Today, I started shaping a new cowl for an updated Predator. This cowl is the permanent cowl on the very front of the fuselage. I used a block of wood given to me by the moderator of this section, Don Shultz. Thanks Don once again! Now, the interesting part. When I started sawing it up the smell of that wood took me back 23 years to that assembly building where the B-17's were assembled in WW2. When I worked at Boeing, on one job, I had to go to this building as one of our test articles were being assembled there. The smell was intense then. It was rare to smell wood at a modern aircraft manufacturing plant. Then my thoughts shifted to another building at Boeing (upstairs west of the 9-101 building) where many wooden pallets were stored that contained very old "things" that Boeing saw fit to still keep. Then my thoughts drifted to when I was in high school building one of numerous stunt planes. I could clearly remember carving and sanding on the top block of a Skylark. All nice memories!

It is amazing what a single small can do to one's memory. It's also funny that just this block of wood created that smell. I carved blocks for past planes recently and didn't get that smell. Don, where did that wood come from that you gave me?  I have an idea, but can you fill me in where it originated?

Thanks

Smell IS a very strong memory trigger. Some balsa is very odiferous or fragrant depending on the smeller, just like old nitrate vss butyrate etc. There seems to be a smell generated by balsa dust when using a belt sander or band saw. This smell always takes me back to my Dad's basement when I was working on a Jetco Thermic 72. I was using his then new Craftsman stationary belt sander to shape the pod. I guess its something to do with the friction heat that produces this smell because hand sanding does not seem to produce it.

There are other memories spurred for me too like Honeysuckle perfume, but I won't expand on that!

Folks:

When I was a kid in the 1950s, before I ever smoked, I used to notice the different smells of all the brands of balsa cement you could get then.  In England, the ones I remember buying were KeilKraft, Lepage's, FROG Universal, Joy-Plane, O'My, HMG and the daddy of them all, Britfix.  This came in a tube with very fancy printing on it in several colours, and the smell... it was just like apples that were very ripe, almost overripe - utterly delightful.  Then Britfix disappeared and was replaced by Humbrol, which smelt just the same as most of the others.  A pity.

Happy New Year

John

Fascinating subject.  Although I don't have any of them here, I'd bet if someone blindfolded me then passed samples under my nose of Ambroid, Comet, Testors Formula A or Formula B, SigMent and Duco, I could tell you which was which.

On the other hand, that would be considered "sniffing glue", huh? 

What I just thought after seeing Mike's post , was how many times I would be sitting in class chewing glue off my fingers.

Quote from: john e. holliday on January 02, 2014, 09:50:01 AM
What I just thought after seeing Mike's post , was how many times I would be sitting in class chewing glue off my fingers.

Or in the workshop wiping glue on my pants, drove my mom nuts!!!!
The one I remember the most is the SHOE POLISH aroma from high nitro fuel.

Quote from: don Burke on January 02, 2014, 12:52:02 PM
Or in the workshop wiping glue on my pants, drove my mom nuts!!!!
The one I remember the most is the SHOE POLISH aroma from high nitro fuel.

HAHAHAHAH yeah!!! I had a pair of black denims my Mom designated my model building pants. The fronts of the thighs were shiny with wiped off glue, if I was caught building in any other clothes it was BIG deal, back in the days when spanking wasn't just normal, it was encouraged!!!!! I wish I still had those jeans.....

Mike, you're right about the different cement smells. Comet and Testor's were my main favs, I never did get into Ambroid. A little Sigment and never used DUCO. Remember Lapage's?

New glues don't really have any smell. If you smell CA your eyes are watering. Every once and a while I open a can of Aero Gloss or smear some ambroid on a piece of wood so it smells like I am really building. No Joke.

Quote from: Randy Ryan on January 02, 2014, 01:05:16 PM

HAHAHAHAH yeah!!! I had a pair of black denims my Mom designated my model building pants. The fronts of the thighs were shiny with wiped off glue, if I was caught building in any other clothes it was BIG deal, back in the days when spanking wasn't just normal, it was encouraged!!!!! I wish I still had those jeans.....

Mike, you're right about the different cement smells. Comet and Testor's were my main favs, I never did get into Ambroid. A little Sigment and never used DUCO. Remember Lapage's?

=========================================================

Yeah, Randy, I remember LePage's.  Tried it just once, way back when...didn't hold worth a hoot.

But I sure do remember the glue-covered jeans when I was a kid!  My mom wasn't real thrilled with that....said they'd probably 'stand up by themselves'....and she was probably right.

