Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
Art
"Mike Patterson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:21:44 -0800, "Wood Butcher" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
>>threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
>>
>>Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
>>to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
>>freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
>>the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
>>beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
>>Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
>>as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
>>
>>Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
>>
>>Art
>>
Not quite the same thing, but I figured you'd get a good laugh out of it. I
am building a sailboat, and had to cut the hole in the back for the rudder
control to go through. It was a rectangle about 3x5. I grabbed a spade bit,
and popped a hole right in the center of the rectangle, planning on using my
jigsaw to finish it. I blasted through, and I knew that the spade bits made
a mess of the other side, so I stuck my finger in (all the way to the last
knuckle, of course) to see how bad it was, and could instantly feel huge
spinters on the other side of the plywood..."Dammit! I thought. Now we'll
have to repaint." Well, when I went to pull my finger out, all the
spinters closed around my finger. I was stuck fast and it hurt like hell.
It was like one of those chinese finger traps. The more I tried to get out,
the more the sharp splinters dug into my finger. About ten minutes later my
dad came home from getting sandwiches for dinner, and almost pissed himself
when he realized I couldn't move and I was stuck to the back of the boat.
He had to crawl inside, lay on his back and pull the splinters away from my
finger.....ah, stupidity....
One that comes to my mind is when a friend of
mine was having a house built. He was/is very
meticulous and was watching every step of the
construction.
After the insulation was installed, he was not
satisfied with the gaps he noticed around the
windows, so after working hours, he sprayed
foam insulation around all the windows.
Sure enough, none of the windows would budge
after the foam expanded. Had to remove it all.
He was probably not the first (or last) to do this.
And no, the 'friend' was not me!
Lou
In article <[email protected]>, Wood Butcher
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
> threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
>
> Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
> to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
> freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
> the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
> beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
> Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
> as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
>
> Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
>
> Art
>
>
I have a buddy drove his Taurus wagon left front tire off the edge of a
steep track in the woods in Arkansas couple a years ago. Couldn't back
it out, so we (4 of us on a camping trip) decided to use a come-along
to hoist it back onto the road. We blocked the rear, jacked the left
front, attached the cable to a tree and to a piece of metal under the
right front, and started cranking.
That was the bonehead bit--the piece of metal: turns out it was only
sheet metal. Just as we get the car back on the track it rips out, and
the Taurus careens down hill. (I don't know why the brake wasn't set,
or why it took all four of us outside the vehicle. It just did, OK!?)
Fortunately, it struck a small tree where the track made a hairpin
turn, before it could plunge down the hollar. Tree roots jammed
against the trany and it stuck.
We ended up jacking the car, blocking it with rocks, and cutting the
tree out with a chainsaw. It started right up, and he drove it home to
Colorado. Next year he showed up with an Explorer 4x4.
He still doesn't like to talk about it.
Dan
Wood Butcher writes:
>Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
>to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
>freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
>the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
>beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
>Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
>as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
>
>Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
Not woodworking, but a similar intent: we have windows that slide up on
aluminum tracks set in the sides. Given years and dirt and whatnot, they were a
bitch to raise and tended to slam when lowered, so I sprayed some Teflon dry
lube on them all. Made them wonderfully easy to raise, of course, and they no
longer slammed, but there was no longer enough friction to keep them open,
either. I cut a lot of short sticks at that time.
Charlie Self
"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above
that which is expected." George W. Bush
Jim Warman wrote:
> I did that once with with a prehung exterior door (back in the early 80s).
> The freind WAS me and I gained a new respect for expanding foam...
Boy, that brought back a memory. What was I trying to accomplish? Hrm...
I had some hole I was trying to fill with foam outside a rented house. Mice
were getting in, maybe. The nozzle thing was broken, so I got the
brilliant idea that I could shoot a hole in the can and then direct the
stream of goo shooting out its side at the target area and do a close
enough job for this application.
So I grabbed my BB gun, stepped way back, took aim at the can, and KA-FLOOM!
An entire can of Great Stuff evacuated straight up into the air in about
1/50th of a second. After which it rained foam all over EVERYTHING. The
roof, the siding, the oil tank, the grass, me, my infant son standing on
the far side of the house.
Yeah buddy, that definitely qualifies as a contender for the prize of most
boneheaded thing I've ever done. Especially if you rule out electricity or
fire. Or sharp edges.
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/
Mike Patterson wrote:
> Did you know that the temperature sensor on a gas dryer exhaust is
> wired at 110VAC? I didn't until then....
>
> At least I was following the "one hand" rule.
That brings back another memory. We used to have electric baseboard
heaters. The previous owners put in central air, and they used the old
baseboard heater slots in the panel for the new bigass breakers to power
the heat pump and such. All the wires were just sort of stuffed out of the
way in the panel, and it was a real mess. Meanwhile, every room still hads
the heaters and thermostats. They just didn't work.
