Zenrat's Flying Circus

[kitnut617]

Oh yeah, I built it in 1972............ 

Nice build Kit, now where do you keep all your built kits ?

[Librarian]

A bit off topic but there are 'car' people reading this, so tell me...what is the reason for people sitting in their cars for twenty minutes waiting to pick up their kids from school leaving their engines running. Everyday I take a half-hour walk the long way round for extra exercise, and every day the same group of wan...er... parents are doing this. I have come that close to leaning in and turning the engines off. New model BMWs and Mercedes are included in this bunch of.....nice people

Any reasonable reasons?

[PR19_Kit]

Oh yeah, I built it in 1972............ 

Nice build Kit, now where do you keep all your built kits ?

The cars are all on shelves in the Model Room, but there's not many of them. The aircraft live in BIG cardboard boxes in layers of foam chips.

[TheChronicOne]

Plug wires are relatively easy.  The trick is to get the firing order correct.

[zenrat]

A bit off topic but there are 'car' people reading this, so tell me...what is the reason for people sitting in their cars for twenty minutes waiting to pick up their kids from school leaving their engines running. Everyday I take a half-hour walk the long way round for extra exercise, and every day the same group of wan...er... parents are doing this. I have come that close to leaning in and turning the engines off. New model BMWs and Mercedes are included in this bunch of.....nice people

Any reasonable reasons?

Climate control.  They need to keep cool in the unbearably hot British summer weather.
The fact that they are there 20 minutes early means that they are those who time their trip specifically in order to get the parks closest to the school gates so little Johnny doesn't have to walk too far or so that they don't have to walk to the school gates to find him.

Oh yeah, I built it in 1972............ 

Nice build Kit, now where do you keep all your built kits ?

The cars are all on shelves in the Model Room, but there's not many of them. The aircraft live in BIG cardboard boxes in layers of foam chips.

Don't put car models in foam chips as the soft vinyl tyres will react badly with expanded polystyrene leaving a sticky mess.  Don't ask me how I know this.

[Librarian]

A bit off topic but there are 'car' people reading this, so tell me...what is the reason for people sitting in their cars for twenty minutes waiting to pick up their kids from school leaving their engines running. Everyday I take a half-hour walk the long way round for extra exercise, and every day the same group of wan...er... parents are doing this. I have come that close to leaning in and turning the engines off. New model BMWs and Mercedes are included in this bunch of.....nice people

Any reasonable reasons?

Climate control.  They need to keep cool in the unbearably hot British summer weather.
The fact that they are there 20 minutes early means that they are those who time their trip specifically in order to get the parks closest to the school gates so little Johnny doesn't have to walk too far or so that they don't have to walk to the school gates to find him.

EH? I've got an 11 year old Renault on its last legs and I don't needs the engine on to run the air-con, radio etc. Sure it'll put a drain on the battery but not much.

[zenrat]

So here's Project Dehavira Canabera in all over grey primer.  More putty has been added since.
In the background is my "half a bedroom door" airfield diorama on which I am currently trying to get a good concrete effect on the runways.

[PR19_Kit]

Don't put car models in foam chips as the soft vinyl tyres will react badly with expanded polystyrene leaving a stick mess.  Don't ask me how I know this.

That's why they're on shelves. And I follow the same reasoning as you Fred, and for the same reason...... 

[scooter]

Don't put car models in foam chips as the soft vinyl tyres will react badly with expanded polystyrene leaving a stick mess.  Don't ask me how I know this.

[zenrat]

A bit off topic but there are 'car' people reading this, so tell me...what is the reason for people sitting in their cars for twenty minutes waiting to pick up their kids from school leaving their engines running. Everyday I take a half-hour walk the long way round for extra exercise, and every day the same group of wan...er... parents are doing this. I have come that close to leaning in and turning the engines off. New model BMWs and Mercedes are included in this bunch of.....nice people

Any reasonable reasons?

Climate control.  They need to keep cool in the unbearably hot British summer weather.
The fact that they are there 20 minutes early means that they are those who time their trip specifically in order to get the parks closest to the school gates so little Johnny doesn't have to walk too far or so that they don't have to walk to the school gates to find him.

EH? I've got an 11 year old Renault on its last legs and I don't needs the engine on to run the air-con, radio etc. Sure it'll put a drain on the battery but not much.

Well then perhaps they are all running turbos which need to idle down for 20 minutes before switching off?
The obvious reason of course is that they are morons.

[zenrat]

Did some plumbing today - new valve on my rainwater tank after the old one, ahem "broke".

[PR19_Kit]

Did some plumbing today - new valve on my rainwater tank after the old one, ahem "broke".

Does that mean it corroded away to nothing, or did you tread on it? 

[zenrat]

There may have been an incident where someone who shall remain nameless might possibly have thought the valve was jammed open when infact it was stuck closed and in attempting to force it shut with a pair of stilsons someone may have accidentally snapped the internal thread and broken the operating wheel.  Allegedly.

Things were further complicated by the need to use a blowtorch to remove the old valve.

Now I want rain so I can see if anything leaks.

[PR19_Kit]

There may have been an incident where someone who shall remain nameless might possibly have thought the valve was jammed open when infact it was stuck closed and in attempting to force it shut with a pair of stilsons someone may have accidentally snapped the internal thread and broken the operating wheel.  Allegedly.

Things were further complicated by the need to use a blowtorch to remove the old valve.

Now I want rain so I can see if anything leaks.

Hehehe, been there, done that before. 

I try to go buy the old steam engineer's mantra (He may have been my Grandpa....) of when opening a valve fully, you open it to the stop and then back off 1/4 turn.

Then when you grab the handle you can tell if it's open or closed by the feel, if it moves it's open and if it doesn't it's closed.

[Rick Lowe]

Sounds like the old Mechanic's Rule of "It's tight enough when it gets to a 1/4 turn before shearing."

Found that the hard way with a couple of wheel studs one time... I had forgotten they were a Left-Hand Thread... 
Fortunately there were still 3 remaining to hold the wheel on...