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Idea supplied by George
Doran and Jeff Dick
Photos
by Steve Bamford
We
all come to the point with every model when it is time to apply the
decals. The first thing we do is go and grab a bowl, put some warm
water into it and cut out the first of many decals for our latest
model. By the time you get to decal #2 or #3 the decal water is
stone cold. You can use decal water that is stone cold, but I've
found that decals just seem to apply a bit nicer when the water is
warm. The warm water seems to loosen the glue easier as you separate
the decal from the backing paper.
So...what to do....keep
changing the water in your decal water bowl for each decal....hardly
practical. Or just put up with cold water.....hardly
appealing. Here's an item I just learned about for keeping your
decal water warm for hours. |
| It's made by a
company called "Salton" and they make a variety of small kitchen
appliances. This particular item costs US$10 and is used to keep
mugs of coffee/tea warm for hours. On the side of the unit is a
simple on/off switch to turn the unit on or off. You can not adjust
how hot the unit gets.....it's either on or off. There is alsoa
red LED light in the on/off switch that lights up to tell you that you've
turned the unit on. As far as I can tell, this unit does not cycle
on and off to maintain the |
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perfect
temperature. Instead it just comes on at one heat setting and
maintains that heat setting permanently. So I had to try it
out and son of a gun....this thing works. I filled my bowl half full
of decal water that was luke warm and after an hour the water was still
luke warm. The trick here is to use a bowl with a wide opening to
help vent off excess heat......remember this heater is used to keep |
| mugs of coffee/tea
piping hot for hours. Also...the bottom of my bowl has a ridge as
part of the bottom of the bowl.....this ridge fits beautifully into this
decal warmer.
Do you sit down to build
some models or go online, only to find your mug of your favourite hot
drink has gone cold, well this unit works like a charm to keep your piping
hot drink piping hot. The smaller opening of the mug vents off less
heat, so your hot drink stays piping hot....instead of just luke warm like
your bowl of decal water.
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| Where
can you buy these? I picked mine up at a store called Canadian
Tire....this is a general purpose hardware store that sells everything
from camping gear to light fixtures to auto parts....and yes they sell
tires as well. I searched around online, but couldn't find this or
any other coffee mug warmer....although I did find other products from
Salton. It seems this particular unit is only sold in Canada, but
further down in this article is a unit sold in the USA. Your best bet is to go to your local housewares store or
hardware store and look for a unit like this one. Due to different
electrical standards around the world, you may not be able to use this
particular unit where you live, but perhaps you can find a unit by a
different manufacturer that will do the same job.
This unit is SO cool how
well it works for keeping decal water warm and coffee/tea piping hot.
Steve |
Additional
info for Americans....
We
finally found one, but not the same unit as Steve Bamford mentions above in this
article. We called about 15 different stores and finally we found one at "Brookstone's"
http://www.brookstone.com/ at a
mall at one of the Casino's here in Las Vegas.
I've tried it out with a bowl of water and it looks like it's a success. I have
had the water on for over an hour and it's nice and warm....Not to hot! Not to
cold.....
Greg Primm
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Oct
26 2003 ....more info
Amazon now has the beverage warmer for 9.99 its under the name Rival but as far
as I can tell is identical to the one in the article. And its half the price of
the brookstone one,
Heres the link
Mike
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