Ace-Garageguy

'Course, any young low-earner who couldn't afford a late-model electric-start vehicle would have had to learn how to hand-crank an engine on whatever cheap older ride he could get. SOP today is usually just to whine about how unfair everything is, followed by "I caaaaannnnn'ttttt!!!!!!!" EDIT: I learned to hand-crank an engine WAY after everything had gone to electric starters. But then I can ride a horse, too. Whatever level of technology is available, I'll probably get where I need to go.

So far today everything seems reasonably OK...but it's only 5 PM and a lot can still go off the rails.

Thanks for that, and for taking the time to respond.

I somehow missed a buncha updates. Holy moly...that's all so pretty.

Oz is a mythical place somewhere over the rainbow...

Out of the closet fly hundreds of moths that fattened up on winter woolies.

Nice old locomotive. Those massive old Pittman motors are pretty much indestructible. Assuming the windings on the armature aren't shorted (which very rarely happens) or broken (again rare), all it probably needs is to have the commutator cleaned and the brushes either adjusted (spring tension) or replaced. Brushes are usually available somewhere from specialist suppliers, though it can take some effort to find the right ones, and old hardware stores sometimes have dusty boxes of electric motor brushes with something that can be made to work. If you check the armature windings with an ohmmeter for shorts and opens and it's OK, it will run again with a minimum of effort. Worst case...rewind the armature. I was doing it on hot-rod slot cars when I was 12.

Oh -----. Lotsa great info was there. I haven't tried it yet, but something might have been saved... https://help.archive.org/help/using-the-wayback-machine/

I think it was 2017 I first read that, at the time, only 20% 18% of American drivers could work a manual gearbox. I imagine the percentage is smaller now. Of course that's still a whole lot higher than the percentage that can successfully work a shovel, a hammer, any kind of wrench, change a flat, or check their own oil.

Ever think you've just had enough, and all the morons in your daily existence don't deserve any more of your time?

Build self-esteem through personal accomplishment rather than relying on participation trophies, attaboys, and likes.

More I look at it, the more I think it's CG. Good CG, but CG. The headlight lenses in particular aren't quite right... Either way it's a pretty cool thing.

Not yet. It'll be several months at least before I can start on it.

Thanks. I think the first thing to do (if I actually build it) is to laminate the embossed foil-covered parts onto .020" or .030" sheet styrene to give it better dimensional stability. Cardstock is notoriously unstable with humidity changes, leading to unpredictable warping and crawling around. Now that I think of it, getting the foil-covered parts totally dry and coating them in epoxy to seal them from humidity changes would be prudent as well. My magic, clear airplane epoxy can be sprayed as thin as paint, without obscuring printed and embossed details. With the sealed parts laminated on styrene sheet, building the thing should be much easier than trying to glue a bunch of floppy cardboard parts together neatly. There's enough extra material in the kit to experiment with sealing and laminating and assembly processes. Substitute styrene strip stock for the bamboo, and turn the pulleys from soft metal or plastic on the lathe...yeah, I think we're developing a plan.

Beers in the woods aren't scary.

Avoid buying bridges in Brooklyn.

THREE broken ribs? Holy cow. Glad you got checked out. Wishing you a speedy and comfortable recovery.

Require honest and open communication with any prospective significant other about their ideas on morality, politics, ethics, truth, money, loyalty, and other "boring" topics...and you just might avoid a very expensive heartbreak on down the road.

From the same vendor I also got a partially assembled HO scale Ulrich outside-braced wooden boxcar kit dating from the early 1950s. The "steel" bracing and ends are cast metal, the sides are milled, scribed wood that's factory painted and screen-printed, the structure is balsa and basswood, doors and some detail parts are stamped steel, and others are diecast metal or wire. The steel-braced wooden boxcars were a transitional design from the early 1900s between all wood and all steel cars, and many saw real-world service late into the 1960s and beyond. These can be found built-up, but I usually avoid them as some period adhesives weren't great, many were built by ham-handed modelers with resulting poor fit and finish...and dismantling them for restoration often just isn't possible without significant damage to long out-of-production parts. Virgin kits, on the other hand, can build up to rival any of the high-end ready-to-run stuff available today, with upgrades like Kadee couplers, etc. This gives an idea of what a much nicer than average long-ago built-up from this particular kit looks like.

Always liked this era COE Macks. Nice work overcoming a bunch of challenges.

Snubber is what I do to the old girl with no teeth who winks at me every time I have to go to the DMV office.

This is probably THE most challenging model I've added to my collection of very old "craftsman kits" to date, an HO scale Ideal Models Bucyrus-Erie 150 ton railroad crane. I believe it dates from at least 60-70 years back (check the "deco" box-art, different from later versions of the same kit). It's made from embossed foil-coated cardstock overlays that have to be precisely cut out and glued over thicker pre-punched cardstock and balsa underlayments. Even the pulley sheaves get built up from pre-punched cardstock rounds. The boom braces have to be cut and formed from bamboo strip stock, and the steps and grabs have to be formed from wire. It builds up to look like this, and boy howdy, are there a lot of opportunities to bugger it hopelessly. It is similar when completed to the HO scale Gould/Tichy injection-molded styrene 120-ton Brownhoist railroad crane, widely regarded as one of the best engineered and most complex plastic models ever produced (I have several, and they are spectacular when finished).

Ladybugs and crickets are s'posed to be good luck; cockroaches not so much.

Cupboard crawlies like spiders and ants and roaches and weevils can make you just not want to cook tonight...but hey, be happy und eat ze bugs.

"Anymore" is impossible to use correctly as the first word of a sentence, but new studies reveal that contrary to popular usage, "utter" and "udder" are actually different words with entirely different meanings...which we all otter know.