All our problems are solved: post your dodgy solutions

[Jim Lad]

I never saw my (English) Father-in-law without a tie.  He wore a jacket and tie even when gardening.  Sometimes. after dinner, he would really relax and let standards slip by taking off his jacket - but NEVER to tie! 

 

John

[Louie da fly]

7 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

Don't for get the codpiece ! 😉 

Not before the 15th century! Up till then the skirt of the jupon/doublet covered the naughty bits. The attached pic is from the transition time - looks to be mid 15th century - some of the guys are modestly covering up, others are flaunting . . .

 

[Louie da fly]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:33 AM, Morgan said:

So make 1 gallon (just enough to kill a few bugs or burn down an house) and spray it indiscriminately, you don’t need to aim it at your victim, the fallout will kill them! I think napalm is more surgical.

Which reminded me of this picture from a Byzantine re-enactor site supposedly illustrating a Byzantine soldier guarding a prisoner with a cheirosiphon (hand-held Greek Fire flamethrower). One of the comments was "Mega duke to syphonarios " if he moves,light him up....and also me and the bloke next to me "

 

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Louie da fly

[thibaultron]

Wow, funny three times over!

[mtaylor]

10 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

    Many years later, the idea of "dress down" Fridays came into vogue - where non-suit slacks and other colors of shirt (including short sleeved) were OK.  This evolved into jeans and totally casual clothes - and everything went 'down hill' from there.

One place I worked at in the '70's as a tech writer... suit and tie manditory.  Another place though, jeans and comfy shirt as much time was spent on the shop floor or in test area.  I should add that the standard procedure if a tie was worn at the mentioned second place, the shop boss would cut it off with scissors.  Even the company owner took his tie off in those areas.

[Louie da fly]

3 hours ago, thibaultron said:

Wow, funny three times over!

Oops. Had trouble getting the rotten thing to post. Then it did it three times! (extra unnecessary posts now removed).

 

Steven

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

20 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Not before the 15th century! Up till then the skirt of the jupon/doublet covered the naughty bits. The attached pic is from the transition time - looks to be mid 15th century - some of the guys are modestly covering up, others are flaunting . . .

 

  True enough, Steven ... I forgot how SHORT some of those doublets got ... plenty of ventilation for the (uh) 'bits', and the historic precedence for the micro-skirt.  Now your model of Henry VIII's flagship fits right into the 'padded codpiece' era - and Henry liked to boast of his prowess.  

[Louie da fly]

Yes, the fashion reached the height of absurdity in the Landsknecht (mercenary footsoldier) with puffed and slashed outfits in a mix of fabrics and colours - sometimes one colour on the left and another on the right . . . and of course emphasised cod pieces (no, that's not some form of packaged frozen fish).

 

 

Steven

[KeithAug]

On 12/7/2022 at 2:20 PM, wefalck said:

Carbon-tetrachloride production has been banned worldwide since 1999 (Montreal Protocol).

It was our standard degreaser when I joined Rolls Royce in 1969. We had open vats of the stuff and most of the apprentices got their chance to bath in it as they stripped down and cleaned engines. We were tough in those days.

[KeithAug]

Some dodgy solutions of the past had the merit of actually working - unlike their modern equivalents.

 

40 years ago you could buy a paint stripper called Nitromors. It had a water like consistency and one bottle would cover acres of surface. Within seconds of application the paint would start to bubble and it would happily lift multiple layers within 30 minutes of application (while eating its way through any floor covering beneath the work area). Many years ago it was replaced with a jell which gives limited coverage and cleans the paint surface effectively while producing limited blistering of the surface layer, if you have a few days to spare and unlimited funds it will eventually deliver an inadequate result.

 

Likewise Colron used to make excellent wood dyes. They covered in one coat, penetrated deeply into the wood and produced excellent results. They then replaced them with water based alternatives which were so hopeless I stopped buying them. 

