The Smells of Fail

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
Since I can't unsee @BigBody79 's thread title

What odor do you pick up and either you know immediately you f*cked up bigtime, or you are immediately reminded of that one big goof?

I will never forget the time I was in a con-ed welding class, and we'd been practicing. I took a break and walked over to a guys booth were some parts were laying out on a table that looked neat. W/o thinking I picked one up... yeah, I smelled my skin about teh same time I felt it and knew immediately that was gonna leave a mark.

Another common one for me is the smell of burning PCB or motor windings. I run a robotics program and know instantly when one of the kids has let the magic smoke out of a motor or controller board.
 
The smell of Anything ‘burning’ in general sends me in to a panic. But as far fails are concerned, mine are usually auditory with engines or production equipment at work. A squeal or tick or that sound of binding usually means I did an uh-oh.
 
Gear oil and dirt.
 
My fail smells are wire insulation, v-belt rubber, motor windings and plasticy/vinyl siding.

The first 3 are from work and the last is from being on the fire dept for 15yrs. If I sniff any of those smell in immediately start looking for the source
 
Magic electronics smoke is a distinct smell of fail.

More so any petroleum product burning smell.

Plastic burning smell.

As you mentioned - skin burning smell.

Burnt steel is the smell of success when running the plasma.
 
Burnt starter or pump motors and/or CPU boards, the smell of aged hydraulic fluid, unburned LP from either running really rich (bad vaporizer) or bad ignition components, the sweet smell of antifreeze from tail pipe and the resulting cloud....

the sounds of wasted hub bearings, mast rollers, the occasional rod knock or if really lucky a failed pump or fan drive shaft flailing around in the chassis followed by the loud boom of a radiator tank exploding.....
 
Old ethanol gas.
 
Brake clean soaked red shop rags on fire. It never fails I forgot one by the work bench just about the time the first welding slag sprays everywhere. I know that smell instantly, don't even have to pull the welding helmet off to look first.

Second is the magic wire smoke as stated above.
 
I had a “minor thermal event” a week ago. was trying to find a dead hole, pulling plug wires off distributor cap one at a time, wire dropped out of my pullin pliers got zapped, grabbed the shop towel I had just soaked in brake cleaner that was laying near me to grab wire....
Yeah it got exciting there for a second.
Burning blue towels soaked in brake clean stink for quite awhile, that the lint on my t shirt got flashed off didn’t help
 
Smells... Driving along with the windows up, and starting to smell anti-freeze. Lets you know you'll spend tomorrow ripping the whole dash out to replace a heater core.

Sounds..... sitting in a traffic jam on a hot day and hearing the distinct "pop" of a radiator hose letting loose.
 
Cutting out the rockers for your mini boatside project then smelling smoke and like damn someone’s burning some leaves. Then still smelling smoke and seeing a little bit drift towards the dash... made the insulation around the HVAC box catch fire.... slight pucker factor looking like the little rascals trying to run around the house to grab the hose Bc I didn’t want to have fire extinguisher dust every damn where.
 
Speaking of smells. I’m looking for some of the natural gas propane odorant. Where can I get that stuff?


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josh m said:
Speaking of smells. I’m looking for some of the natural gas propane odorant. Where can I get that stuff?


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Click to expand...

what sort of concentration are you looking for ?

most any LP regulator will have a propylene oil residue inside it, some worse than others, this oil is liquid above about 65° The warmer the better is flows, but becomes more of a shoe polish consistency when cooler, it’s interesting to watch when draining an LP regulator on a forklift when cold outside, start and run to get engine up to temp, open the drain and it pours out like stinky maple syrup, then congeals quickly when it hits cold air.
It stinks, and it lingers
 
Blkvoodoo said:
what sort of concentration are you looking for ?

most any LP regulator will have a propylene oil residue inside it, some worse than others, this oil is liquid above about 65° The warmer the better is flows, but becomes more of a shoe polish consistency when cooler, it’s interesting to watch when draining an LP regulator on a forklift when cold outside, start and run to get engine up to temp, open the drain and it pours out like stinky maple syrup, then congeals quickly when it hits cold air.
It stinks, and it lingers
Click to expand...

Stinks and lingers is good. Looking for something, that if placed strategically and discreetly, would prevent people from smoking near a doorway. Neighboring business has some inconsiderate employees that smoke cheap cigarettes. Close enough to stink up offices and entire shop. Been asked to smoke elsewhere but don’t.

Oh yea, asking for a friend.


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josh m said:
that smoke cheap cigarettes. Close enough to stink up offices and entire shop
Click to expand...
would it actually matter if they were expensive cigs? I thought they all stunk equally to non smokers.. I've got twenty five gallons of varnished fuel that's yours if you want it.. it lingers, and 25 gallons should do you a lifetime..
 
The smell of a rutting 7 pointer that committed suicide by way of the front end of your truck....

Whoops.

20191113_210359.jpg
 
That'd a weird thing to ship, but I don't think I'd surprise the people at pack n mail. I always take random stuff in there!

I gave him to my cousin, but may try to get the head back.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
That'd a weird thing to ship, but I don't think I'd surprise the people at pack n mail. I always take random stuff in there!

I gave him to my cousin, but may try to get the head back.
Click to expand...

Or give them to your dog. They last about 100x longer than store bought antlers don’t ask me why


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