# Breaking In The New Guy ~ Post Your Favorite Prank



## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

Ok, here goes, 

I figured its Saturday night and why not create a fun thread.

I have worked for many shops and have seen a lot of new guys here and there, and up here in NY we like to play pranks on some of the new guys, and new I mean helpers and such, although sometimes other people fall for it, but works best with the new new

Here is some things that were done to me when I was new and I have passed them on over the years when new guys came around, off course it's all in good fun.

*The Pranks*

* "Get Me The Pipe Stretcher"*

I am sure everyone has used this one, BUT it still gets the green guy every time.

*"Get me the bucket of steam"*

This one drives some people mad, I had a guy take a crap in a bucket and hand it back to me and say "there is your steam" < true 

*"We will use the shy hook"*

This one is always fun to use when the helper asks "how we gunna get all that gas pipe to the roof" < commercial jobs 


There is some of my fav's 

Post yours


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## Song Dog (Jun 12, 2008)

When you get cut, just rub some glue on it and it will keep the dirt out. Boy was that funny:laughing:

In Christ,

Song Dog


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

Song Dog said:


> When you get cut, just rub some glue on it and it will keep the dirt out. Boy was that funny:laughing:
> 
> In Christ,
> 
> Song Dog


Oh that brings back memory's , I can remember the first time I got the glue in an open cut, Ouch! I forgot about that :thumbup:


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## Tankless (Jun 12, 2008)

What the hell are you guys talking about....ABS glue is better than a bandaid...at least that's what one of my first bosses told be!


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

Soldering flux will clean the wound and prevent infections...


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Or better yet, tell them they have something in the corner of their eye after they've got flux all over their hands running copper.


Talk about an eye that'll burn till you flush it...horrible punishment to the noooooooobies! :laughing:


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

For apprentice weldors. We turn their auto darkening shades to the max setting. They can't see crap when practicing. 

I've got a metal 5 gallon tool bucket with 3" of lead in the bottom of it for the apprentice with no bucket.


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

I had a helper who would always play practical jokes on me. He would put pipe dope on the inside of my truck door and stuff like that. One day we were working on a fire job at an apartment building where one apartment had caught on fire. We were setting finish but the power was off so we were using whatever sunlight we could get and the rest by flashlight. After lunch he came in and wanted to know how soon I would have the water closet set as he really needed to use it. All I had left was to install the seat so I told him to give me a few minutes. After installing the seat I applied a layer of Dap caulking on to the seat. As the room was dark I was hoping he would not notice. I waited for him to get upset but he never said a word. I thought for sure my prank was for not. However, the next morning he told me he must be sick because when he got home his underwear were stuck to his butt. I guess it worked better than I thought.

Mark


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## Kyle (Oct 4, 2008)

not really a favorite one of mine but just last week. apprentice came up and wanted to steal a 6 inch pvc dwv 90 fitting it was glued onto the end of the length and he knows that if they are dry fitted they could be very hard to get off at that size . and i glued it very clean ( could not tell ) lol both me and two other guys and some other trades all knew it was glued. he tried for about 5 minutes hammering back an forth getting his helper hold one end an pull... lol and i had to stop him he would have wrecked th fitting and then the drywaller told him an we all had a great laugh


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## nhmaster3015 (Aug 5, 2008)

3' zip tie on the driveshaft.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

We had a guy that had a really nice new truck...

We told him how we had heard that that model had a really bad transmission installed in it...

Then while he was busy we jacked up the rear axle and put it on blocks with the back tires about 1/4" off the ground...

He sure had a worried look on his face when he went to leave...:laughing:


When I was plumbing in the maint. crew at a factory there was a lot of brutal tricks they did on the newbies...

They served coffee on break in styrofoam cups...
One of the guys usually brought in a vial of Trichlorethane 1-1-1 out of the degreaser...
While his attention is diverted the vial is poured into his coffee...
When he goes to pick it up, the bottom of the cup stays on the table...
We then tell him that they serve "strong" coffee!

There was a lot of tricks the welders would pull usually involving changing machine settings of turning off the argon gas...