 

I am sure that many products have become environmentally more sustainable and safer at the expense of function. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by KeithAug

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  A popular degreaser until about 20 years ago was 1,1,1 trichloroethylene (aka 'Tri-chlor'), and there were open bins of it all around one factory I used to work for.  You could buy it in cans at the local hardware store as well.  Due to various toxicities (as well as VOC concerns), it has been replaced with something else.  (For how long?)

 

  Also, I remember lead (or tin-lead) tinsel for Christmas Trees.  We'd all play with the stuff, but never ate any.  

[KeithAug]

2 hours ago, KeithAug said:

It was our standard degreaser when I joined Rolls Royce in 1969.

 

10 minutes ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

A popular degreaser until about 20 years ago was 1,1,1 trichloroethylene

My mistake - I meant trichloroethylene - my memory isn’t what it was.

[Literalman]

When I was a kid, the church hall had those balls of fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. They never went into action, fortunately.

 

Around 1998 I went to work for a government contractor in Virginia, USA. (Is there another Virginia? I don't think so, but in the Philippines you can buy Virginia hot dogs, which I've never seen in the USA.) I worked in the publications group, and I had to wear a tie. Although I was an editor, I sometimes worked in the print shop like everybody else in the publications group. Around machinery, I would tuck my tie into my shirt, something I think I learned from Navy movies or photos.

[Cathead]

2 hours ago, Literalman said:

Is there another Virginia? I don't think so, but in the Philippines you can buy Virginia hot dogs, which I've never seen in the USA.

I don't know about the hot dog situation, but states' names get attached to products all the time without any meaningful connection. For example, "Vermont" gets attached to all sorts of food and craft products that aren't produced in or related to the state, because the state's image as a home to thrifty Yankee craftsmen is so strong. Vermonters hate it because it dilutes the value/brand of their actual products, but can't do anything about it.

 

Virginia does have a strong cultural/historical connection to various smoked meats (like Virginia country ham), so it's possible the hot dogs you saw were using "Virginia" in the same way that "Vermont" gets used even if there was no state connection.

[robert952]

The Admiral keeps asking, "Do you really use all these books?" pointing to my nautical/modeling library. 

Today, I showed her.    

I am putting a Vyco cover (5-layer vinyl covering usually used on drafting tables) on my old computer desk.  It will be my modeling work station when I finish.  (The cover is 37X60 inches and will be cut to fit my 24X57 desk with a leftover piece cut to fit my 22X10 keyboard tray.)

 

The instructions say to unroll the material and let it lay flat at room temperature for 24 hours. Vyco recommends using books to help the material relax lay flat after being rolled up for shipping. (Hmmm, sounds a lot like what I like to do - relax with a book, usually laying on my chest as I lay flat.)

 

So, yes, dear, I really do need all those books.

  

[robert952]

I know you are all waiting with bated breath on the project.  I can say the project was a success.  Even the Admiral says, "It look good!" 

My nautical library provided the needed support to the project.  Proof that having good research material is important. 

Now it's just a matter moving furniture around and placing a couple of rugs. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by robert952

[Jaager]

17 hours ago, robert952 said:

I am putting a Vyco cover

Next, it might be worth considering giving this layer some protection.  I use white butcher paper, but a roll of 3 x1000 foot has become a bit dear.  Home Depot or Slowes have small rolls of contractors paper (the stuff that you walk on in a model home).   For a direct working surface, a 18"x12" x 1/4" piece of tempered glass - edge beveled - is a good glue and cut surface and is dead flat for glue ups.

 

A bit of a drift from being a "dodgy solution"  unless you drop or use the glass as a hammering surface.  A source of worry if you move a lot.

[robert952]

7 hours ago, Jaager said:

...unless you drop or use the glass as a hammering surface.  A source of worry if you move a lot.

Don't put it past me.  I don't plan on moving it a lot. 

 

I knew this post was a bit OT.  Thanks for the indulgence.  I thought it was a bit humorous and worthy of sharing. 

 

Also thanks for the suggestions.  I doubt I'll go with glass as I am likely to accidentally drop something on the glass.  

