Tried a 50% hydration sourdough starter and my loaves came out flat as a pancake

Everyone online swears by stiff starters for better structure, but mine turned into dense bricks after 3 attempts. Has anyone else had better luck with a really wet starter instead?

I finally looked up the actual tensile strength of carpet tape

Was reading a spec sheet from a supplier in Calgary and found out basic seam tape holds like 40 pounds per inch of width. Makes you wonder why we still bother with kickers on stairs when that stuff does half the work already.

TIL you can fix a stuck shutter curtain with a pencil eraser

I've been repairing cameras for about 8 years now, mostly older stuff like Pentax and Canon film bodies. Last week a customer brought in a Spotmatic with the shutter stuck halfway. I was about to tell him it needed a full CLA which would run around $150. But I remembered reading something on a forum years ago, so I grabbed a soft pencil eraser and gently rubbed the curtain track a few times. Fired the shutter and it worked perfectly. Customer was thrilled and I charged him $20 for shop time. Found the original tip on a Pentax forum from 2007 of all places. Has anyone else found a weird fix like that that actually works?

Neighbor told me I was stripping too much off my deck boards - he was right

Last summer I was refinishing my deck and going to town with the pressure washer, really blasting the wood to get that old stain off. My neighbor Bob walks over and says "You're gonna ruin those boards, you're taking off too much wood." I kinda brushed it off at first. But after a couple months I noticed the wood was starting to splinter and feel rough in those spots. Sure enough I had actually gouged out some softer grain. Now I only use a chemical stripper and a stiff brush, then just a light rinse with the pressure washer from farther away. Anyone else get told something like this and ignore it only to find out the hard way?

My needle gun locked up halfway through a tube sheet job yesterday

I was about 50 tubes into a retube at a power plant near Baton Rouge when my old needle gun just seized solid. Took me 20 minutes to break it apart and clean out the debris. Anyone got a go-to model that holds up better on heavy slag?

Was complaining about my cool bot breaking during a wedding setup last weekend, but a 20 year old florist showed me a trick

Had to pick between a bungalow and a split-level last month

I chose the bungalow because I didn't want stairs after age 60, but now I'm stuck shoveling a giant driveway in Edmonton winter. Anyone else regret skipping the split-level for snow reasons?

Chatted with an old tailor about blade steels and it clicked

I was getting a vintage blazer adjusted last month and the tailor noticed my pocket knife. He said he treats his shears the same way I baby my blade edges. He told me "sharp is sharp, doesn't matter if it's cloth or steel" and that really hit me. Now I'm thinking about my knife maintenance totally different, like it's part of a bigger craft. Any of you guys find connections between your hobbies you never expected?

I finally figured out why my cores kept cracking after 3 years of fighting it

At the shop in Akron last Tuesday, I was pulling a gray iron casting and the core broke in half before I even got the mold closed. My foreman walked over and said the sand mix was too dry by about 2%. Has anyone else had this issue with fine sand causing cracks?

Saw an old Otis controller at a basement job in Portland yesterday

The thing still had tape markings from 1987 and a hand-drawn schematic glued to the inside door. Anyone else ever run into ancient gear that somehow still works fine?