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peteski

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Posts posted by peteski

  1. 4 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

    hing is, sadly, it's not that humans CAN'T do as good a job building cars as robots...it's just that, for the most part, they WON'T.

    But there are already MANY things that machines do vastly better than humans...so why not let them do boring menial and repetitive tasks that they will do all day long with no complaints, and encourage humans to aspire to do something more satisfying?

    If every physically and mentally fit human being is capable of doing something "more satisfying", then great.  But I have feeling that not all humans fit that mold.  Plus , I much rather speak to a human operator when I call some company, rather than going through a large tree of stupid "artificial intelligence" computer menus. Give me a human being please!

    Only the time will tell how this new paradigm works out.

  2. 2 hours ago, JohnU said:

    Or require medical insurance, maternity leave, a pension,  special work requirements, a safe place because of any kind of harassment.... get the picture?!

    Yes, but it is very shortsighted (by those greedy executives replacing humans with robots).  If we make humans obsolete, nobody will be buying the products those robots manufacture. Plus, who will fix them if they break.

  3. 5 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

    Sorry, but that's just creepy!

    Parents are going to have to leave their kids at home or they'll have nightmares!

    Steve

    Neah, remember that kids already live in a virtual reality  world full of electronic gadgets and AI (and with their noses in their smart-devices). They'll think that seeing robots is quite normal.

    It is the old fogies like us who will have nightmares. :D

  4. On 8/29/2019 at 12:13 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

    Same here.

    I didn't get the "animal" thing until after.

    Steve

    It might have something to do with the way your monitor is adjusted (like picture brightness).  Of course, once you know what to look for, you cannot unsee things to verify whether brightness setting makes a difference.

  5. 56 minutes ago, Dave Ambrose said:

    The two keywords are s e l e c t and f r o m (without spaces). Have both of them and get your very own 404 error. 

    Interesting. Makes sense (but regardless, not something that should be tagged in a text message window, and especially causing the forum software to puke out 404 error).  IIRC, the other forum has problems with things like "(print", or something like that - not just bare words.  Poor coding if you ask me.

  6. On 8/28/2019 at 8:40 PM, Dave Ambrose said:

    Well well well, I now understand what's going on with this problem. It's a stinker, but I may be able to figure out how to fix it. 

    For the techies out there, sometimes comments look vaguely like a SQL injection attack. When that happens, you get the 404 error. 

    I suspected all along that some combinations of text in posts was interpreted as code. This problem never existed in the days of simple BBSs using plain text. :D

    I frequent another online forum (using different forum software) and they have similar problem.

  7. 1 hour ago, Plowboy said:

    The only terrible styrene I've experienced is the old JoHan kits. Especially if they are molded in any color. Their styrene is like working with kit glass. Brittle as all get out and almost impossible to glue with regular glues. Crazy glue is about the only glue that will hold it together. I have a few in the stash. But, I won't be building any of them. I'd rather get a colonoscopy with a strand of barbed wire than work with their styrene! 

    That is odd.  Polystyrene is a type of a resin, and even with additives (like pigments or plasticizers), its basic chemical properties are still the same.  So, strong solvents like acetone, MEK or methylene chloride (either of which is  used in liquid cements for styrene) should soften or melt it (which is how those glues weld parts together).  If those types of cements are not working properly, I wonder if JoHan used some sort of different type of plastic?

  8. 18 hours ago, espo said:

    RAIN and more RAIN. I like rain as much as most people and I realize the importance of having rain so I'm normally good with it. Almost all day yesterday and now this morning it's raining in what might best be described as Biblical proportions and thunder and lighting that reminds me of an old black and white horror movie. This is the type of thunder that has the windows rattling and the house vibrating.  

    In New England the last weekend was the 1st rain-free weekend we had for months!  It seems that rain would arrive just in time for most of the Summer's weekends (and we often had some during the week too), but not as bad as other parts of the U.S.  It has been a very wet Spring and Summer here.

