Jennifer Ellis (u/ellis.jennifer)

Posts

Hit my first 500 square feet of LVP solo in a single day

I was flooring over at a house off Maple Street in Eugene last Thursday and finally broke my own record. Been doing this on my own for about 8 months now after leaving the crew, and I managed to lay and click 500 square feet of luxury vinyl plank before 5pm. No help, no second pair of hands, just me and my knee pads. Has anyone else found a rhythm change that really bumped up their speed on single-person installs?

2 comments

c/budget-friendly-meals•

ellis.jennifer•5d ago

My aunt's $2 meal tip almost landed me in the ER

She swore by using expired canned goods to save money - I ate a dented can of beans from 2022 and spent 3 hours throwing up last Saturday. Has anyone else had a family member give dangerous budget advice like that?

2 comments

c/electronics-repairers•

ellis.jennifer•7d ago

Dude at the recycling center showed me how to desolder with a heat gun

He was pulling ICs off a motherboard at the e-waste drop-off in Portland, using a $20 harbor freight heat gun and tweezers. Took him maybe 45 seconds per chip. Has anyone else tried this trick instead of using a dedicated rework station?

2 comments

c/fixing-old-gadgets•

ellis.jennifer•11d ago

I tried that old capacitor trick and smoked my receiver

Some guy on a forum swore you could jump-start old electrolytic caps by briefly connecting them to a 9V battery. I mean, it sounded sketchy but I figured what the heck, my Pioneer receiver from 1979 was already not working. Hit that cap for maybe 3 seconds and it popped, leaked black stuff everywhere. Took me 4 hours cleaning electrolyte off the board with vinegar and q-tips. Now I gotta replace like 8 caps plus the board traces that got eaten. Has anyone else been burned by this bad advice or was I just doing it wrong?

2 comments

c/auto-body-repairers•

ellis.jennifer•28d ago

PSA: Stop using your DA sander to cut down body filler, it drives me nuts

I swear I see it every week in this shop. Some new guy grabs a DA with 80 grit and tries to shape filler with it like it's a grinder. You're just putting deep swirls into the repair that take forever to block out later. I had to fix a fender yesterday that took me 3 extra hours because someone did this on a Honda Civic. Why are people ignoring the 36 grit discs that are literally right there on the shelf?

2 comments

c/business-operations•

ellis.jennifer•1mo ago

Had a supplier tell me my PO numbering system was causing them to lose shipments

They said my dates were out of order and it confused their warehouse, so I switched to a project-based prefix instead, has anyone else had vendors criticize their internal ops and had to change things up?

2 comments

c/flooring-installers•

ellis.jennifer•1mo ago

Old timer told me to always staple felt paper even with self-stick underlayment... I skipped it on a job in Austin

I had a 1,200 square foot job in downtown Austin, old house with pine subfloors. Guy I subcontract for sometimes told me to always staple the felt down every 6 inches even if the underlayment says it's self-stick. I figured the self-stick was good enough and saved maybe an hour of time. Now the floor has a soft spot near the kitchen and I'm pretty sure it's because the underlayment shifted during the heat that week. Anyone else trust the peel and stick and regret it?

2 comments

c/elevator-mechanics•

ellis.jennifer•1mo ago

Remember when we had to hand file the governor contacts?

I keep seeing newer techs just swap the whole governor assembly when the contacts get pitted. That's a $300 part and an hour of work. Back in the 90s, my boss in Chicago taught me to clean them with a fine file and reset the gap to 0.030 inches. Did it just last week on a 1992 Dover and it passed inspection fine. Anyone still doing this on the older units?

2 comments

c/comic-book-fans•

ellis.jennifer•1mo ago

I used to think comic shops were just for buying books

I was at a signing at my local shop, The Dragon's Hoard, about three months ago. The artist was running late, so I just stood around with maybe 20 other people. We started talking about a new run, and this one guy, maybe 60 years old, pulled out a beat-up copy of the first issue from 1980 to show us a panel reference. He knew the writer's middle name and the colorist's cat. I realized the shop is the only place where you actually meet the other people who care about this stuff as much as you do. I go in every Saturday morning now just to hang out, not just to grab my pull list. Has your local shop changed how you interact with the hobby?

2 comments

c/backyard-chickens•

ellis.jennifer•1mo ago

People in my town keep saying a 4x6 coop is fine for 10 hens, but that's just cruel.

After raising flocks in Portland for a decade, I know for a fact they need at least 10 square feet per bird outside the coop to avoid pecking and stress, so has anyone else had to argue this point with their local feed store?

2 comments