Post your stupid mistakes here

[LaceSensor]

buying a soldering iron

Almost spit coffee all over my computer!

[Rockhorst]

Recently put a Tl072 in the socket meant for a charge pump...

[peterc]

My stupidist mistake ever was letting some solder drop off my iron onto my thigh while wearing shorts.....

[stevie1556]

Hooked up a pedal to my testing rig, nothing, not even bypass signal. Checked it was switched on, amp was on, checked the cables, nothing. Ripped apart my testing rig and made it from scratch, then realised I hadn't plugged the guitar in. Now the input and output jacks are swapped on the testing rig, along with the 9V and ground sockets that goes to the boards.

[wstimson]

My favorite most recently is when I'm testing the completed pedal on the amp and it's upside down with the back off, I plug the guitar into the output and the amp into the input, and then wonder why I'm only getting bypass.

Every. Damn. Time.

Like, to the point where I won't do it anymore.  I put it right side up with the back plate there, but not screwed on.  Then if I need to adjust trimmers or something while it's hooked up and working, I flip it over after it's already connected correctly and working.

[Hangingmonkey]

Spent ages trying to fix a grounding noise issue and no signal for hours only to find the jack lying on the carpet and the guitar unplugged

[dont-tase-me-bro]

Noob here.  Where should I begin?

Using de-soldering braid for the first time, and holding it with my fingers as I apply the iron

Wiring to the wrong terminal in a DC jack and wondering why it doesn't work

My doppleganger that doesn't work has at least one good one somewhere

I'm pretty sure many people have a Mouser failure pile

[Peteyboy]

I built a snarkdoodle up and was testing it before i boxed it.
I didn't work at all.
I troubleshooted for about an hour and just gave up and threw it in my fail pail.
I felt like a failure for screwing up a simple build and was discouraged for building for a few months.

I was poking around on the forums and I somehow realized that I never jumpered my unused boost switch on the build.

[alanp]

Soldering the input jack's input to ground, and the input jack's ground to input. Only figured it out when I was meditating on the can.

[Stomptown]

When I was putting together my first build (BYOC OD2) I picked up my soldering iron off of the stove top without looking and quickly realized I was holding the wrong end! It was very painful!

[Willybomb]

I picked up my soldering iron off of the stove top without looking and quickly realized I was holding the wrong end! It was very painful

I've grabbed mine and held it like a pencil on a number of occasions.  You'd think I'd have learnt the first time..

[selfdestroyer]

Recently I destroyed 2 PT2399's trying to socket them and one of the legs bent out and went right in the tip of my finger.

I have done the "forget to flip the artwork" more than I like to count. Now I place a red layer in Photoshop that says "FLIP IT DUMBASS" and it helps.

TRANSISTOR ORIENTATION! Why can't I remember the basic ones? or at least remember to look if I am subbing one.

I stopped to using my glue gun for the sole reason of not wanting to rip out any more leg/arm hair from when it drips on me.

Cody

[muddyfox]

Using de-soldering braid for the first time, and holding it with my fingers as I apply the iron

LULZ! 
We have these brainfart threads once in a while and you'd think that everything was said already.

But invariably, every single time without fail, there's a new one that wasn't mentioned in any of the previous iterations.
You, sir, just made my morning! 

[Willybomb]

TRANSISTOR ORIENTATION! Why can't I remember the basic ones? or at least remember to look if I am subbing one.

I did this one the other day - The layout had two identical trannies in the DOD compressor facing the same way.  Somehow, I had one going the opposite direction.

[stevie1556]

Tried soldering a few boards up last night, wondered why nothing was soldering, forgot to turn the iron on. Only took a out 5 minutes to realise!