Around Christmas of 2008, I sent away for a complimentary bottle of Bull Frog Snot. The purveyor was giving away samples, and he agreed to send one to me. I felt the additional cost of shipping to Canada was something I would offer to him, and he seemed pleased; that’s what we did.
Within a week I had snotted three engines, two reasonably good jobs and one not so good. I had trouble with my first ever engine, a BLI Hudson. It now runs along with a bit of a bump where I left a gob to dry instead of smoothing it. I can undo it, but I haven’t got the energy to tackle it…there is lots else to do and other engines to run.
Recently I found that my wonderful Pennsy J1 was spinning where it used to be a rock solid puller. I have no idea why…it sits with all wheels in contact on a countertop, so there isn’t a problem with suspension that I can see. The rear driver pair has suffered the most abrasion of the shiny metal coating. I decided last night that it should be protected, and at the same time, fortified to do the pulling it had obviously been doing up until now. So, I snotted that axle.
I had really good results, not unexpectedly with pulling, but most delightfully with my application. And I hadn’t done it in a year…no practice! I found myself using one of those double-ended toothpicks, but instead of smearing it and trying to paint it with a sideways drag of the covered tip, I found that placing the tip at right angles to the flanges’ faces and doing a series of sideways shoves right and left through the green goo, the way a sewing needle moves, worked well to make a smooth even layer…sort of like leveling concrete by shoving and sliding a 2X4 across the top of the form boards. When it dried, the snot was a smooth tough skin that helped to move a much heavier ‘tonnage’ up my grades.
When BFS first came out, I saw a video on how to apply it. I am not sure where I saw it. ( possibly their Web Site ) To apply it properly AND evenly, (the most important part) you should mount your loco upside down in a cradle of some sort with power applied so that the driving wheels can turn slowly. You then apply a SMALL amount of Bullfrog Snot with a flat toothpick and as the wheels turn, you carefully spread the small amount of Snot around the wheel. The trick was to keep the toothpick steady and let the wheel do the work. Apparently, all that is needed is a very thin skim of Snot to do the job. After it is applied you should leave the wheels turning for a 1/2 hour or more to avoid any pooling at the bottom of the wheel and leaving a bump. After it has set up, leave it to cure for a couple of days in the cradle before putting it on the tracks. I hope that this helps you and others out.
FYI, I bought a jar a month or so ago but I have not applied it as yet due to a couple of small tears in my shoulder muscle that I have been in pain with since last September. It causes pain spasms if I move my arm. I finally go in to the Hospital for an MRI this afternoon to see exactly what the problem is. (The Orthopedic surgeon suggests that from the limited movement that I have, it is a torn rotator cuff, but we shall see). [(-D]
Thanks, everyone. Blue Flamer, I tried the method you describe, and that appears in the video, but I had a warm train room when I applied the first time. It seemed to me that I kept having to dip the toothpick into the goop for a fresh load because the wheel turning (slowly) was letting the thin application dry in no time at all. I couldn’t spread it. That is why the Hudson was so uneven.
What I did this time was to upturn the engine and apply bared 22 gauge leads to the tender axles. I would use the sewing maching action to level maybe 1/2" of a patch, then turn the drivers with my throttle for a sixth-turn, and resume the application. I was happy to see it working so well.
I let the engine rest for five hours before I used it. I feel it was well dried and only slightly tacky to the touch. It pulled well.
When you do try it, don’t get all wrapped around the axle if it gets away on you and you have a botched job. Take a deep breath and peal it off with a sharp hobby knife. Take a break and then come back to try again. It’ll happen.
Thanks for the info Crandell and also to the others who posted answers. I’m not going to attempt to put on the Snot until I am sure that my shoulder is not going to spasm on me just as I go to put it on the wheel and I end up putting a glob of it into the motor gears. (Horror of Horrors. [banghead]).
On a brighter note, I did get my 3X6 N Scale table wired up and the NCE starter set connected up. I had the neighbour come in and tip the table on its’ end so that I didn’t have to crawl underneath to do the wiring. I had dropped 9 sets of feeders previously so all I had to do was the wiring underneath. It only took me the better part of 10 days between bouts with my shoulder. [sigh] On a g
I should correct myself…one thing I didn’t do that the example shows is having the drivers spinning quickly. I got that part wrong. But even so, they were turning every four seconds or so, and a load of the stuff ought to have spread…but it seemed to dry up very quickly. This time, it stayed liquid in a basement about 12 degrees cooler, and I was able to spread it. So, the method, exactly as shown in the video, should work okay in temps below about 75-78 degrees.
I forgot to answer the question about how long it lasts…my apologies. [:I] My answer won’t help, unfortunately, because I have no idea. I believe you should get perhaps 8-10 hours of solid running, but that’s a guess. It seems to be very durable, and if you are adept at scaping the old stuff off and quickly spreading a new layer, you should not have to do it more than once every few months, depending on hours of use. My engines were done a year ago, but they get maybe four hours of use per year.