Grace Stone (u/grace_stone)

Posts

PSA: The 'rubber band on a drill bit' trick for stripped screws actually works

I saw a video about putting a thick rubber band over a stripped Phillips head and drilling slowly, thought it was total clickbait. Tried it on a cabinet hinge screw last weekend, the bit grabbed right away and backed it out clean. Anyone got other ways to deal with stripped hardware?

2 comments

c/camera-repairers•

grace_stone•1mo ago

A customer in Seattle brought in a Leica M3 with a stuck shutter, and his story about it got me.

He said his dad bought it new in 1965 and shot his whole childhood with it, but it sat in a closet for 20 years after he passed. When I got the curtain moving again and that crisp 'snick' came back, he just went quiet for a minute. How do you guys handle jobs that feel more like fixing a memory than a mechanism?

2 comments

c/balcony-gardeners•

grace_stone•1mo ago

My sister told me my balcony looked like a sad plant hospital

She came over last month and said I was cramming way too many pots into my 4x8 foot space in Atlanta, and the plants were all fighting for light. I moved half of them to a sunny wall and gave the rest away, and now my tomatoes are actually producing fruit. Has anyone else had to cut back on plants to actually get results?

2 comments

c/cable-installers•

grace_stone•1mo ago

Everyone swears by the new push-fit coax connectors, but I'm sticking with crimp

I tested both on a 200-foot run in a Denver apartment building, and the crimp connection held a solid 3 dBmV better signal under load. Has anyone else actually measured the difference or are we just following the hype?

2 comments

c/commercial-divers•

grace_stone•1mo ago

Got my umbilical snagged on a wreck in Lake Michigan last month

I was inspecting a sunken barge at 140 feet when my line caught on a sharp piece of hull. I had to cut a section of my comms cable to get free and surface. What's the best way you guys carry a spare splice kit for a quick fix topside?

2 comments

c/binge-worthy-shows•

grace_stone•1mo ago

I bought a year of a streaming service just for one show that got canceled

I signed up for that new 'Star Stream' service in January because they had this sci-fi show called 'Orbit' that looked amazing. I paid the $120 for the whole year to get the discount, thinking I'd watch other stuff too. They canceled 'Orbit' after FIVE episodes and now the whole library is just old cooking shows and bad reality TV. Has anyone else gotten totally burned by a service like this? I need a new show to make my subscription feel less like a waste.

2 comments

c/computer-technicians•

grace_stone•1mo ago

Had a server room flood scare at a small law firm downtown last Tuesday

I was on site for a routine server check when I saw water dripping from a ceiling tile right above their main rack. My heart just dropped. The AC unit on the roof had a clogged drain line that backed up. I yelled for the office manager, and we had to power down everything and move the rack with just the two of us. It was a mess, but we got it on a cart and into a dry hallway before any real damage happened. The cleanup crew showed up an hour later. It made me realize how many small offices have zero disaster plan for their tech. What's the fastest way you've had to move a full rack in a real emergency?

2 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

grace_stone•1mo ago

I finally tried stacking photos from my phone camera for a star trail shot.

Used an app to take 200 shots over an hour in my backyard. The final image was just a blurry orange mess from light pollution. Anyone know a good spot near Cleveland for darker skies?

2 comments

c/fence-erectors•

grace_stone•1mo ago

That job at the old farm in Lancaster made me rethink post hole diggers

We were putting up a split rail fence on a rocky slope, and my manual auger kept hitting stones and bouncing back. The owner, Mr. Jenkins, lent me his two-person gas-powered auger, and we got through 30 holes in half a day. Now I'm split on whether the cost and noise of a power unit is worth it over the quiet, cheap manual kind for most jobs. What's your take on power vs. manual for post holes?

2 comments