Spent last Saturday at my friend's place in Austin watching her try to paint her own cabinets. She accidentally glued a drawer shut with polyurethane. That scared me straight. I took it real slow, labeled every screw in a ziploc, and numbered each door with painter's tape. Ended up with sticky spots on two doors from rushing the last coat but the hinges? Only three had paint drips I had to scrape off. Feels like a win even if my forearms are sore from holding the drill. Has anyone else painted cabinets with a foam roller vs brush and had better luck avoiding drips?
I came home from work on a Tuesday and found water dripping from the ceiling right where I keep my long boxes. The pipe in the upstairs bathroom had a slow leak for probably 3 days before I noticed. I lost about 40 issues including a first printing of New Mutants #98 that I bought for $5 back in 2010. I managed to salvage maybe 60% with a dehumidifier and some careful drying, but the rest are basically trash now. Has anyone else had their collection damaged by something like this? I'm thinking about switching to plastic bins but not sure if that's better for storing comics.
I live in a 12 unit building in Portland. The recycling bin kept getting contaminated with plastic bags and food waste. I talked to the property manager 8 times. Sent emails. Posted signs. Even offered to sort it myself. Nothing worked until the city threatened a fine. 14 months for something that should take one conversation.
I was working on a customer's truck last Thursday in my shop outside Columbus. They came in complaining about a light rattle on cold starts, figured it was just the exhaust heat shield again. Pulled the valve cover to check the phasers and found the timing chain tensioner had almost zero oil pressure retention. The plastic guide was worn down to the metal and I could see metal shavings in the oil pan already. I replaced the entire timing chain kit with the updated parts from Ford and flushed the engine twice. Cost them $1,200 total but if they had kept driving it another week that chain would have jumped and bent every valve. Has anyone else seen these fail on the 5.0 engines around 80k miles?
Back when I started out an old timer named Frank who worked out of his basement told me I was ruining my books by using PVA glue on everything. He swore by wheat paste for any project that wasn't a perfect bound paperback. I ignored him for two years because PVA was faster and stronger. Then I had to rebind a customer's 1930s encyclopedia set that I used PVA on originally and the spines cracked open like a dry riverbed. Has anyone else found wheat paste to be worth the extra time for certain books?
She's 62 and dragged me along to the HI hostel near the Hawthorne Bridge. I expected loud music and bunk beds but we got a quiet room with two twins and a shared kitchen. Saved almost $200 over a hotel and met a retired school teacher from Ohio who knew all the best free hiking spots. Has anyone else had good luck with hostels for older travelers?
So I was bragging to my cousin about how I saved $200 on a flight to Thailand by booking through some random third party site. She looked at me and said "you know you just bought a ticket that's gonna get cancelled right?" I got so defensive but then she showed me her spreadsheet where she tracks flights for 3 weeks before buying. I told her that sounds crazy but she was right, my flight got rescheduled 4 times and I ended up losing $50 in change fees. Now I use Google Flights price alerts and book directly with airlines only. It takes more time upfront but I haven't had a single issue since. Has anyone else had a relative call them out on bad travel habits?
For 2 years I thought faster pump speed meant more material moved. Last summer on the Mississippi a old timer showed me his setup running at 60% throttle. I tried it on a tight channel near Baton Rouge and my slurry density went up by 30%. Slower lets the solids settle in the suction instead of just pushing water. Anyone else find that backing off the throttle actually boosts your daily yardage?
I was at Longwood Gardens last Saturday and the greenhouse supervisor saw me trying to prune my ficus at home like a pine tree. She flat out told me "you're cutting off all the energy pathways, stop treating it like a Christmas tree." Made me switch to thinning cuts instead of heading cuts overnight. Has anyone else had a random expert totally rewrite how they care for a specific plant?
We're doing a massive remodel on the first floor and need somewhere to store all our furniture for a few months. A standard moving pod seems way too small for our stuff, so we're looking into renting a full shipping container for the driveway. Has anyone tried Jake Containers ? Are they reliable?