BTW, do try Duco sometime.  Same routine: 'double-glue' everything.  Works great.

 

The smell of "Tarzan's Grip" would take me right back to Ozzie in '83. Woohoo!  Steve

Then there's the unforgettable smell of a certain brand of fuel-resistant dope from the early '50s:  Testors 'STA'.  Delicious aroma...miss it dearly.  Anyone else remember it?

  Franny's this is it hopped up , the best . love the smell of polyester fiber glass resin

last weekend ,was out flying some free flight and a couple of 4 wheelers went by. one of them was using caster oil .i had to stop in my tracks and take in that wonderful smell

'Nitrotane' (yellow label) fuel - ahh, that 'shoe polish' smell....long before the Nannies told us nitrobenzene is carcinogenic.

Quote from: don Burke on January 02, 2014, 12:52:02 PM
Or in the workshop wiping glue on my pants, drove my mom nuts!!!!
The one I remember the most is the SHOE POLISH aroma from high nitro fuel.

high nitroBENZENE fuel.  nitroMETHANE fuel doesn't have the shoe polish smell.

Among a few others: fuel made from castor oil.

Fuel made using Ucon LB625 has a sweet smell when burned were that made with Ucon MA2270 smells burnt. I never could use MA2270 without burning plugs, but LB25 would run forever.

Speaking of fuels, I remember when I was flying Wright & Dunkin, we experimented with lamp oil.  It came in different scents and was slightly cheaper than good kerosene.

Almost every airplane I build gets at least one glue joint with Sigment or Ambroid - just cuz.

Surprised no one has mentioned Power Mist???

Dennis!!  You hit the nail on the head mentioning Powermist. Bought that when I had allowance money and when funds were low it was Testors 39!!!

Don Boka.

The exhaust from a Fox 35 powered Nobler burning Fox Superfuel is one not to be forgotten; a superb combination of sight, sound and smell. 

I don't often smell burning rubber on the pavement any more, but when I do, it's right back to burnouts at the drag strip. Or the nights when you could melt a pair of tires on the neighborhood streets and still afford two new ones before next Friday.

Quote from: Paul Walker on December 17, 2013, 05:37:43 PM
Today, I started shaping a new cowl for an updated Predator. This cowl is the permanent cowl on the very front of the fuselage. I used a block of wood given to me by the moderator of this section, Don Shultz. Thanks Don once again! Now, the interesting part. When I started sawing it up the smell of that wood took me back 23 years to that assembly building where the B-17's were assembled in WW2. When I worked at Boeing, on one job, I had to go to this building as one of our test articles were being assembled there. The smell was intense then. It was rare to smell wood at a modern aircraft manufacturing plant. Then my thoughts shifted to another building at Boeing (upstairs west of the 9-101 building) where many wooden pallets were stored that contained very old "things" that Boeing saw fit to still keep. Then my thoughts drifted to when I was in high school building one of numerous stunt planes. I could clearly remember carving and sanding on the top block of a Skylark. All nice memories!

It is amazing what a single small can do to one's memory. It's also funny that just this block of wood created that smell. I carved blocks for past planes recently and didn't get that smell. Don, where did that wood come from that you gave me?  I have an idea, but can you fill me in where it originated?

Thanks

I too can recall  the smell of a few of those blocks that when carved or sanded that originally stored "BELOW" that hanger building just south of that Main Plant 2  Corp.building. Most of that  balsa wood came from crates that contained model parts from long gone model tests and other items that needed something stronger than styrofoam blocks but still dense enough to keep those old storage items from being damaged. WHICH CONTAINED THE LIGHTEST BALSA BLOCKS..which in most uses at the wind tunnel we needed the heavier grades of balsa for our flutter models..

AND THEN BECAUSE OF THAT... OUR MODEL SHOP FOLKS WOULD SEND ALL THOSE LIGHTEST BLOCKS TO BOEING SURPLUS WITH A NOTE TO ONE OF OUR RC MODEL FLYING BUDDIES WHO WORKED AT THE SURPLUS...TO PUT A HOLD ON THOSE CRATES AND BOXES OF THOSE LIGHTER GRADES OF BLOCK BALSA!  