Not a single baseboard heater in the entire house worked. They were
useless, ugly, and in the way. So I started ripping them out and replacing
them with new baseboards. One, two, three, you get the ideas.
After testing a dozen dead heaters, I got lax. The one in the dining room
was still hooked up. I was using tin snips to cut the romex back far
enough to get the baseboards on. I melted a nice divot right out of the
snips, but didn't feel a jolt in my hand thanks to the rubber handles.
Yowza. SNRRT!! simultaneous with an intense blue arc.
So I tested every subsequent header seven ways from Sunday before I tried
that little trick again. I got off pretty easy. It could have been a
truly electrifying experience.
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/
"Wood Butcher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
> threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
>
> Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
> to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
> freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
> the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
> beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
> Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
> as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
Are you trying to say that sometimes things can be too well-lubricated?
Actually "unscrewed themselves" sounds a bit like morning-after pills....
On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:52:33 -0500, loutent <[email protected]> wrote:
>Sure enough, none of the windows would budge
>after the foam expanded. Had to remove it all.
>
>He was probably not the first (or last) to do this.
That's why nearly all window manufactures have a warning label on the
window that tells the installer NOT to use expanding foam. In some
cases it's use will void the window's warranty. A lot of installers
still use it however.
Mike O.
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:21:44 -0800, "Wood Butcher" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
>to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
>freight adjustable clamps.
There's a website out there for a famous supplier of very high-end
titanium bikes. Their workshop bod has a bit of a bee in his bassinet
about the many uses of beeswax, and their website is full of technical
hints for what to do with it; from lubricating to threadlocking to
stopping the ends of brake cables unravelling. Now beeswax might keep
the ends of one's handlebar mustache in order, but it does nothing for
steel cables. The rest of the tips are similarly useless.
--
Smert' spamionam
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:21:44 -0800, "Wood Butcher" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
>threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
>
>Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
>to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
>freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
>the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
>beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
>Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
>as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
>
>Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
>
>Art
>
A couple of weeks ago my gas-heated clothes dryer wouldn't heat, so
being a DIY kind of guy I decided to diagnose it myself.
Did you know that the temperature sensor on a gas dryer exhaust is
wired at 110VAC? I didn't until then....
At least I was following the "one hand" rule.
Mike Patterson
Please remove the spamtrap to email me.
"I always wanted to be somebody...I should have been more specific..." - Lily Tomlin
I did that once with with a prehung exterior door (back in the early 80s).
The freind WAS me and I gained a new respect for expanding foam...
Jim Warman
[email protected]
"loutent" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:080120051052339793%[email protected]...
> One that comes to my mind is when a friend of
> mine was having a house built. He was/is very
> meticulous and was watching every step of the
> construction.
>
> After the insulation was installed, he was not
> satisfied with the gaps he noticed around the
> windows, so after working hours, he sprayed
> foam insulation around all the windows.
>
> Sure enough, none of the windows would budge
> after the foam expanded. Had to remove it all.
>
> He was probably not the first (or last) to do this.
>
> And no, the 'friend' was not me!
>
> Lou
>
> In article <[email protected]>, Wood Butcher
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
> > threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
> >
> > Several years back I had the brilliant idea of using beeswax
> > to lube & rustproof the threads on some of my horrible
> > freight adjustable clamps. I warmed the threads and
> > the clamp head with a torch just enough so that the
> > beeswax would melt and get sucked into the threads.
> > Perfect! Until I tried to use them and watched in horror
> > as the handles slowly unscrewed themselves. Arrggghhh!
> >
> > Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
> >
> > Art
> >
> >
On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 20:53:40 -0700, Mark & Juanita
<[email protected]> calmly ranted:
>Silvan,
> You realize your monitor cleaning bill is racking up quite a tab,
>don't you?
>
>[grumble, grumble @#$% windex! Swallow @#$% before reading!]
Shameful, Marky. You have been around for years and really -should-
know by now that you shouldn't Drink and Browse the Wreck.
---
- Sarcasm is just one more service we offer. -
http://diversify.com Web Applications
In another life I was an auto mechanic and spent a few years working in a
car dealership. Well in those days most accessories were installed at the
dealer like roof racks, mudflaps etc. Well on small foreign jobs you may
notice the first accessory most folks needed was a roof rack. I had
installed about a million of these things before the idea hit me to make a
drilling jig. I spent a Saturday in the shop made a really nice drilling
jig and was in such a hurry to see how it worked that instead of reworking
my drill stop I removed it and proceeded to drill 8 perfectly even,
perfectly lined up holes in the roof, headliner, interior roof lights on a
brand new Subaru Wagon..... The car went down the road with lenses from a
wreck and 8 color matching interior body plugs that no other car on the
planet had. No one ever caught it.
