Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with scratches

Stay Away from the Banana Plant

billysumday — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:13:19 -0800

My cat is slowly killing my indoor banana tree by scratching the hell out of it. Now what? I live in Central Pennsylvania and in the spring of this year purchased a dwarf plantain plant/tree. It grew very well outside in the summer but now that the weather has taken a turn for the cold, I've brought the plant indoors and have placed it on a small table in front of our large south-facing window. It's continued to thrive and is still sprouting new leaves, but my cat is intent on killing it. He loves to scratch at its trunk and tear at the leaves. He doesn't dig at the soil or eat the plant, so I don't need advice regarding that. Just: how to keep the cat away from the plant? I'd prefer to find a solution that saves the tree while keeping it aesthetically pleasing - i.e., I'd rather not wrap the tree in aluminum foil. My strategy thus far has been to shoot him with water from a water bottle when he gets up in/on the plant, but now it's like he just jumps up there and looks at me for attention. If I don't shoot him, he'll cry and then scratch at the tree until I do shoot him, at which point he runs away. He's a bit challenged in the brain department.

Are there any sprays or anything I can use that would cover the plant in some sort of anti-cat repellent? I did some Googling but came up empty.

Thanks, mefi.

Is there a rat in my kitchen?

razzman — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:17:41 -0800

Something strange is going on in the kitchen...What has done this to the label on top of my recycle bin? Went to the recycle bin under the sink. in the picture you can see the lid with the label on it. Is it a mouse, a rat....something else? picture here No human in the house has done this!

Normal wear for white gold?

Becko — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:32:36 -0800

Married less than a week, and the mister's ring is already scratched up. Got married Saturday, and my husband's ring is already showing visible wear. It's a white gold ring with a matte finish. We've been on our honeymoon and so he hasn't done anything that harsh to it.

It's mostly little scuffs and scratches all around the ring. Is this normal with white gold? he is able to scratch it with his fingernail. Is there anything that can be done to protect the ring from getting too beat up?

Determining whether dvd scratches will affect playback

jimmyjimjim — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:24:39 -0800

Is there any way to determine, quickly, whether scratches on a DVD affect playback (without playing the entire disk, including extra features)? I know there's a $$$$ machine that does this, so one solution might be to figure out what sort of people buy those machines, and then try to persuade one of them to run my disk through it...

HD DVD errors...

starman — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:07:08 -0800

HD DVD errors: normal or just us? It seems like HD DVD's we get from Netflix "skip" or cause errors like crazy if the disk is even slightly scratched. The symptom usually ends up being freezing or digital artifacts followed by regular movie but no sound. Is this something that is typical of HD DVD (and/or BluRay?) or just our player (Toshiba HD-A3)?

New HD DVDs without the Netflix wear and tear seem to be fine.

Dust spots? Water marks? Crud on film?

Geckwoistmeinauto — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:59:57 -0800

Why am I getting blotches on my black and white negatives? What are the marks? Are they dust? Water spots? How do I fix this? I'm a relative newbie when it comes to film photograhpy, but I've been doing digital photography for a few years. I develop my own black and white film at home, and I've been less than pleased with the results when I scan my film. I have the dreaded 'crap on the negative' issue. It's started off so bad that I couldn't even print my negatives using an enlarger due to the amount of junk on the negs. Exhibit A - a crop at 100% of a corner of a negative.

Here's how I develop, and what I've done so far to fix this:

I mix all my chemicals using tap water. I'm using the standard Sprint developer and quick fixer, and stop my film using plain ol' tap water. I do a first rinse using tap water. This is all deemed fine by general consensus of photography dorks everywhere. I am using a plastic 2 135 roll development tank, capacity for two rolls of film 650ml.

I dry my film hanging from the shower bar, after the hot water was run to make the room nice and steamy and left to clear. The bathroom isn't dusty, and there hasn't been any dust on any surfaces, really, since we moved in. I make sure no one cleans the bathroom at least I24 hours before I hang film to dry. I determine dryness by curl (towards emulsion), and if the curl is correct, I test a 'spare' area of film for tackiness. Once I deem the film dry, I cut and place the negs in new archival sheet holders.

The first few rolls I developed came out disgusting, with obvious spots, water marks around the sprockets, and other disgustingness.

After much discussion with the guys at the darkroom I use to print my photos, they felt I should try a squeegee for my film. I also decided to use distilled water for a final rinse, about half a gallon of water. When I asked about a wetting agent, they claimed that it will cause more problems than it solves with regards to spots.

My negs were slightly cleaner, but still spotty and I could see a few nasty, large water spots here and there. Also, I have noticed some gnarly scratches that may have been caused by the squeegee OR the archival sleeves I put my negatives into once dry.

