the cab. Nope. He wanted to put it in the center of the bed. Then I asked if he needed some rope to tie it in place. Nope. He said he was only going a few miles and it would be fine. I told him the machine was top heavy and had a good chance of tipping over. Nope. He insisted that it would be fine. He got about 100 feet to the corner of the street. As he turned the corner, the machine flopped out of the bed onto the street. As you would expect, it had quite a bit of damage. When I asked if he wanted to carry it back to the garage for extensive repairs, he said to just help him put the pieces in the bed. He drove off, never to be seen again!

Ken Danckaert

Yeesh... as they say on social media “Play stupid games win stupid prizes”

[Ben the phono man]

Had bought a 2 fancy Silvertone uprights from a dealer loaded them in my brother's pick-up truck and with him driving, north on route 1, right by Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ. the wind caught the lid of one and it flew off---cartwheeling down the highway onto the shoulder of the road. went back to get it and was surprised at how little damage was done---Thanks TAE

I live right by there! Right in highland park. I Didn't know there were any collectors in my area.

[slammer]

Not a machine, but a horn- The second machine I bought when I started collecting was a nice Edison Home Model "A" with a red flowered horn. This was in 1976 so there was very little restoration info that could be readily found. The machine and horn were filthy, especially the horn- layers of dirt from many years on a shelf in a barn. Being young, inexperienced and stupid, I grabbed some sort of cleaner off a shelf. I can't even remember what it was. -- I think the trauma was so intense, my brain blocked it from my memory.

I proceeded to get a clean rag and got it very saturated with this cleaner. I then started "washing" the outside of the horn with it, while spraying more cleaner with the other hand- The cleaner was literally running down the panels. Almost immediately the paint began to dissolve right before my eyes-- Everywhere that 'magic' cleaner touched, the paint disappeared and showed shiny metal underneath- Truly an ugly mess.

Fortunately I hadn't started on the inside of the horn, so there was no damage to the hand-painted flowers- I eventually had to strip the entire outside and repaint with a translucent red paint-- Looked pretty OK, sort of, almost-- but I had destroyed the original paint on a nice horn.

Lesson learned--> Always-- ALWAYS -- test any cleaner before using- and better yet, in this age of connectivity, ask the Forum folks before diving in to a project.

Brad Abell

…..and that gets us past April….
Hmm! Have you thought about taking up a different passion?

[JerryVan]

Interesting that in this whole thread, there's not one picture of these calamities. Why preserve bad memories, I guess.