Welcome to Klutzdom

[Leon Silverman]

 

  Here is a solution for one type of Klutzdom.  To Prevent liquid glue spills, take a strip (about 7 or 8") of one inch square foam cushion (the kind that usually is packed with locomotives, not used for layout contruction) and wrap it around the bottle of glue.  Secure it with Duct tape and then slide it down to the bottom of the bottle.   Whenever the bottle is hit, the foam base will prevent it from tipping over but allow the bottle to slide along the table while remaining upright.  The Duct tape should be applied to only the foam to secure and squeeze it in place.  An empty bottle can either be refilled or pulled out and replaced.   

[loathar]

I found that works really good. It's amazing how far away some of those parts can jump.

How about setting a bunch of plaster castings in front of a space heater to dry and then tripping over it's cord causing the heater to crash down on the castings breaking them all.

[Texas Zepher]

because of the parts that somehow disappeared after falling from the table to the floor.

Get a large high power directional beam flashlight.  When a part falls to the floor put the flashlight on the floor so the beam is originating from floor level and traveling across the floor.  Watch the beam for shadows.  A small part will make fairly large shadows making them easier to see and find.  It can also help to shut of the normal light in the room.

[GAPPLEG]

You think I'm going to come on a public forum and talk about how stupid I can be  " your nuts "

But I do have a bottle of actetone on my work bench and bandaids, and rags to clean up the blood.  But I'll never admit Kluztdom. nope.

[Texas Zepher]

How about: Picking up a 2oz. jar of armour yellow PollyScale paint to shake it, and discovering a teensy bit too late that the cap wasn't screwed on! 

OR, have some Scalecoat ][ that got gunked up on the bottom.  To help it ungunk I dropped in a ball bearing and shook like crazy.  It worked great and started mixing the paint.  I continued shaking for about 15 minutes each day.  On about the 4th day the paint was just about almost mixed, but the hammering of the ball bearing on the bottom of the glass paint jar neatly made the whole bottom drop out.  Paint, non-acrylic paint, everywhere.

[el-capitan]

I haven't had many injuries due to blades and sharp objects. Mine are usually caused by standing on a chair, lean over too far, chair slides away and leaves nothing but 2' of space between me and the floor. I have a fear of ladders, wonder why? (Well, standing on ladders scares me. I'm not frightened by the sight of a ladder.)

Don't even start with the paint. It's amazing how many sq feet can be covered by a can of floquil. I have a remote control for the TV that I have no idea what color it started out as. And I never notice my overspray until 3 days later.

I have a workbench top that is 27" too short in one spot. When I was taking the measurement the tape measure was upside down. The number looked like 96", so I assumed that the number (being upside down) was actually 69". So I cut the material (it was something like masonite except 3/4" thick) to 69". When I put it in place I made the startling discovery that 96" looks like 96" when upside down. I never did bother fixing it.

My son became a temporary resident of klutzdom when he accidentaly put his hand on a hot iron at age 2. This was painful (for him and me) but no hospital visit was required. He learned alot about living in klutzdom and has since relocated.

 

[OzarkBelt]

man, have i lost track off the different ties i cut my self with my handy-dandy xacto knife. i have around twenty scars and counting on each hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RedGrey62]

As far as small parts go, I have email conatacts for Intermountain, Red Caboose, Branchline, etc in my favorites because of the parts that somehow disappeared after falling from the table to the floor.

Yes, I am a happy, but unwilling resident of Klutzdom.

Rick

[Anonymous]

Brothers dont mix well with trains. I know I have one.

I sometimes add too much force to a small object. "Jest a tap." nope... hit it harder. Whack oops. I guess we can now assess if we can repair or buy a new one.

At the LHS everyone stood back when I shrugged out the hose on the air brush to gain the room I needed to spray. As my luck would have it the durn thing was upside down and rapidly leaking paint.

[ranchero]

feb 2007 my brother is helping me with a small N scale layout. Hes observing as i explain how to solder feeders and this little incident happened:

-careful there, i got a hot iron

-oh come on...you might be the model railroad expert but i was soldering when u were a baby... i know how to handle this and beside only the tippy tip of the iron is hot , not the metal thing

-sorry to tell ya but the metal tippy is attached to the rest of the metal body...it gets real hot

-oh shush...just solder and give it to me...

(i finish soldering the feeder and carefully hand it back to him)

-careful the metal thing is hot...

-no its not...

-fine...grab the metal part then... see if i care

-if itll shut you up... (many many expletive as my brother gets 2nd degree burns on his thumb and forefinger by holding the hot iron by the "wrong" end) ... goddang!!! why didnt you tell me it was plugged in!! i fricking burned myself dang it! dang it!

-i've been soldering idiot! you cant solder with an unplugged iron... I told you it was hot...

-shut up...

oh and id like to mention my brother is going to be 40 next month... yea...wisdom comes with age but sometime you gotta wonder...