  9. 12 hours ago, Pete J. said:

    Spot on with some additions. 

    . . .

    Lacquers will come off in a single sheet whereas others will come of in multiple layers.  Thus lacquer will tend to try and attack the surface of the enamel to bind.  You can get away with that by creating a situation where the exposure of the substrate to the top coat of lacquer thinner is significantly reduces.  Several very light coats with sufficient curing time will build up a protective coat of lacquer binder over the enamel and allow you to paint one over the other. . 

    I thought it was just the opposite.  Lacquers are the ones which can be dissolved after they dry, and enamels (after they harden)  cannot ever be redissolved, as their chemical properties change. So they come off in sheets.

     

    Example:  if the solvent mostly evaporates from a bottle of lacquer, adding more solvent (thinner) will revive it, so it can be used again.  But if the solvent mostly evaporated form a bottle of enamel, the remaining binder/pigment  turns into a rubbery "goo". Adding more thinner will not reconstitute that "goo" it cannot be redissolved. Even if you mechanically breake it up and stirr it, it will still be floating in chinks in the thinner, not a homogenous paint that can be used.

     

    BTW, thanks for expanding on what I mentioned - not many modelers understand the ins and outs of paint chemistry.  But they should, since they use paints all the time.  Understanding paint chemistry (even if just the basics) makes them better modelers.

  10. Yeah, that custom Volga is prety sweet looking!
     

    Going back to the original, as a kid I was fascinated by the really cool transparent speedometer in those cars.  It was a transparent blue half a dome located on top of the dash (you can see it in the photo), with the numbers printed on a clear plastic sheet.  I thought that thing was a cat's meow!  IIRC, one of the Ford T-birds from the '60s has a similar speedometer.

  11. I make my own precision applicators by cutting off the part of the eye on a sawing needle (using a Dremel tool), so it looks like a miniature fork,  then inserting and gluing the sharp end into a handle made from 1/8" acrylic rod (but a dowel would work too). Micro-Mark sells similar tools, but mine are *WAY* cheaper, and I can pick my own needle sizes.  These are perfect for applying small amounts of CA glue. If the glue clogs up the forked end, I just scrape it clean with a hobby knife. Others just burn the glue off using a flame from a lighter.

    I also use Micro Brushes - they are perfect for applying small amounts of CA accelerator.

  12. I bought few bottles few years ago. Did a test-spraying onto a spoon. The paint dried fast but never hardened. Even after few months I could easily put a mark in it by pushing the edge of my fingernail into the paint.  I contacted Jameston and he said that if I used hardener, the paint would get hard.   He send me a bottle of hardener with instructions on the mixing ratio.  But I ended up working on other projects and (still unopened) hardener hardened solid in the bottle.  So if I ever get back to the original project, I'll have to order a fresh bottle of hardener.

    To me this seems like too much trouble. I rather use single-part paints.  But that's just me . . .

  13. Problem here is that things aren't as simple as a token "enamel over lacquer is ok" statement.  There are many different pain formulations (both lacquers and enamels) and different solvents used in all those paints.  In some cases, you can get away with breaking the rules, and in other paint combinations you will not be so lucky.  Then how do you know for sure whether certain paint type or brand is enamel or lacquer?  Often that fact is not mentiones anywhere on the can or bottle.  If you ask the "expert", they might not be correct either.

     

    Bottom line is that the best way to check compatibility of all the paint layers you will apply to your model is to do a test spraying on something like plastic (polystyrene) spoon or soft drink bottle.  Spoon is the same, or similar plastic used in a model's body - plastic soda bottle is not quite the same. 

  14. 1 hour ago, Scale-Master said:

    I use a plotter to make the resist.  If I had a laser I'd probably just cut the metal with it.

    Interesting.  I wasn't talking about high power laser - just a small laser cutter, like ones cottage manufacturers and some hobbyists use.  Like a 40W CO2 laser. It has enough power to cut plastic and wood, but not metal.  I was just speculating . . .

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