So, please, take a look at that shot, and let me know if you think those are dust spots or (more likely) water spots. Should I look into photoflo, or another wetting agent? Is the squeegee the cause of the scratches, or could it be more likely my negative holder sheets? I'm starting to get sick of fixing dust scratches in the gimp, and I'd like to make some nice analog enlargements of some of my negatives!

Thanks!

How can I remove scratches from chrome plated steel?

stlboi — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:38:55 -0800

How can I remove scratches from chrome plated steel? I couldn't find an answer for this, probably because it's not possible. I'm looking for a way to remove some very minor scratches from my chrome plated steel tail pipes that I can do myself. I laid it down once. :(

The scratches are all together in one area, nothing real deep. Hair line thickness probably, all within the area of say 2x3 inches.

Here's a pic of the bike, the scratches are so small you can barely see them on the picture. But they are right there at the end.

http://thebuffalonetwork.com/kawaninja.jpg

How to prevent a dog's toenails from scratching a wood floor?

chippie — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 20:24:21 -0800

How can I prevent my 75-pound dog from scratching my wood floors? I keep his nails trimmed and discourage lots of running in the house, but the floors are getting scratched. Short of putting rugs anywhere, or making the dog wear booties, is there any way to minimize the scratching? Or is there an easy way to remove scratches that doesn't involve refinishing the whole floor?

Contractor Scratched My New Windows

zeoslap — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:46:27 -0800

Contractor ignored warning label on windows now they are scratched. What should I do ? We had a contractor install some new windows and paint them for us. I read on the warning label attached to the window that you shouldn't use a scraper, but there he was using a razor blade to remove paint from the pane after he'd painted them. I told him about the warning but he said it was fine and continued to use the blade on the window. They are low-e argon filled windows that I think have a special coating on them, anyway now one (maybe more) of the windows is scratched. I noticed it last night and will talk to him about it later today. I've only paid half the money so I have some leverage here. What should I/he do?

Sunglass scratches

fox_terrier_guy — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:19:42 -0800

Why don't they make sunglasses with the coating on the *inside*? So, my expensive (hip, cool, livin' to the max lifestyle statement) sunglasses got a scratch on the lenses which results in a bright spot that bothers me when I wear them. Which got me thinking; I don't know of any sunglass manufacturer who makes the glasses with the coating on the back of the glass (i.e., nearer your eye) as opposed to the front. BTW these are not a polarized glass.

OK, so its not UV that your eyes need the coating for - then what? Colour? If the coating was on the inside, yeah, you wouldn't get the groovy look, but conversely you would get sunglasses that even if scratched could conceivably polish to eliminate artifacts.

Having said that, is there a way that I can "colour" or polish the scratch out of my old funky specs? Or am I late with an idea that someone else has already had?

removing glass scratches

maxmix — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 05:06:15 -0800

How can i remove scratches from my car windows? Some lovely person has decided to take a dislike to my car and has scratched the windows. They are not deep and are not thick, just irritating. Anyone have any idea how i can remove these scratches myself? Any help would be great.

Fix my cellphone's screen scratches?

logovisual — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:59:41 -0800

Apparently the fabric in my pants pockets was enough to scuff and scratch the living hell out of the screen on my cellphone (a Nokia 6682). This implies to me that the plastic is very, very soft. Is it safe to try using Brasso on it to try to rub it clear again? If so, what kind of cloth would you recommend? Does anybody know any alternatives? It's the kind of scuffing that renders at least half of the screen fuzzy, and the phone's less than three months old, so this really needs to be fixed...

making cd images of old games

mecran01 — Tue, 31 May 2005 18:29:06 -0800

Hi, My kids have a number of old cheap games from discount houses and Walmart. A bunch of them are circa 1998 or so. The problem is that they scratch the heck out the cds. I'm aware of virtual cd images with software like Alcohol x.x, but was wondering if, given the ancient state of these games and the relative lack of copy protection if there is a cheaper alternative for creating virtual cds on our spare hd. Thanks. My eight year old is freaking because Hot Wheels Stunt Track has quit working.

Fix a scrated DVD

duckstab — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 16:41:23 -0800

How can I repair a DVD with a couple of relatively deep scratches? (more inside) I've got a DVD (actually its an Xbox game) with a couple of scratches on the shiny side, but no damage to the data layer. I've tried all the tricks that I've used on CDs in the past: car wax, rubbing compound, Bon Ami polishing compound, but to no avail. These scratches are deeper than I've ever tried to fix before. I'm considering a heat gun, but I bet that'll be nothing but trouble. Does anyone have any tricks? I know there's repair kits you can buy at the store, but from brief glances in the past, they don't look like they'd do much for a scratch with substance.