[ShadowNix]

ROFLMAO... you guys crack me up.... glad to know the noobie here (when I am no longer a noobie... hmmm) is not alone in his klutzdom.  I HATE fingerprints in styrene... almost as much as burning myself with the hot solder... OUCH.  My favorite though, was the time I cut off 1/8" of my finger using a hobbie knife... OUCHIE... I had to shuffle into the ER at the hospital I work at and ask them to bandage my finger up (it kept squirting blood!!!)... one of my physician colleagues was laughing SO hard.... darn him!!!  Oh well...

Brian

[twhite]

glue small parts to my fingers

Or just leaving glue finger prints in the paint, or even styrene.

Oh, THAT one!  You must have seen my early attempt at putting together a Red Caboose ART reefer. 

(Hey, Tom, what's that fingerprint doing on the side of the car?"

"It's from King Kong.  Now shut up and run the damned train!")

Tom  

 

[dinwitty]

mmmmmmmmmm sommy, sumer  mlued my fimger mo mhe m mey

[Anonymous]

Recently on a simple Atlas kit, a whole bunch of things went wrong.

1. I forgot to install the window glazing.

2. When I went back to install the window glazing, I smuged the paint I used all over it. 

3. I snapped every single piece of the telephone booth.

4. The doors fell out.

5. The roof braces didn't fit together, no matter how much I widened the opening.

6. I installed a couple of parts backwards.

7. The roof fell off.

The kit now sits partially assembled.

[Midnight Railroader]

My wife just nodded and did not laugh when I bought a first-aid kit for the layout room.

[NeO6874]

Injuries in the 1:87 world are proportionately less, right?

 

nah, they're 87 times worse. 

[Weighmaster]

  In reverse time frame:

  1987-Ripping a large number of boards on a friends table saw, I put a very shallow groove across my left thumb; the day after removing the bandage, while finishing up the ripping, I regrooved  the same thumb, same spot.

   1974-Trying to tighten the wooden handle on a 10" file, using the proven method of gripping the handle in the left hand and banging the end of the file on the benchtop, the file remained standing on end on the bench during my upstroke and the subsequent downstroke.  The file came up with the next upstroke, not in the handle but 3/4 (oops, .750") into the side of my palm.

  1968-Working a line in a food plant, I had to answer the phone when the boss was gone.  It rang, I was 100' away on a 1000# capy. forklift.  I drove down, stopped while turning, jumped off just in time for the last momentum of the left rear tire to run over my own foot.  Found out years later that I broke one bone, which healed just under the skin, giving me a permanent callous and limp.

  I am smarter now.  I don't drive forklifts anymore.  I make permanently attached plastic handles for files now.  I use my own table saw now.  I don't admit to any more klutzy stuff in the 1:1 world.  Injuries in the 1:87 world are proportionately less, right?

 

Gary 

[SteamFreak]

I resent this allegation, and I resent the alligator!

My biggest enemy is impatience, like being too ornery to get up once again for an extension cord for the soldering iron, so I end up trying to complete the job without tripping over the cord, pulling the plug from the wall, or burning myself. Not that I've ever done any of those things.

Has anyone sneezed detail parts or Kadee springs across the room?

CA is a funny substance; it travels against gravity and logic to seek out any exposed flesh, sort of like "The Blob" at the beginning of the film where it travels up the stick to wrap itself around the bum's hand. If I don't end up with webbed fingers during a project, something's wrong. I keep emery boards handy to remove my CA callouses.

A LHS owner who's no longer in business once told me that he was working on adding details to a set of passenger coaches while alone in the store. When he tried to twist the cap off of the Zap bottle the neck broke instead, and the CA flew everywhere, ruining the coach and gluing his shirt to his chest and stomach. He closed up his shop, drove home, turned on every fan in the house, and doused himself with acetone until he got his shirt off. I told him he's lucky he didn't pass out from the fumes -- I can just picture him trying to explain that scene to the paramedics.

To go slightly off topic, the eye drops issue is no joke. Last week a friend used some prescription eye drops for the first time, and she said the pain was excruciating; she was literally screaming. It felt like a baseball bat to the face. When she went to back to the doctor, he pointed out that she had put ear drops in her eye, and that she's lucky she isn't blind. He had the same thing happen to him, but was wearing contact lenses, which probably saved his vision. I made her vow to wear her glasses from now on, and she has labelled everything clearly. Read those labels!

[jblackwelljr]

I was a little surprised that this thread re-surfaced, although I probably caused it by referencing it in another thread.

Anyway,  Some of these responses are a riot but they show how human we all are....that is, except for those guys who get published in the leading model magazines.   You know who you are..."I had to cut 4,379 pieces of .003 brass wire into 1mm lengths and then individually paint them black to depict the soot coming out of my totally hand-built 4-12-2 that I made from recycled garlic and carbon paper.  It was a bit tedious but well worth it in the final analysis." 

Master modelers, please don't take offense - I'm just a bit jealous.

[easyaces]

Here's one for ya. You have not had a bad day til you've accidentally super-glued all the fingers together of one hand. UnFortunately the piece I was working on was a total loss! But I was lucky enough to have a good supply of Acetone to un-stick my fingers!!!!

[genelbradleyjr]

Boy oh Boy......

