UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > Hints, Tips and Solutions (Do NOT post requests for help here)

Notices

Hints, Tips and Solutions (Do NOT post requests for help here) If you have any useful general hints and tips for vintage technology repair and restoration, please share them here. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 7th Dec 2007, 10:19 pm   #1
DoctorWho
Rest in Peace
 
DoctorWho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Devon
Posts: 850
Default What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Sometimes I think I must be a danger zone!! Yesterday this could have made me cry, however, to-day, it makes me smile, even laugh to tell anyone about it.

We have been having a sort out of various items whilst having some work done in the house which included the fitting of a new water heater. In the process of doing this the old airing cupboard, which was no longer needed, was re-plastered and shelved out as a hall cupboard, then I got in various boxes of items from the shed to sort out and put in to the new cupboard, thus giving us more space.

I bought in the 8 or so boxes of various items, these ranged from electrical spares for the home to spare parts for the vintage radios, TV sets, gramophones and the like that I collect and restore. There were also a variety of car related items and so on.

I out one damaged box aside to put the rubbish in which would then go to the dump and started sorting everything out. All was going well, wire was going in to one box, plugs in to another and so on, ten it got to car spares, there were tins of paint for old cars we no longer have, one of which was a spray can of black paint, and so I gently threw this across to the rubbish box, when it landed on top of the box it exploded and, as they are pressurised, black cellulose paint was going everywhere, I think I sat stunned for a moment, whilst it discharged, then I called through to my wife Chris and said something like "Do you want to come and kill me now"............. At that stage I didn't realise the extent of the damage! Chris was so good about it, she never once complained at all, she just helped me as much as she was able.

I had to finish sorting the boxes to get them put away, we got the box of rubbish and put it inside a dustbin bag, I carried this out to the car, not realising that I was dripping black paint all the way up the hallway. When I came back in we then were able to see the extent of the damage, part of the hall floor was not black, there was a great deal of black paint over the kitchen floor, it had sprayed 2 of the kitchen cupboard doors, the front of the freezer was sprayed black, the underneath of the kitchen table and legs were black and so were 2 of the stools. We tried using White Spirit to remove it, but no success, we then thought of Cellulose Thinners.

This cleaned up the hall floor well, also the kitchen cupboard doors and the front of the freezer, the table and stools similarly cleaned relatively easily, but the kitchen floor was not so easy as it is a textured wooden finish, and by this point the Cellulose Thinners were running out!

We dashed off to Halfords (a local shop selling car related items) and I grabbed 4 tins of Cellulose Thinners, the chap at the checkout then refused to sell them to me, as he said people use it to get high, so I had to go to the customer services desk, which I did. I then explained to the chap exactly what had happened, when he stopped laughing he authorised me to be able to buy the thinners, and so home we came.

We lay newspaper over the floor and I laid on the floor, starting at the furthest away point, and using an old toothbrush, a duster, and plenty of Cellulose Thinners (with all doors and windows open and the fan going) I started to slowly clean the floor, the toothbrush got the paint out of the grain, but you then had to quickly get it with the duster before it set again. I don't know how many hours it took, but I gradually worked back across the kitchen towards the door until, finally, I had finished. Only one area of floor was damaged, and that can be repaired, and after a final wipe over with Thinners everything was back to normal.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief when it was finished late last night, then, this morning, I could see the funny side of it. A brother, who is a good friend, called in, and we told him what had happened, he was in stitches. I suppose we all learn by our mistakes, and whilst it was a nightmare yesterday, I can really look back and laugh to-day, even the smell has thankfully gone!

Never again do I want to hold a spray can of paint!! If you sort out your spares/junk, don't do this..........
DoctorWho is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 10:05 am   #2
KEITHW
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Pocklington, East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 171
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Oh Peter! You must know have the cleanest kitchen in the world after this and the previous episode with the gramophone motor.

Your poor wife sounds very tolerant. Glad all was well in the end. Another lesson learnt.

All the best,
Keith
KEITHW is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 11:10 am   #3
Patrick Dixon
Hexode
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 480
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Shouldn't this be in 'Success Stories'? ;-)

Clearly you should have dived on the discharging paint can, and taken the worst of the 'blast' yourself!

