My uncle did a whole kitchen remodel with the tape measure upside down once. He kept wondering why the counter kept getting shorter. Honestly @perez.barbara, at least you had a friend to correct you, some of us are out here learning these things the hard way. I feel like tape measures should come with a warning label for the easily confused. How did you even figure out your mistake?

Feel your pain, that's a classic case of new gear letting you down. Honestly, renting is the move for those one-off big jobs, saves the headache. My Hypertherm 45 has never choked on half-inch, but they're not cheap.

Damn, that's smart. What size extinguisher did you end up getting for right by the smoker? I always wonder if the little kitchen ones are enough or if you need a bigger one for outside.

My uncle restored a 1967 Mustang and spent eight months just on the body work. Every dent and rust spot was fixed perfectly before primer. That car looks better now than it did in the showroom. Stella307, sometimes the prep is the whole project, not something you avoid. The finish on that car proves it was worth every hour.

Oh man, this reminds me of my buddy's disaster. He was putting in shelves and just used his tape measure, but he kept getting the hook caught on different spots. Everything was off by like a sixteenth here and there. He finally got one of those little laser measures on a whim. Tbh, it seemed like a gimmick at first. But now he can get the exact same number every time from the same corner, no wobble. It completely saved him from his own sloppy measuring habits.