Running Bear's June 2024 Coffee Shop

[migalyto]

A resistance soldering rig is a marvelous tool!

I keep hearing this, on other MRR sites.

Not knowing anything about them. What advantage does it have?

Ive just used my 30+ year old Weller pencil iron.

 

[Boris]

What planning. I'm not a child I'm my wife's husband. If I put everything in my name that doesn't work in NY. Our lawyer tells me were joined at the hip on the issue of assets. All assets are our assets. You mean I should have gotten a divorcee years ago. I guess that would have solved it.
Swal

I agree with George...You cannot possibly plan for this... When it comes to marital assets they are all commingled. Even a plan to set up a "Family Trust" requires a minimum five years from the most recent transaction to be valid, before it becomes excludeable. No one has any idea that the event that places them in this situation is coming until it happens. Yeah, You can shelter money if you have the time, but really, ya never know.

 

[TLOC]

Medicare/Medicaid issues are insurance issues and r not political

A few years ago (2015) after the first of many trips to the hospital and extended care stroke rehab facilities a social worker stopped in and basically scared us as to what supplemental insurance, what Medicare will pay and when if needed Medicaid would kick in. I was not eligible for anything at the time because I wasn’t 65. Insurance paid 90% and we personally paid the pretty high difference. Basically it was If you had tangible assets, lookout. Then explained ways around it for WISCONSIN, if done at least 6 months prior to any medical issues. Within the next year and in time for my next medical adventure Terry had moved everything as suggested

Trust accounts! Living wills are a joke! To me, it’s a joke that for me to get help my personal bank accounts, retirement and housing counts become a hindrance to obtaining help and our lifetime of savings makes it worst. Now if I had walked across a border illegally I’d be fine and get great care. So while legal in WISCONSIN, trust accounts, set up properly will LEGALLY hide your money from Medicaid. Just stupid, but if it’s legal, why not.

Getting all that done though cost a pretty penny and personal time (surprise an attorney is needed) but basically now our only income is our Social Security, Terry’s pension and my mandated at age 73 the 401k withdrawals. But the 401k is still an asset before withdrawal. Supposedly we can roll my 401k into another trust but still have to pay those taxes at withdrawal. Basically for Terry it was a 8 hour job every week for about 4 months working with attorneys to get everything moved over. We don’t own any properties or houses, the trusts do. Technically we rent at reduced rates housing!

What I do know is each State is different and what works for John Doe probably won’t work you you or the guy across the aisle.

There are guys here writing about it that have gone through it at different times than what NYC_GEORGE is going through now. They were or are in different states. He’s living it now and New York State is after all, New York. It’s different.

We all commiserate with him but remember YOUR ADVICE may not be right for HIS circumstances. Mine is still good in Wisconsin though. I know because we (ok Terry) checked again everything was still set up correctly when NYC_GEORGE had to take his wife to extended care

 

[TLOC]

I keep hearing this, on other MRR sites.

Not knowing anything about them. What advantage does it have?

Ive just used my 30+ year old Weller pencil iron.

They are powerful, precise and expensive for what we do. He’s a wiz with a soldering iron too but tacking wire to rail is a breeze to him and almost instant with the rig

 

[TLOC]

Been banging my head against the wall at work. We're late with some stuff. The other engineer I was working with on a proof of concept (and he was the main guy who had been to all the design meetings) got called to a customer site for 2 weeks and then ended up taking 2 weeks off to recuperate and catch up on home stuff when he got back -- on site was very stressful. So I had to step up and do some of his stuff. He's back but I've been working on the last bit so he's leading efforts to squash bugs in the next release while I try and finish the last bit of the proof of concept. We're using some new to me technologies (still iPhone based -- just some new ways to program them not based as much on the long time tech behind it) and I've been getting some errors in code that I don't get and Google is not helping. Frustrating. And I need to be able to get this done as people are waiting for the proof of concept to validate a design so we can start the actual product using the design (changes to existing product). And it's keping me from getting lots done on the house.

Just venting.

thanks

Vent away

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Computer & Phone problems today - maybe later!

 

[Alcomotive]

Must be different in NY. Both my parents can't have over $16,000 in each of their account.

This where LLc and trust funds come in handy.......

