You must see this thing to believe it. Most dangerous extension ladder ever. Don't try this at home.

This ladder was stored under a house that I'm getting ready to be moved.

 It is a home built ladder, made from quite light materials. The wood in the main rails is probably strong enough for a ladder this size, but everything else is wrong.

The very thin aluminum steps are bent, so it's obviously been used. They're held on with screws of unknown strength. The aluminum pieces come very close together, making an effective finger shear, should the thing drop accidentally.

The aluminum is very thin.

There's a hole in the side rail that is meant for a pin to be inserted, which changes the height setting. I suppose you could use a wax crayon.

The slot that was probably cut with a circular saw, allows the ladder to slide upon itself. It doesn't look like it would take much to break this thin piece of softwood.

This thing has obviously seen some use, and there's no blood on it. I'm not sure how many fingers the maker still has.  :-)

OMG, with a ladder like that, who needs a black cat?  I think I'd rather strap buckets of salt water to my feet and dance outside in a thunderstorm, waving a metal pole at the sky and shouting blasphemies!

Why in the everloving name of... just, why?

All considerations of safety aside, how many hours did it take to make that nasty thing, and how low did they value their time?

So many questions!

I set it against the house and the owner said, "I hope you didn't bring that here." So I told him it was found under the house. This is one of the best places ever for yard sales, because there's an affluent population with lots of perfectly good things available cheap. I'm sure a suitable ladder could have been purchased for $10.

It would take me several hours to build something like this and I'm someone with the sense not to. So who knows how long it took.

I was using a far superior ladder one time , but it still had problems and a guy from workers compensation came by. He gave me a choice, cut the ladder in half and he would walk away or he could give me a fine. I did not hesitate to cut it. It was a rickety wooden step ladder that I had found on a job site. I usually only went up to the third rung.

Stephen King wrote a story about this ladder once.

Horror movie. I imagine someone like mr. Bean making this. And then selling it to The Three Stooges who get their fingers caught. Obviously I got my timelines way off.

If it was used in just the right way, you could get your nuts caught in the thing or possibly a fat belly roll.

Looks like you found yourself a new trellis!  Outstanding.  If it were mine, I'd train a passion fruit vine to run up it.  

Would I step on it?  That deathtrap was never intended for anything better than finding out if your insurance payments are up to date.

Marco Banks wrote:If it were mine, I'd train a passion fruit vine to run up it.

No, I'm with the guy from Worker's Comp.  This is in the category of "cursed objects" -- it is an active malevolence, just existing, and I could not tolerate it among my possessions.  Of course I would not step on it, but what if I got run over by a bus, and some innocent came into possession of it?  I couldn't own it and I wouldn't feel right letting it loose into the world; I'd have to burn it or bust it up.

The "cursed object" is headed to the wood  dump. The owner of the house has pretty nice aluminum ladders.

I always hate it when things that are no good are kept for some reason. I have taken dead light bulbs out of cupboards. Somebody knew that bulb was dead when they put it back. The same thing with fuses and breakers.

I took a course on fall-arrest gear. The guy leading the course inspected all of the harnesses belonging to the company and found that 75% of them were saturated in hydraulic oil, which ruins the stitching. They were all disposed of.

I knew a guy who had a circular saw with a blade guard that did not snap back into position after a cut. He would give people instructions on how to set it down, in a way that would prevent castration.

That's either a Youtube ladder fails video waiting to happen or a multiple watermelon slicer. Maybe both:)

The worst thing is: I have used far worse ladders than that, and ones that were three times as high!

This picture does not show the height, but it is a 24 foot ladder.

Dale, it's a poor craftsman that blames his tools!  ;)

In my late teens and early twenties, I used some really crazy ladders. They were built into trees that were far too tall for my skill level as a tree cutter. I would put my extension ladder to the maximum height and then after that attach 2 by 4 rungs, so that I could take the top off of a 120 foot tree. The worst one was a silver maple that had three big arms reaching skyward. One of those tops split and slid down over my ladder. I jumped into one of the adjacent tops and then had to slide my ass down approximately 80 feet. I took the rest of the day off. That was the last time I did a tree anywhere near that high. I was completely untrained, but I needed money and the guy needed a tree down. I make three times as much money now, with my feet planted on the ground or just above it when I do hedge work. I leave those big trees for people who are set up for that.

I had an incident with the main power corridor leading into the city when I accidentally laid a maple branch on to it. I stood on my heels so that I can only feel a small amount of current. It burst into flames and burnt through with in about 3 seconds. That was the last time I worked at near power lines of that size.

By comparison, the 7-foot finger shear doesn't seem so bad.

Tried to use this ladder today. Thankfully the leg came off on the second step and I was spry enough to just jump away. Then when I picked it up, it broke at the top too. Haha Glad it didn't break when my sister was higher on it the day before.

Sonja Draven: Looking at that ladder, right above your signature, I'd have to say it is neither useful nor beautiful at this time  :)

Pearl Sutton wrote:Sonja Draven: Looking at that ladder, right above your signature, I'd have to say it is neither useful nor beautiful at this time  :)

Lol so true.

My sister said you could keep the front half and use it leaning against something.

Hell no, it's served its time. And I have other ladders.