In 5e category of doing dumb things I offer this. I was doing some decaling work. (The decal thing itself a long story). I am at the point of having a couple placed and dried on a slug. I applied the solvaset. Wondered why it wrinkled the paint and figured I have to watch that. What, I needed to watch was it wasn't solvaset. It was MEK I just applied tomsettle the decal. Opps. Well it is settled and won't come off that for sure. The lucky part, no damage to the decal. The slight discoloring of the paint is ok since will be in a dirty paint detiorated state anyway. Ie old.
so what is your stupid thing I did story?
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
NVSRR so what is your stupid thing I did story?
Just one?
As many as you want.
That is accually a trick I have used on very old decals already on old wood kits, on plastic though, you are asking for it.
I was decalling two boxcars at once, and put an SGRR herald on one for another railroad, and its herald on the SGRR boxcar.
I finished both cars, and have even shared pictures of them. They only get displayed and photographed with the "good-side-out", which is possible with many mistakes.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I might crash the board if I just listed the ones I can remember. I've probably forgotten even more. I'll just give you the most recent.
It wasn't even anything I was doing for the layout. The layout became collateral damage. My house has cathedral ceilings and the air gets very dry in the winter. My two humidifiers don't do the job so to get more moisture in the air, I fill a five gallon stockpot with water and heat it with a stand alone induction burner on full power. It take about 14 hours to boil it all off. It also takes several minutes to fill the pot so I pull out the sprayer and hook it on the handle of the stock pot while it fills up. A couple weeks ago I did that but got distracted and forgot all about it. It was at least 20 minutes later that I went down to the train room and saw water pouring down on the layout in several places. Luckily, most of the water was on the unscenicked portions of the layout. One of the backdrops got a good soaking. I knew right away what I had done and immediately shut the water off. There was water all over the kitchen floor and it had run down the hallway. One of the drawers under the countertop was full of water. I ran out of dry towels trying to soak up the water.
As for the layout, it could have been a lot worse. There is just one scenicked area that will need some touching up. I might have to put some trees or other scenic feature in front of the part of the backdrop that got soaked. Luckily most of the water made it to the cement floor which drains rather well. I was actually lucky that more damage wasn't done to both the house and the layout.
The same as other modelers, I have done a lot of dumb things. One that I am still dealing with is the installation of a bridge.
The bridge crosses another set of tracks, and is in a difficult to reach area.
Instead of finishing the tracks and scene below first, I installed the bridge and got it attached which makes it difficult to move.
Now I have the issue of working underneath the bridge on the track and scenery, making it ten times harder than if I had planned ahead.
York1 John
Dumb mistakes like wiring a decoder backwards? Or dumb mistakes like using your knee as a quick saw horse? As long as no one loses an eye or limb.
My question is. How long do you spend looking for that coupler spring that you shot across the room? Or the grab iron that you bent so precisely that shot from your tweezers into the sixth dimension?
Pete.
I painted a caboose in Safety Orange and applied decals for my freelance industrial shortline; got everything positioned perfectly, the Micro-Sol was fully dried. The final step was to apply a layer of Dullcote from a Testors rattle can. I held the caboose body ~18" away and sprayed on a perfectly even coat...of Testors Dark Aircraft Gray enamel.
Luckily I was able to grab a nearby towel and wipe off most of the gray paint immediately afterward. But of course I had to spend an extra evening stripping/repainting that side of the caboose in its correct color, and applying a new set of decals.
My most recent stupid moves involved using untested paints on my rotary snow plow project. I used a coat of Humbrol clear gloss to seal in some rivet decals. I had never used it before. That was okay until I applied a coat of Rapido paint (never used it before either) over top of the clear coat. The Rapido paint caused the clear coat to wrinkle badly. I had to strip the paint. That turned into a real disaster when the Testors paint stripper caused the Accural frame to disintegrate! Repairing all of that set the project back by a month or more.
Another stupid move was that I ordered custom decals from an unproven source to save a few bucks. I ordered one set but I wasn't happy with the size, so I ordered a second set from the same source and they were defective. That wasted about $80.00, plus the supplier was extremely slow and had to prompted more than once to get on with the work.
The good part was that when I finally ordered the decals from a proven source, Bill Brillinger, they turned out to be much less expensive than I had been led to believe, and they were in the mail within less than a week.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I tried to strip paint off a shell using Alcohol (shellac thinner), but grabbed the wrong quart can and poured it into the jar I was using to hold the shell.
MEK not only strips off the paint but pretty much dissolves the whole shell.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
wrench567 My question is. How long do you spend looking for that coupler spring that you shot across the room? Or the grab iron that you bent so precisely that shot from your tweezers into the sixth dimension? Pete.
I always figure I'll need 3 coupler springs for every coupler that needs one because 2 are going to end up on the floor.