 

[migalyto]

They are powerful, precise and expensive for what we do. He’s a wiz with a soldering iron too but tacking wire to rail is a breeze to him and almost instant with the rig

So, not really a necessity for what we are doing unless you have a need for it in other areas?

I'm pretty quick with my pencil iron, and I have never had an issue with a strong fairly inconspicuous connection.

 

[jmupton2000]

Having one of those days with pen, paper, some Peco track template print outs, considerable amounts of tea and some regret about choosing a potential modelling location with a crossover on a curve, in a tunnel  and going down hill...

 

[NorthBrit]

Having one of those days with pen, paper, some Peco track template print outs, considerable amounts of tea and some regret about choosing a potential modelling location with a crossover on a curve, in a tunnel  and going down hill...
View attachment 191596

John. Don't over complicate things otherwise you could be disenchanted and 'throw the lot up in the air.
Ensure it is manageable for one operator as you will be running trains solo most of the time.

Just my 2 centsworth.

 

[jmupton2000]

Actually, this is the only set of switches on the entire thing!!

 

[chadbag]

Resistance soldering is cool. I don't have one but basically the touching of the iron and the track causes a circuit to complete which heats up very quickly and melts the solder. Something like that. I saw some videos a few years ago but have never used one so am going from memory.

 

[Snowman]

@willie, re: "the smell of wet cardboard...".

Probably twenty-five years ago now there was a company--or just a guy--who tried to market a small heating device for layouts that put out smell...as part of the layout. I recall among those he offered were creosote (railroad ties), diesel (well we all know what that's from), coal...you can use that even today) and and a couple others I can't recall right now. Don't think it ever took off, but I still like the idea, and I would like to try it with some of the N-scale (Free-moN) modules I hope to build and show.

Among those is the well known scent almost everyone knows: The smell that comes after a rainstorm. I did some looking into this just a couple of months back...because I like the idea of trying it with a particular section I want to model...and I found out it's known as "Petrichor." You can actually buy it concentrated, but it's over $100 an ounce (IIRC). It's favored by candle-makers I gather.

So I looked on Amazon and discovered some incense sticks which were not expensive at all made by a company called HEM, and marketed under the scent choice "First Rain." 20 sticks for about $10 as I recall.

To my own nose the bare stick itself smells a bit too flowery, but I can still smell that rain smell underneath too.

Probably a bit better than "wet cardboard."

That said, I still have to find: creosote, diesel, coal...wet aspens, pine...and maybe even some desert sagebrush for the west end of the plan (closest to AZ). Some of those should be pretty easy, and I would think you could manage creosote just by snagging some splinters from a dead tie on an abandoned siding somewhere, smashing them up with a hammer and sprinkling them in a few places, or even under the layout. Coal should be easy enough too: Charcoal briquets (but buy the kind WITHOUT the pre-soaked lighter fluid).

Anyway, I do suspect little stuff like this can make a big difference when your viewing public doesn't quite realize what's going on.
"Cow manure?" Well, I guess I could get that from a freshly planted field or from a stock pen. Or a meat packing plant...and I imagine you could conjure up something pretty rank for that hide-shipping supply on your own layout too (!) If you had to.

 

[TLOC]

So, not really a necessity for what we are doing unless you have a need for it in other areas?

I'm pretty quick with my pencil iron, and I have never had an issue with a strong fairly inconspicuous connection.

Personally no, it’s overkill in my book. But the guy doing it for me has the rig, he’s a retired electrical engineer and is enjoying helping me out. It’s great to know a group that enjoys helping each other out. Plus one of the guys in the group liked the last house so much he brought it…

My soldering pencil and I are at about 50%. Some look really good, others just get the job done.

 

[migalyto]

Took my first dip of the summer in the pool this afternoon. The water was still a little coo, but nice after We got used to it. I haven't put a thermometer in it yet to see what the water temp is. The outside air was 90 degrees and fairly humid, so it wasn't bad!

 

[Snowman]

I'm gonna go with "chlorine" on that one. And maybe "suncreen" or "wet towel."

[Mildew anyone?]

-------------

So I did put up a couple of railroad-related mind-benders about six or eight months back, one of which was a three letter anacronym for "Distributed Power." As I recall it was "what does DLP stand for? and someone got it pretty quickly--we have some smart guys and gals here and even a former submariner or two....

