I was always a PVA guy for spines, thought linen thread was just for the old school purists who like making things harder. Last month my usual PVA gave out on a 1880s novel I was recasing and I had to order thread overnight from a local shop. After sewing with it for that one book, I get it now - the flexibility and the way it holds up to opening flat is just better. I still use PVA for some things but the thread has me rethinking my whole go-to setup for anything older than 1950. Anybody else made a late switch on a basic material like this?
I kept hearing people swear by it on here but I figured it was just another snake oil thing. Then last summer I noticed my Buff Orpington, Gertrude, was scratching way more than usual and her feathers looked kinda rough. I pulled her aside and sure enough there were little red mites crawling around near her vent. I dusted the whole coop floor and nesting boxes with food grade DE from the farm supply down the road. Three days later I checked all the birds again and I didn't see a single mite. I mean it was like they just vanished. Has anyone else had that kind of luck with DE or did I just catch a mild infestation early?
I cheaped out on a wireless thermal probe to track my walk-in temps and it died after 3 weeks. The app stopped connecting and I lost a whole batch of duck confit before I noticed. Anyone else get burned by bargain thermometers?
I tried the cheap adhesive strips from the dollar store vs the 3M ones that cost $8 and the dollar store ones dropped my 27 inch monitor after 3 days, has anyone else had a close call with a falling screen?
Last month we read a thriller where the narrator describes their own funeral in detail. Half the group was dead sure (pun intended) it meant the narrator was a ghost or in purgatory. The other half pointed to a throwaway line on page 247 about a medical condition that could explain visions. I ended up staying up until 2 AM rereading chapters to find evidence for my side. In the end we voted and it was 6 to 5 in favor of the ghost theory. Has anyone else had a book club debate get this heated over an ambiguous ending?
I was reading a teardown of a 737NG avionics bay last night. Found out a single wing-to-fuselage connector can have over 200 pins. That's just for one bundle on one side of the plane. My head spun thinking about tracing a fault through all that. Has anyone here actually had to pin-out a bundle that thick on a job?
I used to rely on roaming data for Zoom calls, but last week in Chiang Mai I thought WiFi calling would save me $15 on a data pass. Instead, my voice kept cutting out and the barista handed me a note that said "your robot is broken" with a smiley face. Has anyone else had a coworking space fail in a way that made total strangers comment on your tech?
I spent all last Saturday trying to install a french drain in my backyard near Portland. The rain just kept coming and the trench kept filling with water faster than I could dig. After 4 hours I had maybe 10 feet done and my back was killing me. I finally called a local landscaping company and they did the whole thing in 3 hours with a mini excavator for $450. Sometimes you just gotta admit when a tool or a skill isn't enough and pay someone who knows what they're doing. Has anyone else hit that point where DIY stops making sense?
I got tired of trying to figure out which conspiracy theories had some truth to them and which were just junk. Started using reverse image search on the photos in the articles people share. Turns out half of them are old pictures from completely different events or places. Has anyone else tried this and caught a fake story that was going around?
I visited Colonial Williamsburg last month and spent an hour watching their blacksmiths work. They were using these tiny little hammers for most of the detail work, like way smaller than I would ever grab. The guy told me they go through about 3 or 4 different hammer heads in a single day depending on what they're doing. It made me realize I've been using one big hammer for almost everything and my work probably looks sloppy because of it. Anyone else ever watch the pros and notice they switch tools way more often than we think we need to?