A few years back on ECN we had the tricks played
on apprentices [ go to the store and ask for a long weight, go get me a left-handed teacup, a bucketfull of blue steam, a bubble for a level, etc.].
My biggest blooper as an apprentice was when machining a couple of big steel castings on an ancient gear-and-rack planer, exappropriated from the Kaiser after WWI. The return cam finally had enough, danke, and snapped clean off. The table and castings, several tons in all, slid off the bed and gracefully shoved the hated new-fangled coffee machine, [sixpence for a plastic cup half-full of dishwater], through a partition wall into the Gentleman's Ablutions.
Unfortunately, the Foreman was in there [ having an Ablute!
] and was trapped for twenty minutes 'till we block and tackled the way clear. Luckily he was unhurt.
