Miscellaneous desk
< August 11	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 13 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 12[edit]

Can a wood-burning kit be used on LOM parts ?[edit]

The version of Laminated Object Manufacturing, that is, which creates wood-like parts by gluing layers of paper together, cut to specs. For example, could a person's name be burned into it ? StuRat (talk) 20:08, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You should be able to do pyrography on it as the paper would be burnable or able to be blackened. However the glue may melt, or emit noxious fumes, or if you are not careful you might burn the whole lot up if you make it too hot! But what is your kit? Is it something like a soldering iron? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:42, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, like that. StuRat (talk) 17:52, 14 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That means that you can wipe off the tip by hand on a cellulose sponge when it gets covered in melted glue. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 23:25, 15 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Science Fiction/Horror Short Story Title[edit]

I'm trying to find a short story for my girlfriend: she read it several years ago, but can't remember the title. It was about a cardboard box by the side of the road that a man driving noticed was moving like something that was alive. He staked it out and learned that it would crawl into the road at night and eat any roadkill that was there. It frightened him so much that the next day, he tried to drive over it and kill it, but instead the monster's teeth cut his brake line, and he drove off the road and died. This, at least, is the description my girlfriend gave me. Googling just gives pictures of boxes or roadkill (yuck). Any help is appreciated.OldTimeNESter (talk) 23:41, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The only Sci-fi I know of featuring an evil entity in a little box is Don't Open Till Doomsday, an original Outer Limits episode. StuRat (talk) 23:51, 12 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is a novel (it may have been a short story at first) called Into the Out Of by Alan Dean Foster which features ravenous demons that may appear as roadside garbage. Even if this is not the same story, she may enjoy the novel (see the Amazon reviews). I only read about 1/3 of it, but my tastes in fiction have gotten much narrower, and I found the fantasy elements not worth struggling with the small print at my age. μηδείς (talk) 16:06, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it is "Roadkill" by Mercedes Lackey.

Here is its entry in the SF Database.

I recommend checking out that page and seeing if your girlfriend recognizes the cover of any of the books that story has been published in. (Or if she subscribed to 'Fantasy' magazine in 1990.)

I notice Amazon has the story available on its own, for Kindle.

Hope this helps. ApLundell (talk) 22:34, 14 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here response was "That's IT! I love you SO much!" So yeah, it helped: thanks a million; you rock! OldTimeNESter (talk) 03:16, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]