If you're frugal (cheap) like me

andrew Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:20 pm

With the closure of the LHS (20+ miles), the nearest shop is near 100 miles distant, consequently I'm always on the lookout for substitute parts or on the interweb shopping. I recently took a friend for cataract surgery and when he returned to the prep station, he was wearing an oxygen cannula (not needed, just policy). On leaving, I asked the nurse if I could have the cannula and associated tubing.

This morning, I had pulled a black widow apart, suspecting the pickup tube had come loose -- it was small diameter silicone tubing and had popped off. Remembering (more and more difficult now) the oxygen tubing, I tried it. It took some effort to get it on and even more effort to pull it off. The cannula tubing is clear; the longer tubing that ran to a wall valve was translucent green with two tubes of different diameter. The smaller diameter tubing also fit well and tightly. Both were quite flexible and would bend without kinking.

I don't know how it will hold up over time, but it can't be any worse that the original tubing that Leroy used. Either way, if it stays put for a season, I'm good with it, it was free and I have a lifetime supply.

While not wishing any of you or your friends ill, you might nab some if the opportunity arises.

Marleysky Tue Oct 12, 2021 2:56 pm

Great minds do think alike. My wife just had a TKR total knee replacement. She, as she's packing up from her overnight stay, grabs all the tubes and hoses that were connected to her. Being a (retired) hospital employee she knows they (ES environmental services) will just dispose of any and everything that was used to connected her. So, we did end up with some vacuum tube ( suck and blow test reed valves) and the nose canulla for fuel tube and tank pick-up tubes. Yeah, a lifetime supply for sure! Certainly can't be any worse than the 45-60year old stuff inside some of those BB tanks!! Oh yeah, you think it's "free" until we get the bill...HA, HA, HA !
Getting hosed for some free tubes!

gkamysz Tue Oct 12, 2021 3:30 pm

Don't forget the tools! I've read that dentists don't reuse burrs, thought they will be 2 or 3mm shank. Also, most hospitals clinics also don't reuse common forceps and scissors. Of course, the couple times I had the unfortunate opportunity at the hospital, I forgot to ask.

706jim Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:51 pm

No bill for knee replacement in Canada (smile!)

Lukemiester Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:44 am

I, too request to take the stuff when I or my dad goes to some medical place, though not very often, thankfully. Mostly syringes.
Nice to have extras tongue

FlipStart Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:27 am

That's cool! That reminds me so much of my dad. He was a re-purpose guy for sure. If he could make something out of pieces of stuff that was something else in an earlier life he would do it. He grew up during the great depression and learned tp be frugal than and retained that through his life. Not that he wouldn't buy new stuff sometimes too. He would save all kinds of things many people would just toss out. Now-a-days it's crazy what people through out. I just half to turn my head away as I walk by the 2 dumpsters on this end of the apartment complex. It's really sad the waste.

I was in a big surgery in 2015 but didn't think to ask for any of the leftovers. Oh Well.

balogh Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:50 am

Just to demonstrate that we are many here on CEF = Cox Engine Frugals:

If you're frugal (cheap) like me Coxeng10

Picked this stuff up - less the engine and keyboard! - a few years ago from a hospital where a relative was an in-patient. Smile

getback Wed Oct 13, 2021 5:10 am

that's cool stuff , only thing i seen at my last office visit i wanted to bring home was the assistant intern she has a tuss that want quit ! Wink

Just a check up Smoking

rsv1cox Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:33 am

getback wrote:that's cool stuff , only thing i seen at my last office visit i wanted to bring home was the assistant intern she has a tuss that want quit ! Just a check up

wanted to bring home was the assistant intern she has a tuss that want quit !

You need a check-up from the neck-up Eric!!! Smile

GallopingGhostler Sun Jan 22, 2023 2:40 pm

balogh wrote:Just to demonstrate that we are many here on CEF = Cox Engine Frugals:

Picked this stuff up - less the engine and keyboard! - a few years ago from a hospital where a relative was an in-patient.

Couldn't help but reply, András, when I saw this. Good way to stay within budget, under cost. "Putting convalescing Cox reedies on an IV drip." Ingeniously composed, may be a Cox Engine of the Month photo op. Very Happy

balogh Sun Jan 22, 2023 2:45 pm

Thank you George, this connotation did not even occur to me!

batjac Sun Jan 22, 2023 3:37 pm

Like when I was in the hospital last month with pneumonia. The nurse came in to give me some cough syrup. They dispensed it in a 10cc syringe. When she was done I asked if I could have it. She asked why and I said it was for my model airplanes. She was a little confused, but left it for me on my side table. A little later while I was in the bathroom, another nurse came in and was straightening things up until I came out. After I lay down, I looked at my side table and didn't see my syringe. I asked if she had thrown it out, and I looked at her with pouty lips. She asked me what was wrong, and I said I was saving it for my model airplanes. Then I gave her the trembling lower lip. She apologized and ran out to the nurse's station and brought me a new one. (The trembling lip works every time...)

The Not In Love Mark

GallopingGhostler Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:11 pm

batjac wrote:After I lay down, I looked at my side table and didn't see my syringe. I asked if she had thrown it out, and I looked at her with pouty lips. She asked me what was wrong, and I said I was saving it for my model airplanes. Then I gave her the trembling lower lip. She apologized and ran out to the nurse's station and brought me a new one. (The trembling lip works every time...) The Not In Love Mark

It may work with nurses, but not with some wives. Sad

If you're frugal (cheap) like me Not_bu11

balogh Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:11 pm

Mark I am a bit more embarrassed to ask for syringes from nurses with reference to my hobby..as rare as it has become today in my parts of the world, aeromodeling here is thought of more as a play of youngsters than the hobby of oldsters... Huh...

