A couple of months ago I cursed myself roundly for having somehow put a bunch of holes in my new/old canvas coat I inherited from Geiger Counter Guy back in December ’13. That’s only two and a half winters, and it’s got loads of wear left in it. I think I must have tangled with some battery acid, which is as stealthy a way to kill cotton fabric as I ever encountered. But that’s what it’s for, I guess.
Anyway, I put off patching it because I was hoping for some dark brown patches. A few years ago I wouldn’t have cared – in fact I might have gone with ironically contrasting colors because I used to push the ‘crazy old beardo’ thing to the point of advertisement. Maybe I’m more comfortable in my skin now, I dunno. Anyway, Wal-Mart didn’t have any and it’s almost time to clean the coat up and put it away for summer, so I did the best I could with what I have.
Patching is another skill I’ve gotten pretty good at, if I do say it myself.
I love this coat. It’s a bit big on me, which is perfect because it’s barely insulated at all and I can wear it over as many layers as needed. And if I can just refrain from doing anything else stupid, it’ll be with me for a few more winters.
Looks like a good job mending. If it is the iron-on stuff you may need to whip-stitch the edges down as that iron-on stuff has a tendency to come loose around the edges. And if you can get the edges to stick after a couple of washes and wear…how?
So we can assume that you never got the full personal protective equipment for battery maintenance, and we can be glad that the coat and not your body was exposed to the acid. Hmmmmmm….full face protection, maybe with helmet/hat, gloves, apron, boots. And something that holds a lot of water in case of spills, fire extinguisher in case of explosions. You do have fire extinguishers???? Doesn’t seem like much to buy. Won’t take long to put on. Not trying to tell you what to do or run your life, you understand, but you know you would miss the body parts that got eaten up by the acid. Before your next battery maintenance rounds would you please, please, please get the protective equipment and – more important – wear it. You know we would all miss you. Thanks Joel.
Judy, as you obviously know the iron-on feature of iron-on patches only serves to hold the patch nicely in place while you sew it down. Every edge of every patch I do – and that’s at least one on nearly every pair of britches I own except two pair that only come out for nice – gets sewn down before the garment goes back into service.
Zelda, I’ve got rubber gloves and eyepro, and that’s as far as I take protection. As far as explosion, the only battery I ever saw explode was cross-connected and then thrown on heavy charge. You could theoretically get a hydrogen explosion if you brought flame into a sealed powerhouse where batteries had been outgassing heavily, but you’d have to ignore the unbreathable atmosphere long enough to do it. Normally I worry about spills but not explosions. I’ve been acid-burned lots of times. It ruins your clothes and hurts badly enough to make you really want to flush the spot with water, but there’s no serious damage. An exception would be blindness caused by having one explode in your face, which did happen to a co-worker once. Eyepro is good, but a moonsuit is overkill.