As you can maybe recall that B-17 old hanger building and near by buildings had a system of underground miles of tunnels that contains cyper' locked rooms along its pathways..(where we would often inline rollerskate during lunch breaks)....where the Wind tunnel model shop would store in large crates that included many of the wind tunnel test model parts and other items that might again be used in future tests..(and also our beloved chosen choice of light straight grain and C grain balsa blocks
Those LOCKED BASEMENT STORAGE ROOMS ALSO was a final resting place for that infamous phantom works model which was a off shoot of the "shot down" SONIC CRUISER (nick named it THE SONIC LOSER after so many tests that we felt at the time became a waste of time during those early and mid 90s.
Bottomline:
I retired in 2004 and now that I have heard that they have torn down those buildings...HUMM? WONDER WHERE THEY STORE ITEMS LIKE THESE NOW?

Bottom line Paul!
I am not certain exactly where and which box of 3 that I had gleaned from the OLD BOEING SURPLUS STORES that Gary Letsinger, Joe Dill, and a host of other retired ol windtunnel model makers and flyers would make a weekly habit of shopping...just to see what we could find?
Sadly that Boeing Surplus store near the Kent Aerospace center also has "LONG GONE?" (Speaking of long gone...so has much of the feeling in my fingers, lower legs and feet due to my advancing peripheral Neuropathical pathy!)
Hey!
I still can wake up every morning and walk my little dog Annie...and it daze-days...soon hopefully will see my 75th year on this old planet earth.
bottom line:a
I can pretty much believe that these light weight balsa blocks took on the odors that they were exposed to....when they served as shipping crate bracing for delicate airplane parts that were sometimes put into long term storage. until the techniques for improving styrofoam were invented.

If they tore down those old buildings, what happened to the tunnels and storage rooms?  Were they judge plowed in with dirt?

Quote from: john e. holliday on January 09, 2014, 09:01:28 AM
If they tore down those old buildings, what happened to the tunnels and storage rooms?  Were they judge plowed in with dirt?

GOOD QUESTION!!!! Those tunnels were filled with low hanging  over head pipes and electrical wires and conduits. The ceilings in the locked storage rooms were slightly higher.
.Perhaps the overhead pipes and wiring must  still be there since they contained sooo many locked rooms and overhead pipes, wiring that ran the entire Plant 2 complex?
However the tunnel height itself was  so low we often had to duck many of the overhead pipes and signs etc...Being a little over 5ft.7" I often had to duck while inline skating...during lunch breaks...these tunnels were filled with folks walking, jogging...roller blading and even skate boarding..

ESPECIALLY IN BAD HOT, COLD,OR WET WEATHER OR LATE AT NIGHT(the only critters during late nights were just THE TUNNEL RATS!" WHICH SO HAPPENED to be the NAME OF OUR RETIRMENT CLUB! which sadly now has fewer and fewer members as we reach the WINTER OF OUR LIVES.
It is hard to imagine...that the Boeing Company IGNORED all this activity that certainly seems that for safety reasons alone...they would have put a STOP to all this..humm?
Guess OUT OF SIGHT...OUT OF MIND MUST HAVE BEEN THE RULE OF THOSE DAZE-DAYS?

Speaking of "SMELLS! We would come home late at night smelling like all kinds of weird chemicals that we used in the wind tunnels...EVEN USING COMPANY SUPPLIED SAFETY CLOTHING, EVEN AFTER  SHOWING AT WORK AND THEN WHEN ARRIVING AT HOME AFTER LONG OVERTIME HOURS IN THE TUNNEL...EVEN MY BREATH AND BODY SMELLED LIKE THE WORKPLACE! AMAZING SO MANY OF US ARE STILL ALIVE N KICKIN' at least not sure about the KICKIN' PART!

HONEY! LOOK!! I'M HOME!"

Thanks Don.  The second the table saw cut into that "log" I knew where it came from. Smelled just like the factory area where the B-17's were assembled. Thanks for the confirmation.

Ah, the good ole days....

Well, I think that NOW is the good ole days!!

Paul

Just got n E mail back from Bob Parker...
He is recouping from a 7mm kidney stone removal just a short time ago....and will try to head for Tuscon on the 19th of this month.

Those Flutter model daze days truly tested not only the wind tunnel  models but mostly the metal of the men and ladies who worked so many long hours under tight budgets and time frames.
The last drawing is one that I made showing how many model builders and designers ON JUST TWO MONTHS BAILED OUT OF THE WIND TUNNEL when given a special $$$ and retirement incentive to RETIRE EARLY...WHICH WE THEN CALLED "THE GOLDEN PARASHOOTSKI!"