Glad it all cleaned up OK ...
Patrick Dixon is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 11:10 am   #4
Skywave
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Chard, South Somerset, UK.
Posts: 7,457
Exclamation Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Reminds me of a similar mishap I had many years ago.

I was touching up the paintwork on an old Eddystone radio with grey Hammerite paint. It was a warm sunny day, the fumes from this paint are none too pleasant, so I was doing it in the garden. SWMBO came back from a shopping trip sporting a new outfit that she had just acquired - and looking very pleased with herself. She fancies herself as an expert in home-decoration, etc. "Oh! I don't think much of that finish! The paint is obviously too thick!" And promptly picks up the tin and violently shakes it. "No!" I shouted: Too late! The lid to the tin was not fitted tight.
Oh dear! One grey Hammerite-finished Eddystone radio and a wife to match!

And, of course - it was all MY fault!

Al / Skywave.

Last edited by Skywave; 8th Dec 2007 at 11:12 am. Reason: Typo
Skywave is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 12:43 pm   #5
DoctorWho
Rest in Peace
 
DoctorWho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Devon
Posts: 850
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Keith - You may be right, and actually I didn't get reminded at all about the gramophone motor, even though it was one of the first things that came in to my mind. My wife actually heard it happening, but she thought that I had broken the neck of a CRT and that it was the vacuum being lost in a tube. As for a clean kitchen, well the thinners did a wonderful job on the kitchen cupboard doors, they got all of the car paint off, and the actual door paint too......... Lesson learnt indeed! i think I'll be scared to go near a spray can of paint again!

Patrick - Well you may be right, but I can tell you that laying on the floor with a toothbrush, a duster and thinners isn't too pleasurable

Al - Oh dear, sounds like you got the blame there, at least I didn't get moaned at, not even once! You should have complimented your wife on starting a new fashion
DoctorWho is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 2:11 pm   #6
Skywave
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Chard, South Somerset, UK.
Posts: 7,457
Talking Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by DoctorWho View Post
Al - Oh dear, sounds like you got the blame there, at least I didn't get moaned at, not even once! You should have complimented your wife on starting a new fashion
Hmm. There are Times in Life - regardless of the situation - when it is wise to say nowt!
This was one of them!

Al / Skywave
Skywave is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 7:26 pm   #7
Ian B
Hexode
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Arlesey, Bedfordshire, UK.
Posts: 401
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Oh dear Peter, I really do sympathise. I had a similar thing happen with a can of black cellulose, the nozzle broke off flush with the top of the can, and it sent out an unstoppable 360 degree spray. Luckily I was using it outside, and I was able to get it in the wheelie bin, but the marks on the block paving will be with is forever! My face and glasses took a bit of cleaning, but I didn't worry about the old shirt and jeans I was wearing.

The wife has just read this, a friend has just had a new kitchen which is nearly all black (she's a Goth), you could have done the same and been trendy!

Regards,

Ian Blackbourn

Last edited by Ian B; 8th Dec 2007 at 7:30 pm. Reason: missed a bit out
Ian B is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2007, 7:55 pm   #8
electroanorak
Hexode
 
electroanorak's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Tonyrefail, Rhondda, South Wales, UK.
Posts: 337
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Oh, that sounds lik a total nightmare..

O.k. here goes.....

One day I decided to have a clear up in my other workshop (the one in which I do all the PCB work.
So, to get it out of the way, I cearfuly caried the etch tank full of feric chloride down to the second workshop and placed it carefuly on the floor.
That was fine, until later that evening when I was sitting in the workshop doing some SMT work. As I turned round on my revolving, wheely chair, the foot rest caught the tank and over it went sending half a dozen pints of nice new strong feric across the floor.
It started to head for the piles of spare test equipment and cardboard boxes of components stacked under the benches.
I ran into the house, grabed all the loo rolls that I could and emptied them out arond the spill, to create a dam.
I then grabed a stanley knife and cut the carpet around the spill and threw it into the garden.
After a good swear and when I had calmed down, I finnished clearing up at around 1.30am...
The SMT work did not get done that night.

You have my full sympathy Doctor !!!