Thank all of you so much!!!!!!! I am also a resident of Klutzdom. I wasn't feeling so hot earlier but after reading this I have tears in my eyes from laughing sooooo hard. I have done  everything you guys have mentioned... some of them twice. Definitely dumped the glue over more than once, sneezed in the ground foam, yep...... me and handrails/grab irons do not get along. What gets me is when two or more of these things happebn in lilke the same day..... and you go off to do something else (non railroad related and klutz that too........ like i did. I'm a drummer and backed over $2000.00 worth of cymbals in my truck.

My wife and kids joke at me. I work in HO and I wear tri-focals but work better with no glasses, magnifying lamp or magnifying head lamp, tweezers in one hand, forceps in the other plus a pair of helping hands or a vise...........

[fwright]

More like Dilbertdom than Klutzdom - I have proven over and over that electrical engineers do not make great electricians.

Adding lighting to a circuit in the train room.  Wire already run, most fixtures in, just a matter of replacing the fixture at hand.  Of course, only have one circuit in room, and this is 8PM and dark outside (all you electricians can skip the rest of the setup).  And of course, breaker box is at other end of house, and down a flight of stairs.  So if I only work with one wire at a time, on a wooden ladder, with rubbers-soled shoes, should be safe, right?

Everything goes well until it's time to shorten the last 12 gauge Romex cable (both conductors inside).  Whip out the old lineman pliers and cut it....one finger was just over the edge of the rubber handle grip....that was enough to knock me off the ladder....an impressive 1/4" hole melted in the cutting edge of the pliers....a spark and light show worthy of a welding rig before the room went dark.  Decided to wait to reset breaker and complete the job the next day - during daylight hours!  Meanwhile, entered alcohol abuse program to steady nerves. 

As an operations friend of mine says of his electronic and electrical friends, he has got to always remember that anybody that works with 'trons on a regular basis has been thrown back against the wall with concussive force several times in their life.  He has to take this into account when making key decisions. 

yours in Dilbertdom, where there's always time enough to do it twice, but never enough time to do it right the 1st time.

[loathar]

Galaxy-I kept them both on my desk in my bedroom where I sometimes build models. I keep the eyedrops in my pocket now.

[galaxy]

Howcome no one has mentioned the perenial favorate: superglue and the misplaced finger(s)/hand or whatever.

 

That's nothing!  Here in north Jersey, about 2 years ago, a woman mistook superglue for her eye drops!!!  Don't know if she was a model railroader, but it makes you wonder!!  I'm not at all klutzy - just because I stepped on the cord of the soldering pencil I was carrying & took a few seconds to realize what that smoke was from before I dropped it

I used to buy my CA in bottles. Then I started wearing contacts and needed to start useing eyedrops. I went to grab my drops and got the top off only to look down to see I had the CA in my hand. Now I only buy my CA in those little metal tubes and I threw out all chemicals that even looked like a bottle of eyedrops. I can't even imagine how bad that would hurt.

 

On a real emergency room show, a woman had PUT super glue IN an old eye-drop bottle. Her husband found that out while she was in the emergency room and he dug said bottle out of her purse for eye relief. Who knows why she carried the super glue in her purse. There are more than one similar stories.

 

What I can't understand is why anyone would keep CA and eyedrops anywhere near each other?!?!  Is the CA in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom with the contact solutions? Is the eye drops kept near the layout and work bench with the CA? My eye drops for allergies (startin to need 'em now!) are nowhere near anything that is not medicinal.

Keeping the CA in tubes seems like a smart idea.

Also the warning to anyone that anything put in any other container should be clearly LABELED

 

[IRONROOSTER]

I joined when I cut my circular saw cord in two with said saw - that's why it's only a foot long now.

I have quit using nails on the benchwork since I hit my thumb more than the nail. 

I got tired of picking splinters out of my fingers so I stopped buying the cheapest grade of wood and plywood - for a while there I was using my optivsor more for surgery than modeling.

After I dropped the 3/4" thick 4x8 sheet of floor underlay edgewise on my big toe (which broke it in a most painful way), I stopped trying to cheap out on layout material.

I have lost track of the number of times I have stabbed myself with a hobby knife or glued my finger to the model.  A first aid kit is my most useful hobby tool!

And let's not talk about chisels.

Thumbs from the old NMRA Bulletin is my favorite cartoon. 

Oh well, I figure the only folks who never have an accident are those who don't do anything.

Be safe - wish I were

Paul 

[DaveInTheHat]

Super gluing my forearm to the top of my workbench was nothing compared to seeing a #11 x-acto blade go all the way through my hand.

[CSX_road_slug]

How about: Picking up a 2oz. jar of armour yellow PollyScale paint to shake it, and discovering a teensy bit too late that the cap wasn't screwed on! 

[oleirish]

What do you mean, "Welcome". I'm the mayor of Klutzdom. I've lived here for over 30 years, about the same amount of time I've been in this hobby. If it is moral support we need, maybe we should form a self help group. And in case you are wondering, Murphy's Law rules the land of Klutzdom.

Murphy's Law rules Model railroading,

JIM

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

I would have typed more about this topic earlier but it took quite awhile to sperate my fingers that were super glued together.