GallopingGhostler Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:27 pm

balogh wrote:Mark I am a bit more embarrassed to ask for syringes from nurses with reference to my hobby..as rare as it has become today in my parts of the world, aeromodeling here is thought of more as a play of youngsters than the hobby of oldsters...

That stereotype was dramatically hinted at in the original Flight of the Phoenix.

When I was in high school, some of the students thought that model building was unmanly unlike sports. They learned that from their parents and relatives. Yet, I have learned over time, that watching sports is no more manly than participating in model building. They are all forms of recreation. Physically participating in team sports helps to build teamwork. Modeling helps to build intellectual capacity and craftsmanship. There is more value in hands on than being a spectator.

balogh Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:33 pm

I could not agree more, George
..even though I have been doing it for 12 years (except for the initial 2-3 years of building and flying CL back in highschool in the last century) I know model airplane building and flying, and COX engines particularly, have added much more to me than e.g. being an adamant fan spectator of any sport would have given..

**944_Jim** Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:49 pm

I've been mentioning IV tubes for fuel line since my back surgery several years ago. It may require a spring to prevent collapsing, just as Bee has in the pick up tube.

The attending thought I was nuts, but handed me the scissors so I could take only the tubing. The rest was left behind.
Laughing

GallopingGhostler Sun Jan 22, 2023 11:06 pm

Marleysky wrote:Oh yeah, you think it's "free" until we get the bill...HA, HA, HA ! Getting hosed for some free tubes!

Look to the positive, think of it as salvage value toward the medical costs. lol!

(Just some government contracting humor. Doh!

, sorry.

)

Regarding frugalness, I have found various vitamin supplement bottles make good radial cowls. Also picked up 2 more 20"x30" (508mm x 762mm) sheets of Dollar Tree 3/16" (4.76mm) foam board for $1.25 US each, good plane making material.

HalfaDave Mon Jan 23, 2023 2:34 am

Hi All,
This is why I joined here...
Cheap?
Pandemic hit. Bored putting out recycling paper/plastic each week.
Still have 1/2 gallon of TightBond glue left.
Papiea mache, in mangled french, it is making shapes with glue and paper.
I had no idea, why I even thought of it.
But,
It is fun making shapes. Almost medium balsa weight, without the strength.
Still exploring... that is the fun part,
Mistakes get recycled,

Dave

P.S. I thought molded pop bottle cowls were cool...

Yabby Mon Jan 23, 2023 3:38 am

A thread like this could almost be a Sticky. So many ideas for re-purposing and ways of doing things forum members have come up with, I dont remember them all, but I recall the paper clip / bulldog clip @MauricioB showed for I think it was landing wheels and the Cowl that I think it was @rsv1cox created, and many others. Medical tubing seems to be a common thread, maybe due to the need for tubing and also the average age of members such that many are being exposed to medical tubing. lol!

Yabby

rdw777 Mon Jan 23, 2023 5:29 am

I like wandering thru second hand stores and antique shops and keeping an eye out for things that might pertain to modeling…. One of the things I usually watch for is old silk scarves… Good for old school reinforcements and such…Usually they are cheap, Like $2.00 each….Recently I found the pretty pink one in the photo…. When I went to pay for it I asked the two ladies at the counter how they thought it would look?…. One was giggling and the other looking at me kind of strange…. I let them off the hook explaining to them it was for model airplane building lol!

….. Maybe I can re-dye it another color one of these days…

If you're frugal (cheap) like me 8a04b410

If you're frugal (cheap) like me D83a9910

rsv1cox Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:14 am

Frugal/cheap...........I could teach a class.

Started early. Wife and I never lived up to our incomes, even in the early days of enlisted Navy we always managed to put a little away. Hotdogs and spinach. Saved/invested. Exchanged a rental for a small purchased trailer. Transferred, sold the trailer mortgaged a house. Transferred, mortgaged another house. Transferred, saved enough to pay cash for a house. Sold that and had a house built in exclusive Breton Bay, custom house, five levels. Golf course, view of the bay, club house. Paid cash. Retired and moved to Florida. Gated community, swimming pool, 2+ acres, sunken living room, spar, three car garage, golf cart hookup. Landscaped with a gardener. Paid cash. No debt for the past 30+years and I still don't live up to my income.

Most of the credit goes to my wife. Beautiful and smart. Early on we scraped enough together to send her to Jacksonville Business College where she got into computers. Easy for her to find a job each time I was transferred.

Being frugal/cheap pays.

My "outdoor" slippers replaced by new Christmas slippers from my daughter.

If you're frugal (cheap) like me P1014906

HalfaDave Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:26 am

Hi All,
You got me started...
So....
I have a list, going to the Dollar Store.
But,
If I go on the wrong isle,
I find 1/4in to 3/8in cutting boards of PETE bulletproof plastic.
Think plywood, that cannot rot.
Unless I have my list,
I cannot get out of there !
Dave

Duct Tape is fashion here. Silver.
Not that shishi-googoo coloured stuff... Smile

rsv1cox Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:41 am

Duct Tape is fashion here. Silver.
Not that shishi-googoo coloured stuff... Smile

Smile

But I think it was roddie that introduced the off-beat plastic cowl thing.

HalfaDave Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:19 am

Hi rsv1cox,
I just try to add here, and,
Have fun,
Pop bottles are way ahead of 3-D printing, by 20yrs.
I did not invent it.
I am getting better at,
Molding wood fibres with water based glues.
Getting the weight down,
Dave

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