One day the newbie got back the prankster... He returned from break and discovered all his tools had been welded to his bench... :thumbup:

That newbie was in like flint!


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

OMG , Thanks for all the laughs guys , Keep on posting them if you got more :thumbup:

"My underwear was stuck to my but" LOL @ that Mark......


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## muck (Oct 10, 2008)

We told a kid that we needed to finish the underground to the porta potty. Told him to got out and start digging a 3 foot trench under the sh!tter. I wasnt till the guy cleaning it told him there wernt anypipes going to it.


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

muck said:


> We told a kid that we needed to finish the underground to the porta potty. Told him to got out and start digging a 3 foot trench under the sh!tter. I wasnt till the guy cleaning it told him there wernt anypipes going to it.



LOL. :thumbup: Its funny what helpers will do when they have no idea


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## Song Dog (Jun 12, 2008)

These are hilarious! Once we screwed a tool box to the floor. He was so out there ( you would have known if it didn't come up it was stuck) that he kept pulling and POOF pulled the box apart. We was wondering if he quit but he did after he broke it.

I remember the zip ties on driveshaft:thumbsup:

Oh, teaching someone how to solder and not prep the fitting before he would solder it, priceless. This is after he saw me do it and made it look easy.

Another one: Took a trap apart from sink and he asked where to pour it out at. Well, down the drain, where else? Well, he did. Then I told him to use his head and pour it down a drain that was TOGETHER.

In Christ,

Song Dog


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

A helper I had wanted to learn how to soft solder, We had sometime to kill so I told him I would. I had him prep the fitting and pipe, slapped some flux on it and put it together. He fired up the torch and I told him how to apply his heat, he got smart with me so I figured I would give him a few more pointers. Told him he had to get the fitting cherry red before the solder would take, lol he melted the 3/4 90 smooth off the pipe.:laughing:

Doing a mill job and we had an apprentice that was grinding the inside of a tank down with a air grinder. His welder crimped off the air hose and the grinder quit. We did this a few times and let him finish. He came out all p-ed off. He said he knew it was the welder and he was going to get him back. I told him I knew how he could. Grab the electrode lead and crimp it off. It would make it quit welding.:laughing: I walked off when he asked me why he was still able to arc on the tank with it crimped.

Handed a heliarc rod to a apprentice that was trying to silver solder a 1 1/2 90. Took him 5 mins to figure out it wasn't silver solder......


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

the best one i did to a new guy was, we had copper fitting boxes made all out of plywood. each box had about 20 small compartments in it to hold fittings. so we had about 3 boxes out and told the kid we were going to talk to the general so get the copper boxes loaded up and that would be it for the day. yeah i ran screws in 4 compartments per box through the box into the subfloor. he screwed with them for about 10 minutes before he came down 4 flights to ask for a screw gun, them it took him another 15 min to figure out which bins had screws in them. after that , that was a running joke in the company. show up at someones job and screw their box to the floor. good times.


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## Proud Plumber (Sep 15, 2008)

Besides the usual send the guy to the truck for the pipe stretcher... We used to require that all new apprentices put a clean bead of fresh pvc glue aound the seam on the soles of there work boots. As you all know it seals up the boots and prevents moisture intrusion. Moisture intrusion causes a gang green strain of plumbers foot rot. 

A quick spark of the striker would always lead to a river dance. Pretty funny I do miss some of those days.


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

Song Dog said:


> Took a trap apart from sink and he asked where to pour it out at. Well, down the drain, where else? Well, he did. Then I told him to use his head and pour it down a drain that was TOGETHER.
> 
> In Christ,
> 
> Song Dog


I already done that one to myself!


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## muck (Oct 10, 2008)

USP45 said:


> I already done that one to myself!


me too :whistling2:


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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

You guys are meanieheads! No wonder there are so few young people getting into the trade!:laughing:


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## Double-A (Aug 17, 2008)

I think one of the best ones I played on a newbie was with my bucket auger. 

I made him pull all the cable out and count the turns on the outer wrap to see if we lost any cable in the drain.

When he hit 3000 i told him he could stop, as that was more than I remember being on the cable in the first place. So... He started counting again.


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