Sometimes you really are your own worst enemy. Take for instance.............Tonight I was having a great time placing plaster cloth on my new module unti I ran out and so I switched over to laying track. Easy enough job, but when you run out of track you put your soldering iron down and go look for more, (it was just 5 feet away from me sitting on another module). I got distracted and messed around with Facebook for awhile. Finally went back to the shop to look for that track I needed, and totally forgot about the 'HOT' soldering iron sitting there on my work bench so innocently, just waiting for this dummy to put his hand on it. I'm so glad that it was one of those small soldering irons that Bill Kronenberger gave the convention attendees way back in 2005 and not one of the larger, more wattage ones that are too big for soldering rail joiners in the first place. Well, the picture pretty much tells it all. Would anyone like to challenge me for the right to claim the Darwin Award? No?...........I didn't think so. Or can you top this one? That's my sorry story and I'm sticking to it.
You're still alive, so you do not qualify. That is not a challenge to "do better". Qualification would make too many people sad.
I may have a contender for you when it comes to a soldering iron. When I was in the Navy I worked on the radars for the guided missile system. We had a guy working on a module he had put on a table and was doing some soldering. He set the solder iron down with the tip hanging over the edge of the table and when he came back to the table and leaned over, the hot iron got him in uh-- uh-- an embarrassing place. I didn't know a human could make a noise like he made.
Didn't burn down the house or blackout Medford. Unless the Mrs. has had to start calling you "lefty", not really worth mentioning. :droll:
Close. Found out what it feels like for a table saw to cut a finger. Well it was only maybe 1/32" deep - but I felt it. Interesting tingling sensation. Burns hurt worse. Let's check our scars out at Portland.
Ok guys, I'm not done with my stories, even though they have nothing to do with trains. But diversions to relate what idiots have done in the past is ok once in awhile. Mark, to 'do better' simply means to 'do dumber' and for that I certainly qualify. As example...... I was walking home from school once during my 7th grade and decided to cut across Mr Ufford's cow field. It has an electric fence and because I was tired to carrying my lunch pail, I put my belt through the pail handle and was bouncing it along as I walked..............straight into a fully charged electric fence designed to discourage cows from looking for greener grass. The corner of the pail was in my groin at the moment of contact. Maybe that is why all my kids are cross eyed ) Montanan, this is for you.........I once sat down on a red hot coal from a bonfire I was playing with. Burnt clear through my jeans, underware and the layers of skin beneath. Sitting in the dog's watering dish was of little comfort. Dave, I too have 'cut' into my finger about a 32nd of an inch with a table saw. When I saw how close I had come to really serious damage I thanked the Lord for only a scratch. Yes, let's compare scars in Portland. We only have 6 months left to try and out do each other. Now, it's to the hobby shop we go to get more plaster cloth and will try more soldering later in the day. Charge!!!!!
Darwin awards only go for truly "unique" behavior. - The bank robber who writes his ransom note on the back of his pay stub...and leaves the note at the bank. - The bakery truck driver, hit by a WP train. He claimed he never stopped at the grade crossing because "trains don't run on Sundays." Now if you said you lost a toe in a table saw accident...Darwin would be proud.
Loren, Put Aloe Vera on the burn. Soothes and helps with less scarring with burns - from my own soldering iron (losing) battle working on the BFY.
I value my toes, I would never use them to hold a piece of 2x4 while cutting table legs for my module. BTW, here is a picture of progress on the new module. I hope to have the other track laid today with the mountains totally covered with plaster cloth. Hobby shop just opened, so it is to town I go.
Loren, Welcome to the use of soldering iron... the more you use the more you get burnt. I have had solder burns too many times to list, most of the time I am looking through the magnifying glass and reach for the iron and hold the wrong end or when I take the iron from one hand and pass to the other hold the wrong end. Last week I was using a watchmakers eye loupe and put the soldering iron on the finger holding the parts, almost healed and ready for the next one. I wish the depth of field is larger for these magnifying devices... People have sat on the soldering iron imagine that. Kim
I was slitting the Midwest Products N scale cork for Z (it comes as two inverted pieces with a 45 cut in down the middle). We use one of those 3" mini table saws. You can pull it thru the saw fairly fast. I guess too fast when my following finger went with the cork. Cut straight down the tip of my finger. Think it hit the bone but never bled, even though a distinctively large V opening at the tip of my finger. And I've done the 50 W soldering iron too. Dad didn't think a 7 year old knew that many words but a full grasp of what should have been the handle . . .Well, it was when I put it there but not after he used it.
Robert, Jeff, It's like David said yesterday, we'll have to get together and compare scars in Portland.................that is assuming we are all still in one piece.
I once somewhat burnt my skin inside of my fingers as well, leaving a hot soldering iron to escape from my hands... Was smelling like a little cooked hog beeing taken away from the oven. Dom
