Eastern Seaboard Models White Tower Restaurant Kit Review

[C855B]

Well-ventilated room, minimum, respectfully away from open flame such as a water heater pilot light. Seriously... it's a light petroleum distillate, heptane. Flammability rating of 3, versus gasoline's 4. Flash point is below freezing, so you're talking about something that goes [poof!] easily.

Here's the MSDS for it: http://local510.org/msds_sheets/Bestine_MSDS.pdf

[jnevis]

Mine showed up over the weekend.  Now I need to find a building to add it to.  I was thinking of Walther's Brach's, American Harware, or Atlas Middlesex Mnfgr as a "re-used" building into shops.  The White Tower on one side and a Starbucks on the other with other stuff upstairs.

 
Was thinking of extending the dining area a little for tables.  Any suggestions for the best way to do that?

Have a little time before I can start it.

[bbussey]

On the inset version?  Much easier than on the stand-alone version.  Either blow out the kitchen wall and move the main counter/grill and shelving back, or remove the bathroom inner walls and blow out the short wall.  The extended dining area doesn't have to include windows, or wall tiles for that matter.  You could take either of those options without disturbing the outer appearance of the model.

[jnevis]

Thanks Bryan, that's what I was thinking but wanted a second opinion before i chopped up a great model

[Ian MacMillan]

Well-ventilated room, minimum, respectfully away from open flame such as a water heater pilot light. Seriously... it's a light petroleum distillate, heptane. Flammability rating of 3, versus gasoline's 4. Flash point is below freezing, so you're talking about something that goes [poof!] easily.

Here's the MSDS for it: http://local510.org/msds_sheets/Bestine_MSDS.pdf

Good to know. We use other highly flamable solvents in gun cleaning in ultrasonic cleaners at the suggestions from the manufactures, which is why I asked.

[tom mann]

Can one use soap and water on this?  I simply washed mine with warm soapy water, and it appears to have lost the residue.  It looks more transparent now, without the slick feel.

[DKS]

Can one use soap and water on this?  I simply washed mine with warm soapy water, and it appears to have lost the residue.  It looks more transparent now, without the slick feel.

Transparency is a clue that there is wax residue. Unfortunately I don't know of a water-based cleaner that effectively dissolves wax.

With all due respect to the safety warnings about heptane, I have been using it regularly for the last 40-odd years--indeed, I am never without a supply of it on hand (including a gallon can and a small dispenser on my workbench), as I have found many, many applications for the solvent. I have used it in small rooms with no ventilation, in large rooms with open flames, next to operating electrical equipment including motors, and under all manner of "unsafe" conditions, and I have never had an issue with it. Although it does carry a very high volatility rating, the vapors also dissipate extremely rapidly as well, meaning it's difficult to build up sufficient concentration of vapors to cause an explosion.

Long ago I worked in an advertising studio for several years, and back then all studios had gallons of Bestine on hand. One of the "rites of passage" for new artists was, at some random point in time, to be squirted with Bestine by all of the other artists. Usually they freak out because they think it will ruin their clothes, but they very quickly learn that it causes no harm. Also, for a while I worked in a third-floor studio that had no air, and during particularly sweltering afternoons, we would sometimes sprinkle some Bestine on ourselves to cool off a little. I'm sure someone out there is convinced we should all have skin cancer or whatever, but my father, who worked as a chemist his whole life, confirmed that heptane is actually pretty benign.

In other words, use it sensibly, but there's no need to go gaga over the stuff.

[tom mann]

Transparency is a clue that there is wax residue. Unfortunately I don't know of a water-based cleaner that effectively dissolves wax.

Wait...how is it possible that it looks more transparent if less wax is on it?  I agree that I didn't dissolve the wax; I assume that some got scraped off in the process.

[DKS]

Wait...how is it possible that it looks more transparent if less wax is on it?  I agree that I didn't dissolve the wax; I assume that some got scraped off in the process.

If the wax is smoothed out in the process, then it it will look more transparent. Irregularities create cloudiness, and you're probably polishing the surface.

[C855B]

With due respect to your due respect, David, we used it professionally, and are thankful we don't any more, it being a pain-in-the-a$$ and potential mess sitting on our paste-up tables. It was not to be handled carelessly lest you screw-up something you spent two weeks working on.

That said, in truth, nobody we know of went [boom!], the biggest risk we found in practice was the inhalation high if we spent too much time using it to clean up an art board.

Just be careful out there.

[DKS]

With due respect to your due respect, David, we used it professionally, and are thankful we don't any more, it being a pain-in-the-a$$ and potential mess sitting on our paste-up tables.  It was not to be handled carelessly lest you screw-up something you spent two weeks working on.

Never had a problem. Our trick was to use oil-can dispensers. Always delivered just the right amount just where you needed it. Granted, it did take some skill, but as it is those skills have not been needed for decades thanks to desktop publishing.

More thoughts on this subject: http://1-160.blogspot.com/2009/06/meditation-on-x-acto-blade.html

[Chris333]

Ahhhh OK. They are gone now, but at work they used to cut and paste everything. Then take a photo to make a negative. They had a room full of "drawing tables" and big coffee cans full of old Exacto blades.

Never saw the Bestine, but I'm sure it was there.

[Sokramiketes]

Wait...how is it possible that it looks more transparent if less wax is on it?  I agree that I didn't dissolve the wax; I assume that some got scraped off in the process.

Think of grease turning a napkin transparent.

[C855B]

Heh. The "number eleven". My most recent (22 years ago!) memory of dealing with vast quantities of discarded-but-not-discarded blades was when I was managing a pre-press division with offices in four cities. I had an artist in one shop who had used blades scattered friggin' everywhere. On her paste-up table, on the computer desk, under her keyboard, under her mouse pad, sitting on the printer, on her co-workers' tables, on the floor (naturally), even in her "IN" box. One day with a clear calendar I called her from HQ and said, "Lonella, I am flying to your office tomorrow for the express purpose of corralling those blades!"

I managed to get it all cleaned up with only about three cuts. The box of discards must have weighed 10 pounds. My mandate was to bring everything in the company into the desktop publishing era, but... damn... some of those folks sure made it tough.

Anyway, we used the little oil cans, too. But I sure don't miss the smell... or even the "high". 

[Philip H]

So I soaked it last night in Bestine for about 3 hours, and with no agitation I managed to get about 75% of the wax off.  Interestingly the heaviest layers seem to be along the bottom outside tiled strip of the shell, and the top of the parapet.   There is still a touch left on the bathroom wall, and the surface of the grill, but I think another good soak tonight will finish it off.

As to the use of this stuff - having been trained in highschool to run soil samples in various scientific machines - and said samples were distilled in either heptane, hexane, or successive acetone-heptane baths - I find it viscerally tough to work with outside a proper fume hood.  Since I don't have one in my basement, but do have a gas fired boiler that's fairly active these days, I can't do it there.  The soaking can happen in the train room (in a glass jar no less) but I find that storage needs to happen externally for marital bliss to continue.