Daniel.
electroanorak is offline  
Old 9th Dec 2007, 12:17 am   #9
DoctorWho
Rest in Peace
 
DoctorWho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Devon
Posts: 850
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Ian - oh dear, that sounds bad, at least you were outside! Not sure a "trendy" kitchen would look right here, ours is a very cottagey style kitchen, and with most things in the house being pre-war it would look rather out of place

Daniel - What a disaster! That's even worse than what I did! I guess we've all done something like this at some stage, looking back and laughing at yourself afterwards helps, it saves you crying
DoctorWho is offline  
Old 9th Dec 2007, 9:53 pm   #10
Phil G4SPZ
Dekatron
 
Phil G4SPZ's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Bewdley, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 4,736
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by KEITHW View Post
... previous episode with the gramophone motor...
Intrigued, I did a quick search on the forum and have just finished chuckling about the gramophone motor incident!

Peter, I sympathise and fortunately I have had few incidents of this type, other than the day I decided to overhaul the 3-port valve in my central heating system. I discovered very quickly that a sock makes a good stopper to interrupt the flow of hot water

Phil
__________________
Phil

Optimist [n]: One who is not in possession of the full facts
Phil G4SPZ is offline  
Old 9th Dec 2007, 11:03 pm   #11
Steve_P
Dekatron
 
Steve_P's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 6,644
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

One thing that must not get everywhere, believe me, is the pitch of certain Bush EHT Overwinds. Believe me, I should know.

I was taking the pitch off one with a view to doing a re-wind. So I dropped it in some lighter fluid to dissolve the stuff. Came off quite well, but the stuff gets everywhere. It was a spring evening, Dilys was out and her mother was asleep in the front room. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, I melted the pitch off the transformer and did it without rubber gloves. The stuff got everywhere.

I had the hands of a black man, and it would not come off anywhere. Unfortunately I tried to get it off in the bathroom too. We live in a bungalow so it was nearby.

Everything I touched got a black mark on it, door handles, sink, taps, you name it. I had to wipe everything down and wash everything, including my hands, in lighter fluid. It took me two hours to get rid of the stuff. By the time Dilys got back, the house was spick and span, and I had left no traces of it. The now empty tin of lighter fluid was disposed of and there was no trace of my mishap.

The set works now. I told her a week later when she wanted the lighter fuel. She did smoke then, but not now. She didn't say much...

Cheers,

Steve P
__________________
If we've always had it, why is the Car Boot open? You're not sneaking another Old TV in are you...?
Steve_P is offline  
Old 10th Dec 2007, 12:17 am   #12
DoctorWho
Rest in Peace
 
DoctorWho's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Devon
Posts: 850
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

So glad it's not just me!
DoctorWho is offline  
Old 10th Dec 2007, 11:48 am   #13
electroanorak
Hexode
 
electroanorak's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Tonyrefail, Rhondda, South Wales, UK.
Posts: 337
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Another quick true story.....

When I was about 15 years old, I was given a pair of KEF concerto speakers. I decided that to compliment them, I would build a couple of valve amplifiers. So armed with a very nice oil filled mains transformer and choke from an old dekatron counting machine, two pairs of EL34's and a couple of the then RS ultra linear output transformers, I built it. Wow, how I wish I still had it!

All was fine for about 2 years, until I was given a pair of Koss ESP electrostatic headphones (that I still have). I thought that I would build a pair of smaller amplifiers just for these so, a pair of ECL86's later, and they were done. Now to be clever, I put a change-over switch on the main amp so that I could switch over to headphones and use the spare 270volt, 100mA winding on the mains transformer "great".

So there I was one day, lying on my bed (whilst plaing truant from school again!) listening to a bit of music, when I felt a warm wet sensation on my arm. I turned and looked at the ampilifier in horror as the mains transformer had grown in size and was squirting out hot oil from a small hole in the top....

WHY!!!

Well on closer obsevation of the info plate on the transformer, the winding was marked 270v @ 10.0mA. That was the end of my best amp....

Daniel.
electroanorak is offline  
Old 13th Dec 2007, 1:43 pm   #14
jim_jobe
Heptode
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Ripon, N.Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 782
Default Re: What NOT to do when sorting out your spares!!!

Reminds me of when,returning from overseas, my brother kindly lent us his newly decorated house until we got settled again. During the first week my wife decided to boil some beetroot in the pressure cooker...................
Jim
jim_jobe is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 1:34 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.