Charles Angelich wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:



RJT> Typical of toy makers/sellers to not have stuff like that. There 
RJT> were a whole mess of things out there when I was a kid that don't 
RJT> seem to be around any more, mostly things that would let you build 
RJT> stuff. Erector sets in particular are getting really hard to find. 
RJT> The local ToysRUs store told me that they'd gone out of business, 
RJT> which turned out not to be the case. 

CA> I got a runaround about erector sets here too. I did find some but 
CA> it is very expensive now and the larger plug in motor has been 
CA> replaced by battery driven smaller motors that use gearsets to 
CA> generate enough power for a ferris wheel (for instance).

I thought that they had both at one time?  I remember that plug-in motor, 
and grinding gears to the point where I actually stripped one in the
"transmission" that was attached to it.    Expensive? 
Maybe,  I think the last one I got was something like $20 or so,  perhaps
the bigger sets are more money.

Speaking of that toy store,  I had the misfortune to work a
"season" at one of those,  a few years back.  Third shift,  which
I *hate*.  And what kept going through my head,  over and over,  during a
lot of my time in that store was how _MUCH_ of what they were selling was
just differently shaped and colored bits of plastic.  Probably 90%+ of what
was in that store consisted of that and packaging...

CA>> Foam molding would be comparatively easy to do but I seem to 
CA>> recall the catalyst was eurea (urine smell) and I think that 
CA>> without adequate ventilation it can be deadly? 

RJT> I remember a Lionel (!) plastics kit I had at one time that 
RJT> included among other things the supposed ability to make styrofoam 
RJT> with a couple of molds supplied. There were problems when I tried 
RJT> that, using the oven, one time producing a black charred result, 
RJT> the other time not being long enough and a pile of pellets fell 
RJT> out of the mold. Don't think I ever did get a good one before I 
RJT> lost interest in it. 

CA> The foams I'm thinking of form a very hard surface. Computer 
CA> monitor cases are foam molded if I'm not mistaken. The inner core
CA> of the parts is softer than the surface.

Ok,  then we were thinking about different types of plastic there.

CA>> A wood model maker demonstrated one reason these types of 
CA>> chemicals are not used by hobbyists by putting two rags soaked 
CA>> with different types one on top of the other and they burst into 
CA>> flames within about 2 minutes. Not good.

RJT> Heh. Do you recall what was on them? Sounds like something
RJT> to avoid at all costs. 

CA> They would be popular with arsonists who don't want to be onsite 
CA> when the fire starts. I made it a point to not memorize the 
CA> chemicals that were involved to avoid accidently mentioning it to
CA> the wrong people one day.

Ok.

RJT> I worry sometimes about different chemicals I have sitting around, 
RJT> things for automotive and other applications. 

CA> I recall that fiberglass resins and catalysts can burst into flames
CA> and were being abandoned in favor of other chemicals for this 
CA> reason.

CA>> If you just want to dabble you could use auto-body filler as the  
CA>> 'plastic' and make the 'mold' from parffin (wax). Easy to do and 
CA>> you can remelt the wax and reuse it many times. 

RJT> Good idea. And it's easy enough to work with the results, though I 
RJT> don't know how much this would apply to any of what I want to do. 

CA> You can occassionally replace a broken plastic part this way even
CA> molding the missing part 'in place' if you get tricky with it. :-)

Good point.

CA>> Last time I checked you could build quite elaborate circuits by 
CA>> gluing surface-mount chips onto a business card and drawing in the 
CA>> circuit board with a pencil. Who needs a case? 

RJT> Oh really?! Wow, there's a thought. You'd have to get something 
RJT> better than an ordinary #2 pencil, though, easy enough to do at an 
RJT> art supply store. But then I've never really had much desire to 
RJT> mess with surface-mount stuff, I could probably salvage some of it 
RJT> but don't think I'd necessarily want to work with it much. 

RJT> There was an article in the current issue of Nuts 'n' Volts about 
RJT> doing your own at home, and they basically seemed to be talking 
RJT> about producing a stencil and then using paste solder for the 
RJT> soldering. You'd have to buy the stencil from a commercial 
RJT> producer, and the paste solder as well. The actual  soldering 
RJT> operation was done in a toaster oven. Seemed like a lot of trouble 
RJT> to go to, to me. Unless there was something you wanted to do that
RJT> was *only* available in that kind of a part configuration... 

CA> I'm just a casual observer now and don't remember all the details 
CA> but as I remember it they had a conductive cement for 'soldering' 
CA> that required no heat? Seems it is cheaper to include many circuits 
CA> into a surface mount chip then you only use the ones you need? 
CA> Entire preamps with amplifiers etc. all in one chip. The number 555 
CA> comes to mind as one hobby chip that there was a surface mount 
CA> equivalent for?

Probably,  and probably one of the earlier ones at that,  it being a
relatively early and simple chip,  and made by a bunch of different chip
makers.  I've not really looked at what was available out there in that
kind of packaging,  figuring that I wouldn't have that much use for it.

RJT> The article did say that "through-hole" parts were getting scarcer 
RJT> all the time. I am not particularly worried about it as for 
RJT> home-brew stuff I have plenty of parts, enough to keep me out of 
RJT> trouble for some time yet.  

CA> Seems more like just hooking up the proper in/out pins and not much
CA> else now. Not like it used to be winding coils by hand etc. It's a 
CA> different but similar hobby now.

Oh,  it sure is.  People deal with entirely different levels of stuff these
days.  I do too,  for the most part,  which is why it's kinda funny that I
have all this knowledge that I don't use about the technology,  and all
these parts that I'll probably never go through,  and spend more time than
anything else sitting here interacting with _software_ instead.

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