Knothead
Knothead notes:
> I spent a Saturday in the shop made a really nice drilling
>jig and was in such a hurry to see how it worked that instead of reworking
>my drill stop I removed it and proceeded to drill 8 perfectly even,
>perfectly lined up holes in the roof, headliner, interior roof lights on a
>brand new Subaru Wagon..... The car went down the road with lenses from a
>wreck and 8 color matching interior body plugs that no other car on the
>planet had. No one ever caught it.
Sounds like a buddy of mine. I was putting seats from a wrecked BMW into my
Valiant (why the HELL not?). We marked the first location for checking above
and below, I lifted the seat out and discovered ol' Miles had drilled the first
two holes already. There was this funny smell...ahhhhh, brake fluid!
We did get the seats in, capped the line to the rear wheels, and I drove home
with front wheel brakes until I could get to the dealer's next day.
Charlie Self
"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above
that which is expected." George W. Bush
The Charlie Self entity posted thusly:
>Knothead notes:
>
>Sounds like a buddy of mine. I was putting seats from a wrecked BMW into my
>Valiant (why the HELL not?). We marked the first location for checking above
>and below, I lifted the seat out and discovered ol' Miles had drilled the first
>two holes already. There was this funny smell...ahhhhh, brake fluid!
>
>We did get the seats in, capped the line to the rear wheels, and I drove home
>with front wheel brakes until I could get to the dealer's next day.
Many years ago, my brother showed me a neat trick with a large bottle
(probably about a gallon) of methyl hydrate. It was about 3/4 full. He
removed the cap, struck a match, and applied it to the neck of the
bottle. What happened next was mesmerizing. A beautiful bluish flame
started working its way to the surface of the alcohol. It was like a
silk curtain filling the entire diameter of the bottle, and wavered
and settled as if it were falling through the air..
Half expecting the surface to light, I was surprised to see it go out
right at the surface. My brother said it was because all the oxygen
and fuel had been used up. For a few years after that I would show
friends that trick, and it always brought a gasp of delight, probably
intensified by the relief of it not exploding.
Years later (and still many years ago) I was working on a problem in a
large mainframe computer room a little after midnight. We had some
methyl alcohol for cleaning the rollers on a high-speed card reader,
and since there were only a few operators (all friends) around, I
decided to show them the trick.
I twisted off the cap, lit my lighter, and applied it to the neck of
the bottle. What I hadn't taken into account was that the bottle was
plastic and quite flexible. As well, the level of the alcohol was
somewhat less than half full.
There was a flicker of flame disappearing into the bottle, followed by
a sort of "Whoosh" sound accompanying a gout of flame out the top of
the bottle (I would guess it to be about two feet high). Immediately
the flame seemed to suck back into the bottle, and again, "Whoosh". As
I sat there on the floor, looking at it oscillating between gouts of
flame and sucking back in, I made what was probably the only sane
decision of the evening, and capped the neck with the palm of my hand.
That stopped the oscillating flame fountain, but not the pounding of
my heart.
I theorized that the heat of the burning forced air/gasses out of the
bottle, and when it sucked air back in to fill the vacuum, it
replenished the oxygen and supported another round of alcohol burn.
I've never tried it since, in glass or plastic, but now and again I
think about it, and it's very tempting to do it in a safe place.
The Charlie Self entity posted thusly:
>Knothead notes:
>
>Sounds like a buddy of mine. I was putting seats from a wrecked BMW into my
>Valiant (why the HELL not?). We marked the first location for checking above
>and below, I lifted the seat out and discovered ol' Miles had drilled the first
>two holes already. There was this funny smell...ahhhhh, brake fluid!
>
>We did get the seats in, capped the line to the rear wheels, and I drove home
>with front wheel brakes until I could get to the dealer's next day.
Many years ago, my brother showed me a neat trick with a large bottle
(probably about a gallon) of methyl hydrate. It was about 3/4 full. He
removed the cap, struck a match, and applied it to the neck of the
bottle. What happened next was mesmerizing. A beautiful bluish flame
started working its way to the surface of the alcohol. It was like a
silk curtain filling the entire diameter of the bottle, and wavered
and settled as if it were falling through the air..
Half expecting the surface to light, I was surprised to see it go out
right at the surface. My brother said it was because all the oxygen
and fuel had been used up. For a few years after that I would show
friends that trick, and it always brought a gasp of delight, probably
intensified by the relief of it not exploding.
Years later (and still many years ago) I was working on a problem in a
large mainframe computer room a little after midnight. We had some
methyl alcohol for cleaning the rollers on a high-speed card reader,
and since there were only a few operators (all friends) around, I
decided to show them the trick.
I twisted off the cap, lit my lighter, and applied it to the neck of
the bottle. What I hadn't taken into account was that the bottle was
plastic and quite flexible. As well, the level of the alcohol was
somewhat less than half full.