This one isn't railroad related at all, but I just stumbled across it (again) a couple of minutes ago:

Can You Solve Albert Einstein’s Famous House Riddle?

Using these 15 clues, see if you can figure out the answer to Albert Einstein’s famously tricky house riddle.

getpocket.com

Give it a go. The solution is at the bottom, but give it a go first.

----

Revisiting this one myself (finally reading the article) and I don't recall the question "who has the pet fish" being the actual final question myself...
...so I'm gonna have to go work it through myself too.

Meh. Be careful what you wish for, and extra careful when you post something.

 

[troyphoto]

... Plus one of the guys in the group liked the last house so much he brought it…

is that the guy that tried to make you pay to have utilities installed on the last two days as you moved outl

 

[bnsf971]

@willie, re: "the smell of wet cardboard...".

Probably twenty-five years ago now there was a company--or just a guy--who tried to market a small heating device for layouts that put out smell...as part of the layout. I recall among those he offered were creosote (railroad ties), diesel (well we all know what that's from), coal...you can use that even today) and and a couple others I can't recall right now. Don't think it ever took off, but I still like the idea, and I would like to try it with some of the N-scale (Free-moN) modules I hope to build and show.

Among those is the well known scent almost everyone knows: The smell that comes after a rainstorm. I did some looking into this just a couple of months back...because I like the idea of trying it with a particular section I want to model...and I found out it's known as "Petrichor." You can actually buy it concentrated, but it's over $100 an ounce (IIRC). It's favored by candle-makers I gather.

So I looked on Amazon and discovered some incense sticks which were not expensive at all made by a company called HEM, and marketed under the scent choice "First Rain." 20 sticks for about $10 as I recall.

To my own nose the bare stick itself smells a bit too flowery, but I can still smell that rain smell underneath too.

Probably a bit better than "wet cardboard."

That said, I still have to find: creosote, diesel, coal...wet aspens, pine...and maybe even some desert sagebrush for the west end of the plan (closest to AZ). Some of those should be pretty easy, and I would think you could manage creosote just by snagging some splinters from a dead tie on an abandoned siding somewhere, smashing them up with a hammer and sprinkling them in a few places, or even under the layout. Coal should be easy enough too: Charcoal briquets (but buy the kind WITHOUT the pre-soaked lighter fluid).

Anyway, I do suspect little stuff like this can make a big difference when your viewing public doesn't quite realize what's going on.
"Cow manure?" Well, I guess I could get that from a freshly planted field or from a stock pen. Or a meat packing plant...and I imagine you could conjure up something pretty rank for that hide-shipping supply on your own layout too (!) If you had to.

You can get scented (flavored?) smoke fluid. At a train show, I installed a Seuthe smoke unit in a smokestack of an industrial building, and added the flavoured smoke fluid to it. I used an old Bachmann power pack for it, and was able to dial it down to the point it just barely smoked and emitted a light odor.

 

[Snowman]

You can get scented (flavored?) smoke fluid. At a train show, I installed a Seuthe smoke unit in a smokestack of an industrial building, and added the flavoured smoke fluid to it. I used an old Bachmann power pack for it, and was able to dial it down to the point it just barely smoked and emitted a light odor.

That's right, and it's probably the most well known one in the US--the classic Lionel smoking fluid.

But, and that just said too, I'm gonna have to go "re-smell" it myself before I remember. Or maybe you know? Something like a classic Weber smoker/grill. Don't recall it being quite like mesquite, but after all these years I could well be wrong.

Thinking it through now, I half suspect it WAS something like a diesel oil.

In any case, I remember dad used to throw on hickory chips he had soaked in an old MJB coffee can before he tossed on a steak or two. On that old roundish shaped Weber. Dam*. Those were the days.

 

[migalyto]

You can get scented (flavored?) smoke fluid. At a train show, I installed a Seuthe smoke unit in a smokestack of an industrial building, and added the flavoured smoke fluid to it. I used an old Bachmann power pack for it, and was able to dial it down to the point it just barely smoked and emitted a light odor.

I always wondered if you could use vamping fluid, or would that be different stuff?