[bruce d]

 

 

[mtaylor]

My parents bought one but I wasn't present when they used it.  Per the family legend, it filled the kitchen and much of house with smoke.  The dogs were charcoal and the whole mess was unplugged. taken outside and hosed down before ending up in the trashcan.

[Canute]

What were they thinking? 😮

[KeithAug]

On 12/22/2022 at 1:34 PM, Canute said:

What were they thinking?

We have all gone soft. Don’t you remember the electric fires with coiled wire behind a grid wide enough for kids to push their fingers through. In my day an electric shock a week was considered a good way of toughening kids up. All the electrical equipment in our house had mandatory rat chewed flexes repaired expertly with scotch tape or bandaids.😐

[Bob Fraser]

18 hours ago, KeithAug said:

We have all gone soft. Don’t you remember the electric fires with coiled wire behind a grid wide enough for kids to push their fingers through. 

Had one of them on the wall in the bathroom as a kid early 60s! ⚡💀 😅

[wefalck]

Yes, but they should have been mounted above reach. Us too had something like that and they are still being sold.

[KeithAug]

4 hours ago, wefalck said:

Yes, but they should have been mounted above reach.

I am thinking in particular about a free standing floor mounted model in a neighbours house in the late 1950's. I can remember the jolt to this day.

[Jaager]

We had one in the bathroom in the 1950's.  The heat source for the house was an on oil burning furnace under a grating in the hall.  More than one kid at the time 1"x1" or so grid pattern burns from falling on a red hot grate. 

That was a step up from a coal burning furnace that required blackgang work from an inhabitant.

[Jack12477]

39 minutes ago, Jaager said:

That was a step up from a coal burning furnace that required blackgang work from an inhabitant.

We had one of those  monsters in our house during WWII. Remember following my Dad into cellar one time when he went to stoke it for the night. As soon as he opened the door to furnace to shovel the coal in, the air rushing in caused the fire to roar, scared the daylights out of me,  I think I was 5 or 6 then.  Scared me so badly, I would never go in cellar when it was running.  He converted to a Delco oil burner as soon as the war ended.   

[wefalck]

The apartment I grew up in for the first eight years of my life had a large tiled stove in the living- and the dining-room respectively. Both were stoked from the corridor. The other rooms had individually stoked cast-iron stoves. These stoves had a lid on top that revealed a cooker-like plate on which one could put a kettle. The tiled stoves had a heating compartment which was useful for baking apples in winter 😋

 

While we had moved to centrally heated apartments in the mid-1960s, the early 1900s apartment house in which my maternal grandparents lived still had stoves when they died in the early 1980s. These stoves were oil-fired and one had to get the fuel from a large tank in the cellar, from where it was hand-pumped into cans (looked liked garden watering-cans, but with closed lids) and carried upstairs.

 

I don't remember having ever burnt myself on any of those stoves ... rather I remember cold, unheated parts of the apartments.

 

OK these are not 'dodgy' solutions as per the title of the thread, but were standard fittings throughout the 20th century and still are in many parts of the world.

Edited December 29, 2022 by wefalck

[Morgan]

I’ve just refurbished one of those ‘dodgy’ stoves and installed it into a dodgy Garden Studio I just built this summer for modelling and other craft work, it kick out the heat. I can remove the top plate and boil a kettle and have done baked potatoes on top. Perhaps a Dutch Oven next for a dodgy stew!

 

The dogs love it, and I have to fight my way through the pack to feed the stove!

 

Gary

[Canute]

Nice shop, Gary.

 

I sat alert in a facility back when smoking was commonplace. For some reason, the smokers couldn't carry their Zippo lighters in the facility so every room had this little gadget on the wall . It had a grid on it similar to the cigar coil in autos back then. And a pushbutton next to it for turning it on. The smokers had to get up, stick their face, with cigarette, in that thing to light up. Listened to much grousing by the smokers. Since I never smoked I pretty much ignored their whines.