Old lead mechanic told me to stop torquing spark plugs to spec and I laughed at him

I was working on a Lycoming O-360 last summer over at Miller Aviation in Wichita, and this guy Dave who's been doing this since the 80s told me to just give the spark plugs an extra quarter turn past hand tight instead of using the torque wrench. I thought he was crazy and ignored him. About three weeks later I had a plug come loose on a test run and it scared the heck out of me, so I went back and asked him what he meant. He showed me how the threads can gall up if you follow the book torque exactly on those older cylinder heads. Now I do it his way on engines that have seen some hours and I haven't had a problem since. Has anyone else run into this where the factory spec actually causes more trouble on older parts?

Tossed a whole avocado pit in my bokashi bucket, it sprouted roots through the side 3 weeks later

I read online you could compost pretty much anything with bokashi so I just chucked a whole avocado pit in there without cutting it up. A month later I went to drain the liquid and saw this pale root thing poking out of a crack in the side of the bucket. Turns out that pit was determined to grow despite being pickled in fermenting food scraps. Has anyone else had a seed or pit go rogue in their indoor compost setup?

Had a building super call me out on my rail lube method after 8 years

I was spraying WD-40 on guide rails for years until this old super in a Bronx building showed me the sticky residue it leaves behind. He handed me a can of chain lube and told me to try it for a week, anyone else ever get humbled by a building super on a basic job?

Learned the hard way that my sleeping bag rating is a lie below 40 degrees

I froze my butt off at Big Sur last month in a bag rated to 30 and realized those ratings assume you're wearing base layers and inside a tent with a good pad, so has anyone else found a brand that actually tests their bags in real conditions?

TIL my fridge's ice maker can flood the kitchen in under 10 minutes

Our ice maker started making a weird noise last Tuesday night around 9pm. I figured it was just the motor getting old, so I ignored it. Woke up Wednesday morning to a puddle spreading from the fridge across the whole kitchen floor. The water line had cracked behind the fridge and was spraying water everywhere. Took me 2 hours to mop everything up and another trip to the hardware store for a new line. Has anyone else had a hidden water line fail like that without warning?

A guy at a coffee shop fixed my resume in 5 minutes

I was sitting at a Blue Bottle in SF last Tuesday, stressing about my job hunt. This older dude next to me saw my laptop and asked if I needed help. He pointed out my bullet points were all tasks, not results. He showed me how to add numbers and impact. Said recruiters scan for that in 6 seconds flat. I rewrote the whole thing that night and got three callbacks within a week. Has anyone else got a quick tip from a random stranger that actually worked?

TIL stepping through code with a debugger shows you bugs way faster than print statements ever did

My power trowel blade assembly locked up mid-pour on a 40 yard slab

Was finishing a warehouse floor in Phoenix last Tuesday when the trowel just seized right up. Ended up having to hand finish about 300 square feet with a crew of three while waiting two hours for a replacement part. Anybody ever had a blade assembly fail that fast on a newer machine?

Borrowed a floor sander and got told off for using the wrong grit

Last month I grabbed our library's floor sander to refinish my hallway and a guy named Hank stopped me mid-job to say I was burning through 36 grit way too fast. He showed me how skipping to 60 grit first saves the machine and the wood. Has anyone else gotten advice from a fellow borrower that totally changed their approach?

Got schooled by a guy on the PCT about eating cold oatmeal for 2 weeks straight

I was 6 days into a section hike on the Pacific Crest Trail near Mount Hood and my stove broke. I thought I was doomed to cold instant oatmeal and sad granola bars. Then a thru-hiker named Dave showed me his trick of soaking oats in a jar with powdered milk and cinnamon overnight. It actually turned into a thick, cold porridge that tasted way better than I expected. I ended up eating that for breakfast the rest of my trip and saved myself from cooking at all. Has anyone else found a no-cook breakfast that actually works on longer routes?