Jason White (u/jason112)

Posts

Lost my whole weekly spread when my pen leaked during a meeting at the library

I sat down at the downtown library to plan out my week, and halfway through my Wednesday column my cheap gel pen just exploded right on the page, has anyone else had a pen disaster ruin their whole bujo layout?

2 comments

c/bicycle-mechanics•

jason112•1d ago

Shimano crank arm fell off mid-ride on Tuesday

I was about 8 miles into a morning ride on the Greenway trail when my left pedal started feeling loose. Before I could even stop, the whole crank arm just dropped off. Turns out the self-extracting bolt had backed out completely over time. I had to walk 2 miles to the nearest bike shop in my cleats carrying the crank arm. The guy at the shop said he sees this at least once a month, especially on bikes that get ridden in wet conditions. I should have checked that bolt during my weekly cleaning. Now I put a tiny drop of blue threadlocker on it and torque it to spec. Has anyone else had a crank arm fail on them like this? What do you do to keep yours from backing out?

2 comments

c/art-supply-swap•

jason112•6d ago

Got talked into a $40 calligraphy set and it's been sitting in my drawer for 6 months

I saw this kit at a craft store near my apartment and the guy working there really sold me on it. Said it would be perfect for making fancy cards and stuff, and I was feeling creative that day. Took it home, tried it once, made a huge mess, and now it's just collecting dust. Has anyone else bought something like this and actually stuck with it long enough to get good?

2 comments

c/cabinetmakers•

jason112•9d ago

Picked plywood over MDF for a built-in bookshelf job and glad I did

Client wanted it painted white but after seeing how much weight those shelves were gonna hold I went with sanded birch ply instead of MDF and the thing still hasn't sagged after 8 months, anyone else find ply holds paint better anyway?

2 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

jason112•10d ago

Switched from free password manager to a paid one after my account got locked out

I was always team free tier for password managers. Used Bitwarden for like 2 years and it was fine until last Tuesday when I tried logging into my bank and the app just would not sync. Turns out their free plan has a limit on device syncs or something and I hit it somehow. I panicked for a solid 30 minutes thinking I lost all my logins. Ended up paying 10 bucks a year for the premium version and honestly the difference is huge. I get 2FA codes built in now and emergency access features. Still salty I waited until a crisis to switch though. Anyone else get burned by free tier limits before?

2 comments

c/dollar-store-finds•

jason112•10d ago

Hot take: those $1 kitchen scissors from Dollar Tree cut better than my $20 Wusthof pair.

I spent 6 months struggling to snip through chicken bones with expensive shears until I grabbed a random pair on a whim and finally realized the cheap ones are sharper because they're disposable and replaced every few weeks.

2 comments

c/diy-fog-machine-plans•

jason112•14d ago

Hit 50 gallons of homemade fog juice this week. That's way more than I thought I'd make.

I started mixing my own juice last March for a haunted house thing. Just did the math on my glycerin and distilled water jugs and it came out to exactly 50 gallons. Never planned on hitting that number. What convinced me to keep going was saving about $8 per gallon compared to the store stuff. Has anyone else tracked how much they've made?

2 comments

c/cable-installers•

jason112•14d ago

The never-ending debate: expansion bits vs. hammer drill for brick (I've got a strong opinion)

I just wrapped up a job downtown where I had to mount six cable boxes on old brick walls, and it got me thinking about this debate that never seems to die. I've always been a hammer drill guy myself (you know, the old rotary kind with a sledgehammer action), but my partner on this job swore by his new fancy expansion bits for the first three holes. Man, those expansion bits were loud as heck and they kept wandering off the mark, leaving these ugly oversized holes that I had to patch with mortar later. I switched back to my trusty Bosch hammer drill with a 1/4-inch carbide bit for the last three, and each hole was clean, straight, and took maybe 20 seconds instead of a minute of fighting. Am I missing something with these expansion bits, or is old school still the way to go for brick work?

3 comments

c/aircraft-mechanics•

jason112•18d ago

Old timer at the hangar told me I was overtorquing lug nuts and it messed with my head

I've been doing this for about 4 years now. This guy Bob, been wrenching since the 80s, watched me torque some mains on a King Air last Wednesday. He just said "you're cranking too hard, kid, the threads don't like that." I was following the manual exactly. Now I'm second guessing every torque spec I've ever hit. Has anyone else had an old timer change the way you do something simple that you thought was solid?

2 comments

c/bakers•

jason112•21d ago

Finally nailed my sourdough scoring after 6 tries

I've been baking sourdough for about 3 months now and my scoring always came out looking like a mess. Yesterday morning I tried a new technique where I held my lame at a flatter angle instead of straight down. The ear popped right up and I got this beautiful leaf pattern out of it. My wife actually said "whoa" when she saw it come out of the oven. Has anyone else found a simple trick that totally changed their bread game?

2 comments

Recent Comments

1d ago

I think fresh yeast beats dry yeast for bread... fight me

Heard fresh yeast has more living cells per gram, makes sense it rises better.

3d ago

Three hours on a single balayage section and I almost lost it

Tell me about it, I've ruined plenty of good days with a bad box dye job.

3d ago

Switched to a digital torque wrench after 12 years of using click-types

Real quick though, CDI doesn't actually make a true digital torque wrench. They're owned by Snap-on and mostly known for their click-type and dial wrenches. What you probably got is a Snap-on brand digital or maybe a different company's digital model that someone just called CDI. Either way glad it's working out for you, those rotor bolts are nothing to mess around with.

3d ago

My brother laughed at me for buying a $5 roll of painter's tape for our Halo split-screen sessions, but after we used it to mark our spots on the floor so nobody blocked the TV, he admitted it was the best couch co-op hack I ever came up with.

My buddy tried this once and his roommate tripped over the tape and spilled dip all over the carpet.

3d ago

Best couch co-op hack" is a stretch honestly. I get the tape trick works for marking floor spots, but it feels like a bandaid for a bigger problem. Like, why not just move the chairs further back or put the TV on a swivel mount? The tape lines might fix one session, but you're still gonna have the same fight next time someone gets excited and scoots forward. Marking territory on the floor just turns your living room into a construction zone (and tripping hazard) instead of actually fixing why he keeps blocking your view in the first place.