What really amazes me is how small parts can just disappear when they get dropped on the floor. It doesn't matter if I see exactly where the part fell to the floor, it will disappear into Never, Never Land. Just how far can they bounce? You would think that the part would have to be within a one foot radius of where it landed but that is seldom the case.
There was a long thread recently about parts disappearing into the void. And alternate universes. As some of the physics showed o be possible.
John-NYBWWhat really amazes me is how small parts can just disappear when they get dropped on the floor. It doesn't matter if I see exactly where the part fell to the floor, it will disappear into Never, Never Land.
I recently did a close inspection of the floor under my workbench. My wife had insisted that I vacuum up all the modeling debris, but I decided to get down on my knees (which is a truly painful experience) to look for dropped bits before they were sucked up. I found five micro drill bits! How they got there I'm not sure. I have a bad habit of leaving loose drill bits on my cutting mat but I haven't a clue about how they managed to get to the edge of the workbench and onto the floor.
One of these days I'm going to refinish the workshop floor and paint it white so that, theoretically at least, dropped parts will show up better. Of course the first part I will lose after I do that will be something that is painted white!
hon30critterMy wife had insisted that I vacuum up all the modeling debris, but I decided to get down on my knees (which is a truly painful experience) to look for dropped bits before they were sucked up. I found five micro drill bits! How they got there I'm not sure. I have a bad habit of leaving loose drill bits on my cutting mat but I haven't a clue about how they managed to get to the edge of the workbench and onto the floor.
Best advice I ever got was from the physical therapist who signed me off after an Achilles tendon problem.
"Don't do anything stupid."
How much time you've got?!
I got Dullcoat that had a red top cover. I sprayed it on cars and turned them red. Not fun.
I dropped an HO Atlas Reading C424, in its box, onto a concrete floor. Totaled.
John
Graham Line"Don't do anything stupid."
I received similar advice:
"Don't do that which if everyone did would destroy society."
A long time ago, I wanted to modify an Athearn SD-40P into an SD-40. That means removing the portion of the long hood that houses the steam generator, and making a "porch", and adding a pointed hood end.
The original truck interfered with the body mods, so I came up with another 3 axle SD type truck that didn't interfere. That involved also cutting out and replacing the bolster in the frame, quite a task. Got it installed, went to test run it.
It ran, all right. Back and forth like two locomotives in a tug of war. The 2 different trucks were geared oppositely! So I got to do the whole truck and bolster swap on the front end of the loco too...
...Then there's soldering something real close to the edge of the workbench, where a blob of molten solder can and will fall over the edge, while wearing shorts...
...And having a horrible time getting 2 parts to solder together, regardless of how much heat and paste flux I apply, to discover I was using nearby lube grease...
...Ever taken a Sagami can motor apart just to see how they're constructed? DON'T!...
...And, oh so much more...
Dan
One of my recent goofs was to paint a logo on a beer car.... too bad I painted it upside down... on both sides!
https://i.postimg.cc/90jkmm1h/20200907_181607.jpg
Then I went to my "go to" paint remover Easy Lift Off . I put the offending carsides into the dish of ELO , ... and forgot about them ... FOR THREE WEEKS !!!
https://i.postimg.cc/3wqpRwSy/20201009_174457.jpg
Rust...... It's a good thing !
I've painted some stuff and left it outside to dry and then it rained. And the area has a lot of dirt on the ground so it splattered onto the models. But it ended up looking cool. The paint looked naturally weathered and inconsistent. While I'm happy, It's still a problem because the process isn't consistently repeatable because it was an accident.
RE the first post, I've actually used MEK solvent to repair paint issues. For example if I chip a smooth surface, I don't want to repaint because it will leave a raised spot. I'll smooth it over with a small amount on the brush. As long as the brush is clean, there shouldn't be noticeable discoloration. Also it is my most spilled substance. I'll try to salvage what is spilled and use it to clean up the shop
I only use MEK for cleaning brushes and welding plastic pieces together.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
The list is long but I just had another adventure to add to it only minutes ago
I'm rearranging some yard turnouts and updating some with powered frogs and a frog juicer for reliability. So the two long, curved turnouts seen here with the orange stickers on them needed to have wires soldered to the frogs.
Coalwood_Before by Edmund, on Flickr
These had been painted and ballasted years ago so, climbing on a step stool and reaching over benchwork I proceeded to wire brush a clean spot on the rail, drill holes and get the wire soldered and fed into the holes part way.
Climbing under the benchwork to pull the wire through I spot two other wires but inches away from the new ones.
Yep — I had already soldered wire feeders to those frogs back in 1995 when I first laid this track. Duh. I guess it pays to do a little sleuthing (and memory jogging) before going through all the hassle.
Lesson learned... or was it?
Time will tell
Cheers, Ed
Dumb things? I was painting an old HO emgine (RS3) with my airbrush, when my oldest son walked in to say hello. I turned to talk with him, forgetting I had the airbrush running, and was still holding the trigger, and sprayed my face and glasses Vermont RR green.