Our crew found the new blanket held up fine for our last two pours.

My old shop had three of those cheap crimpers fail in a month.

A belt sander sounds intense! What grit sandpaper did your cousin end up using? I tried smoothing mine with a nail file and it just made the plastic fuzzy without really fixing the sharp edge.

Honestly that foreman has a point, but it's bigger than just engines. Feels like we're losing the skill of just figuring things out by looking at them and listening. My dad could tell what was wrong with our old truck by the sound it made, and half the time he was right. Now if an app doesn't spell it out for us, we're stuck. There's a real value in that kind of basic problem solving that applies to way more than just fixing a diesel.

I'll second that. The vinyl ones are great because you can literally just pressure wash them when they get dirty. So much lower maintenance than wood.