There was a flicker of flame disappearing into the bottle, followed by
a sort of "Whoosh" sound accompanying a gout of flame out the top of
the bottle (I would guess it to be about two feet high). Immediately
the flame seemed to suck back into the bottle, and again, "Whoosh". As
I sat there on the floor, looking at it oscillating between gouts of
flame and sucking back in, I made what was probably the only sane
decision of the evening, and capped the neck with the palm of my hand.
That stopped the oscillating flame fountain, but not the pounding of
my heart.
I theorized that the heat of the burning forced air/gasses out of the
bottle, and when it sucked air back in to fill the vacuum, it
replenished the oxygen and supported another round of alcohol burn.
I've never tried it since, in glass or plastic, but now and again I
think about it, and it's very tempting to do it in a safe place.
In article <[email protected]>,
"Wood Butcher" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Anyone else care to share their bonehead idea?
Sorry those mistakes were all made by friends of mine..
I'll ask around...LOL
r
On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 02:22:56 +0000, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]> calmly ranted:
>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:47:35 GMT, "Jim Warman"
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I did that once with with a prehung exterior door (back in the early 80s).
>>The freind WAS me and I gained a new respect for expanding foam...
>
>http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/humour.html#foam
OK, that one takes the cake. And it defines those with PhDs to
the Nth degree, wot?
---
- Sarcasm is just one more service we offer. -
http://diversify.com Web Applications
On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:47:35 GMT, "Jim Warman"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I did that once with with a prehung exterior door (back in the early 80s).
>The freind WAS me and I gained a new respect for expanding foam...
http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/humour.html#foam
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:21:44 -0800, "Wood Butcher" <[email protected]>
vaguely proposed a theory
......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email
Another friend one, I am afraid.
To remove a boat from a trailer, back rapidly towards the ramp, until
the trailer is in the water up to the usual axle depth. Stop suddenly.
Boat slides off. But what if it's a _keel_ boat?
>Seeing the "Forehead Slappers" and "Beeswax as grease"
>threads revived a couple of dormant gray cells.
On 8 Jan 2005 23:07:31 -0800, [email protected] wrote:
>I have a buddy drove his Taurus wagon left front tire off the edge of a
>steep track in the woods in Arkansas couple a years ago. Couldn't back
>it out, so we (4 of us on a camping trip) decided to use a come-along
>to hoist it back onto the road. We blocked the rear, jacked the left
>front, attached the cable to a tree and to a piece of metal under the
>right front, and started cranking.
>
>That was the bonehead bit--the piece of metal: turns out it was only
>sheet metal. Just as we get the car back on the track it rips out, and
>the Taurus careens down hill. (I don't know why the brake wasn't set,
>or why it took all four of us outside the vehicle. It just did, OK!?)
>
>Fortunately, it struck a small tree where the track made a hairpin
>turn, before it could plunge down the hollar. Tree roots jammed
>against the trany and it stuck.
>
>We ended up jacking the car, blocking it with rocks, and cutting the
>tree out with a chainsaw. It started right up, and he drove it home to
>Colorado. Next year he showed up with an Explorer 4x4.
>He still doesn't like to talk about it.
>
>Dan
Dan, as an ex-owner of a Taurus wagon I think you missed the true
bonehead bit - you should have cut the tree roots free then given it
another shove - all four of you.
The Taurus rivals the Edsel IMO.
Greg (who had a very bad experience with his Taurus, so bad that Ford
rebuilt the engine - for free)
On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 21:28:15 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Jim Warman wrote:
>
>> I did that once with with a prehung exterior door (back in the early 80s).
>> The freind WAS me and I gained a new respect for expanding foam...
>
>Boy, that brought back a memory. What was I trying to accomplish? Hrm...
>
>I had some hole I was trying to fill with foam outside a rented house. Mice
>were getting in, maybe. The nozzle thing was broken, so I got the
>brilliant idea that I could shoot a hole in the can and then direct the
>stream of goo shooting out its side at the target area and do a close
>enough job for this application.
>
>So I grabbed my BB gun, stepped way back, took aim at the can, and KA-FLOOM!
>An entire can of Great Stuff evacuated straight up into the air in about
>1/50th of a second. After which it rained foam all over EVERYTHING. The
>roof, the siding, the oil tank, the grass, me, my infant son standing on
>the far side of the house.
>
Silvan,
You realize your monitor cleaning bill is racking up quite a tab,
don't you?
[grumble, grumble @#$% windex! Swallow @#$% before reading!]
>Yeah buddy, that definitely qualifies as a contender for the prize of most
>boneheaded thing I've ever done. Especially if you rule out electricity or
>fire. Or sharp edges.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Now we'll just use some glue to hold things in place until the brads dry
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+